Speaker 1: Located in the rolling, oak studded hills of Contra Costa County, California,
Speaker 1: Orinda has long embodied the promise of suburban tranquility. The
Speaker 1: community's origins traced back to the eighteen forties, when the
Speaker 1: land was part of four sprawling Mexican land grants used
Speaker 1: primarily for cattle ranching. By the early twent in the
Speaker 1: eighth century, the area had transformed into a quaint retreat
Speaker 1: dotted with summer cabins and country estates. It was Theodore
Speaker 1: Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who inspired the town's name.
Speaker 1: Her childhood nickname was Orinda, and the Cameron family honored
Speaker 1: her by naming their estate Orinda Park in the eighteen nineties.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen twenties, the town was developed into an
Speaker 1: exclusive residential community that attracted wealthy San Francisco families seeking
Speaker 1: respite from city life. The town grew slowly and deliberately,
Speaker 1: maintaining its rural character even as suburban development spread across
Speaker 1: the Bay Area following World War II. By the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: Orinda remained an unincorporated area of Contra Costa County, A
Speaker 1: collection of winding roads mature trees and carefully maintained homes
Speaker 1: that felt worlds away from urban concerns. Only about eight
Speaker 1: percent of the homes were rented, and more than seventy
Speaker 1: seven percent occupied by married couples. It was indeed considered
Speaker 1: suburban bliss. Among Arnda's quiet residential straits, Orchard Roads stood
Speaker 1: as a particularly serene enclave. This tree lined thoroughfare worn
Speaker 1: through one of the area's most desirable neighborhoods, where mid
Speaker 1: century modern homes and traditional California ranch houses sat on
Speaker 1: generous lots. Many built in the nineteen forties through the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. The families who lived on Orchard Road epitomized
Speaker 1: the American suburban dream, well educated professionals who commuted to
Speaker 1: San Francisco via Highway twenty four, returning each evening to
Speaker 1: their peaceful hillside community. The street itself embodied the careful
Speaker 1: planning that characterized Ornda's development. Houses here were set back
Speaker 1: from the road, separated by mature landscaping that provided both
Speaker 1: privacy and a sense of spaciousness. In nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: Orinda was still an unincorporated community, its residents debating whether
Speaker 1: to seek cityhood, while enjoying the benefits of their affluent,
Speaker 1: close knit enclave. For the families on Orchard Road, life
Speaker 1: moved at an unhurried pace of suburbia until one night
Speaker 1: in June, when that peace was shattered. Forever, the suburban
Speaker 1: quiet was disturbed when a teenage girl's terrified screams echoed
Speaker 1: up and down the neighborhood. At just fifteen years old,
Speaker 1: Kirsten Costas embodied everything that made Mirramont High School sparkle.
Speaker 1: She was the kind of teenager people naturally gravitated towards
Speaker 1: her infectious smile, her kind hearted nature, her eager enthusiasm.
Speaker 1: She moved through the halls of the prestigious school with
Speaker 1: the quiet confidence of somebody you seemed to know exactly
Speaker 1: who she was and where she was going. Mirramont High
Speaker 1: wasn't just any school. Nestled in the small suburban town
Speaker 1: of Orinda in California. It had a reputation that stretched
Speaker 1: far beyond the neat tree lined streets around it. Built
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty five at the height of the baby boom,
Speaker 1: the school quickly became known for its excellence. By the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, Mirramont was a pressure cooker for achievement. A
Speaker 1: place where ambition ran high and failure felt unthinkable. Students
Speaker 1: weren't just expected to succeed, they were expected to excel.
Speaker 1: Principal Branislavyek, who also happened to be Kirsten's neighbor, once
Speaker 1: summed it up plainly. The atmosphere for success is certainly
Speaker 1: a good one. It wasn't an exaggeration. Mirramont ranked in
Speaker 1: the ninety ninth percentile of statewide test scores. Its students
Speaker 1: weren't only scholars, but athletes, artists, and leaders. The school
Speaker 1: demanded much, but it also seemed to produce the best,
Speaker 1: and Kirston was no exception. Kirston had grown up in
Speaker 1: Ornda with her parents, Arthur and Barrett, and her older
Speaker 1: brother Peter. The Costas home sat on Orchard Road, a quiet,
Speaker 1: leafy strait that looked like the blueprint of small taunts
Speaker 1: suburban life. Arthur and Barrett doated on their daughter, describing
Speaker 1: her with the kind of endearing phrases that only parents
Speaker 1: can conjure. Cured as a bug's ear and an all
Speaker 1: American girl. Kirston herself was a bundle of contradictions, and
Speaker 1: that made her all the more magnetic. She had the
Speaker 1: messiest bedroom in the house, clothes scattered across the floor,
Speaker 1: make up clustered on her bedside table, yet she always
Speaker 1: stepped out in the latest styles, effortlessly put together. She
Speaker 1: complained endlessly about her curly hair, but her friends envied it.
Speaker 1: She seemed, in many ways to embody the charm and
Speaker 1: complexity of being a teenager at Merremont, Kirston seemed to
Speaker 1: excel at everything that she touched. She was a strong
Speaker 1: shite iudent, respected by her teachers and admired by her peers.
