Kirsten Costas: The Real Life Death of a Cheerleader

She was so pretty, everyone said

The more so the pity

That she was found dead

- From “Death of a Cheerleader” by Marcy Playground

The 1980s were a decadent and excessive decade and that lifestyle , complete with designer duds, cars and big homes, was embraced by many cities through the U.S. Orinda, California was one of them.

Orinda, in Contra Costa County, sits just east of Berkeley, home to the oldest University of California campus in the state and one of the most socially liberal environments in the country. While residents of Berkeley may have been attending class or leading a protest, Orinda catered to affluent suburban professionals who commuted to Oakland, San Francisco and Walnut Creek. An unfailingly friendly city (and one that would rank number two in friendliness by Forbes magazine), Orinda’s school district is noted for academic excellence; ranked first in the state, the district also has a consistent 99–100% graduation rate and pays its teachers on average $75,000 per year.

Miramonte High School, the only public high school in Orinda, not only produces academics but athletes. NFL players Ken Dorsey, Bryan Barker, and Drew Bennett and Olympian Heather Petri all call Miramonte their alma mater.

In 1984, Kirsten Costas was a popular sophomore at Miramonte. The fifteen-year-old was a cheerleader, a varsity swim team member, a participant of the civic group Bob-O-Links (known locally as the “Bobbies”), and a good student. The only daughter of affluent parents, Kirsten was petite with dark, wavy hair she wore in a cute, short style of the time. She appeared to be fashionable and was later described by her friends as witty, outgoing, confident and sarcastic. Unlike many teens, she didn’t suffer through an awkward period and enjoyed going to school, where she counted working in the student office among many of her activities. So popular was she that everyone in the school knew who she was, even if they didn’t actually know her. For all intents and purposes, Kirsten Costas was leading the charmed life of teenaged dreams.

Bernadette Protti, on the other hand, desperately wanted what Kirsten had. Unlike her classmate, Bernadette came from an overtaxed family, the youngest of six children. Her parents were devout Catholics; her father…