The Bobbies were
a high school sorority.
When you become a Bobbie,
you become a little bit
more elite.
Some of them were nice,
but most of them were...
not nice.
They gave me a banana and
a condom, and it was just total
public humiliation.
It was like being
in a shark tank.
[reporter] When the news spread
that those screams came just
before her death,
friends and neighbors
were shocked.
[Carla] There were lots
of rumors about all the kids
that dressed in black and
hung out in the parking lot.
She wrote a note in class
saying, "I want to see
your blood drip, drip, drip."
[reporter] Virtually everyone
I talk to is certain the k*ller
is enrolled in this school,
but no one will say who it is.
[Jennifer] People were
pointing fingers.
It was almost like,
OK, you literally could have
been sitting
next to a m*rder*r, but...
you don't know who it is.
[intense rock music]
[Esther] Around 9:30 PM,
the doorbell rang at Alex
and Mary Jane Arnold's house
in Moraga, California.
They had been playing cards
with friends.
Alex Arnold opens the door
and there's this young girl
standing there, and it's
Kirsten Costas.
[woman] She looked a little
nervous, a little tense.
[Elliot] She was kind of
freaked out.
She said that her friend was
acting weird and could she call
her mom to come pick her up.
[narrator] 15-year-old
Kirsten Costas isn't far
from home.
She lives just down the road
in nearby Orinda.
[Esther]
Alex Arnold invites her in.
Meanwhile, he looks outside
and they see a blonde girl
standing towards the end
of the driveway, and there's
a car parked there.
[Elliot] She called,
nobody answered,
and Mr. Arnold agreed that
he would drive her home.
It was, you know, like two
or three miles down the road.
-[two car doors shut]
-[engine turns over]
[Elliot] And he notices
behind him, this other car
that was parked at the house,
which is this Pinto,
this yellow Pinto,
is following them
with the headlights very close,
and he's concerned about that.
He says, "You know who that is?
You know what's going on?"
And she tells him
that everything's cool, or
not to worry about it,
it's no big deal.
[narrator] But Kirsten can't
quite hide her disappointment.
This was not how this night was
supposed to turn out.
[Esther] That night, Kirsten had
a secret initiation dinner
with the Bobbies.
The Bobbies were
a high school sorority.
You had to be selected
to be in the Bobbies.
["If You Wanna Go Get It"
by Andy Powell and Linda Roan
playing]
♪ I'm coming fresh
on the scene ♪
♪ I hear the crowd
calling out my name ♪
♪ Can't stop me,
I'm a working machine ♪
The Bobolinks, or the Bobbies,
as we called them, was not
a school-supported organization
at all, but something
that you heard about when you
were a freshman or a sophomore.
The Bobbies' goal was to raise
money for an organization.
It was a group that was
developed with a philanthropic
goal, but really it was more
of a party and a social club.
[Jennifer] If you were Bobbies,
then you knew where
the parties were.
It was competitive, I'd say,
very competitive.
If you were part
of the Bobbies, then you were
part of the upper class
in Orinda.
[upbeat rock hushes
to slow piano]
[Laura] The Bobolinks,
it's a type of a bird,
and they shortened it
to Bobbies.
I don't know exactly where
or why they chose a bird,
but that was...
what they did.
Becoming a Bobbie could change
your social status because
it's automatically going
to link you to a new
group of girls.
It's gonna expose you to new
people and new experiences
that I think could really
broaden your circles.
[Jennifer] It was important what
you belonged to, that was very
important to people
that lived in Orinda.
[narrator] Also important
to Orinda, money.
Lots of it.
And showing it off.
[Carla] All you have to do is
look in the parking lot
at Miramonte High School.
And you could see
driving cars
that were, you know, $40,000,
$50,000 in the '80s.
I remember one kid had
a Lamborghini, one kid
had a DeLorean.
It just all really screamed
like money.
[narrator] So at Miramonte
High School, who you associate
with is worth
its weight in gold.
And the best possible company
a girl can keep is the Bobbies.
The selection process is
rigorous and arbitrary.
[Esther] So it's kind of
this legacy thing.
To become a Bobbie, you have
to actually be nominated
by a former member.
And then there was a vote taken
by the other members.
