DEATH OF A CHEERLEADER [TRUE STORY]
Edited by eddlisa_uyuk at 4-11-2016 07:49 AMr8ke2VHhLuw
A Friend to Die For (also known as Death of a Cheerleader in the UK and during Lifetime television airings) is a 1994 American TV movie directed by William A. Graham. Written by Dan Bronson, the film is based on the real-life murder of Kirsten Costas, a fifteen-year-old cheerleader at Miramonte High School, who was killed by her classmate, Bernadette Protti, in 1984. The film was the highest-rated TV movie of 1994.
http://clickamericana.com/wp-content/uploads/kirsten-costas-bernadette-protti-ladies-home-journal-1985.jpgklik kat link bwh ni kalau nk sambung baca..
http://clickamericana.com/topics/featured/the-real-death-of-a-cheerleader-1985
https://mylifeofcrime.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/bernadette-protti.jpg?w=549
Bernadette Protti was sentenced to a maximum of 9-years, but was released 7-years later on parole. She was released from prison in 1992 at the age of 23 she left Ventura County. She changed her name, got married (name change again after marriage). And I believe had children, not sure how many to be exact.
The Costas left Orinda and moved to Hawaii. They did state that they didn’t agree with Bernadette’s release and were disappointed with the Justice System.
https://ripeace.wordpress.com/
g61Ud--0qeE
Michele Judah Saylor says:
June 25, 2014 at 5:32 pm
I knew both Kirsten Costas and Bernadette Protti. I was not close to either girl. I got along with both of them okay. I was a member of the artsy crowd, yet borderline popular, kind of hard to explain in today’s terms. I looked mainstream compared to the crowd I found most engaging. The extremely wealthy kids who lived over in the country club area (country club, better end of sleepy hollow) had their own cliques. I socialized with cheerleaders and dated athletes, but also had many close friends who were outsiders and dressed very differently. In 1984 Orinda, this was kind of a unique position to be in. Thus, I had friends from all groups, and thus, I got to know both Kirsten and Bernadette casually, and was very close friends with girls from very different groups who had gotten to know both of them over the years.
In fact, one of my better friends was initially accused of the crime by the community at large. If you know the case, you know of whom I speak. The wrongly accused girl and her family were tortured by the community. I myself was questioned in detail during the investigation by officials regarding my friend, was asked for my own alibi, and questioned at length about cliques, etc.
I remember a few years later – I was working at the Lafayette Park Hotel and my wrongly accused friend and her father walked in. I had not seen her since the investigation – her family had gone to London due to the fallout of the case. That family is one example of the dozens of families that are hurt in so many ways when just one beautiful life is extinguished – the Costas have suffered the most, and lots of other families suffer too. Every person who Kirsten interacted with in life is robbed – but so are all the future ties destroyed that might have been. … the damage goes on and
on and on….
Bernadette Protti was indeed bullied. So were most kids, in one way or another. Kirsten was popular – which was important to her – and she was not a perfect angel. But I am willing to bet Kirsten never considered murdering anyone…. The movie story did not seem similar to my memories of our reality in 1984-85 Orinda. Kirsten was NOTHING like the Tori Spelling character. Shameful to portray her that way.
Bernadette Protti killed Kirsten Costas in pre-meditated cold murder. She should not be free and should not be allowed to have children. She certainly should not be allowed to change her name. Even an individual involved in the review of her parole decision said it was wrong and she was a loose cannon. REMEMBER – Bernadette said herself she was “able to live with it” because “it didn’t seem real” she didn’t understand “why” or “how” it turned to murder.
It took planning to create the Bobbies party story, it took a lot of nerve to call and con Kirsten’s Mom. Once Kirsten went out to the pinto and told Bernadette she knew the Bobbie’s party was a lie, Bernadette still had another lie ready to go… and if the party were real, would Bernadette be wearing old sweats ? No. The knife was ready and waiting. After leaving Kirsten to bleed to death, Bernadette went home and walked the dog with her Mom. She feigned shock when news of the murder came, and attended the funeral in tears. She is a very dangerous psychopath and does not deserve to live the american dream in anonymity.
Several of our classmates died early untimely deaths at Miramonte High School throughout the 1980’s. We lost dear friends to auto accidents, falls from local cliffs, ski accidents, and many other tragedies. Kirsten Costa’s horrible murder will always be the worst – because it wasn’t an accident… She should be here, living a full life.
