Kirsten Marina Costas was born on July 23, 1968 and was only fifteen when the horrific event happened.

Some blame Kirsten Costas for her own death, while others understand that murder is never a viable solution to life’s problems.

In the era when bullying and classmate mental decline was not seen as a potentially life-changing problem, but as a passing hallmark of high school fun, it’s hard to know what’s okay and what’s not okay.

Budding friendship went awry

Ranked as the second friendliest city, Orinda was home to academic excellence and high graduation rates.

It is home to some of the most affluent professionals in all of Contra Costa County and the faculty within the facility.

In general, Orinda has little backlog or lack of academic ability, as does Miramonte High School, known for its alma mater, which ranges from NFL players to businessmen.

Kirsten Costa was no different and eager to run the race to success as a high school sophomore in 1984.

She was a straight-A swimmer and cheerleader, best known as a member of the Bob-O-Links, whose members called themselves the Bobbies.

Kirsten sported short dark locks and was a school favorite. While many claim that she has a bad tendency to be sarcastic and condescending, her friends portray her as witty and confident.

On the other side of the flashes of puberty was Bernadette Protti, the murderer of Kirsten Costa, a young woman from a mediocre Catholic family with a retired father who had six mouths to feed and a stay-at-home mother.

All she dreamed of every minute was living a life like her handsome classmate. She couldn’t afford the clothes, accessories, or lifestyle that the Costas flaunt, and she’d decided she could never be as beautiful as the sole Costa heiress.

With an unquenchable desire to succeed and be loved like the cheerleader, she didn’t settle for her friends. Then she started blowing herself up and imitating Kirsten Costa with every waking breath.

Kirsten Costa’s killer applied for the cheerleading position and the committee was formed to organize the yearbook, but something else worked.

The stress started to get to her until she finally ended up in Kirsten’s student office.

According to some sources, the cheerleader who saw Bernadette’s obsession with her began taking advantage of her.

She forced her to do her dirty work so she and her friends could point the finger at the weird girl when she got caught.

She also became a Bobbies, a local sorority, along with the cheerleader. But none of her efforts proved effective enough against Kirsten, who ignored Bernadette’s existence and often insulted her poverty and impoverished lifestyle.

Under counterfeit

It was mid-June 1984 and the relentless summer was upon us, but Bernadette Protti’s fixation held.

She devised a strategy to spend some alone time with the popular cheerleader and called Costa House under the guise of a party for the newest Bobbies the following Saturday.

She said that Berit Costas, Kirsten’s mother, had offered to pick up her daughter on the scheduled date at 8:30 p.m. She swore to her parents that she wasn’t babysitting.

When the day came, Kirsten got into Bernadette’s Pinto. She was disappointed when she saw it was her, but she complied, even though she found something suspicious when she saw her classmate in casual clothes.

When they arrived in Moraga, she asked her to smoke pot, and according to the defendant, the conflict started here, with Bernadette refusing the cheerleader’s offer to smoke.

After a 40 minute delay, when the girls were back in the car, Kirsten expressed concern about the credibility of this event.

Bernadette admitted to lying. She stormed out of the Pinto and headed to the home of Mary Jane and her husband, Alexander Arnold, to whom she complained about her weird boyfriend of hers.

When she called home, there was no answer and by mutual agreement Alexander took Kirsten to her home.

Seeing Bernadette obsessively following Kirsten Costa, he confronted her on her neighbor’s lawn, but Bernadette pulled out a 18-inch knife, stabbed Kirsten five times, and fled from her, leaving the bleeding teen to seek help.

The conviction

Alexander, a suspect in Pinto’s unsolicited escape, followed him, unaware of the heinous crime committed when Arthur Hillman heard a knock at his door.

To verify the trouble, the man opened it only to find a mortally wounded Kirsten Costa begging for her help.

Man called his son to take Kirsten to the hospital and dialed 911. On the morning of June 23, 1984, Costa’s parents were told to stay strong as their daughter was in critical condition.

She was cut, but at 11 p.m. it was announced that Kirsten Costa had died.

The investigation into the cold-blooded killer was launched and Bernadette Protti was one of the suspects, but she lied through a lie detector and offered an unverified alibi.

In a bizarre twist, a non-resident goth named Nancy Kane was resumed as the killer, as she too was bullied by Kirsten and her gang and shamelessly because the people of Orinda were unable to understand that one of their own perpetrators – the killer .

Where is Kirsten Costa’s killer Bernadette Protti now?

According to some reports, Bernadette was sent to the Youth Authority’s Ventura School, and according to the California Youth Authority, she graduated from high school with a grade point average of 4.0.

She also took enough courses through a local community college to graduate with an associate in arts degree.

Bernadette’s name change seems to have removed her from the public eye.

Internet sleuths, however, have long been fixated on discovering Bernadette’s latest location and identity.

‘Death of a Cheerleader’ Depicted the brutal murder

Released on February 2, 2019, “Death Of A Cheerleader” was a tragic movie remade from the 1994 original, “A Friend To Die For”.

The story was about a snobbish cheerleader named Stacy Lockwood in the imaginary town of Santa Mira played by the famous 90s teen actress named Tori Spelling who falls victim to the admiration of a worldly girl named Angela Delvecchio until the consequences of that unsolicited friendship.

The movie was based on the true incident of an Orinda cheerleader. They were stressful and frightened people that the events of the story were so likely to happen.

This psychological thriller begins with the murder of a young woman, then flashes back to 10 months before reflecting on the events that preceded it.

While watching the movies, it’s easy to criticize the characters for their bad decisions, but it’s not always so black and white when you’re faced with situations.