Speaker 1: She was equally at home in the pool as a
Speaker 1: member of the varsity swimming team, or on the sidelines
Speaker 1: with her palm poms during her classmates. On that fall,
Speaker 1: she was set to join the varsity cheerleading squad, and
Speaker 1: she'd just come back from spirit camp, buzzing with new
Speaker 1: routine she couldn't wait to perform. But Kirsten's talents didn't
Speaker 1: stop at school activities. She threw herself into every passion
Speaker 1: with her whole heart. Swimming, skiing, ballet, modern dance. She
Speaker 1: seemed to thrive on movement and energy, always pushing herself
Speaker 1: towards something new. Despite her popularity. Kirsten's friend said that
Speaker 1: she wasn't swept up in the teenage drama that often
Speaker 1: defines high school life. She wasn't chasing boyfriends or obsessed
Speaker 1: with dating. As one close friend later said, she wasn't
Speaker 1: boy crazy. She was more friend crazy. Her time and
Speaker 1: her heart were for the people she cared about, her
Speaker 1: circle of friends, her team mates, her family. She had
Speaker 1: a compassionate strike that randy if somebody was late mating her.
Speaker 1: She worried if a friend seemed dawn. She noticed. The principal,
Speaker 1: who knew her both as a student and a neighbor,
Speaker 1: remembered a good, solid student, very popular, a well liked kid.
Speaker 1: It was Thursday, the twenty first of June nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: four when the phone at the Costs home rank there.
Speaker 1: It picked it up, expecting it to be a neighbor
Speaker 1: or perhaps one of Kirsten's friends, but instead on the
Speaker 1: other end of the line was a girl she didn't
Speaker 1: immediately recognize. Her voice was hushed but brimming with excitement.
Speaker 1: She explained that Kirston had been chosen for something special,
Speaker 1: an initiation dinner for the Bobbies, where as they were
Speaker 1: more formally known the bobble Lynx. The Bobbies weren't just
Speaker 1: any group. They were an off camp as sorority type
Speaker 1: club made up of ourun thirty girls known throughout Mirramont High.
Speaker 1: They weren't recognized by the school, but they didn't need
Speaker 1: to be. They had their own rules, their own rituals,
Speaker 1: and their own reputation. They held charity events for the
Speaker 1: Mount Diablo Rehabilitation Center and they raised money with elaborate
Speaker 1: themed parties on Saturday nights. On paper, they were a
Speaker 1: volunteer organization. In reality, they were something much more, a
Speaker 1: status symbol. At Mirramont. The Bobbies weren't just admired, they
Speaker 1: were envied. They were the girls with the best looks,
Speaker 1: the newest clothes, the wealthiest families. Some pulled into the
Speaker 1: school parking lot in porches, others jetted off to Europe
Speaker 1: in the summer, while the rest of the student body
Speaker 1: lingered around Rinda. They were the definition of popular and
Speaker 1: entry into their circle wasn't something that you asked for,
Speaker 1: it was something they granted you. Marcy Geyer, as secretary
Speaker 1: at the school, once put its simply, Bobbies are a
Speaker 1: clean group, something to be proud of. So when the
Speaker 1: caller told Barrett that Kirsten had been invited to an
Speaker 1: initiation dinner. It felt like an honor. Not only that,
Speaker 1: the caller insisted it had to remain a secret. Kirston
Speaker 1: should be ready by nine pm Saturday night, when she
Speaker 1: would be picked up and taken to the dinner. To Barrett,
Speaker 1: there was nothing unusual about this. For years, mirror Monk
Speaker 1: girls had gone through silly, sometimes messy initiation rites. They
Speaker 1: would smear their hair with mayonnaise or raw egg, slip
Speaker 1: into their mother's worst old clothing, and attempt to sell
Speaker 1: kisses along the rig away. They might wrap a house
Speaker 1: in toilet paper or be subject to mild pranks, but
Speaker 1: nothing beyond harmless teenage ritual. If anything, it was considered
Speaker 1: a rite of passage. Saturday night arrived and at nine
Speaker 1: pm sharp a car pulled up outside the Costas home
Speaker 1: on Orchard Route. It wasn't the sleek Porsche or shiny
Speaker 1: Mercedes one might expect from the Bobby's. Instead, it was
Speaker 1: a beat up, old orange Ford pintoo. Behind the wheel
Speaker 1: saw a teenage girl in a faded yellow T shirt
Speaker 1: and baggy gracewatpants tied at the waist. Barrett peered out
Speaker 1: of the window. She smiled to herself. The Bobbies, she thought,
Speaker 1: must be playing one of their little tricks. Kirsten, who
Speaker 1: was dressed and ready, kissed her mother goodbye and then
Speaker 1: headed out the front door. She and the girl climbed
Speaker 1: into the pinto the door, closing with a hollow thud,
Speaker 1: before the car rattled its way down Orchard Road and
Speaker 1: into the night. Barrett didn't worry. This was a rinda.
Speaker 1: Her daughter was off to join the ranks of the Bobby's,
Speaker 1: a secret initiation, a silly tradition, a step into the
Speaker 1: circle of girls who seemed to have it all. But
Speaker 1: the truth was far darker, and that night the costUS
Speaker 1: had unknowingly sent their daughter into the hands of somebody
Speaker 1: who wasn't work she seemed. Around forty minutes after Kirsten
Speaker 1: had left home, a knock sounded on the front door
Speaker 1: of Alex Arnold. Alex lived across the town, far from
Speaker 1: the quiet straight of Orchard Route. It was late and
Speaker 1: unexpected visitors were rare. When he opened the door, he
Speaker 1: was startled to see a teenage girl standing there, pale
Speaker 1: and frightened. It was Kirsten. Her eyes darted nervously and
Speaker 1: her voice trembled as she asked if she could use
Speaker 1: his phone. Alex stepped aside and let her in. She
Speaker 1: quickly dialed a number, but then froze, hanging up before
Speaker 1: the call connected. Something was clearly wrong. Alex asked gently
Speaker 1: if she was all right. Kirsten forced a faint smile
Speaker 1: and said, I'm all right, but my parents aren't home.
