Kirsten Costas

Infobox Person
name = Kirsten Costas


caption =
birth_name = Kirsten Marina Costas
birth_date = birth date|1968|7|23|mf=y
birth_place = Oakland, California, United States
death_date = death date and age|1984|6|23|1968|7|23|mf=y
death_place = Orinda, California, United States
nationality = American

Kirsten Marina Costas (July 23, 1968 – June 23, 1984) was an American high school student that was murdered by her classmate, Bernadette Protti, in 1984.

Background

The daughter of well-to-do parents, Arthur and Berit Costas, she and her brother Peter grew up in the small suburban town of Orinda, California. Costas went to Miramonte High School, and was a member of the school's varsity swim team and the cheerleader squad.

The case

On June 21, 1984, Costas' mother received a phone call from a girl who claimed to be one of the "Bobbies" (i.e., "Bob-o-links", a sorority-like group at school) telling Berit Costas that Kirsten was invited to a dinner for the new group members. According to Protti's later testimony, she had planned to take Costas to the party to befriend her, but Costas got angry when she was told that there was no dinner for the new "Bobbies". The girls quarreled, and Costas fled to the Arnold family living nearby, telling them that her friend had gone "weird". When Costas could not reach her parents by telephone, 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 Costas. He thought he was seeing a fist-fight but, in fact, Protti stabbed Costas five times with a kitchen knife and fled. The Costas' neighbors called an ambulance, but Costas was mortally wounded and died at a nearby hospital.

It took the police almost six months to find Costas' 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 knife to slice tomatoes and that Protti, casually dressed on that evening, never intended to take Costas to a party, but had planned to murder her. Protti was sentenced to a maximum of nine years and sent to a youth prison.

Aftermath

The Costas left Orinda and moved to Hawaii.

Bernadette Protti was released from prison in 1992 at the age of 23, whereupon she changed her name and left California. Costas' parents vehemently opposed Protti's release.

Movie

In 1992, the story was made into a television movie entitled "A Friend to Die For" (also known as "Death of a Cheerleader"), with Tori Spelling as Stacy Lockwood, a character based on Kirsten Costas and Kellie Martin as Angela Delvecchio, a character based on Bernadette Protti.

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/traciy2000/kirsten_costas.html?1008971597590 The Cheerleader Murder]
*Find A Grave|id=9105481

Persondata
NAME= Costas, Kirsten
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Costas, Kirsten Marina
SHORT DESCRIPTION= High school student
DATE OF BIRTH= July 23, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH= Oakland, California, United States
DATE OF DEATH= June 23, 1984
PLACE OF DEATH= Orinda, California, United States