Mean Girl Murders | Murder Inside the Bobbies Club | True Crime Documentary

[00:00:00]The Bobbies were a high school sorority.

[00:00:04]>> When you become a Bobby, you become a little bit more elite.

[00:00:07]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.

[00:00:21]>> When the news spread that those screams came just before her death, friends and neighbors were shocked. 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."

[00:00:38]>> Virtually everyone I talked to is certain the killer is enrolled in this school, but no one will say who it is.

[00:00:43]>> People were pointing fingers. It was almost like, "Okay, you literally could have been sitting next to a murderer, but you don't know who it is."

[00:00:50]>> Around 9:30 p.m., the doorbell rang at Alex and Mary Jane Arnold's house in Moraga, California.

[00:00:57]They had been playing cards with friends. Alex Arnold opens the door and there's this young girl standing there and it's Kristen Kostas.

[00:01:06]She looked a little nervous, a little tense.

[00:01:08]>> 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?

[00:01:19]>> 15-year-old Kirsten Kostas isn't far from home. She lives just down the road in nearby Orinda.

[00:01:27]>> 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.

[00:01:39]>> She called. Nobody answered and Mr. Arnold agreed that he would drive her home. It was uh you know like 2 or 3 miles down the road.

[00:01:54]and he notices behind them this other car that was parked at the house, which is this Pinto, this yellow Pinto, is following them with the headlights very close.

[00:02:08]And he's concerned about that. He says, "Do you know who that is? Do you know what's going on?" And she tells him everything's cool or not to worry about it. It's no big deal.

[00:02:19]But Kirsten can't quite hide her disappointment.

[00:02:23]This was not how this night was supposed to turn out.

[00:02:29]That night, Kristen had a secret initiation dinner with the Bobbies.

[00:02:35]>> The Bobby, >> a school supported organization at all, but something that you heard about when you were a freshman or a sophomore.

[00:02:45]The Bobby's goal was to raise money for an organization.

[00:02:50]It was a group that was developed with a philanthropic goal, but really it was more of a party and a social club. If you were Bobby's, then you knew where the parties were. It was competitive.

[00:03:02]I'd say very competitive. If you were part of the Bobbies, then you were part of the upper class in Arinda.

[00:03:13]the boba links. 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.

[00:03:24]Becoming a Bobby could change your social status because it's automatically going to link you to a new group of girls. It's going to expose you to new people and new experiences that I think could really broaden your circles.

[00:03:39]>> It was important what you belong to.

[00:03:42]That was very important to people that lived in Arinda.

[00:03:49]>> Also important to Ninda, money. Lots of it. And showing it off.

[00:03:57]>> All you have to do is look in the parking lot at Miriam Monty High School and you could see 16-year-old 17-year-old kids driving cars that were, you know, 40, $50,000 in the 80s.

[00:04:08]I remember one kid had a Lamborghini.

[00:04:11]One kid had a Delorean.

[00:04:14]It just all really screamed like money.

[00:04:24]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.

[00:04:42]So, it's kind of this legacy thing. To become a Bobby, you have to actually be nominated by a former member.

[00:04:50]And then there was a vote taken by the other members.

[00:04:54]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.

[00:05:04]>> You didn't know if you were going to be invited. You didn't know how they were going to pick you or if they were going to pick you.

[00:05:10]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.

[00:05:29]Such exclusivity comes with a high price tag. Dues must be paid and the currency is humiliation.

[00:05:44]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, um, put your hair crazy, put crazy makeup on, and humiliate you in front of a boy that you liked.

[00:06:03]And 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."

[00:06:16]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.

[00:06:35]Kirstston Kostas is a perfect prospect for the Bobbies. Wealthy family, good grades, and all the right clothes.

[00:06:48]I believe Kristen was definitely one of the popular girls. She kind of looked like a doll.

[00:06:53]Kristen was like a typical California girl. She was, you know, the sun-kissed tan and the 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.

[00:07:13]Her friends were Heidi and Jamie and Gigi and three girls named Stacy.

[00:07:19]She was very much engaged in being a part of that whole popular crowd.

[00:07:29]Things did come easier to her cuz she was cute. She had the personality. She had the look. She came from a good family.

[00:07:36]They definitely were one of the elite in Arinda for sure. I believe Kirsten was a shoe and become a Bobby.

[00:07:48]So literally no one is surprised when the group taps Kirsten in June of 1984.

[00:07:56]>> In sophomore year, the Bobbies accepted as members Kirsten, Stacy, Bernardet, and the whole cheerleading squad. Jamie was the president. Bernardet was secretary.

[00:08:10]Kirsten fit the mold of what a Bobby entailed.

[00:08:14]Everybody that was friends with Kirsten's were in the Bobbies.

[00:08:18]She fit in perfectly there.

[00:08:20]>> And every kid at Mymont knows that where you stand in the social pecking order comes down to three words. Location, location, location.

[00:08:33]At Mirami 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 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.

[00:08:51]>> Behind the hoods, behind the hollow souls robbed of lies.

[00:09:00]>> They wanted to be completely the opposite of what the Bobby stood for.

[00:09:05]I think the punk crowd separated themselves from everybody else. They were intimidating to me just because I thought they were like going to cause trouble.

[00:09:16]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.

[00:09:25]Anything could happen.

[00:09:27]>> The world is calling for you.

[00:09:43]As Alex Arnold pulls up to Kirsten's home on Orchard Road, they notice that nobody's home yet. So, he pulls into the driveway next door.

[00:09:52]As Kristen's walking up to the neighbor's house, he sees another girl jump up from behind a hedge and start running towards Kirsten.

[00:10:02]He hears Kristen turn around and say, "Get away from me. You're weird." And then he sees the other girl raise her arm.

[00:10:11]And bring it down on Kirsten.

[00:10:16]>> He kind of saw a flashing motion.

[00:10:20]>> He thinks it's a fist fight. Both of the girls are screaming. He sees Kirstson fall to the ground. Both the girls start running back towards him.

[00:10:29]Both girls ran past his car. So, he got a pretty good look at the asalent.

[00:10:36]She then jumped back into her car. He then saw the Pinto pull out and screech up the road.

[00:10:48]>> Alex Arnold thinks Kirsten's okay cuz she has run across the street towards her house.

[00:10:53]So he decides out of instinct just to follow this yellow car and see what he can find out.

[00:11:00]>> While Arnold was pursuing the Pinto, Kirsten ran to her neighbor's house.

[00:11:08]He had heard the screams and the noise.

[00:11:11]And as he opened his door, she collapsed pretty much in his arms and said, "Help me. I've been stabbed."