Speaker 1: The words didn't match the fear that was etched on
Speaker 1: her face. Alex offered to drive her home, and she accepted.
Speaker 1: They climbed into his car, but as he backed out
Speaker 1: of the driveway, he noticed something. A car was idling
Speaker 1: on the street, a beaten up orange Ford Pinto. Behind
Speaker 1: the wheel sat another teenage girl watching them. Kirsten stiffened,
Speaker 1: she told Alex that she'd been with that girl, that
Speaker 1: things had taken a turn. She said that the girl
Speaker 1: was acting weird and she didn't want to get back
Speaker 1: in the car with her. Alex reassured her she didn't
Speaker 1: have to, he would take her home, but as they
Speaker 1: pulled away, the Ford Pinto followed, its headlights, trailing them
Speaker 1: through the darkened straits of Orinda. Kirsten's anxiety mounted. She
Speaker 1: asked Alex not to take her directly home, but to
Speaker 1: drop her off at a neighbor's house instead. Perhaps she
Speaker 1: thought it would be safe for that way, she knew
Speaker 1: that her parents weren't home. Alex agreed and pulled up
Speaker 1: outside the house she pointed to. He waited as Kirsten
Speaker 1: climbed out of the car and made her way to
Speaker 1: the front door. Then out of the corner of his eye,
Speaker 1: Alex saw movement. The driver of the Pinto had parked
Speaker 1: nearby and was now approaching on foot. She walked briskly
Speaker 1: past Alex's car, her steps quick, her posture rigid. He
Speaker 1: watched in stun silence as the girl closed the distance
Speaker 1: to where Kirsten was standing. Suddenly, the stranger's arm shot up,
Speaker 1: her right hand came crashing down on to Kirsten. Screams
Speaker 1: pierced the night. At first, Alex thought he was witnessing
Speaker 1: a fight, two teenagers throwing fists in a burst of
Speaker 1: high school drama. Then he saw the glint of metal.
Speaker 1: The flash of red in the girl's hand wasn't a fist,
Speaker 1: it was a knife. Kirsten crumpled to the ground, but
Speaker 1: with astonishing strength, she pushed herself back up, blood spreading
Speaker 1: across her clothing. She stumbled towards Alex's car, desperate to escape.
Speaker 1: The other girl didn't chase her. Instead, she sprinted back
Speaker 1: to the Pinto, jumped inside, and roared away, the screech
Speaker 1: of the tires echoing down the street. Alex slammed his
Speaker 1: foot on the accelerator, giving chase, but the Pindo disappeared
Speaker 1: into the night, its tail lights swallowed by darkness. Back
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood, the sound of Kirsten's screams had drawn
Speaker 1: the attention of Tom Hillman. He looked out of the
Speaker 1: window of his home and froze at the sight. A
Speaker 1: girl was staggering towards his front door, clutching herself, blood
Speaker 1: staining her shirt. He rushed outside. Tom later recalled, it
Speaker 1: was obvious something horrible was happening. I opened the screen
Speaker 1: door and saw Kirsten running in a sort of staggering
Speaker 1: way towards the house. She said, help me, help me,
Speaker 1: I've been stabbed, and then she collapsed in my arms.
Speaker 1: Tom shouted for his wife to call nine one one.
Speaker 1: He held Kirsten lightly, rocking her slightly, telling her that
Speaker 1: help was coming. Other neighbors poured out of their homes,
Speaker 1: drawn by the commotion. Gary Schultz, who lived nearby, remembered
Speaker 1: the horrifying sight. She was bleeding so bad it coated
Speaker 1: her shirt. Minutes later, the wall of sirens split the night.
Speaker 1: An ambulance arrived and rushed Kirston to Kaise her hospital
Speaker 1: in Walnut Creek, but it was already too late. At
Speaker 1: just fifteen years old, Kirsten cost As was pronounced dead
Speaker 1: on arrival. She had been stabbed five times in the back.
Speaker 1: A murder investigator was immediately launched. Detectives already had crucial
Speaker 1: eyewitness statements from both Kirsten's mother, Barrett, and Alex Arnold.
Speaker 1: Both of them described a teenage girl driving an orange
Speaker 1: Ford Pinto. She was said to be chunky, with stringy hair,
Speaker 1: and clearly around Kirsten's age. But as investigators quickly learned,
Speaker 1: Alex and Barrett weren't the only ones who had crossed
Speaker 1: paths with that girl that night. Alex's neighbor Patrick Flaherty,
Speaker 1: had also noticed the Pinto idling outside his house while
Speaker 1: Kirsten was trying to make her phone call. Suspicious, he
Speaker 1: had approached the driver and asked if she was all right.