Now you could be excluded
for a number of reasons.
Somebody just didn't like you,
or maybe they thought you liked
their boyfriend, just
for whatever reason.
[Laura] You didn't know if you
were gonna be invited.
You didn't know how they were
gonna pick you or if they were
gonna pick you.
When they rang my door
to give me the invitation
for the Bobbies, I was shocked.
I was surprised.
I didn't really expect it
because I didn't know how
they selected people
and because I just wasn't 100%
sure that I would be
somebody they would want.
[narrator] Such exclusivity
comes with a high price tag.
Dues must be paid,
and the currency
is humiliation.
[ominous chord strike]
[Laura] The Bobbies had some
interesting initiation rituals.
They would come to your house
real early in the morning,
wake you up, have you dress
horribly, put your hair crazy,
put crazy makeup on,
and humiliate you
in front of the boys
that you liked.
Then they gave me a banana
and a condom and said,
"Go over to that group of senior
boys with that banana and roll
the condom on it
right in front of them."
So it was just...
total public humiliation,
but it made me feel included.
It made me feel seen.
It made me feel that
I was a part of a group
that was exciting.
[narrator] Kirsten Costas is
a perfect prospect
for the Bobbies.
Wealthy family, good grades,
and all the right clothes.
[Jennifer] I believe Kirsten
was definitely
one of the popular girls.
She kind of looked like a doll.
Kirsten was like
a typical California girl.
She was, you know,
the sun-kissed tan
and the pretty, you know,
wavy brown hair and skinny,
and she had made
the cheerleading team.
She was on the swim team.
She played soccer.
And she was just
one of the in crowd.
Her friends were Heidi,
and Jamie, and Gigi,
and three girls named Stacy.
She was very much engaged
in being a part of that whole
popular crowd.
[Jennifer] Things did
come easier to her
because she was cute,
she had the personality,
she had the look, she came
from a good family.
They definitely were
one of the elite
in Orinda, for sure.
I believe Kirsten was
a shoe-in to become a Bobbie.
[narrator] So literally no one
is surprised when the group taps
Kirsten in June of 1984.
[Esther] In sophomore year,
the Bobbies accepted as members
Kirsten, Stacey,
Bernadette, and the whole
cheerleading squad.
[Jennifer] Jamie was
the president, Bernadette
was secretary.
Kirsten fit the mold
of what a Bobbie entailed.
Everybody that was
friends with Kirsten
were in the Bobbies.
She fit in perfectly there.
[narrator] And every kid
at Miramonte knows
that where you stand
in the social pecking order
comes down to three words...
location, location, location.
[Esther] At Miramonte
High School, you would know
who was in what group by
where they hung out at school.
Like the popular kids,
like the Bobbies, would be
in the quad, right,
in the center of the school
where they're front and center,
and the stoners and the punks,
they'd be on the outskirts.
They'd be
in the parking lot smoking.
["Hollow Souls" by Dan
and Adam Skinner playing]
♪ If hollow souls
were up to fly ♪
They wanted to be completely
the opposite of what
the Bobbies stood for.
[Jennifer] I think the punk
crowd separated themselves
from everybody else.
They were intimidating
to me just because I thought
they were like,
gonna cause trouble.
[Carla] High school is just
a big soup pot of drama.
It's just an instant breeding
ground for insecurity and it's
not healthy for anyone.
Anything could happen.
["Hollow Souls" by Dan and Adam
Skinner continues playing]
♪ An underworld
is calling for you ♪
[music fades]
[Esther] As Alex Arnold pulls
up to Kirsten's home
on Orchard Road, he noticed
that nobody's home yet.
So he pulls into
the driveway next door.
As Kirsten's walking
up to the neighbor's house,
he sees another girl jump up
from behind a hedge and start
running towards Kirsten.
He hears Kirsten turn around
and say, "Get away from me,
you're weird."
And then he sees
the other girl raise her arm
and bring it down on Kirsten.
He kind of saw
a flashing motion.
[Esther]
He thinks it's a fist fight.
Both of the girls
are screaming.
He sees Kirsten fall
to the ground.
Both the girls start running
back towards him.
[Elliot] Both girls ran
past his car.