[00:11:21]Kristen suffered five stab wounds, two to the front, two to the back, including one that severed her corateed artery to get her to the hospital, but Kirsten didn't make it. She was pronounced dead at 11 p.m.

[00:11:50]Kirstston Costas could be heard screaming for help on a driveway across from her Arinda home. When the news spread that those screams came just before her death, friends and neighbors were shocked.

[00:12:00]>> And it just doesn't seem like it would happen to us.

[00:12:07]I don't remember where I was when I heard about Kirsten's murder.

[00:12:12]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?

[00:12:25]>> 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. They were thinking maybe someone over from Berkeley or Oakland where you know the Hoodlams live or something like that. I just don't think that people in Arinda really wanted to accept that anything could have happened from someone else in their community.

[00:12:48]>> A massive investigation gets underway.

[00:12:51]>> I don't believe that there was any murder weapon found at the scene.

[00:12:56]>> Alex Arnold gave them a physical description of the asalent. She was blonde, fairly tall in relation to Kirstson.

[00:13:06]He described the car as a mustardcoled pinto. Didn't have the license number.

[00:13:15]>> 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.

[00:13:38]But teenage girls can be full of surprises.

[00:13:49]The phone rings at the Costa's home and Kirsten's mom answers it. Kirsten is not home. She's away at cheerleading camp.

[00:13:57]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.

[00:14:11]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 oh, somebody will come and pick her up at 9:00 and to wear something nice.

[00:14:25]That phone call was apparently a phony.

[00:14:27]Kirstston's girls club had in fact had its initiation three weeks before.

[00:14:32]Nevertheless, when a gold colored Pinto came to pick up Kirsten Kostas on Saturday night, she went along.

[00:14:42]>> 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 Bobby's organization.

[00:15:01]So, I know there were rumors that Jamie, the president of the Bobbies, was possibly to blame for Kirsten's murder.

[00:15:08]I know that Jamie and Kirsten were having a disagreement.

[00:15:12]Jamie and Kirsten got in an argument because Kirsten said something about a guy that Jamie liked. That's something that caused a rift.

[00:15:21]Jaime was questioned.

[00:15:24]>> They interviewed all the Bobbies and they were all alibi andor polygraphed.

[00:15:39]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?

[00:15:56]>> 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 Kristen, did not like what the Bobby stood for.

[00:16:06]>> And there's one name that fits that bill to a tea.

[00:16:15]So Nancy Kane had been in the popular crowd. She was kind of preppy girl early on.

[00:16:21]She was even asked to join the Bobbies, but she turned it down.

[00:16:27]She started dressing differently.

[00:16:30]It was kind of startling to see the dark hair, the dark makeup, the dark clothes.

[00:16:35]It was definitely different persona than what she was before. I don't know what changed for me as a high school student.

[00:16:45]Mirammani was like being in a shark tank.

[00:16:48]It wasn't okay to be different. There was a lot of judgment. You needed to fit in. And Nancy Kaine intentionally put herself on the fringe and she and Kirsten had known each other as kids.

[00:17:03]>> Kirsten and Nancy Kane became mutually adversarial.

[00:17:09]They just didn't like each other. And Kirsten would say nasty things about Nancy to her friends.

[00:17:22]Beef between two former BFFs isn't much of a lead. But investigators soon learned that Nancy had recently ratcheted up the rivalry.

[00:17:33]There was one incident where Nancy Kaine 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.

[00:17:44]>> She became an immediate suspect and her hatred of the Bobbies became the focus.

[00:17:53]>> Police interviewed Nancy Kaine.

[00:17:56]They asked her to take a polygraph test, but her parents refused. They said no.

[00:18:01]>> That set off some alarm bells for me.

[00:18:03]Why would she need to tell a lie if she wasn't involved?

[00:18:10]I remember at some point getting a phone call from somebody and them saying to me, "They think that you did it."

[00:18:25]All eyes in Arinda are on Nancy Kane.

[00:18:29]Did she murder Kirsten Kostas?

[00:18:32]>> I remember somebody saying to me, "Okay, the detectives are coming to your house to talk to you.

[00:18:39]I remember the detectives coming in and sitting down and talking to me.

[00:18:44]The police asked about my relationship with Kirstson. They asked the, you know, the question of was there something that happened between the two of you. I remember just saying no, it was fine.

[00:18:53]Nothing in detail.

[00:18:56]They asked me what I had done the night that she was killed. I told them that I went and saw Ghostbusters.

[00:19:04]They asked my parents if I could take a lie detector test. My parents said no.

[00:19:15]And 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?"

[00:19:29]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, why was this so hard? But for whatever reason, it was.

[00:19:41]Kirsten was my friend from first grade on um 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.

[00:19:57]The Bobbies was offered to me. I turned it down.

[00:20:01]Some of them were nice, but most of them were not nice. I wanted to be different.

[00:20:07]I did not want to be a girl like that.

[00:20:16]I got looks more than anything. Like the up and down, what's wrong with you look?

[00:20:21]What happened? What happened to her?

[00:20:26]I loved it. I loved it.

[00:20:32]>> 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.

[00:20:46]>> I sat probably three rows back from Kirstston 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 [ __ ] she was.

[00:21:03]I wrote on my notebook, I want to see her blood drip. And I was referring to Kirsten.

[00:21:11]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.

[00:21:22]She was the epitome of what I didn't want to be.

[00:21:31]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.

[00:21:50]If she didn't like you, she was very direct.

[00:21:54]So, I felt very much on my toes sort of to make sure that I watched what I said.

[00:22:02]It's actually hard for me to hear that cuz 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.

[00:22:16]I had told my parents that I was going to the movies with a friend the night of the murder, 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.

[00:22:32]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.

[00:22:42]They talked to my boyfriend's mother so she could confirm that I was there.

[00:22:46]Thank God.

[00:22:49]Once they cleared me, I felt relief.

[00:22:53]But things changed so drastically that that was kind of short-lived.

[00:23:02]In this community where image is everything, rumors speak louder than facts.

[00:23:08]>> The rumor mill went crazy and people thought of all sorts of things. I felt like anytime I went anywhere in Arinda that there were whispers.

[00:23:18]People thought I took PCP and didn't remember killing her. It just got more and more far-fetched.

[00:23:29]Nancy is not a suspect, but her story focuses investigators on Kristen's reputation for unintentional casual cruelty.

[00:23:39]And that's when another suspect emerges.

[00:23:44]Helena Hinton was one of the outsiders.

[00:23:48]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.

[00:24:00]She was an easy target. Easy target.

[00:24:05]I heard one time Kirstston yelled at Helena and Helena ran to the bathroom and was crying and, you know, hurt her. It's mean. When Helena was in the bathroom, she said I could just kill Kirsten.

