Does anyone remember the Kirsten Costas cheerleader murder of 1984?

I think I saw the TV movie with that Spelling chick.

Then there was that other attempted murder of a cheerleader when a mother, Wanda something, tried to hire a hitman to off her daughter's rival on the cheerleading squad.

I remember it, OP. I was a Bay Area kid, about 12 when this happened. The nature of the murder, and occurring in affluent, crime-free Orinda made it very shocking.

A couple years later, there was another teen girl murdered, this time in Benicia. Heather Dunn, shot dead on the Benicia High School campus by her jealous boyfriend.

[quote]Alex Arnold drove her to her nextdoor neighbor's home, noticing that the Protti family's Pinto was following them. Arnold, sitting in his car, saw Protti attack Costas at the front of the neighbor's home.[5] He thought that he was witnessing a fistfight, but in fact Protti had stabbed Costas five times with a chef knife and fled.

[quote]It took the police almost six months to find Costas' killer. Protti passed a lie-detector test, but her alibi went unchecked.

I'm confused, OP. Didn't the police talk to Arnold?

Was that the tv movie where Tori spelling played a cheerleader?

That's a sad story made worse by the murderer getting released after serving so little time.

You'd think the unforgiving and unforgetting internet would go after her and make her life miserable.

R4, yes! The one where Kellie Martin slashed Tori to shreds after dramatically crying, "I wish I could be as pretty as you!!"

Ha! As I read the wiki, I wondered how they broke the news to Tori that she was playing the murderer and not the pretty cheerleader. Now I see that the movie was a delusional Aaron Spelling production.

I grew up in Orinda and went to that high school (but many years before.)

Having Tori Spelling's old mug play you in a made-for-TV movie is like a second murder!!

The full length 1985 Rolling Stone piece — the one that inspired both movies about the case — was one of their best. It’s hard to find today, online.

Didn’t the rolling stone article make Kirsten and her friends look like bullies and cunts and Bernadette was written about in a sympathetic light?

R11, the movie certainly did.

This article says Bernadette changed her name and now lives in Oklahoma and works as a nurse (!).

Here’s her blog. (Bernadette changed her name to “Jeanette Tomanka”). Her last entry is in December of 2022.

There's a fantastic, obscure art film about this murder, and the Ed Gein case - Landscape Suicide.

If you like incredibly offbeat cinema seek it out.

Biggest thing that ever happened in Orinda.

Moraga-Orinda-Lafayette area is quintessential Bay Area upper middle class wealth. Knew way too many of those kids who came over the hilll for college. Very similar vibe to LA’s La Canada-Flintridge area.

[quote] I fancy I’m something of a life hacker

I’ll say!

R11, yes. The RS article almost made it sound like Bernadette [bold]had to[/bold] kill Kristen because otherwise Kristen would tell the whole high school the next day that Bernadette got weird on her.

Whereas there was evidence put forth in court that strongly suggested premeditation— that Bernadette set out to kill Kristen from the start of that night.

I think there may have been some moral discomfort/ second-guessing themselves or some legal self-preservation in RS’s decision to bury the article, because they still publish and link freely to other 1985 pieces like this one about AIDS.

Bernadette/Jeanette has a Frau Facebook page with recipes. I wonder if she uses a butcher knife.

r19, are we sure that's actually her?

EVERY documentary about Kristen makes her seem like a horrid bully.

Casting Tori as the proxy Kirsten only proves that they really wanted the audience to sympathize with the proxy Bernadette character. And I'm sure Kellie Martin had a huge Q rating at the time.

They should've switched the roles around.

Kellie Martin resembled Kirsten Costas (cute brunette) and Tori Spelling looked like Bernadette Protti (homely blonde).

The 1994 movie was originally titled A FRIEND TO DIE FOR, then it was switched to DEATH OF A CHEERLEADER in reruns.

Tomanka?