So he got a pretty good look
at the assailant.
She then jumped back
into her car.
He then saw the Pinto pull out
and screech up the road.
[tires squealing]
Alex Arnold thinks Kirsten's
OK because she's run across
the street towards her house.
So he decides out of instinct
just to follow this yellow car
and see what he can find out.
While Arnold was pursuing
the Pinto,
Kirsten ran
to her neighbor's house.
He had heard the screams
and the noise.
And as he opened his door,
she collapsed pretty much
in his arms and said, "Help me,
I've been stabbed."
Kirsten suffered five stab
wounds, two to the front,
two to the back, including one
that severed her carotid artery
[sirens wailing]
They get her to the hospital,
but Kirsten didn't make it.
She was pronounced dead
at 11 PM.
[clock ticking]
[reporter] Kirsten Costas could
be heard screaming for help
on a driveway across
from her Orinda home.
When the news spread
that those screams came just
before her death,
friends and neighbors
were shocked.
And it just doesn't seem like
it would happen to us.
[Carla] I don't remember
where I was when I heard
about Kirsten's m*rder.
I remember seeing the newspaper,
and seeing her picture, and just
being in disbelief and shock.
Like, how could this happen?
How could this happen?
[Jennifer] It never felt real
to me, you know?
It was, it just didn't
seem real, you know,
because our parents were
friends and I kind of grew up
with her.
She was sweet.
The funeral was,
I think there was probably
over a thousand people there.
It was very sad, and it was just
emotional, and I felt bad.
I remember the parents being
there, and I went with my mom
and my brother.
The Bobbies were there.
Pretty much most everybody
that was at Miramonte was there.
The whole community
kind of came together.
It was hard.
[Carla] I think that, initially,
people wanted to believe
that somebody
outside of Orinda did this.
They were thinking maybe
someone over from Berkeley
or Oakland where,
you know, the hoodlums live
or something like that.
I just don't think that people
in Orinda really wanted
to accept that anything could
have happened from someone else
in their community.
[narrator] A massive
investigation gets underway.
I don't believe that there was
any m*rder weapon found
at the scene.
Alex Arnold gave them
a physical description
of the assailant.
She was blonde, fairly tall
in relation to Kirsten.
He described the car
as a mustard-colored Pinto.
Didn't have the license number.
[Esther] Somebody had to be
really, really angry to do
the kind of damage
that they did to Kirsten.
This was a brutal attack.
It just doesn't seem like
this could be something that was
done by this young girl
that people had described.
[ominous chord strike]
[narrator] But teenage girls
can be full of surprises.
[Esther] The phone rings
at the Costas' home,
and Kirsten's mom
answers it.
Kirsten is not home.
She's away
at cheerleading camp.
There's a young woman
on the phone
who tells Kirsten's mom
that there is a secret
dinner for the Bobbies
two nights later on Saturday
night and to let Kirsten know.
The young woman
does not identify herself,
but tells her mother that, tell
Kirsten not to tell anybody,
because it's a secret dinner
and somebody will come and pick
her up at 9:00,
and to wear something nice.
That phone call was
apparently a phony.
Kirsten's girls club had,
in fact, had its initiation
three weeks before.
Nevertheless, when
a gold-colored Pinto came
to pick up Kirsten Costas
on Saturday night,
she went along.
[Laura] They started to look
at Kirsten's inner circle
or people that she knew
as suspects,
because the person that lured
her out of the house knew
her phone number, knew
where she lived, knew that
at the time of the call,
she was at cheerleading camp,
and also mentioned
the Bobbies organization.
[Carla] I know there were rumors
that Jamie, the president
of the Bobbies, was possibly
to blame for Kirsten's m*rder.
I know that Jamie and Kirsten
were having a disagreement.
[Esther] Jamie and Kirsten got
in an argument because Kirsten
said something about a guy
that Jamie liked.
That's something
that caused a rift.
Jamie was questioned.
They interviewed all
the Bobbies, and they were all
alibied and, or polygraphed.
[suspenseful beat kicks in]
[Laura] So knowing that it had
to be somebody that knew Kirsten
very well, a lot of speculation.
Could it have been somebody
that she attended cheerleading
camp with that didn't like her?