[00:24:24]Another suspect in the murder of Kirstston Costas walks the halls of Miramonte High School.

[00:24:36]But Helena Hinton isn't much of a match to the knife wielding asalent.

[00:24:41]>> 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.

[00:24:55]>> They didn't know who did it. There was nothing. They had nothing.

[00:25:11]>> At Mymont High, it's the first day of school and Kristen is not forgotten.

[00:25:15]>> It's kind of hard to forget a friend.

[00:25:19]When we started junior year, there were a number of girls missing. Some of the girls were friends of Kristen and they just couldn't come back because they were so devastated. I know Nancy never returned.

[00:25:33]The principal of Marrammani told my parents I couldn't come back to Marammani. I had to go to a different school cuz there was no suspect. So, I became the scapegoat.

[00:25:45]>> People were pointing fingers. It was almost like, okay, we're going to school with a murderer, but you don't know who it is. You literally could have been sitting next to a murderer. You didn't know.

[00:25:54]>> It's the possibility that the killer 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 killer would see them and then retaliate against their kids.

[00:26:14]It's been 3 months and there's no leads.

[00:26:17]The investigation had gone completely cold. The Costases hold a press conference.

[00:26:24]>> Today, Art and Barrett Costas talked to the press for the first time since their daughter Kirstston was murdered. Their decision to be interviewed based partly on frustration.

[00:26:32]>> It's time that we got an answer as to why this person are persons.

[00:26:39]needed to do this to Kirsten.

[00:26:42]>> I was hired by the costicesses and just tasked with taking a look and and reviewing and seeing if I could bring a fresh perspective to the case.

[00:26:55]They felt that Kirstston's killer was right there and that the police were just not doing their job.

[00:27:08]15-year-old cheerleader Kirstston C.

[00:27:10]>> The media coverage was crazy. It was, you know, it was on the news obviously.

[00:27:16]There's the Contraosta Times where it was on the cover of that all the time.

[00:27:19]Um, Rolling Stone had called. People magazine covered it. Ladies Home Journal. Yeah, it was everywhere. It was everywhere.

[00:27:29]After an entire summer of searching under an intense media spotlight, the Arinda Police Department decides to call in the big guns.

[00:27:39]>> 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.

[00:27:52]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 uh it can be quite accurate because most of the guys there that Quantico are master's degree in psychology and it is a little bit speculation but it's still very helpful.

[00:28:38]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.

[00:28:54]>> 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.

[00:29:06]That isn't news to anyone who has been following the story for the past 5 months.

[00:29:11]But what comes next is a gamecher.

[00:29:16]They did say, as I recall, that the uh perpetrator would come from a Catholic family with six children.

[00:29:27]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 Bernardet Prody.

[00:29:40]Bernardet Pradie was a 15-year-old sophomore at Miramonte. She was smart.

[00:29:47]She was blonde. Everybody thought she was just a nice girl.

[00:29:53]Bernardet 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.

[00:30:15]Nice but not vibrant. But she was trying. She definitely tried.

[00:30:21]Bernardet didn't really fit the personality of the girls that were normally asked to be a Bobby, but Bernardet was invited by her good friend Jamie, and Jamie was the president.

[00:30:34]She had tried by trying out for cheerleading and she didn't make that.

[00:30:37]She had tried to be part of the yearbook committee and she wasn't accepted into that. So, I think Bobby's was probably a really big deal for her because it meant that she had been accepted or included And Bernardet has the one thing that investigators have been looking for since the night of the murder.

[00:31:00]The family did own a yellow Ford Pinto.

[00:31:05]>> It really fit her to the tea, but the sheriff said, "Well, she passed a polygraph."

[00:31:14]That's when I went back to Quantico and and the guy at Quanico said, "Oh, she'll pass a polygraph.

[00:31:20]because she has put the crime to sleep in her mind, if you will. Repolygraph her about the improper use of the family car that night.

[00:31:41]Bernardet was brought back in for another polygraph examination. This time the examiner was FBI agent Ron Hilly. He asked her again the question she had been asked before. She still said that she had not killed 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, Bernardet was silent for a moment and then said, "You think I did it?" And he said, "Yes."

[00:32:11]She said, "Well, is there something we have to wrap up right now?" He goes, "No, we can we can talk more later." and she said, "Okay, thank you." and left.

[00:32:19]>> She wanted very much to talk to her mother and it was decided that she wasn't going any place. So, she was allowed to go home.

[00:32:35]Bernardet got ready for school.

[00:32:38]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.

[00:32:47]Bernardet's mom set her timer for 30 minutes and then she opened the letter.

[00:32:53]And once she opened that letter, it changed their life from that moment forward.

[00:33:18]The letter was a confession letter she wrote to her mother. The FBI man thinks I did it and he's right.

[00:33:26]Her mom came and picked her up at school and they went down together to the police station.

[00:33:32]Where she confessed.

[00:33:39]Bernardet told her parents that she had a babysitting job that night. But Bernardet drove to Kristen's house, honked the horn. Kristen came out and she saw that it was Bernardet and she said, "Oh, it's you."

[00:33:52]When Kirsten said, you know, "Oh, it's you."

[00:33:56]I can imagine that it just fueled Bernardet's feeling of inadequacy and loneliness.

[00:34:03]>> Bernardet 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.

[00:34:14]Bernett claimed that Kirsten wanted to stop at a church parking lot to smoke marijuana. They stayed there for a while. Bernardet 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 Bernardet.

[00:34:33]And she was almost pleading with her.

[00:34:36]Kristen seems to have lost patience with that and finally just said, "What are you like in love with me or something?"

[00:34:43]or something to that effect, which really made Bernardet angry.

[00:34:50]So then Kirsten says, "You're weird."

[00:34:53]Leaves the car and starts walking across the street and rang the doorbell of Alex Arnold and Bernardet followed them in the car. Bernardet realized that if Kristen went to school the next day and told everybody that Bernardet was weird, she would have lost her status and maybe she could have got kicked out of the Bobbies.

[00:35:17]By the time Kirsten arrives home in Arinda, Bernardet's fear of being humiliated has morphed into white hot rage.

[00:35:27]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.

[00:35:36]>> The knife was her sister's knife, a butcher's knife. She kept it in the car cuz she ate lunch in the car.

[00:35:45]>> Got angry and I didn't I didn't I didn't like I I ran to her. I I I stopped. She didn't think to be a nice.

[00:36:06]>> I think Kirsten said something mean to Bernardet and I think it was almost like took over or something and it just made her do a crazy thing.