Speaker 1: The girl seemed nervous, but she explained she was having
Speaker 1: trouble starting her car. When Patrick later spotted Kirsten, he
Speaker 1: asked if she was okay too. She looked shaken. She
Speaker 1: had just abandoned her call, unable to reach her parents,
Speaker 1: and she admitted that something wasn't right. She said that
Speaker 1: the girl in the car, her so called friend, was
Speaker 1: starting to get weird. She didn't explain further, but it
Speaker 1: was a chilling hint that something had already gone wrong
Speaker 1: in the short window of time between leaving the Costs
Speaker 1: home that night and arriving at Alex's doorstep. As word
Speaker 1: of Kirsten's murder spread across Rinda, other pieces of information
Speaker 1: began filtering in. Another local girl came forward with a
Speaker 1: disturbing account. She too had received the phone call from
Speaker 1: somebody claiming to be the President of the Bobbies, inviting
Speaker 1: her to an initiation dinner, but unlike Kirsten, she didn't
Speaker 1: take the bait. She knew that the real president was
Speaker 1: on vacation in Hawaii. It was becoming clear that the
Speaker 1: phone calls were a ruse, a ploy, that so called
Speaker 1: initiation dinner didn't exist in fact, detectives confirmed there had
Speaker 1: been no Bobby's event planned for that night at all.
Speaker 1: Whoever had called, whoever had pulled up in the Pinto
Speaker 1: was the same person, and she was also Kirsten's killer.
Speaker 1: One mother of a girl and the Bobby speculated grimly,
Speaker 1: I think the killer was somebody aunty Bobby, someone who
Speaker 1: used the initiation as an excuse to get to her.
Speaker 1: Investigators were determined to find out who that was. They
Speaker 1: released a description of both the suspect and her car.
Speaker 1: A teenage girl about five foot five inches tall with
Speaker 1: shoulder length blonde or light brown hair, described by witnesses
Speaker 1: as chunky. She was driving a noisy, possibly yellow, hatchback
Speaker 1: model Pinto. If she saw the familiar, detectives urged somebody
Speaker 1: needed to come forward. But in the community as tight
Speaker 1: knit as Arinda, the description didn't immediately match anybody. Nobody
Speaker 1: seemed to know her. While police searched desperately for the
Speaker 1: girl in the Pinto, the cost As family prepared to
Speaker 1: bury their daughter at the Lafayette wherein the Presbyterian Church,
Speaker 1: friends and family gathered to say their goodbyes to fifteen
Speaker 1: year old Kirsten. The sanctuary overflowed with grief, every pew
Speaker 1: filled with classmates, neighbors, and community members still in shock
Speaker 1: over the census tragedy. The program handed to the mourners
Speaker 1: contained words that Kirston had written not long before she
Speaker 1: was killed. I like to be free, to go where
Speaker 1: I want to go, and be what I want to be.
Speaker 1: Reverend James Little presided over the service. He spoke warmly
Speaker 1: of Kirsten's personality, her drive, and her kindness. She had
Speaker 1: a will of her own, he said, but she was
Speaker 1: kind and loving and always reaching out. The longer the
Speaker 1: case went unsolved, the more terrified the residents of Orinda became.
Speaker 1: This was a quiet bedroom community, a place where neighbors
Speaker 1: waved across manicured lawns and children bagged freely through the streets.
Speaker 1: Burglaries were rare. The most common crime was speeding. A
Speaker 1: Now in the middle of summer, a teenage girl had
Speaker 1: been murdered, and another teenage girl was the main suspect.
Speaker 1: Lieutenant James Robinson summed it up bluntly, this is the
Speaker 1: kind of case that nobody likes. The motive remained. The
Speaker 1: mystery detectives found themselves circling over the same question again
Speaker 1: and again why everybody who knew Kirsten described her the
Speaker 1: same way, popular, friendly, well liked. She didn't have enemies.
Speaker 1: If somebody had wanted to harm her, nobody could explain why.
Speaker 1: But fear and speculation took hole quickly. The Bobbies, who
Speaker 1: had once worn their group's T shirts proudly quietly put
Speaker 1: them away. Whispers circulated that the killer must have been
Speaker 1: someone with a grudge against the exclusive club. After all,
Speaker 1: the call that lured Kirsten out of her home had
Speaker 1: revolved around the Bobbies. Others succeeded on the car, A
Speaker 1: noisy bade up Ford Pinto stood out in Rinda, as
Speaker 1: one of Kirsten's classmates remarked, most of them drive BMW's
Speaker 1: and Mercedes. Surely someone somewhere must have recognized it. And
Speaker 1: then there was the darker possibility, the suspicion that the
Speaker 1: killer wasn't an outsider at all. Many believed it had
Speaker 1: to have been somebody that Kirsten knew. It couldn't have
Speaker 1: been an outsider, one friend insisted. The uncertainty changed everything.
Speaker 1: Teenagers stopped going out alone. They clung to their groups,
Speaker 1: scanning unfamiliar faces with wary suspicious eyes, and sometimes those
Speaker 1: suspicious eyes turned towards people they knew, neighbors, even classmates.
Speaker 1: In early July, a reward fund was established by Arthur Hillman,
Speaker 1: the neighbor who had cradled Kirsten as she bled out
Speaker 1: in his arms. Within days, it reached fifteen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: thanks to contributions from the community. By the end of
Speaker 1: the month, an anonymous downer had increased it to fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Tips poured in. Some claimed to recognize the girl,
Speaker 1: others thought they had spotted the pinto. Each lad was
Speaker 1: chased on, each car investigated one by one. They were
Speaker 1: ruled out by August with no arrest. Kirsten's parents stepped
Speaker 1: forward publicly. They appealed directly to their daughter's killer to
Speaker 1: come forth. At the same time, they laid out their
Speaker 1: own theory of what had happened. Arthur and Barrett believed
Speaker 1: that the murderer hadn't been random at all. They suggested
Speaker 1: a group of girls resentful of the Bobbies had lured
Speaker 1: Kirsten into some kind of ambush, a prank or confrontation
Speaker 1: that had spiraled fatally out of control. They even speculated
Speaker 1: that the killer might be another student, someone who was
Speaker 1: being shielded by their peers. Arthur explained the planning, the
Speaker 1: way they set us up Kirsten out of the house.