I disagree with those who feel Bernadette has done her time. The sentence was a joke. I say this as someone who was not close to either family – just someone who feels a sense that justice hasn’t been served – and that just makes it worse for Bernadette’s victims – all those who knew EITHER
girl involved are victims. Now Bernadette’s new family is most likely aware of her past, as the news has broken on her new identity and location. Bernadette has a new nose, children of her own and was on the board of directors at one of her jobs – Kirsten is gone forever.
mimqcKHOi8Y
N-HjXtb3r_0
Latest ?
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kPpU2jLBgVk/Vj2RIVggX_I/AAAAAAAAAKQ/RBwtHCEYdkU/s640/blogger-image--461488634.jpghttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pUM98M3hGg8/Vj95tlRiGYI/AAAAAAAAALc/PL8RYdCzmB8/s640/blogger-image-1565491573.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-K83yZzIF_X4/VmZ8T7d3t7I/AAAAAAAAAQ4/YM2DMJT9Z2Q/s640/blogger-image-1006925862.jpghttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eGqMROuJ2mU/VtBXGm4c72I/AAAAAAAAAVM/G1Rad5kru_g/s640/blogger-image--1851916781.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rQwf3vIIhv0/VjurWb1q-5I/AAAAAAAAAJg/uIMNa0LHpzE/s640/blogger-image--912396756.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ChYrOT6_nDg/VjutVrQe2HI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/nvJiDHHQRgQ/s640/blogger-image-1401422056.jpg
Miramonte class of '86, 30th reunion
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-07Z0V7l7wAo/VtNLMnJN4mI/AAAAAAAAAV8/ZbGNdjFxyzU/s640/blogger-image--1860696957.jpghttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zvL4E6YGnKY/VtNIGjTsuMI/AAAAAAAAAVk/ACdP2-vSabQ/s640/blogger-image-379993276.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EgtF9Dc6lNE/VtNIIkPJxZI/AAAAAAAAAVw/acpc9S2whk0/s640/blogger-image--645312086.jpghttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bbnFl_o2W-w/VtNIF6vlH1I/AAAAAAAAAVg/rd1d6JIINzg/s640/blogger-image-1400069929.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lva6ZeTHr0I/VtNIHdmKWrI/AAAAAAAAAVo/qmAroxCEKYo/s640/blogger-image--364474918.jpg
Photos of Arthur and Berit Costas
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IRWvalu0kKc/VmzLrAnvXxI/AAAAAAAAAR4/OTJpM1lcfKQ/s640/blogger-image-2113149307.jpg
Here's Jeannette/Bernadette's mother, Elaine.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vqahsRnIc24/VmzLqZFseEI/AAAAAAAAARw/mPwHfx4X7T8/s640/blogger-image--467189711.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Fd_fjM5htSk/VjhE2zM25AI/AAAAAAAAAJM/3AOC1wd4GrE/s640/blogger-image-1824993778.jpg
http://www.mhsreunion86.myevent.com/clients/22102/431155_sta.jpghttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_7IqLh9Qf3A/ViU4W2PoqlI/AAAAAAAAAHg/gcmwNFhR1nY/s640/blogger-image-396451946.jpginterview with Nancy Kane Mark
Let me start off by saying, Nancy is truly an amazing woman and soul. I reached out to her several days ago. And ever since any questions I've had for her she answered them. So thank you Nancy for giving all of us who have followed this case some answers we have been wanting to know.
So for starters here is how Nancy describes her look at the time: "Just to set the record straight, I was not goth, I was new wave. I liked Madonna, culture club, flock of seagulls, duran duran etc bands like that. "
Do you feel like the atmosphere at Miramonte was cruel and very competitive?
I wouldn't call Miramonte cruel but it was hard to keep up with the joneses. It was super competitive in every way. I was lucky my dad was a doctor and we had money. Middle class didn't work in Orinda. Orinda wasn't super rich but it was definitely a town where most people lived a comfortable life. I think a lot of what was going on was simple teenage angst. We are all discovering who we are or who we think we are. There were so many cliques and were not told to be nice to each other like they do in school now. Everyone played a sport or had a thing, skiing, tennis, golf. I rode horses along with another very wealthy friend. There was also The Orinda Country Club, not everyone belonged and it was super prestigious to belong.
And how was your relationship with Kirsten? Would you describe her as "mean"?