[00:36:23]So I remember when we heard that it was Bernardet, we were floored. We we were completely shocked.

[00:36:32]>> I would have never thought it was Bernardet. 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? Bernard wouldn't.

[00:36:46]>> I was so angry. I felt betrayed.

[00:36:50]Bernardet and I sat next to each other.

[00:36:53]I lost all of my friends because nobody knew whether or not I had killed somebody cuz there was no suspect. That ruined my life. And I'm still angry that she let that happen.

[00:37:11]On March 13th, 1985, almost nine months after Kirsten Kostas was stabbed to death in front of her childhood home. Now, 16-year-old Bernardet Prod is convicted of secondderee murder.

[00:37:25]She is sentenced to a maximum 9 years in prison. It's the most a minor can receive in California.

[00:37:32]And Arinda is left to come to terms with this terrible teenage tragedy.

[00:37:43]I mean, being popular in Marmani was important, but it's definitely not worth killing somebody over.

[00:37:50]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.

[00:38:16]High school is a breeding ground for insecurity. But I don't think any of us had the feeling like, you know, I'm going to kill her. What is actually even happening here? What does that mean about all of us?

[00:38:29]>> I just feel bad. I feel bad for Kirsten.

[00:38:32]Who's the mean girl? Yeah, it doesn't matter. in the big scheme of things.

[00:38:37]She lost her life and 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.

[00:38:51]I feel like Kirsten's remembered as a good person, somebody that would be successful and came from a good family.

[00:38:59]What happened to her was really sad.

[00:39:07]on the next Mean Girl Murders.

[00:39:09]>> Working at the cookie factory. I mean, it was rough. I had no respect for her.

[00:39:15]She had started a war.

[00:39:16]>> That a friend could do this to another friend is incomprehensible.

[00:39:21]>> She kept screaming. She's gone.

[00:39:23]>> I know who killed the woman in Perry. On the scorching afternoon of June 14th, 1966, the desert city of Mesa shimmerred beneath intense summer heat while children played in sprinklers and residents kept windows closed against the dry. Wind blowing across suburban neighborhoods east of Phoenix. Inside a modest ranchstyle house on North Robson Street lived the Martin family, parents James and Charlotte Martin and their three daughters. To neighbors, they appeared quiet and respectable. Though friends later admitted tensions inside the household had grown increasingly severe over the previous year, James Martin struggled financially after business difficulties and arguments between him and Charlotte reportedly became more frequent and volatile. Yet nothing publicly suggested the unimaginable violence about to unfold behind the family's front door. Shortly afternoon, neighbors noticed smoke drifting from the Martin residence. At first, many assumed a kitchen accident or electrical fire had started inside the home. But within minutes, flames erupted violently through windows as thick black smoke climbed into the Arizona sky. Firefighters from the Mesa Fire Department arrived rapidly and battled the blaze in suffocating heat.

[00:40:41]When crews finally entered the burn structure, they encountered a horrifying discovery. Inside the charred remains of the house lay the bodies of Charlotte Martin and the couple's three young daughters. Initially, authorities believed the family may have died accidentally from the fire itself, but investigators soon uncovered evidence far more disturbing. Autopsies revealed the victims had been murdered before the fire started. Charlotte Martin had suffered blunt force trauma, while the children showed signs of violent assault and smoke inhalation occurring after incapacitation.

[00:41:16]Investigators concluded someone intentionally killed the family and then set the house ablaze attempting to destroy evidence. Attention immediately turned toward James Martin, the husband and father who was mysteriously missing when firefighters arrived. Witnesses reported seeing him leave the neighborhood shortly before smoke appeared. Detectives from the Mesa Police Department launched a statewide search as news of the murders spread rapidly across Arizona. Friends described James as increasingly unstable and emotionally withdrawn in the weeks before the crime. Financial debt, marital conflict, and heavy drinking reportedly consumed much of his life.

[00:41:56]Yet, few could comprehend how an ordinary suburban father could murder his entire family and attempt erasing them in fire. The manhunt lasted only several days before authorities located James Martin hiding in a remote motel near the Arizona New Mexico border.

[00:42:12]During interrogation, his explanations shifted repeatedly. At times, he denied involvement entirely. At other moments, he claimed overwhelming financial pressure and fear of losing his family drove him into emotional collapse.

[00:42:27]Detectives later described him as eerily detached while discussing the murders, showing little visible grief regarding the deaths of his wife and children.

[00:42:36]Prosecutors argued the killings were deliberate acts motivated by control, resentment, and inability to accept personal failure. During a trial in Phoenix, jurors heard devastating testimony regarding the final hours inside the Martin household. Fire investigators explained how the blaze had been carefully accelerated using gasoline distributed throughout multiple rooms. Medical experts described injuries proving the victims were attacked before the fire began.

[00:43:05]Neighbors testified about hearing muffled screams and crashing sounds shortly before smoke emerged from the home. The prosecution portrayed James Martin as a man consumed by bitterness who chose annihilation rather than facing public humiliation from financial ruin and family breakdown. The defense attempted arguing temporary insanity and emotional breakdown, emphasizing Martin's deteriorating mental state and history of depression. Yet, the brutality of the murders and deliberate arson overwhelmed much of the jury sympathy. James Martin was convicted on multiple counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. For residents of Mesa, the crime became one of the most terrifying family annihilation cases in Arizona history. The murder shattered assumptions about suburban safety during an era when many Americans viewed domestic violence as private family matters hidden behind closed doors.

[00:44:01]Neighbors later recalled how ordinary the Martin family appeared from the outside. Children riding bicycles, family dinners, church attendance, summer barbecues beneath desert sunsets.

[00:44:12]The realization that catastrophic violence had been building invisibly inside the home deeply unsettled the entire community. In later years, criminologists examining family annihilators often referenced cases like the Martin murders when studying men who destroy entire households during periods of financial or emotional collapse.

[00:44:34]Investigators noted recurring patterns, outward respectability masking private desperation, obsession with shame and control, and the horrifying belief that killing loved ones somehow solved personal failure. The Martin case faded gradually from national attention over decades, overshadowed by later mass murders and sensational crimes. Yet in Mesa, older residents continued remembering the smoke rising over Robson Street that blazing summer afternoon and the unbearable truth hidden beneath the flames. Today, the murders remain haunting because they revealed how quickly the illusion of ordinary domestic life can disintegrate into unimaginable horror. On a quiet suburban street beneath the Arizona sun, a family spent its final moments trapped inside a house that should have been the safest place in their lives. While outside, neighbors watched smoke climb into the sky, never realizing until too late that the fire consuming the home had begun long before the first flames appeared.