Could it be somebody
that she was on the swim team
with who didn't like her?
[Jennifer] Maybe it was somebody
that wasn't part of the Bobbies.
It was somebody that despised
the Bobbies or wasn't like part
of that group that did not like
Kirsten, did not like what
the Bobbies stood for.
[narrator] And there's one name
that fits that bill to a T.
So Nancy Kane had been
in the popular crowd.
She was kind of
a preppy girl early on.
She was even asked to join
the Bobbies,
but she turned it down.
She started dressing
differently.
It was kind of startling to see
the dark hair, the dark makeup,
the dark clothes.
It was definitely a different
persona than what
she was before.
I don't know what changed.
For me as a high school
student, Miramonte was like
being in a shark tank.
It wasn't okay to be different.
There was a lot of judgment.
You needed to fit in.
And Nancy Kane intentionally
put herself on the fringe.
And she and Kirsten had known
each other as kids.
Kirsten and Nancy Kane became
mutually adversarial.
They just didn't like
each other.
And Kirsten would say
nasty things about Nancy
to her friends.
[narrator] Beef between
two former BFFs isn't much
of a lead.
But investigators soon learned
that Nancy had recently
ratcheted up the rivalry.
It was one incident where
Nancy Kane wrote a note in class
on a piece of paper saying,
"I want to see your blood drip,
drip, drip," and held it up
so Kirsten could see it.
[Elliot] She became
an immediate suspect.
And her hatred of the Bobbies
became the focus.
[Esther]
Police interviewed Nancy Kane.
They asked her to take
a polygraph test,
but her parents refused.
They said no.
[Laura] That set off
some alarm bells for me.
Why would she need to tell
a lie if she wasn't involved?
I remember at some point
getting a phone call
from somebody and them saying
to me, "They think
that you did it."
[bell ringing]
[mysterious music plays]
[narrator] All eyes in Orinda
are on Nancy Kane.
Did she m*rder Kirsten Costas?
I remember somebody saying
to me, "OK, the detectives are
coming to your house
to talk to you."
I remember the detectives
coming in and sitting down
and talking to me.
The police asked about
my relationship with Kirsten.
They asked the question of,
was there something
that happened
between the two of you?
I remember just saying,
"No, it was fine."
Nothing in detail.
They asked me what I had done
the night that she was k*lled.
I told them that I went
and saw "Ghostbusters."
They asked my parents if I could
take a lie detector test.
My parents said no.
When they were walking
out the door, I asked my mom,
"Did I need to tell them
the truth about where I was
that night?"
[ominous electric
keyboard plays]
[Nancy] There was just so many
things that I would, you know,
after everything is said
and done, I look at it,
and I think,
"Why was this so hard?"
But, for whatever reason,
it was.
Kirsten was my friend
from first grade
on till freshman year,
and I remember just being
done with her and not wanting
to hang out with her, and
her being confused as to why
we weren't friends anymore,
but I was just done.
The Bobbies was offered to me,
I turned it down.
Some of them were nice,
but most of them were...
not nice.
I wanted to be different.
I did not wanna be
a girl like that.
[rock music plays]
I got looks more than anything,
like the up and down,
what's wrong with you look,
what happened?
What happened to her?
I loved it...
I loved it.
[narrator] But Kirsten didn't.
After Nancy Kane changed
her look, there was just
this kind of unspoken rule
that nobody talked
to Nancy Kane anymore.
She wasn't part of the group.
She was on the outs.
[ominous chord strike]
[Nancy]
I sat probably three rows
back from Kirsten
in biology.
I can picture it
in my head right now.
And, you know, she would
turn around and look at me,
and I was, like,
behind her plotting
and planning and, you know,
thinking to myself,
what an as*h*le she was.
I wrote on my notebook,
"I want to see her blood drip,"
and I was referring to Kirsten.
I just wanted people to know
that I didn't like her at all.
At the time, she was not nice.
She wasn't kind.
She made people feel bad.
She was the epitome of what
I didn't want to be.
[Carla] Kirsten definitely,
unfortunately, had sort
of a bullying mentality.
She was very charismatic.
She had a big,
vivacious personality,
and that gave her a lot of
power, and she used it.