Speaker 1: They had to know the area, they had to know Kirsten.
Speaker 1: He believed that the motive was rooted in jealousy, or
Speaker 1: perhaps in resentment of what Kirsten represented, her popularity, her opportunities,
Speaker 1: her belonging to Renda's social establishment. The press conference coincided
Speaker 1: with the first day of school after summer break. Standing
Speaker 1: before the cameras, Arthur said grimly, there may be some
Speaker 1: kids who don't show today. The tectives weren't convinced. Captain
Speaker 1: Stan Garvin pushed back against the theory, saying investigators didn't
Speaker 1: believe that Kirsten's murder had been planned. Still, as weeks
Speaker 1: turned to months, the fear that had gripped Rinda began
Speaker 1: to fade. Life crept back towards normal. Students returned to
Speaker 1: their classes, cheerleaders practiced new routines. The buzz of teenage
Speaker 1: life filled the halls of school once again, but Kirston's
Speaker 1: absence was deeply felt. In front of the school, her
Speaker 1: classmates plannedd a twelve foot magnolia tree, a living memorial
Speaker 1: to the girl they had lost. For detectives, the work continued,
Speaker 1: though resources thinned. By October, only four detectives were working
Speaker 1: the case full time, with two more part time. They
Speaker 1: chased on nearly eight hundred separate leads, checked out seven
Speaker 1: hundred cars, and interviewed countless witnesses, and still they were
Speaker 1: no closer to naming Kirsten's killer. Captain Garvin admitted, while
Speaker 1: everyone on the task force was failing, all it has
Speaker 1: led to his frustration. Miramont High School stood as a
Speaker 1: symbol of educational excellence in Orinda, with its college preparatory
Speaker 1: curriculum and impress array of advanced placement courses. It was
Speaker 1: founded in nineteen fifty five in an old orchard off
Speaker 1: Maraga Way. The school had since built a reputation for
Speaker 1: academic achievement that matched the aspirations of its well healed
Speaker 1: student body. But beneath the polished veneer of success, a
Speaker 1: complex social hierarchy had taken root, one that would prove
Speaker 1: both defining and divisive for the teenagers who walked its halls.
Speaker 1: To outsiders looking in, Miremont's students seemed to live in
Speaker 1: a world of privilege that bred arrogance. Students from neighboring
Speaker 1: schools whispered that the kids from Miramont were snobby, that
Speaker 1: they thought they were better than everyone else simply because
Speaker 1: of where they lived and what their parents could afford.
Speaker 1: These weren't entirely unfair judgments. The evidence was there for
Speaker 1: anybody who cared to look. The school's nineteen eighty three
Speaker 1: year book told the story in black and white. Page
Speaker 1: after page revealed the student body whose dreams were measured
Speaker 1: in luxury brands and exotic destinations. When seniors listed their
Speaker 1: favorite cars, the responses read like a German automotive catalog.
Speaker 1: Porsches BMW's VW Rabbit convertibles dominated the lists. Their ideal
Speaker 1: vacation spots weren't local camping trips or visits to grandparents.
Speaker 1: They dreamed of European adventures and tropical escapes to Hawaii.
Speaker 1: And these weren't just seenage fantasies. For many Mirramont students,
Speaker 1: these were realistic expectations, the natural extension of lives already
Speaker 1: cushioned by wealth. But the glossy yearbook pages didn't tell
Speaker 1: the whole story. While the school's reputation was built on
Speaker 1: the achievements and affluents of its most visible students. Not
Speaker 1: everyone at Mirrimont came from money. Scattered throughout the student
Speaker 1: body were kids who lived in more modesty homes, whose
Speaker 1: parents worked regular jobs and budgeted carefully for school supplies
Speaker 1: and basic necessities. These students drove hammi drawn cars, held
Speaker 1: together with prayers and ductape if they were lucky enough
Speaker 1: to have a car at all. Some took the bus
Speaker 1: or cot rides with friends, acutely aware of how their
Speaker 1: transportation compared to the shiny vehicles in the student parking lot.
Speaker 1: For these students, the social pressure was suffocating. Every day
Speaker 1: brought reminders of what they lacked from the designer closed
Speaker 1: their classmates wore effortlessly to the casual mentions of weekend
Speaker 1: trips and expensive hobbies that others took for granted. The
Speaker 1: divide wasn't just economic, it was social, cultural, and deeply personal.
Speaker 1: Some students found ways to bridge the gap, working part
Speaker 1: time jobs to afford the right clothes, or finding their
Speaker 1: niche and activities where talent mattered more than bank accounts.
Speaker 1: Others struggled in silence, feeling like outsiders in their own school.
Speaker 1: The pressure to fit in could be overwhelming. It created
Speaker 1: an environment where some students would go to extraordinary lengths
Speaker 1: to gain approval to find their place in the carefully
Speaker 1: constructed social order that governed teenage life. At Mirrimont, the
Speaker 1: stakes felt impossibly high. Acceptance meant everything, Rejection could feel
Speaker 1: like social death. Even for those who had successfully navigated
Speaker 1: the treacherous waters of high school popularity, the pressure never
Speaker 1: fully disappeared. Kirsten Costas had seemingly mastered the delicate balance
Speaker 1: of being well liked without being threatening, popular without being exclusive.