Kirsten and I did not interact that much because I didn't like her. I don't think she liked me either. I had changed so much and had kind of a druggy dark reputation (that I created cause I thought it was cool). We had a few classes together but there was no war being waged. She was popular, chatty, cute and social. That whole scene bored me. I just rejected it which wasn't normal for an Orinda girl.
We were all mean at some point. So yes she was mean and snotty and thought she was better than other people. We were taught to be that way, conceited. I thought I was better than them. Bernadette was just beaten down, couldn't catch up from the beginning. I think her trying to be somebody she wasn't is why Kirsten gave her such a hard time.
Have you seen the movie based on the case? If so do you think it got it right?
A friend to die for? I have seen it many times. Its pretty accurate except for my portrayal and Kirsten's. A little over done.
We're you shocked that Bernadette admitted to it? Did she seem like she was ever about to explode? Was she really bullied?
Yes I was shocked and mad. We had gone through Catechism together the whole time I was being blamed. She never appeared any different. I wasn't allowed to come back to Miramonte that year so I don't know how she acted at school. Everyone was bullied by someone, thats how life is.
Do you still talk to any old classmates? And was kirsten mean to everybody?
I only catch up with people through Facebook so not a lot of contact with anybody I went to school with. I don't think Kirsten was mean as much as she was cocky. She just had a lot of self esteem, some kids are like that. She did well in everything she tried. She wasn't mean to everybody.
What's the main thing people get wrong about you?
That I could really kill someone
Do you think the punishment Bernadette received fit the crime?
Not really, She got a college education and was completely protected while she was in custody. Then she escapes off to a new life.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5ih_9THES6Y/ViEigBSp3XI/AAAAAAAAAG8/G2EdzzyJ29I/s640/blogger-image--668115283.jpghttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8L1sx69qyPI/ViEig97JYnI/AAAAAAAAAHI/CgbHj81O2Ww/s640/blogger-image--1582667169.jpg
Nancy Kane, the teenager who is the real life inspiration of Monica in the movie A Friend to Die for and the girl who was "Heather Krane" in the Rolling Stone article. Here she is in 1982 before she went goth and was ostracized by her community.
She was an equestrian and fit in very much with the Orinda scene. As high school rolled around she started dying and cutting her hair and dressing different. She just stopped talking to the popular clique and they stopped talking to her. Then after Kirsten was killed by Bernadette aka Jeannette the community the high school blamed Nancy. Thank God Bernadette was rightfully convicted. If it wasn't for the police work, Nancy could still be taking the blame for this murder.
http://www.mhsreunion86.myevent.com/clients/22102/343616_sta.jpg
This page is dedicated to the memory of those classmates who have gone before us.We remember them fondly and will miss their presence everytime we gather together.Let us honor their memory...
Kirsten Costas
(July 23, 1968 - June 23, 1984)
http://www.mhsreunion86.myevent.com/
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sltlGEAIjtg/V61lUAZIKrI/AAAAAAAAAWs/vbEabY41ArA/s640/blogger-image--1820010277.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cBMaTQP6k6g/V61lUzSgZ9I/AAAAAAAAAWw/BerjVjzM_5w/s640/blogger-image-2071346972.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6W_LPidCzP0/V61lV2JflmI/AAAAAAAAAW0/SzsrERo9u0Q/s640/blogger-image-1604864904.jpg
In a Deadly Explosion of Teenage Unhappiness, One Life Is Cut Short, Another Blighted by Murder
BY ARTHUR LUBOW
In comfortable, suburban Orinda, Calif., where the American dream is sometimes taken for granted, Kirsten Costas made adolescence look easy. A 15-year-old sophomore, she swam for the high school team. She belonged to the Bob-o-links, an exclusive volunteer group with sorority overtones. She won a place as a varsity cheerleader. “Kirsten had a good personality,” says Jessica Grant, 16, her classmate at Miramonte High School. “She was pretty and vibrant.” And she was one of Miramonte’s elite.
For Bernadette Protti, life was more of a struggle. An ordinary-looking girl, Bernadette, 15, also belonged to the Bob-o-links. She had good grades and a circle of friends. Yet in the glaring light of her merciless self-scrutiny, Bernadette was a failure. Surrounded by the sons and daughters of highly paid executives, she was embarrassed by the more modest means of her father, a retired public utilities supervisor for the city of San Francisco. She desperately wanted a place on the cheerleading squad. “She worked hard for cheerleader,” recalls Jessica Grant. “She came up to me afterward and said, ‘I didn’t make it and I can’t believe it.’ She was really disappointed.”