[teen girls laughing]
If she didn't like you,
she was very direct.
So I felt very much on my toes,
sort of, to make sure that
I watched what I said.
[Jennifer] It's actually hard
for me to hear that, because
I didn't know her that way.
That's not the Kirsten
that I remember.
She wasn't always the nicest,
but I don't think she really
was intentionally trying
to be mean or mean-spirited.
Kirsten's personality was,
I think she was kind of shy,
and maybe that took it as being
a little bit stuck up.
[Esther] People are going
to think she's rude,
she's bitchy, she's mean.
It's just part of that social
hierarchy of being the one
who's the top dog.
I mean, being 15, 16 is
difficult already,
and Kirsten did not have to try
to be popular.
She just was.
And I think she had a little
bit of what I wanted in life.
[ominous chord strike]
[Nancy] I had told my parents
that I was going to the movies
with a friend the night
of the m*rder,
and that's not what I did.
I told the detectives that
because I didn't want to get
in trouble with
my parents for lying.
So we got them to come back in,
and I told them the truth.
I was at a boyfriend's house,
and I didn't want my parents
to know.
They talked to my boyfriend's
mother, so she could confirm
that I was there.
Thank God.
[phone clicks]
Once they cleared me,
I felt relief.
But things changed so
drastically that that was
kind of short-lived.
[narrator] In this community
where image is everything,
rumors speak louder than facts.
The rumor mill went crazy,
and people thought of all
sorts of things.
I felt like anytime I went
anywhere in Orinda,
that there were whispers.
People thought I took PCP
and didn't remember
k*lling her.
It just got more
and more far-fetched.
[narrator] Nancy is not
a suspect, but her story
focuses investigators
on Kirsten's reputation
for unintentional
casual cruelty,
and that's when
another suspect emerges.
Helena Hinton was one
of the outsiders.
She was quiet, meek, pale.
And they teased her, you know.
They teased her.
They teased her --
the way she dressed,
the way she looked.
She was an easy target.
Easy target.
I heard one time Kirsten yelled
at Helena, and Helena ran
to the bathroom and was crying.
And...
you know, hurt.
Hurt her.
It was mean.
When Helena was
in the bathroom, she said,
"I could just k*ll Kirsten."
[narrator] Another suspect
in the m*rder of Kirsten Costas
walks the halls
of Miramonte High School.
But Helena Hinton isn't
much of a match
to the knife-wielding assailant.
Helena Hinton had
long black hair and didn't fit
the physical description
at all.
Her alibi was
confirmed immediately.
She was eliminated
pretty quickly.
The police were running
out of suspects.
They didn't know who did it.
There was nothing.
They had nothing.
[reporter] At Miramonte High,
it's the first day of school
and Kirsten is not forgotten.
It's kind of hard
to forget a friend.
[Carla] When we started
junior year, there were a number
of girls missing.
Some of the girls were friends
of Kirsten and they just
couldn't come back because
they were so devastated.
I know Nancy never returned.
The principal of Miramonte told
my parents I couldn't come back
to Miramonte.
I had to go to a different
school because there was
no suspect.
So I became the scapegoat.
[Jennifer]
People were pointing fingers.
It was almost like, OK,
we're going to school
with a m*rder*r,
but you don't know who it is.
You literally could have been
sitting next to a m*rder*r
and you didn't know.
[reporter] It's the possibility
that the k*ller may be
a neighbor or a classmate
that's most upsetting
to people here.
Several of the parents
we talked to refused to be
on camera because they were
afraid the k*ller would see them
and then retaliate
against their kids.
[Esther] It's been three months,
and there's no leads.
The investigation had gone
completely cold.
The Costases hold
a press conference.
[reporter] Today,
Art and Berit Costas talked
to the press
for the first time
since their daughter, Kirsten,
was m*rder*d,
their decision to be interviewed
based partly on frustration.
It's time that we got
an answer as to why
this person or persons
needed to do this to Kirsten.
[Elliot] I was hired
by the Costases and just tasked
with taking a look
and reviewing, and seeing if I
could bring a fresh perspective
to the case.
They felt that Kirsten's k*ller
was right there
and that the police were just
not doing their job.