[00:45:37]In the late 1960s, the sprawling city of San Francisco stood at the center of America's counterculture movement. Young people flooded into California, chasing music, freedom, and revolution during the height of the hippie era. The nearby Bay Area was alive with concerts, protests, college campuses, and late night drives along dark coastal highways. But while the region celebrated peace and liberation publicly, a mysterious killer began stalking ordinary couples and lone victims across Northern California.

[00:46:09]Unlike many murderers who hid from attention, this killer wanted the world to know he existed. He mailed letters to newspapers, mocked police openly, created cryptic coded messages, and transformed murder into a terrifying public game. He became known simply as the Zodiac Killer, one of the most infamous unidentified murderers in modern history. The first confirmed attack occurred on December 20th, 1968 near the isolated area of Lake Herman Road between Vallejo and Benicia.

[00:46:42]Teenagers David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen parked along the quiet road during a date night shortly before Christmas. Sometime that evening, an unknown attacker approached their car and opened fire. Both teenagers were killed beside the lonely roadside.

[00:46:57]Initially, investigators considered the crime tragic but isolated. Yet months later, another horrifying attack occurred. On July 4th, 1969, young couple Darlene Faren and Michael Majo sat parked in a car at Blue Rock Springs Park near Vallejo when another vehicle pulled beside them late. At night, a man stepped out carrying a flashlight and handgun. Without warning, he fired repeatedly into the car.

[00:47:25]Darlene Faren died from her injuries, but Michael Majjo survived long enough to provide police with a description of the attacker. Then something deeply unsettling happened. Shortly after the shooting, a man called local police calmly claiming responsibility not only for the Blue Rock Springs attack, but also for the earlier Lake Herman Road murders. Weeks later, newspapers across the Bay Area received letters from someone identifying himself using a strange symbol resembling a crosshair.

[00:47:55]The writer claimed responsibility for the murders and included coded ciphers demanding publication on front pages. He threatened further killings if newspapers refused. Thus began one of the most terrifying criminal communications campaigns in American history. The killer called himself Zodiac. Soon, fear spread throughout Northern California. Unlike ordinary murder investigations happening quietly behind police lines, Zodiac transformed his crimes into public theater. He taunted investigators through letters filled with bizarre spelling, cryptic threats, and references to collecting victims as slaves for the afterlife.

[00:48:36]Some letters contained ciphers amateur codereakers and professionals alike struggled to solve. One famous message remained unsolved for decades. Then came the attack at Lake Beressa on September 27th, 1969.

[00:48:51]College students Brian Hartnell and Cecilia Shepard relaxed beside the lake when a masked figure approached wearing a bizarre black executioner style. Hood marked with the Zodiac symbol. Carrying a gun and knife, he bound both victims before stabbing them repeatedly. Unlike previous shootings, this attack displayed deeply personal brutality.

[00:49:13]Afterward, the killer walked calmly to the victim's car and wrote dates of previous murders on the vehicle door before disappearing into the wilderness.

[00:49:21]Cecilia Shepard later died from injuries, but Brian Hartnell survived and described the terrifying encounter to investigators. Less than a month later, Zodiac struck again in the middle of San Francisco itself. Taxi driver Paul Stein picked up a passenger on October 11th, 1969.

[00:49:41]Shortly afterward, the passenger shot Stein inside the cab before calmly walking away into nearby neighborhoods.

[00:49:48]Several witnesses saw the suspect, and police nearly captured him after a communication mistake incorrectly described the suspect initially as a black male rather than white. Officers unknowingly allowed the Zodiac Killer to pass directly by them on the street. The realization later haunted investigators for years. Throughout the early 1970s, Zodiac letters continued arriving at newspapers, including San Francisco Chronicle. Some letters contained pieces of victims clothing proving authenticity. Others included bizarre codes, maps, bomb threats, and taunts mocking police inability to catch him.

[00:50:27]Public panic intensified because Zodiac appeared capable of attacking anywhere without warning. School buses received police escorts after the killer threatened children specifically.

[00:50:39]Couples feared isolated roads at night.

[00:50:41]Every new letter became front page news across the United States. Investigators pursued countless suspects over decades.

[00:50:49]The most famous was Arthur Lee Allen, a former school teacher whose behavior, writings, and circumstantial evidence deeply alarmed detectives. Alan owned Zodiac style watches displaying the same crosshair symbol and allegedly made disturbing comments about murder fantasies. Yet, despite years of suspicion, authorities never proved conclusively he was the killer.

[00:51:12]Fingerprints, handwriting analysis, and later DNA evidence produced frustrating contradictions. Other suspects emerged repeatedly, but none could be definitively linked to every crime and letter. The mystery surrounding Zodiac only deepened with time. Some investigators believed he stopped killing. Others suspected additional murders remained unidentified. Amateur sleuths spent decades analyzing ciphers, letters, and timelines obsessively. In 2020, one of Zodiac's famous encrypted messages was finally solved by private codereers, revealing more taunting language, but no clear identity. Yet, the killer himself officially remains unknown. What makes the Zodiac case uniquely terrifying is not simply the murders, but the psychological power the killer achieved over an entire region.

[00:52:03]Zodiac understood media attention instinctively. He turned fear into entertainment and mystery into spectacle. Every letter reminded the public that somewhere in Northern California lived a man who enjoyed killing strangers and watching society panic helplessly. Afterward, even today, decades later, the crosshair symbol and name Zodiac remain instantly recognizable worldwide. People still drive along dark bay area roads, imagining couples parked beneath lonely skies while an unknown car slowly approaches from behind. And somewhere buried inside old police files, coded letters, witness descriptions, and fading forensic evidence may still hide the true identity of the man who transformed murder into one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in criminal history. On the icy evening of January 15th, 1947, dense fog drifted across the streets of Los Angeles, while postwar America moved restlessly through a rapidly changing era of glamour, corruption, and hidden violence. In the neighborhood of Limer Park, 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short spent her final days drifting between hotels, friends, and nightlife spots while pursuing dreams of success in Hollywood.

[00:53:24]Friends described Elizabeth as strikingly beautiful with dark hair, pale skin, and a quiet but ambitious personality. She often wore black clothing and enjoyed telling dramatic stories about her life, earning her the nickname the Black Dollalia among acquaintances, a name inspired partly by the popular film Noir the Blue Dalia.

[00:53:44]Like countless young women arriving in Los Angeles during the 1940s, Elizabeth hoped fame and opportunity waited somewhere beneath the city's glowing neon lights. Instead, her name would become permanently linked to one of the most horrifying unsolved murders in American history. On the morning of January 15th, a woman walking with her young daughter discovered what initially appeared to be a broken mannequin lying in an empty vacant lot on Norton Avenue.