Speaker 1: She moved through Miramont halls with the confidence of somebody
Speaker 1: who belonged, But popularity came with its own burdens. Not
Speaker 1: everybody appreciated Kirsten's success. The first sign that not everybody
Speaker 1: body he was a fan came in an unsettling incident
Speaker 1: that shirk Kirsten more than she let on. Somebody had
Speaker 1: broken into her locker and left behind a bottle of
Speaker 1: beer and a note that cut to the core of
Speaker 1: teenage insecurity. The message was clear and cruel. Kirsten didn't
Speaker 1: deserve to be on the cheerleading squad because she drank
Speaker 1: beer in an effort to track down Kirsten's killer, Detectives
Speaker 1: turned to a new tactic. They reached out to the
Speaker 1: FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, the same division that had pioneered
Speaker 1: criminal profiling. Working alongside specially trained agents, investigators compiled every
Speaker 1: detail they had the crime, seeing the choice of victim,
Speaker 1: the quiet suburb where the attack unfolded, the socioeconomic landscape,
Speaker 1: and the patterns seeing similar crimes. Bob Gassed, a special
Speaker 1: agent with the unit, explained, you study those things, and
Speaker 1: when you do, you will quite often get a picture
Speaker 1: of an individual who may have committed the crime. The
Speaker 1: profile that emerged pointed detectives back towards Mirrimont High School.
Speaker 1: The suspect wasn't an outsider. She was almost certainly someone local,
Speaker 1: someone who knew Kirston, someone who blended into the crowd
Speaker 1: of students walking the halls every day. When investigators compared
Speaker 1: the description with the girls at the school, one name
Speaker 1: stood out, Bernadette Protte. She was sixteen years old and
Speaker 1: a junior at Mirrimont. She lived just blocks from the
Speaker 1: Erwinda Country club in a secluded wood framed home with
Speaker 1: her parents, her brother, and her three sisters. The Protys
Speaker 1: were active in their Roman Catholic parish, and Bernadette herself
Speaker 1: had attended a parochial school before transferring to anyone who
Speaker 1: knew her casually, Bernadette was the image of a good girl.
Speaker 1: She was polite, bright, camp Her teachers praised her thoughtfulness,
Speaker 1: recalling a speech she once wrote about a blind friend
Speaker 1: who had taught her to truly see the world. In
Speaker 1: her neighborhood, parents trusted her to babysit their children. She's
Speaker 1: full of grace, sympathy and love, said neighbor Suzanne Barr.
Speaker 1: But beneath that wholesome exterior, something was brewing. High school
Speaker 1: hadn't been kind to Bernadette's ambitions. She'd tried out for
Speaker 1: the cheerleading squad and the varsity swim team, but she
Speaker 1: hadn't made the cut. She ran track, but there too,
Speaker 1: she faded into the background. One woman recalled to me,
Speaker 1: She's just like a nice, average high school girl. She
Speaker 1: didn't stand out, and that was the problem at Miremont.
Speaker 1: Being average could feel like social invisibility. Bernadette and Kirsten
Speaker 1: knew each other, but they weren't friends, and while most
Speaker 1: people had described Kirsten as well liked, she wasn't without
Speaker 1: her sharp edges. On a skill ski trip, Kirston had
Speaker 1: mocked Bernadette's inexpensive skis. It was a small remark, but
Speaker 1: one that cut deep in a place where wealth defined status,
Speaker 1: and for Bernadette, those moments didn't fade. They lingered fast.
Speaker 1: Drink and resentment, once planted, was beginning to take root.
Speaker 1: Detectives eventually brought Bernadette prode to police headquarters to be questioned.
Speaker 1: She was seated across from FBI's special agent Ronald Hilly,
Speaker 1: who had been brought in to assist with the delicate interview.
Speaker 1: Bernadette seemed uneasy, shifting in her chair as the conversation
Speaker 1: turned towards Kirston. Then, almost out of nowhere, she looked
Speaker 1: up at the investigators and asked, do you think I
Speaker 1: did it? The words hung in the air. Slowly, Bernadette
Speaker 1: began to open up. She told the detectives that she
Speaker 1: had always struggled to fit in at high school. No
Speaker 1: matter how hard she tried, she felt rejected and invisible.
Speaker 1: Over time, Kirsten Costas came to embody everything that Bernadette
Speaker 1: wanted but couldn't have. Looks, money, effortless, popularity. She recounted
Speaker 1: the sting of small humiliations, like the time Kirsten had
Speaker 1: mocked her cheap scaze during a skool trip. She said,
Speaker 1: she'd never liked me, but I thought she was okay.
Speaker 1: The thing that got me mad was it hurt and
Speaker 1: I couldn't change like looks, money, popularity or things. Bernadette
Speaker 1: then told detectives exactly what had happened the night that
Speaker 1: Kirsten was killed. She hadn't set out to murder her,
Speaker 1: she said. Instead, she wanted to spend time with Kirsten,
Speaker 1: talk to her, maybe even become friends. That night, she
Speaker 1: borrowed her family's car and went to collect Kirsten, pretending
Speaker 1: that there was a Bobby's dinner. Kirsten got in the car,
Speaker 1: but she quickly realized that there was no dinner. Bernadette
Speaker 1: told her that they were going to a party. Instead.
Speaker 1: They drove to the parking lot of Mariga Valley Presbyterian Church.