Fifteen-year-old
cheerleader Kirsten...
[Nancy]
The media coverage was crazy.
It was, you know, it was
on the news, obviously.
There was the Contra Costa
Times where it was on the cover
of that all the time.
Rolling Stone had called,
People Magazine covered it,
Ladies Home Journal.
Yeah, it was everywhere.
It was everywhere.
[narrator] After an entire
summer of searching under
an intense media spotlight,
the Orinda Police Department
decides to call
in the big g*ns.
[Bob] The sheriff involved
in the case and I were pretty
good friends.
And so when he called me
and asked if we could
do something, I decided to ask
our crime unit at Quantico
to do a criminal profile
of the case.
What the criminal profilers do
at the FBI Academy,
they take information
from a police department,
fill out a very,
very detailed report
on the crime scene primarily.
And from that information,
putting it all into computers
and that sort of thing,
they can come up with a profile
of the probable person that was
the perpetrator of the crime.
It's not perfect,
but it's very,
very sophisticated,
and it can be quite accurate.
Because most of the guys there
at Quantico are Master's degree
in psychology, and it is
a little bit speculation,
but it's still very helpful.
[keys clacking]
They compiled the report,
and they said that the crime
had been undoubtedly committed
by a young woman,
probably a friend of the victim
who would be driving
a small car.
They also thought it might
be somebody who felt like
they were inferior or didn't
fit in some way or weren't
accepted by Kirsten.
[narrator] That isn't news
to anyone who has been following
the story
for the past five months.
But what comes next is
a game changer.
They did say, as I recall,
that the perpetrator would come
from a Catholic family
with six children.
Using this FBI profile,
investigators went back
to their interviews and looked
at the possible suspects.
And one person who fit
the profile almost exactly was
Bernadette Protti.
Bernadette Protti was
a 15-year-old sophomore
at Miramonte.
She was smart.
She was blonde.
Everybody thought she was just
a nice girl.
Bernadette and I went
to catechism together.
Her mom was very religious,
and I knew that she was
the youngest and that her
five siblings were much older.
And she didn't have the look
of the popular girls.
She wasn't crisp.
She was just...
plain.
She was not...
vibrant at all.
Nice, but not vibrant.
But she was trying.
She definitely tried.
[Esther] Bernadette didn't
really fit the personality
of the girls that were normally
asked to be a Bobbie.
But Bernadette was invited
by her good friend,
Jamie, and Jamie
was the president.
[Laura] She had tried
by trying out for cheerleading,
and she didn't make that.
She had tried to be part
of the yearbook committee,
and she wasn't accepted
into that.
So I think Bobbies was probably
a really big deal for her,
because it meant that she had
been accepted or included.
[narrator] And Bernadette has
the one thing that investigators
have been looking for since
the night of the m*rder.
The family did own
a yellow Ford Pinto.
It really fit her to the T,
but the sheriff said,
well, "She passed a polygraph."
That's when I went back
to Quantico, and the guy
at Quantico said, "Oh,
she'll pass a polygraph,
"because she has put the crime
to sleep in her mind,
"if you will.
"Re-polygraph her
about the improper use
of the family car that night."
Bernadette was
brought back in for another
polygraph examination.
This time, the examiner was
FBI agent Ron Hilley.
He asked her again the question
she had been asked before.
She still said that
she had not k*lled Kirsten.
She didn't know anything
about it.
But then he took her
through the FBI profile.
And at the end of that very
detailed profile,
Bernadette was silent
for a moment and then said,
"You think I did it?"
And he said, "Yes."
She said, "Well,
is this something we have
to wrap up right now?"
He goes, "No, we can
talk more later."
And she said,
"OK, thank you," and left.
She wanted very much
to talk to her mother.
And it was decided
that she wasn't going anyplace.
So she was allowed to go home.
Bernadette got ready
for school.
She left a letter
on the counter.
And she told her mother,
"Don't read it for 30 minutes."
And then she left for school.
Bernadette's mom set her timer
for 30 minutes,
and then she opened the letter.
And once she opened
that letter, it changed
their life
from that moment forward.
[paper rustling]
[Esther] The letter was
a confession letter.
She wrote to her mother,
"The FBI man thinks I did it,
and he's right."