[00:54:12]As she moved closer, the horrifying truth emerged. Elizabeth Short's body had been severed cleanly in half at the waist and posed deliberately in the grass. Her face had been slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears, creating a grotesque smile, later referred to as the Glasgow grin. The body had been drained of blood and carefully cleaned, suggesting the killer possessed significant anatomical knowledge or medical skill. Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department arrived at one of the most shocking crime scenes the city had ever witnessed. Newspapers exploded with sensational coverage almost immediately.

[00:54:51]Postwar Los Angeles already possessed a dark reputation involving organized crime, corruption, prostitution, and hidden vice beneath Hollywood glamour.

[00:55:01]The Black Dalia murder seemed to embody all those fears simultaneously.

[00:55:06]Reporters competed viciously for details, often exploiting the case with lurid headlines and fabricated stories about Elizabeth's personal life. Some journalists even impersonated police officers to contact Elizabeth's grieving mother before authorities officially informed the family. The media transformed the murder into a national obsession within days. Thousands of tips flooded police stations while amateur detectives and curiosity seekers descended upon Los Angeles searching for clues. Investigators soon discovered Elizabeth's life in California had been unstable and complicated. She moved frequently, relied on acquaintances for temporary housing, and associated with various men, including soldiers, nightclub owners, and aspiring entertainers. Yet, despite tabloid portrayals implying promiscuity or criminal connections, many people who knew her described Elizabeth as gentle, polite, and emotionally vulnerable.

[00:56:06]Detectives struggled to separate truth from sensationalism as rumors multiplied uncontrollably. The killer himself appeared disturbingly confident. Shortly after the murder, someone mailed Elizabeth's belongings and newspaper clippings directly to local media offices. The package had been cleaned carefully with gasoline to remove fingerprints. Anonymous letters and phone calls followed, some apparently genuine and others likely hoaxes from attention seekers. The brutality and theatrical nature of the crime convinced investigators they were pursuing a sadistic individual craving publicity and psychological domination. Over the years, more than 150 suspects became connected to the Black Dalia investigation. Doctors, actors, gangsters, military personnel, photographers, and even police officers fell under suspicion. One prominent suspect, physician George Hodel, attracted particular attention decades later after his son, retired detective Steve Hodel, argued evidence pointed strongly toward his father, George Hodel possessed medical training consistent with a precision mutilation and allegedly maintained connections to surrealist art circles. Fascinated by disturbing imagery, secret recordings from police surveillance even captured hodal saying cryptic statements regarding the murder, though no definitive proof ever emerged. Other theories linked the crime to organized crime figures, underground pornography rings, or serial offenders operating in Los Angeles during the 1940s. Yet, despite enormous investigation, nobody was ever charged officially with Elizabeth Short's murder. The case gradually evolved beyond ordinary homicide into something closer to American urban mythology. Writers, filmmakers, historians, and conspiracy theorists revisited the mystery repeatedly across generations. The murder inspired countless books, documentaries, and fictional adaptations, including The Black Dollalia, and its later film adaptation, The Black Dalia. The image of the young woman abandoned in the vacant lot became permanently embedded in Los Angeles nor culture. A symbol of shattered ambition beneath Hollywood illusion. Yet behind decades of mythology remained a real victim whose humanity often became overshadowed by sensational headlines.

[00:58:31]Elizabeth Short was not a fictional fem fatal from detective novels, but a lonely young woman searching for opportunity in a city that consumed vulnerable dreamers regularly. Today, the Black Dollalia case remains haunting not only because of its grotesque violence, but because it exposed the dark underside of postwar American glamour. Beneath the palm trees, movie studios and glittering nightlife of Los Angeles lurked predators capable of unimaginable cruelty. While fame hungry media transformed tragedy into entertainment almost instantly. And somewhere within the fogcovered streets of 1940s Hollywood, the person responsible for one of America's most infamous murders disappeared forever into the shadows, leaving behind only unanswered questions, endless theories, and the silent stare of a young woman whose dreams ended in a vacant lot beneath the California sun. In the winter of 1978, the city of Chicago was buried beneath freezing winds and gray skies blowing across the streets from Lake Michigan. Beneath the ordinary rhythm of suburban neighborhoods, holiday decorations, and crowded shopping centers, investigators were about to uncover one of the most horrifying serial murder cases in American history. For years, teenage boys and young men had disappeared quietly across the Chicago area. Some were runaways, some worked construction jobs, and others simply vanished after telling families they were meeting friends or attending parties. Many cases received limited attention initially because victims often came from unstable situations or workingclass backgrounds.

[01:00:13]But beneath a quiet suburban house in dust plains, police would soon discover a nightmare hidden literally under the floorboards. The man responsible was John Wayne Gayy, a smiling local businessman who entertained children as a clown while secretly murdering young men for years. Born in Chicago in 1942, John Wayne Gayy appeared outwardly successful and deeply involved in his community. He operated a construction company, attended political events, volunteered locally, and performed occasionally as Pogo the clown at hospitals and children's parties.

[01:00:48]Neighbors described him as friendly, energetic, and reliable. He hosted barbecues, joked constantly, and projected the image of a hard-working suburban businessman. Yet, behind that public mask existed violent sexual obsessions, manipulative behavior, and a terrifying double life. Gayy's criminal history actually stretched back years before the murders became known. During the 1960s, he was convicted in Iowa for sexually assaulting a teenage boy. After serving prison time, he returned to the Chicago area and rebuilt his public reputation surprisingly quickly. Few neighbors knew about his past. By the early 1970s, Gayy began targeting teenage boys and young men. Many connected to his construction business or vulnerable runaways he encountered around the city. He often lured victims with promises of work, alcohol, money, or parties before bringing them to his house. Once inside, the situation turned deadly. According to later confessions, Gayy frequently used handcuffs or rope tricks to restrain victims under the pretense of magic tricks or games. Then he assaulted and murdered them, often by strangulation. For years, families reported sons missing while Gayy continued living normally among neighbors who suspected nothing. What made the case especially disturbing was how effectively Gayy blended into ordinary suburban life. During the day, he managed employees, attended social gatherings, and even posed smiling for photographs beside local politicians. At night, he buried bodies beneath his house crawl space or disposed of remains in rivers and isolated areas around Illinois. The smell beneath the home became so strong at times that Gayy reportedly blamed sewage problems or dampness. Some employees and visitors later recalled strange odors, but never imagined the horrific truth hidden underneath the property. The investigation finally intensified in December 1978 after 15-year-old Robert Pest disappeared shortly after telling his mother he planned to speak with a contractor about possible employment.