About that time Bernadette was also rejected by the selective Atlantis club and denied a place on the yearbook staff—standard teenage setbacks, but to Bernadette they were something more. “Bernadette was accepted and popular in her own way,” says classmate Kris Johnson, 16. “But she had this obsession with being liked. I could never understand why she thought she wasn’t.”
Kirsten Costas probably never thought much about Bernadette. She had no way of knowing that Bernadette was thinking a great deal about her. To Bernadette, the pretty daughter of 3M executive Arthur Costas had become a painful reminder of feelings of failure. “She never liked me…,” Bernadette explained later. “The thing that got me mad was it hurt.” Not that Kirsten ever insulted her. “I mean she didn’t really say, ‘You’re ugly’ or something,” Bernadette remembered. “She just said stuff that made me feel bad.” Once, she recalled, she had been on a school ski trip with Kirsten: “I mean, we don’t have a lot of money and stuff…and I just had this really crummy pair of skis and some boots, but…I was having fun anyway, and she made some comment about them…. It just seemed like everybody else was thinking that, but she was the only one who would ever come out and say that….”
Last June 21, a Thursday, while Kirsten was away at a cheerleader training camp, her mother, Berit, answered a 10 p.m. phone call. The girl on the line knew Kirsten wasn’t home but said she wanted to tell her of a secret Bob-o-links initiation dinner that Saturday night. Kirsten returned home the next day, and on Saturday night her parents and her brother, Peter, 12, attended a potluck dinner for Peter’s baseball team. Berit called home at 8:20 p.m. to wish Kirsten a good time with the Bob-o-links and to remind her to turn on the porch light. It was the last time she would speak to her daughter.
A little more than an hour later, a few miles away, Kirsten rang the doorbell of Alex and Mary Jane Arnold, who had just finished playing cribbage with neighbors. She said she had been with a friend at the church up the road and the friend had “gone weird.” As Kirsten entered the house, Mary Jane noticed someone behind her on the front path—”a gal about 15 with a roundish face and light-brown hair.” Kirsten seemed upset, but not terrified. Unable to reach her parents by telephone, she accepted Alex’s offer of a ride to one of her family’s neighbors. As they left, Mary Jane noticed a small car at the end of the driveway.
When Alex drove off, the car, a mustard-colored Pinto, seemed to be following. He asked Kirsten what was going on. “It’s okay,” she replied. Pulling into Kirsten’s neighbor’s driveway, Alex said he would wait until Kirsten got inside. He watched as she walked to the door, then saw a female figure swoop out of the darkness. He thought he was seeing a fist fight. Then the assailant disappeared in the shadows.
Attorney Arthur Hillman, another of the Costas’ neighbors, was standing at his kitchen sink that night when he heard “a bloodcurdling yell.” Rushing to his front door, he saw Kirsten staggering toward his house crying, “Help me, help me, I’ve been stabbed.” She collapsed into his arms, blood gushing from five stab wounds in her upper body. “She was in shock,” Hillman later testified. “I tried to hold her hand and pray a little on the side.” Returning home a short time later, the Costas family found their normally quiet street clogged with police cars and fire trucks. Then Arthur Costas saw his daughter lying in an ambulance. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 11:02 p.m.
An hour earlier on that peaceful summer evening, Elaine Protti had suggested a walk when her daughter, Bernadette, returned home in the family Pinto. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That summer Bernadette attended classes to prepare for confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church. She swam and saw friends. And she attended Kirsten’s funeral. “I was really good at blocking out of my mind, and I still am,” she said later. “That’s why I can live through every day, because it doesn’t seem real.”
Surprisingly, it took authorities almost six months to find Kirsten’s killer. Local sheriffs conducted more than 300 interviews, investigated more than 1,000 leads and examined 750 Pintos. Many Miramonte High School students were questioned. In the eyes of her classmates, Bernadette was an unlikely suspect. “I knew she had the Pinto, but she was the last person you’d think of,” says her friend Jessica Grant. “She seemed as upset about the murder as everybody else.”
Yet Bernadette’s account of her activities on the night of the murder puzzled investigators. In December she was called back for questioning by FBI agent Ronald Hilley. Hilley reviewed for Bernadette the psychological profile that had been drawn of the murderer. After his description, Bernadette said quietly, “It sounds just like me.” She asked what would happen to Kirsten’s killer. The public humiliation, she said, might be worse even than prison. Then she asked to go home.