Her mom came and picked her up
at school, and they went down
together to the police station,
where she confessed.
Bernadette told her parents
that she had a babysitting job
that night,
but Bernadette drove
to Kirsten's house,
honked the horn.
Kirsten came out, and she saw
that it was Bernadette.
And she said, "Oh, it's you."
When Kirsten said,
you know, "Oh, it's you,"
I can imagine that it just
fueled Bernadette's feeling
of inadequacy and loneliness.
[Esther]
Bernadette told her, "Hey,
there is no initiation dinner.
We're going to go to a party."
So she got in the car,
and they started driving.
Bernadette claimed
that Kirsten wanted to stop
at a church parking lot
to smoke marijuana.
They stayed there for a while.
Bernadette was talking
to Kirsten and was just trying
to convince her to be
her friend, to accept her.
That was something
that was really,
really important to Bernadette.
And she was almost pleading
with her.
Kirsten seems to have lost
patience with that and finally
just said, "What are you,
like, in love
with me or something?"
Or something to that effect,
which really made
Bernadette angry.
So then Kirsten says,
"You're weird," leaves the car,
and starts walking
across the street and rang
the doorbell of Alex Arnold,
and Bernadette followed them
in the car.
Bernadette realized that if
Kirsten went to school the next
day and told everybody
that Bernadette was weird,
she would've lost her status,
and maybe she could have
got kicked out of the Bobbies.
[narrator] By the time Kirsten
arrives home in Orinda,
Bernadette's fear of being
humiliated has morphed
into white-hot rage.
[Esther] When she saw her go up
to the house, she reached
under the seat.
She said there was a knife
under the seat of the car.
The knife was her sister's
knife, a butcher's knife.
She kept it in the car because
she ate lunch in the car.
[Jennifer] I think Kirsten said
something mean to Bernadette,
and I think it was almost like
it took over or something and it
just made her do a crazy thing.
[car squeals off]
So I remember when we heard
that it was Bernadette.
We were floored.
We were completely shocked.
[Jennifer] I would have never
thought it was Bernadette.
That would have never
crossed my mind.
It's horrible to say that,
but it seems like
I know why Nancy and Helena got,
you know, accused
because they would
fit the mold, right?
Bernadette wouldn't.
I was so angry.
I felt betrayed.
Bernadette and I sat
next to each other.
I lost all of my friends
because nobody knew whether
or not I had k*lled somebody,
because there was no suspect.
That ruined my life.
And I'm still angry that...
she let that happen.
[narrator] On March 13th, 1985,
almost nine months
after Kirsten Costas was stabbed
to death in front of her
childhood home, now 16-year-old
Bernadette Protti is convicted
of second-degree m*rder.
She is sentenced to a maximum
nine years in prison.
It's the most a minor can
receive in California.
And Orinda is left to come
to terms with this terrible
teenage tragedy.
[Jennifer] I mean, being popular
at Miramonte was important,
but it's definitely not worth
k*lling somebody over.
[Laura] I think it would
be easier to accept if it was
an outsider.
Maybe even somebody
outside of the community would
probably be what everybody
really wanted to be the answer,
and it just wasn't.
The Bobbies changed their name.
We changed it to the Kestrels,
and we stopped the hazing.
There was
no public humiliation.
[ominous chord strike]
[Carla] High school is
a breeding ground
for insecurity, but I don't
think any of us had the feeling
like, you know,
"I'm gonna k*ll her."
What is actually even
happening here?
What does that mean
about all of us?
[Nancy] I just feel bad.
I feel bad for Kirsten.
Who's the mean girl?
Yeah, it doesn't matter
in the big scheme of things.
She lost her life, and her
parents had to go through all
that, and they're still going
through it because it doesn't
go away.
It shouldn't have happened.
It's terrible.
It's just awful.
I feel like Kirsten is
remembered as a good person,
somebody that would be
successful and came
from a good family.
What happened to her
was really sad.
[narrator] On the next
Mean Girl Murders ...
Working at the cookie factory,
I mean, it was rough.
I had no respect for her.
She had started a w*r.
That a friend could do this
to another friend
is incomprehensible.
She kept screaming,
"She's gone!"
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