[01:03:00]Witnesses identified John Wayne Gayy as one of the last people known to have contact with the teenager. Detectives investigating the disappearance quickly became suspicious. As they interviewed Gayy repeatedly, officers noticed inconsistencies, strange behavior, and evidence linking him to other missing young men. Surveillance teams followed Gayy constantly while investigators obtained search warrants for his home.

[01:03:26]What officers discovered inside shocked even experienced homicide detectives.

[01:03:30]Beneath the house crawl space, police found human remains buried in shallow graves. Then they found more and more.

[01:03:39]The excavation became one of the most horrifying crime scene recoveries in American history. Investigators crawling beneath the house through mud and darkness uncovered decomposing bodies packed tightly beneath the structure.

[01:03:53]Eventually, authorities recovered the remains of 29 victims from the property itself, while additional bodies linked to Gayy were discovered elsewhere. News coverage exploded nationwide. Residents of Dust Plains watched in horror as police removed bodies from the suburban home where neighbors had attended parties and casual gatherings. For years, families of missing boys waited desperately for identification results while investigators attempted to determine how many victims existed. Gayy himself initially denied involvement before eventually confessing extensively. During interrogation, he displayed shocking emotional detachment and narcissism. He referred to murders casually and sometimes blamed victims or circumstances rather than accepting responsibility fully. Psychologists later described him as manipulative, sadistic, and profoundly psychopathic.

[01:04:48]In 1980, John Wayne Gayy was convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to death at Menard Correctional Center before later transfer within the prison system. During trial proceedings, prosecutors presented horrifying evidence of torture, sexual assault, and systematic murder. The scale of the crimes stunned the entire United States.

[01:05:10]Gayy eventually received 12 death sentences along with numerous life terms. Yet perhaps the most chilling aspect of the case remained the contrast between his public image and private reality. To neighbors, Gayy was a loud joking businessman active in community events. Parents invited him around children because of his clown performances. Few imagined that beneath his own suburban home lay one of the largest known murder burial sites in American history. The killer clown image later became permanently attached to Gayy. Though many investigators argued the clown persona itself was less important than his ability to manipulate trust and hide in plain sight. He understood exactly how ordinary people expected monsters to behave and deliberately presented the opposite image. Even decades later, the Gayy case remains deeply disturbing because it shattered public assumptions about safety in suburban America. Families realized predators did not always appear frightening or isolated from society.

[01:06:12]Sometimes they smiled at neighborhood parties, shook hands with local officials, hired teenagers for summer jobs, and waved casually to neighbors while hiding unimaginable horrors only a few feet beneath their homes. On the humid summer evening of July 22nd, 1991, the city of Milwaukee moved through another restless night beneath neon bar signs and crowded downtown streets.

[01:06:37]Music drifted from clubs while police patrol cars rolled slowly through neighborhoods struggling with crime, poverty, and fear. Near North 25th Street stood the Oxford Apartments, an aging brick building where neighbors often complained about strange odors and disturbing noises coming from apartment 213. The tenant living there was 31-year-old Jeffrey Dawnmer, a quiet factory worker described by acquaintances as shy, polite, and socially awkward. Few people who encountered him casually could imagine the horrifying reality hidden behind his apartment door. For years, Dmer had been murdering young men and boys, committing crimes so grotesque that investigators later struggled psychologically even to document the evidence. On that July night, however, the nightmare was finally beginning to unravel. Shortly before midnight, police officers from the Milwaukee Police Department encountered a terrified young man named Tracy Edwards wandering the streets, partially handcuffed and begging for help. Edwards explained that a strange man had tried to restrain him inside an apartment nearby and threatened him with a knife. Officers escorted Edwards back to the Oxford Apartments, intending initially to resolve what seemed like a domestic disturbance or attempted assault. Inside apartment 213, Jeffrey Dmer behaved unusually calm. He claimed the handcuffs were part of a consensual personal dispute and attempted distracting officers casually. But when one officer opened a desk drawer searching for the handcuff key, he discovered something horrifying. Dozens of Polaroid photographs depicting dismembered human bodies in various stages of mutilation. Realization hit instantly. One officer later recalled saying simply, "These are for real." As police moved to arrest Dmer, he resisted briefly before being subdued.

[01:08:31]Investigators then began searching the apartment and uncovered one of the most horrifying crime scenes in modern American history. Inside the refrigerator, officers found a severed human head. Additional body parts were stored in freezers, closets, and drawers. Human skulls lined shelves.

[01:08:50]Chemical barrels contained decomposing remains dissolving in acid. The overwhelming smell neighbors had complained about for months came from rotting bodies hidden throughout the apartment. Veteran detectives reportedly became physically ill during the search.

[01:09:05]Some investigators required psychological counseling afterward due to the trauma of witnessing the scene.

[01:09:11]Over subsequent interrogations, Dmer confessed calmly and in extraordinary detail to murdering 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991 across Wisconsin and Ohio. Many victims were vulnerable individuals Dawnmer encountered in bars, bus stations, malls, or on city streets. He often lured them to his apartment with offers of money, alcohol, or photography sessions. Once there, he drugged and strangled them before engaging in necrophilia, dismemberment, and acts of cannibalism. Most disturbing of all, Dmer admitted he sometimes attempted creating submissive zombies by drilling holes into victim's skulls and injecting chemicals into their brains while they were still alive. Psychologists later described his crimes as involving extreme loneliness, obsession with control, sexual compulsion, and profound emotional detachment. Yet, investigators were equally disturbed by how ordinary Dmer appeared outwardly. He held jobs, attended church occasionally, and spoke softly during interviews. Friends described him as socially uncomfortable, but nonviolent. This contrast between normal appearance and unimaginable brutality deeply horrified the public once details emerged. The investigation also exposed catastrophic failures by authorities. Several victims had escaped or nearly escaped Dmer before police intervention failed repeatedly. Most infamously, 14-year-old Connorak synthes escaped Dmer's apartment bleeding and disoriented months before the arrest.

