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.

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. 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 Kirsten Costas
(Stacy Lockwood) and Kellie Martin as Bernadette Protti (Angela Delvecchio).

Resources & News

1. Angela Delvecchio is a fictional character in Death Of A Cheerleader based on
Bernadette Protti, who stabbed 15-year old cheerleader Kirsten Costas to death
in a fit of jealousy. -
http://a11news.com/417/angela-delvecchio/

2 - 19 May 2008 ... "Angela Delvecchio is a teen
character in When Good Girls Go Bad" who is obsessed with the "in crowd" and
becomes violent" ... -

askville.amazon.com/Angela-Delvecchio/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=9806880

More Updates -

Delicious -

http://delicious.com/Indiainsured