Speaker 1: Once there, Bernadette said that Kirsten mentioned one thing to
Speaker 1: smoke some weight, but the conversation quickly sawed. It became
Speaker 1: clear there was no party, Bernadette said, and then we argued, well,
Speaker 1: not really argued. She put me down. Kirsten called her
Speaker 1: weird and got out of the car. At that moment,
Speaker 1: Bernadette panicked her plan to connect with Kirsten had collapsed,
Speaker 1: and instead of gaining a friend, she now faced the
Speaker 1: unbearable prospect of being ridiculed. She explained, I was afraid
Speaker 1: she was going to tell everybody. I was really weird.
Speaker 1: I thought, oh my god, everything's going wrong, and she's
Speaker 1: going to tell everybody. She's so outspoken, and I think
Speaker 1: she would just say, oh my god, you wouldn't believe
Speaker 1: what happened with Bernadette. She's just so weird, and that
Speaker 1: would stay in her mind. For Bernadette, that kind of
Speaker 1: public humiliation was a fate worse than death. She admitted
Speaker 1: to following Kirsten after she accepted a ride back to
Speaker 1: her neighborhood. As she drove, Bernadette noticed a knife in
Speaker 1: the car. When Kirsten got out near a neighbor's house,
Speaker 1: Bernadette pulled up, ran after her and struck. She said,
Speaker 1: I guess I was just angry. I really don't know
Speaker 1: she was telling me to go away. I just got
Speaker 1: angry and I did it. She stabbed Kirsten five times
Speaker 1: in the back. Afterwards, she drove home, flushed the marijuana
Speaker 1: down the toilet, and then washed the knife. She said.
Speaker 1: She waited anxiously for police to show up at her door,
Speaker 1: convinced that Kirsten must have survived, but no one came.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until the next morning that Bernadette learned that
Speaker 1: Kirston was dead. She said, at the end of my
Speaker 1: sophomore year, I had a lot of inferior feelings and
Speaker 1: really bad feelings about myself. To her, Kirston was a
Speaker 1: painful reminder of all the things that she lacked. She admitted,
Speaker 1: she just brought it all back, like losing it things
Speaker 1: or looks, or money or popularity or things that are stupid.
Speaker 1: Bernadette Prattie was arrested on the eleventh of December. At first,
Speaker 1: she wasn't identified because she was fifteen years old at
Speaker 1: the time of the murder, but that changed just days
Speaker 1: later when sources close to the investigation leaked her identity.
Speaker 1: She was charged with first degree murder. Since she was
Speaker 1: fifteen when the murder was committed, she couldn't be charged
Speaker 1: as an adult. That meant that if she were convicted,
Speaker 1: she could be imprisoned by the California Youth Authority and
Speaker 1: util she turned twenty five, Bernadette held her mother's hand
Speaker 1: in court as she was ordered to stay at juvenile hall.
Speaker 1: She returned to court on the nineteenth completed not guilty
Speaker 1: to the murder charges. Juvenile referee Michael Cooper then set
Speaker 1: a trial dead for the fourth of February. When he
Speaker 1: accidentally referred to her as Kristen, her mother shouted out,
Speaker 1: it's Kirsten. Early the next year, the murder trial was
Speaker 1: postponed as the defense said they needed more time to prepare.
Speaker 1: They subsequently requested a jury trial, but Judge Edward Merrill
Speaker 1: turned on the request. Jury trials for juveniles were very
Speaker 1: rare in California, but her defense attorney had argued the
Speaker 1: case had drawn such widespread attention it should be treated
Speaker 1: as an exception. Defense attorney Charles James had said a
Speaker 1: jury trial would in jack community values into the decision
Speaker 1: making process. It was decided that the judge would serve
Speaker 1: as both the judge and the jury. Bernadette would be
Speaker 1: in his hands alone. Over the next month, the defense
Speaker 1: became clearer Bernadette wasn't going to contest committing the murder,
Speaker 1: but she would be trying to lessen the degree of guilt.
Speaker 1: The purpose of such a defense is to reduce the
Speaker 1: charge to second degree murder or involuntary manslaughter. The public
Speaker 1: opinion on the case was very much divided. It became
Speaker 1: a lightning rod for debate. Arendo society was going to
Speaker 1: be facing scrutiny along with Bernadette Protte Marimont High School
Speaker 1: principal Bran Jack said, people are just grasping in the dark.
Speaker 1: Everyone wanted whatever caused the murder to be related to
Speaker 1: jealousy or quote a rind of society. Did anyone ever
Speaker 1: just consider that maybe it's just a sick kid. On
Speaker 1: the eleventh of March nineteen eighty five, Bernadette Prattye was
Speaker 1: escorted into the courtroom. She sat alongside her defense attorney
Speaker 1: as the courtroom slowly filled up. There were countless teenagers there,
Speaker 1: some Kirsten's friends, others there for Bernadette. During opening statements,
Speaker 1: Prosecutor John Oda suggested that Bernadette had lashed out at
Speaker 1: Kirston because she was a symbol of everything she couldn't have.
Speaker 1: Bernadette's defense attorney did very little to dispute that. In fact,
Speaker 1: he agreed with it, but he pointed out mitigating circumstances.
Speaker 1: He said, this is a naive, unsophisticated young girl who
Speaker 1: later expressed horror what she did and later opened her
Speaker 1: soul to the police department while on the verge of
Speaker 1: her own self destruction. He said that the murder was
Speaker 1: an impulsive act, nothing that had been planned in advance.