[01:10:50]Concerned neighbors begged officers to help the boy, but Dmer convinced police it was merely a domestic dispute between adult lovers. Officers returned the child directly to Dawnmer, who murdered him shortly afterward. The revelation sparked outrage nationwide and accusations of racism, homophobia, and negligence within the Milwaukee Police Department because many victims were young men of color from marginalized communities whose disappearances received limited attention. During Dawnmer's trial in Milwaukee, prosecutors focused primarily on proving legal sanity since Dmer had already confessed extensively. Defense attorneys argued severe mental disorders rendered him incapable of understanding his actions morally. Psychiatrists testified about necrophilia, borderline personality disorder, psychotic traits, and compulsive fantasies. Yet, despite the disturbing psychological evidence, jurors concluded Dmer understood the criminal nature of his acts. He was convicted and sentenced to multiple life terms in prison. Even after imprisonment, public fascination with Dmer remained intense because his crimes seemed almost beyond human comprehension. Journalists, criminologists, and psychologists studied every aspect of his behavior, searching for explanations. Some focused on childhood trauma, alcoholism, social isolation, and sexual repression. Others emphasized personal responsibility, and calculated predatory behavior. Dmer himself often appeared emotionally flat during interviews, speaking about murders with chilling calmness that disturbed observers profoundly. In 1994, only 2 years after conviction, Jeffrey Dmer was beaten to death by another inmate inside Colombia Correctional Institution. News of his death triggered mixed reactions ranging from relief to renewed horror over the entire case. Yet for the families of victims, no punishment could undo the devastation left behind. Many spent years searching desperately for missing sons and brothers before learning the unbearable truth hidden inside apartment 213.

[01:12:59]Today, the Dawnmer case remains one of America's most infamous crime stories because it revealed how extreme evil can hide beneath the appearance of ordinary life. In a crowded Milwaukee apartment building filled with everyday people, neighbors unknowingly lived beside a man committing atrocities almost impossible to imagine. While behind one ordinary apartment door a nightmare grew quietly for years until the smell of death itself finally became too overwhelming to ignore. In the summer of 1993, the city of West Memphis was a struggling southern community divided by poverty, religious conservatism, and fear of rising crime. Small neighborhoods surrounded muddy woods and drainage canals where local children spent afternoons riding bicycles and exploring without supervision. But on May 5th, three 8-year-old boys vanished after leaving home to play together. By the following day, police would uncover a crime scene so horrifying that panic spread throughout the entire region and eventually across the United States. The case became known worldwide as the West Memphis Three Murders. Not only because of the brutal deaths of the children, but because the investigation and trials later raised explosive questions about false confessions, moral panic, and wrongful convictions. The victims were Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Buyers. When the boys failed to return home that evening, worried parents and neighbors began searching desperately through streets and wooded areas near a drainage ditch called Robin Hood Hills. During the early hours of May 6th, police discovered the boy's bodies submerged in muddy water inside the wooded area. The children had been bound with shoelaces, and one victim, Christopher Buyers, suffered especially severe injuries. The brutality of the murder shocked even experienced investigators. News spread rapidly through West Memphis and fear consumed the town almost immediately. Parents kept children indoors. Rumors spread through churches and schools about cult activity, satanic rituals, and dangerous outsiders moving through the community.

[01:15:10]The early 1990s in America were still deeply influenced by the so-called satanic panic, a period when many people believed hidden cults were committing ritual crimes across the country.

[01:15:22]Investigators soon focused attention on local teenagers viewed as unusual or rebellious. One of them was Damen Eckles, an 18-year-old known for wearing black clothing, reading books about the occult, and listening to heavy metal music. Alongside Eckles, police also targeted Jason Baldwin and Jesse Mskelly Jr., teenagers from poor working-class backgrounds. Investigators believe the murders might be part of a satanic ritual carried out by the three young men. The most damaging evidence came after police interrogated Jesse Mskelly for hours without legal representation.

[01:16:00]Eventually, Miss Kelly gave a confession filled with contradictions and factual errors. He incorrectly described times, locations, and details of the crime scene repeatedly. Yet, investigators still treated the confession as a breakthrough. Despite the inconsistencies, authorities arrested all three suspects. The trials quickly became national spectacles. Prosecutors argued Damen Eckles acted as the ring leader of a satanic cult responsible for murdering the children during a ritual sacrifice. They presented evidence focusing heavily on Eckle's interest in occult books, black clothing, and alternative music. In the conservative culture of West Memphis at that time, such details deeply influenced public opinion. Yet, prosecutors lacked strong physical evidence directly linking the teenagers to the murders. No murder weapon was found. Fingerprints and forensic evidence remained weak or inconclusive. Defense attorneys argued the investigation suffered from tunnel vision and moral panic rather than objective evidence. During trials, media coverage portrayed the defendants either as dangerous occult killers or as misunderstood teenagers targeted unfairly because they looked different from their conservative surroundings.

[01:17:17]Jesse Miss Gully was convicted first and sentenced to life imprisonment plus additional years. Soon afterward, Jason Baldwin and Damen Eckles were convicted as well. Baldwin received life imprisonment while Eckles received the death penalty at Varner unit within the Arkansas prison system. Yet almost immediately after conviction, questions surrounding the case intensified rather than disappeared. Journalists, filmmakers, musicians, and legal experts began examining inconsistencies in the investigation closely. The documentary series Paradise Lost brought enormous international attention to the case.

[01:17:55]Viewers watching trial footage became increasingly disturbed by the lack of physical evidence and the heavy emphasis on occult imagery and personality.

[01:18:04]Differences rather than forensic proof.

[01:18:07]Supporters argued the teenagers were victims of hysteria and incompetent police work. Over the following years, celebrities including Metallica, Johnny Depp, and Peter Jackson publicly supported efforts to reopen the case.

[01:18:21]New forensic testing raised additional doubts about the original convictions.

[01:18:25]DNA evidence failed to connect the three convicted men to the crime scene. Some evidence instead suggested possible links to other individuals connected to the victim's families, though no definitive alternate suspect was proven conclusively. Critics of the original prosecution argued police ignored other leads because they became obsessed with satanic theories. After spending nearly two decades in prison, the West Memphis three accepted an unusual legal agreement in 2011 called an Alfred plea.

[01:18:57]Under the arrangement, the men maintained innocence while acknowledging prosecutors possessed enough evidence that a jury could convict them. The plea allowed immediate release from prison without officially overturning the convictions entirely. Damian Eckles walked free after years on death row.

[01:19:14]Yet despite the release, the murders themselves officially remain unresolved in many ways. The true killer or killers were never definitively identified. What continues haunting people about the West Memphis case is the combination of tragedy and uncertainty surrounding every aspect of it. Three little boys were murdered brutally in a wooded area near their homes. Three teenagers then lost nearly 20 years of life inside prison while enormous debate raged over whether justice had truly been served.

[01:19:46]The case became a symbol of how fear, moral panic, media pressure, and social prejudice can shape criminal investigations disastrously. Even decades later, people still argue passionately about who committed the murders and whether the original convictions represented justice or one of the most infamous wrongful prosecution cases in modern American history. Meanwhile, at the center of all the controversy remained three children whose lives ended beside a muddy Arkansas drainage ditch on a warm spring evening in 1993, leaving behind grief and unanswered questions that still refuse to disappear. There.