Over the next few days, Bernadette committed some of her thoughts to paper. This is what she wrote:
“1. I have caused a lot of hurt and pain to a lot of people….
2. I don’t want to hurt people anymore.
3. I want to go to heaven when I die.
4. I regret what I did.
5. I can’t bring Kirsten back or change time.
6. If I kill myself I will hurt people even more (my family). I think I could kill myself. I would go to hell if I killed myself. I would rather kill myself than go on living if people knew…. Although it’s incredible, my parents are saints who would forgive and love me.”
On the evening of December 10, Bernadette asked her mother, Elaine, if they could have a talk. “I’ll take a nap, but wake me up later,” Mrs. Protti replied. She slept through the night unintentionally and apologized to her daughter the next morning. “That’s okay,” Bernadette said. “I’ve written you a note. I put it on the kitchen counter.” She asked her mother to wait half an hour before reading it. Elaine studied the Bible until the ticking kitchen timer went off. Then she read.
“Dear Mom and Dad:
I have been trying to tell you this all day but I love you so much it’s too hard so I’m taking the easy way out…. The FBI man…thinks I did it. And he is right…. I’ve been able to live with it , but I can’t ignore it, it’s too much for me and I can’t be that deceiving…. Please still love me. I can’t live unless you love me. I’ve ruined my life and yours and I don’t know what to do and I’m ashamed and scared.”
She added a postscript: “Please don’t say how could you or why because I don’t understand this and I don’t know why.”
Elaine telephoned Bernadette at school and picked her up. “I wanted a last chance with my daughter,” she said later. “I wanted not so much to talk to her but to be with her.” With her husband, Raymond, Elaine drove Bernadette to the sheriff’s office in nearby Martinez where the girl broke down and made a full confession to Hilley. She said that on the night of the murder she had driven to the Costas house and told Kirsten that the Bob-o-links dinner was just a cover story for Kirsten’s parents. What was really happening was a party. According to Bernadette, Kirsten agreed to go but first suggested they smoke some marijuana outside a nearby church. (When the taped confession was played back in court during a three-day hearing in March, Kirsten’s parents gasped in disbelief at the allegation.)
Bernadette said she balked at the marijuana. “We just talked, you know, argued, not argued really, but she didn’t think it was any big deal, and I just didn’t want to, and she made me feel dumb…,” Bernadette told police. “She thought I was being weird.” When Kirsten rushed from the Pinto in the church parking lot, she left behind some marijuana in a plastic bag, said Bernadette, who claimed she flushed it down the toilet when she got home. Bernadette also said she had found the murder knife just by chance—that she had never intended to kill. (Bernadette’s sister, Gina, 25, testified that she often ate lunch in the car while at work, using the knife to cut vegetables.)
After the hearing, Judge Edward Merrill found Bernadette guilty of second-degree murder. She was sentenced last month to a maximum of nine years in the custody of the California Youth Authority and sent to a maximum-security facility near Camarillo. The Costas family, understandably, was hardly in a mood for forgiveness. During the testimony, Kirsten’s mother glared at Bernadette, who sat slumped in a chair while her mother daubed at her daughter’s eyes with a handkerchief, as four of the girl’s sisters stroked Bernadette’s hair and held her hands. “My heart is empty. I ache. I’m half a person,” Berit Costas told the judge before Bernadette’s sentencing. “ will probably be given her freedom in a few years…. I ask the people of California, is this justice?”
Some of Kirsten’s classmates agreed it was not. “Whatever happens to Bernadette isn’t going to be enough,” said one. “I’m sorry for her,” said another, “but I still want her to get everything she deserves. She shouldn’t be allowed to forget what she did.” There seems to be small chance of that. “I had dreams about ,” Bernadette told Hilley. “I sort of apologized to her in my mind. You know, like I think she’s in heaven now…. I sort of said that I’d still like to talk to her….” For Bernadette, it seems, Kirsten still represents a world from which she herself for so long felt excluded. What has changed is that now Bernadette truly is cut off from that world. And the one person whose acceptance meant so much, the one she so desperately wanted to talk to, has tragically been silenced forever.
http://people.com/
zPk63slemgQ
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/find-a-grave-prod/photos/2005/241/CEM1003_112544983421.jpg
Birth: Jul. 23, 1968
Oakland
Alameda County
California, USA
Death: Jun. 23, 1984
Orinda
Contra Costa County
California, USA
http://www.findagrave.com/icons2/trans.gif
Popular cheerleader who was murdered by classmate Bernadette Protti in 1984. Protti claimed to feel inadequate next to the bubbly and confident Costas. When a friendship attempt was rebuffed, Protti exploded in a rage and stabbed Kirsten to death.
