HULU’s new docu-series captivated true crime lovers as it peels back the layers behind the horrific murder of teenager Reena Virk.
The brutal murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk shocked the western Canadian city of Victoria, British Columbia, in November 1997.
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Reena was born in a Indian family who, upon settling in Canada, converted from Hinduism to the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
She began to rebel in her early teens, painting her nails, smoking, skipping family meals and listening to hip-hop music.
Family members remembered the teenager as an occasional runaway.
During the fall of 1996, Reena falsely reported that her father Manjit Virk had molested her in hopes of being transferred to a foster home for more freedom, complete blood count previously reported.
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The charges led to her father’s arrest, and Reena, who was a student at Colquitz Junior Secondary in Victoria, was eventually placed in the care of the Canadian Ministry of Children and Families.
After months in foster care, Reena told her parents she was tired of foster care and wanted to return home.
She was eventually reinstated into her parents’ custody after retracting her statements and dropping the charges against her father.
‘DANGERS OUTSIDE’
Manjit Virk previously said The Victoria Times-Colonist that her daughter’s biggest problem was “her associations and friends”.
“We told her there were dangers out there to try to keep her safe,” Virk added.
On November 14, 1997, two colleagues invited Reena to a riverside party under the Gorge Waterway Bridge in Saanich, a suburb of Victoria.
The trio joined a much larger group including Warren Glowatski and six other girls, Kelly Ellard, Nicole Cook, Nicole Patterson, Missy Grace Pleich, Courtney Keith and Gail Ooms, who were dubbed the Shoreline Six.
Soon after arriving, one of the girls confronted Reena about the rumors she was allegedly spreading.
Rumors detailed in the Hulu docuseries Under the Bridge, inspired by Rebecca Godfrey’s 2005 book of the same name, alleged that Reena spread false rumors that Nicole Cook had fake breasts.
Reena also claimed that Cook wore colored contact lenses and had AIDS.
The Globe and the Mail reported in 2005 that Reena was also rumored to be involved with one of the girls’ boyfriends.
When confronting Reena about the rumors, Cook claimed that Reena called her a “bitch.”
The act led Cook and a group of girls, including Warren Glowatski, to beat Reena, pulling her under the bridge and tearing up her bus pass in the process.
Cook stubbed out a cigarette on Reena’s forehead as the bloodied victim tried to escape.
As Reena walked away from the scene, Kelly Ellard, 15, and Glowatski, 16, followed her and continued the attack.
At the water’s edge, Kelly held Reena’s head underwater and began to drown her.
Reena’s beaten body was found in the gorge on November 22, 1997, eight days after she disappeared.
All six girls and Glowatski were eventually arrested and charged with involvement in Reena’s murder.
SHORELINE SIX CONVICTED
Three of the six girls agreed to plead guilty to assault causing bodily harm.
Two others went to trial and were convicted of the same crime.
They each received sentences ranging from 60-day jail terms to a year of juvenile detention.
In 2011, Nicole Cook said Date line that although she was the leader of the attack, she did not cause Reena’s death.
“I am not responsible for her death in any way,” she said at the time.
GLWATSKI AND ELLARD GO ON TRIAL
Warren Glowatski went on trial in May 1999 and tearfully testified that he beat Reena before her death, but denied killing her.
Glowatski was eventually convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years.
Kelly Ellard’s trial began in Vancouver in March 2000 and she is being tried as an adult.
During the trial, witnesses testified how Ellard told them he put his foot on Reena’s head and smoked a cigarette while she lay in the water under the bridge.
Ellard was convicted later that month, but a year after her arrest, a British Columbia Court of Appeal overturned her conviction in November 2001.
In February 2003, the BC Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for Ellard, who was then 21 years old.
His second trial ended in a deadlock in June 2004, leading the judge to declare a mistrial.
After a third trial, Ellard was convicted again in April 2005 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for seven years.
In June 2010, Glowatski was granted parole after the National Parole Board deemed him not a risk to the public.
In the years following his conviction, Glowatski expressed remorse and participated in restorative justice programs, including one in which he apologized to Reena’s parents.
“We were hoping someone had learned something from all this,” Reena’s mother Suman Virk said of Glowatsku at the time, as the pari hugged each other.
“So far, it appears that Warren has done this. Of all the defendants in this entire case, he is the only one who did this.”
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‘I’M NOT READY’
Years after his conviction, Ellard was denied parole during a May 2016 hearing.
That same year, Ellard became pregnant during a conjugal visit with her boyfriend.
Then, in November 2017, he was granted day parole, a form of parole in which offenders can participate in public activities during the day before returning to prison or a halfway house at night.
I just wanted to get rid of her.
Before the parole decision, Ellard expressed remorse and said Reena did not deserve what happened to her.
“It wasn’t about her. She should have been home with her family who loved her, and not come out with us that night, and I’m sorry,” Ellard told the parole panel at the time, according to the Vancouver Sun.
However, she continued to deny that she kept Reena’s head under water.
“I am satisfied that this did not happen,” Ellard told the parole panel.
“Someone who’s been beaten so badly, you wouldn’t need to keep them underwater.”
When asked to explain why he pushed Reena’s body into the water, Ellard said he was afraid Reena would call the police.
“I had never seen anything like this,” Ellard said tearfully.
“Either she was dead or she was dying. I just wanted to get rid of her.”
When asked who was responsible for Reena’s death, Ellard replied: “I am.”
In 2018, TVC News reported that Ellard changed her name to Kerry Marie Sim.
She welcomed a second child while on parole in 2020, according to CBC News.
In May 2022, Ellard, then 39, rejected the chance at full parole, telling the Parole Board of Canada that she was “situationally…not ready.”
At a March 28, 2024 parole board hearing regarding her day release privileges, Ellard called the Hulu series “offensive and horrendous” to Reena and her family.
Under the Bridge is available to stream on Hulu.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