Speaker 1: He revealed that Bernadette later wrote a letter to her
Speaker 1: mother after her confession, which read, don't ask me why
Speaker 1: or how could you? I need so much help and love.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. Various people testified about
Speaker 1: the night of the murder and the phone call that
Speaker 1: presaded it. Alex Arnold, the man who drove Kirston to
Speaker 1: her neighbor's home, testified, I heard Kirsten scream and saw
Speaker 1: her go down, but when the other girl's arm went up,
Speaker 1: there was a flash. There was an object she was using,
Speaker 1: and I later realized she was stabbing Kirsten. She never dropped.
Speaker 1: The courtroom then heard Bernadette's confession. Detective Ronald Hilly told
Speaker 1: the judge that Bernadette had begun to feel rejected as
Speaker 1: a sophomore. He said that Kirsten had been somewhat symbolic
Speaker 1: of that rejection. The testimony then turned the murder weapon,
Speaker 1: believed to be a wooden handled kitchen knife with a
Speaker 1: twelve inch blade. Bernadette had claimed that she just noticed
Speaker 1: it in the car. Her sister Mary Ann testified, it's
Speaker 1: possible that I left it there. She said she had
Speaker 1: a habit of preparing vegetarian meal in the car. After that,
Speaker 1: the trial came to a close. During closing arguments, prosecutor
Speaker 1: James Oda argued that Bernadette had planned the murder. He said,
Speaker 1: what scares me the most about this case is that
Speaker 1: after she was asked if she was truly sorry about
Speaker 1: the killing, she told detectives I only remember the mean
Speaker 1: things about her. Bernadette's defense attorney, Charles James, argued that
Speaker 1: his client had succumbed to the pressures a status conscious
Speaker 1: community had placed on its children. He said, in this case,
Speaker 1: there was too much hope in Arnda. Kids in Arnda
Speaker 1: expected to be more than they can be beautiful, successful
Speaker 1: and popular. They have to be perfect. He said that
Speaker 1: Bernadette was suffering that she made a plan to approach
Speaker 1: someone but was awkward and it went horrifically wrong. He
Speaker 1: characterized the murder as an impulsive act by an unsophisticated
Speaker 1: young person. Judge Edward Merrill wasted no time in delivering
Speaker 1: his verdict. He found Bernadette Protty guilty of the second
Speaker 1: degree murder of Kirsten costUS. In his ruling, he explained
Speaker 1: that the prosecution had failed to prove first degree murder
Speaker 1: beyond a reasonable doubt. The next month, Bernadette returned to
Speaker 1: court to be formally sentenced. Barrett Costas addressed the judge
Speaker 1: and said, my heart is empty. I ache I'm half
Speaker 1: a person. She acknowledged that great care had been taken
Speaker 1: to protect Bernadette's constitutional rights, then asked the question that
Speaker 1: weighed on every heart in the room. What happened to
Speaker 1: Kirsten's right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt in my mind that the victim has
Speaker 1: been forgotten. Turning to the reality of Bernadette's likely release,
Speaker 1: she added, quietly but firmly, she will probably be released
Speaker 1: in five years. Is this justice? The judge then spoke
Speaker 1: to Bernadette's parents, Raymond, and the Limb. He told them
Speaker 1: that they had failed or neglected to provide guidance for
Speaker 1: their daughter. Bernadette was then ordered to the Youth Authority's
Speaker 1: venturist school. The facility would hold her until she reached
Speaker 1: twenty five, but it would be up to them to
Speaker 1: decide if she could be released sooner. Bernadette applied for
Speaker 1: parole in ninety ninety and again in ninety ninety one,
Speaker 1: but both requests were denied. During her time in Costady,
Speaker 1: she was afforded certain freedoms, she completed her high school education,
Speaker 1: and she even had a boyfriend, Arthur. Kirsten's father voiced
Speaker 1: his frustration and said, these were opportunities that were denied
Speaker 1: to my daughter. In her third parole application, Bernadette was successful.
Speaker 1: Just twenty three years old, she walked out of custody,
Speaker 1: having served less than eight years of her sentence. The
Speaker 1: State Youthful Offender Parole Board made the decision despite warnings
Speaker 1: from a parole examiner. He had described Bernadette as dangerous,
Speaker 1: possessing a hidden trigger that anybody can pull. His concerns
Speaker 1: stemmed for an incident during her incarceration in which Bernadette
Speaker 1: displayed anger and a lack of impulse control in a
Speaker 1: confrontation with her boyfriend, he warned, I hate to think
Speaker 1: how she would have handled the incident had she been
Speaker 1: on parole and able to arm herself and stalk another victim.
Speaker 1: And yet the parole board released her. But the small
Speaker 1: town of Rinde and may Ormont High School would always
Speaker 1: remember what had happened that summer. Kirsten Costas had paid
Speaker 1: the ultimate price for a world where popularity, appearances, and
Speaker 1: social standing could make or break a teenager. Well that
Speaker 1: is it for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening, and I'd like to say
Speaker 1: a massive thank you to my new supporters up on Patreon,
Speaker 1: NB Media, Jennifer and Lisa. The link to Patreon is
Speaker 1: in the show notes. If you'd like to join, I
Speaker 1: upload Adfrey and early release episodes behind the scenes, and
Speaker 1: I also send out merch along with a thank you card.
Speaker 1: I also upload bonus episodes of Morbidology Plus that aren't
Speaker 1: on the regular podcast platforms. You can also find those
Speaker 1: bonus episodes up on Apple subscriptions. Remember to check us
Speaker 1: out at morebidology dot com for more information about this
Speaker 1: episode and to read some true crime articles. Until next time,
Speaker 1: take care of yourselfs Stacey and have an amazing week,