A Killer Among Friends

A Killer Among Friends
Genre Drama
Distributed by CBS
Directed by Charles Robert Carner
Produced by Mark Bacino
Written by Christopher Lofton
John Miglis
Charlie Carner
Starring Patty Duke
Tiffani Thiessen
Margaret Welsh
Chad Todhunter
Music by Richard Bellis
Cinematography Richard Leiterman
Editing by Blangsted
Production company Bonnie Raskin Productions
Green/Epstein Productions
Lorimar Television
Country United States
Language English
Original channel CBS
Release date
  • December 8, 1992
Running time 96 minutes

A Killer Among Friends is a 1992 made-for-television movie that aired on CBS on December 8, 1992. Based on a true story, the film stars Patty Duke as a mother grieving for her murdered daughter (Tiffani Thiessen) and sets out to find the killer. The film is based on the real life murder of Michele Avila.

Plot

Jenny Monroe (Tiffani Thiessen) is a typical American teenage girl, who has a falling out with her best friend Ellen Holloway (Margaret Welsh) and doesn't return home. Jenny's mother, Jean (Patty Duke), is worried for her daughter, and three days later, Jenny's body is discovered in a creek with a 100 pound log across her back. Furious about the murder, Ellen and Jean both try and track down the killer. Ellen and her daughter, Celeste (Heather and Shannon Beaty) move into Jean's house. Ellen had wanted Jenny's room, but Jean had Ellen sleeping in her bedroom, as Jenny's room was later turned into a nursery for when her grandchild would visit.

Three years later with the police still unable to solve Jenny's murder, another friend of Jenny's, Kathy Pearl (Janne Mortil) comes forward out of guilt. Kathy tells the police she was brought along with the girls (Jenny, Ellen, and Carla) when they attacked Jenny by slapping her, chopping off pieces of her hair, and then finally drowning her. Kathy claims they did it because they believed Jenny had slept with their boyfriends, but during the trial it was revealed that the plain and overweight Ellen was jealous of Jenny's popularity and beauty and wanted "to be her". Kathy told the police that she fled town because Ellen threatened her if she talked.

Cast

External links