| Kirsten Costas | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kirsten Marina Costas July 23, 1968 Oakland, California, United States |
| Died | June 23, 1984 (aged 15) Orinda, California, United States |
| Nationality | American |
Kirsten Marina Costas (July 23, 1968 – June 23, 1984) was an American high school student who was murdered by her classmate, Bernadette Protti, in 1984.[1] [2]
In 1994, the story was made into a television movie entitled A Friend to Die For (also known as Death of a Cheerleader (UK)), with Tori Spelling as Stacy Lockwood, a character based on Kirsten Costas and Kellie Martin as Angela Delvecchio, a character based on Bernadette Protti.[3]
Contents |
The daughter of affluent parents, Arthur and Berit Costas, Kristen and her brother, Peter, grew up in the small suburban town of Orinda, California. Kirsten went to Miramonte High School, and was a member of the school's varsity swim team and the cheerleader squad.
On June 23, 1984, Kirsten was lured with a phoney invitation to a dinner for the Bob-o-links, a sorority-like group at school. [4] According to Protti's later testimony, she had planned to take Costas to the party to befriend her, but Kirsten got angry when she was told that there was no dinner for the new "Bobbies". The girls quarrelled, and Kirsten fled to the home of Alex and Mary Jane Arnold, living nearby, telling them that her friend had gone "weird". When Kirsten could not reach her parents by telephone, Alex Arnold drove her home, noticing that a Pinto–the Protti's family car–was following them. At the Costas home, Arnold, sitting in his car, saw Protti attack Kirsten. He thought that he was seeing a fist-fight but, in fact, Protti stabbed Kirsten five times with a kitchen knife and fled. The Costas' neighbors called an ambulance, but Kirsten was mortally wounded and died at a nearby hospital.
It took the police almost six months to find Kirsten's killer. After Protti had passed a lie detector test, her alibi went unverified. After attempting to confirm Protti's alibi and rereading her lie detector test, the police knew that the girl had lied. After speaking with an FBI officer, Protti wrote her mother a letter in which she made a full confession.
Protti claimed to have found the kitchen knife by chance, and her elder sister, Gina, testified in court that she used to have that knife in her car to cut vegetables. The Costas did not believe Protti's story – they claimed that nobody would use an 18-inch-long (460 mm) knife to slice tomatoes and that Protti, casually dressed on that evening, never intended to take Kirsten to a party, but had planned to murder her. Protti was sentenced to a maximum of seven years and was released on parole.
The Costas family left Orinda and moved to Hawaii.
Bernadette Protti was released from prison in 1992 at the age of 23 [3], whereupon she changed her name and left California. Kirsten's parents vehemently opposed Protti's release.