Burial:
Oakmont Memorial Park
Lafayette
Contra Costa County
California, USA
Plot: Cremated; ashes given to family.
http://www.findagrave.com/
Murder Still Haunts Moraga Resident
http://chslapuma.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/MemorialKC.jpg
Kate Ginley, Staff Writer
As the 30th anniversary of the murder of Miramonte student Kirsten Costas passes this year, Sharon Palmer, the mother of a friend to Costas as well as the girl convicted of the murder, considered the tragedy’s relevance to today’s Lamorinda community.
Costas, a Miramonte cheerleader, was murdered by fellow student Bernadette Protti in June of 1984. According to The Los Angeles Times, Protti was sentenced to a juvenile prison for 7 years.
30 years ago, 15-year-old Costas was lured by a fake invitation for the Bob-O-Links service group dinner. The popular cheerleader was on her way to the fictitious dinner with Protti.Protti had volunteered to drive her. According to Palmer, “Bernadette was acting strange and Kirsten was frightened and wanted out of the car.”
Palmer recalls that Costas and Protti were in Moraga when Costas got out of the car. “Kirsten went up to a door and asked for a ride home. Her exact words were: ‘My friend is acting weird and I’m really scared. Could you drive me home?'” Palmer said.
Palmer said the Moraga citizen who Costas asked for a ride obliged and drove Costas home, but he told authorities later that there was a strange car following them. After reaching the house, the man asked if she needed him to stay, but Costas declined, claiming her neighbor was home, so it was fine.
Costas was unaware of the real danger.
Palmer said, “Rene and Kirsten were really close.” However, the neighbor failed to respond when Costas signaled for help. “Rene heard banging on the door but she was home alone and thought Kirsten was at a Bobby’s meeting. She was too afraid to answer the door and only came out when she heard the ambulance,” Palmer said.
Costas was banging her fists on the door as Protti jumped out of the bushes and stabbed her with a butcher knife in a downward angle several times, puncturing her lungs.
Costas screamed and somehow made her way to a different neighbor’s house where she died in that neighbor’s arms.
Protti fled the scene before anyone had seen her.
For six months Protti went without being apprehended.During that time, the community experienced growing anxiety. Palmer said, “I was afraid to let go anywhere. How could anyone when this adorable, girl that everyone loved, got stabbed?” Palmer explained that kids went out in groups, slept with lights on or even slept in their parents’ room as a result of the unsolved crime.
In August of that year, Palmer took her daughter and friends, Protti included, to Sleepy Hollow Swim Club where they had talked about how terrible a person had to be to do such a thing to their friend. “Bernadette was quiet the whole time,” Palmer recalled.
Before Protti’s involvement was discovered by authorities, Palmer’s daughter claimed she thought Protti did it. Protti sat behind her in English and Palmer’s daughter noticed Protti was acting “weird.” Her car matched the description of what the Moraga man had told the police as well. “I just have this feeling,” Palmer’s daughter told Palmer.
“Don’t say that!” Palmer remembered telling her daughter. Palmer did not think that the 16 year old yearbook editor could have done such a thing. “Bernadette was never considered a suspect,” Palmer said.
Yet, when the FBI took over the case, they found that Protti, who was thought to have passed her initial lie detector test, was actually lying. “The FBI kept interviewing her and got suspicious and she realized they were closing in on her,” Palmer said. “Bernadette confessed to a priest who told her to tell her parents. So, she confessed to her parents who called the police.”
Palmer attended the trail. She remembers Protti crying during questioning in the courtroom, with her head on the table, repeating “I couldn’t let her tell! I couldn’t let her tell! I couldn’t!”
“I think it was the shame and judgement. She didn’t care about the consequences morally. She was more ashamed of what she did than killing Kirsten,” Palmer said. “ felt if Kirsten had told what she had done that it would be the end of her life.”
Palmer also recalled the presentation of the physical evidence. “The knife was huge. It was so awful. Bernadette’s mother screamed and put her head down when she saw the knife in trial,” said Palmer.
Protti was tried as a juvenile. She was released from her incarceration at age 25. “Seven years was not enough,” Palmer said. “I don’t feel like she’s been adequately punished.”
Protti was charged with second-degree murder. “I don’t think she set out to intentionally kill her,” Palmer said. “Her sister had the knife in the car for work and knew where it was.”
In 1985, author Rob Haeseler wrote The San Francisco Chronicle article, “Trial Hears Girl’s Confession of East Bay Slaying.” It reported that Protti only wanted to “hurt” Costas. In another article by Haeseler, he wrote, “unanswered to the end was what provoked Protti to stab Costas to death after luring her to a bogus sorority initiation dinner.”
“I thought that she was going to tell everybody at school that I was really weird,” Protti claimed during trial.
The movie “The Death of a Cheerleader,” based on the events of Costas’ murder, presented Protti as jealous of Costas. Palmer disagrees.She thinks that Protti feared Costas was going to reveal a secret.
“It was not jealously! She made a pass at her. What else could it be?” She said, “I think was gay. It was a big deal back then and wasn’t accepted like it is now. People thought it was drugs, but I got that feeling from the trial.”
“ had no way of knowing that Bernadette was thinking a great deal about her,” stated another article in 1985 by People magazine. “And the one person whose acceptance meant so much , the one she so desperately wanted to talk to, has tragically been silenced forever.”
“Bernadette was smart but had no idea that Kirsten wouldn’t be interested. Kirsten was like a puppy. She hugged people, wasn’t exclusive and liked everyone,” Palmer said. “ probably tried to kiss her and it freaked her out. Kirsten was immature and would have told people what had happened,” Palmer explained.
“30 years ago, it was a big deal to be a lesbian,” said Palmer.
Though time has passed, the murder is still a disturbing memory for a generation of Moraga residents. “People want to forget it. That’s why there is no memorial this year,” said Palmer.
30 years later, the pressure fit in is still a relevant social concern.The 2014 film “Mean Girl Murderer Case,” depicts two girls who kill a friend when they fear she knows about their lesbian relationship.
Though the Bay Area is seen as a progressive community, and social organizations and educational institutions continue to preach tolerance, Palmer believes that Lamorinda is still lagging behind.
“I do not think anything has changed but perhaps more and stress,” Palmer said.
http://chslapuma.com/
She was so pretty, everyone said
The more so the pity
That she was found dead
And now the flag only flies at fifty percent
In the school yard where she once went
Push 'em back, push 'em back
Way back, way back
B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E
And the death of a cheerleader
Take me by surprise
How the death of a cheerleader
Can open eyes
Yellow carnations and roses galore
Were sent to the mother and
Placed by the door
And in the spot where her daughter had
Taken her life
Was a sweet sixteen photo
On homecoming night
Push 'em back, push 'em back
Way back, way back
B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E
And the death of a cheerleader
Takes me by surprise
How the death of a cheerleader
Can open eyes
And it's sad that she had to die
To open eyes
Nobody doubted her future was vast
Nobody noticed she grew up so fast
It's a shame that her future's a thing of the past
Tomorrow's the funeral you know
L-E-T-S-G-O
UIMTdUeOWv8
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z1BXLn0AOG8/T_MbiU21SrI/AAAAAAAABkk/fDu3NZbT3m4/s1600/beritcostas.jpg
This is a photo of Berit Costas, the mother of Kirsten Costas.Kirsten was stabbed to death by her classmate Bernadette Protti in Orinda, California. Sources say after her daughter's death she was never the same again. She and her husband, Art Costas, left Orinda, California many years ago. They now live in Hawaii. Berit Costas is the 2nd lady from the left in the purple dress.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ViLTOTaDUWw/UAbYSUcPPPI/AAAAAAAAB0I/I_IXvwHDUnI/s1600/kirstencostashouse.jpg
Kirsten Costas murder scene: Orchard Road
Thanks to TT .i never watch before .
Good movie based on true event and realize us about parenting,hatred,jealousy,friendship etc.........
Must watch and worth!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ee/Death_of_a_Cheerleader,.jpghttps://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ0NTYwNjQyMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTEwOTQyMQ@@._V1_UY268_CR2,0,182,268_AL_.jpghttps://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512nRF5c%2BLL.jpg
Pages:
[1]
2