Ep. 3 - Reena Virk - Dark Waters

In November 1997, a shocking crime unfolded in Saanich, British Columbia, that would ripple across Canada and beyond. Reena Virk, a 14-year-old girl of Indo-Canadian descent, was lured to a gathering under the Craigflower Bridge by peers she hoped were her friends. What began as a typical teenage hangout turned into a nightmare of violence that ended with her brutal murder. Reena, born to an immigrant father from India and a mother from a Jehovah’s Witness family, had always struggled to fit in. Her weight, her South Asian heritage, and her family’s unconventional faith made her a target for relentless bullying at school and in her community.

That fateful night, Reena joined a group of teens behind Shoreline Community Middle School. After police dispersed the crowd, the group moved under the bridge. There, the situation escalated when Nicole Cook, a girl from Reena’s group home, accused her of spreading rumors and stubbed a cigarette out on her forehead. This sparked a vicious swarm attack by seven girls and one boy, all aged 14 to 16. They punched, kicked, and beat Reena as she lay defenseless, crying out apologies. Most of the group left her battered on the ground, but Reena managed to stagger away—only to be pursued by two of her attackers: 15-year-old Kelly Ellard and 16-year-old Warren Glowatski.

What happened next was chilling. Kelly and Warren caught up to Reena, beat her again, smashed her head against a tree until she lost consciousness, and dragged her into the Gorge Waterway. Kelly held Reena’s head underwater until she drowned. Eight days later, on November 22, birdwatchers found her body in Portage Inlet. The discovery sent shockwaves through Saanich and ignited a national conversation about youth violence, bullying, and racism. Reena’s parents, Manjit and Suman Virk, were devastated, initially thinking she’d run away—a pattern from her troubled past.

The investigation quickly unraveled the group’s involvement. Six girls faced youth court for assault, receiving sentences from conditional terms to a year in jail. But Kelly and Warren were tried as adults for murder due to the crime’s severity. Warren, a troubled teen abandoned by his alcoholic parents, confessed his role and was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999, sentenced to life with parole eligibility after seven years. Kelly’s path was more convoluted—three trials over a decade, marked by denials and mistrials, until the Supreme Court of Canada upheld her second-degree murder conviction in 2009. She, too, got life with a seven-year parole window.

The case exposed ugly truths: racial tensions, the ferocity of teen cliques, and the failure of bystanders to intervene. Reena’s parents turned their grief into action, campaigning against bullying and inspiring initiatives like Pink Shirt Day. Warren later sought redemption, meeting the Virks to apologize and earning full parole in 2010. Kelly, now Kerry Sim, remained defiant for years but was granted day parole in 2017, raising kids while under strict conditions—though breaches, like drug use and domestic issues, have repeatedly jeopardized her freedom.

This tragedy, immortalized in Rebecca Godfrey’s book *Under the Bridge* and a Hulu series, remains a haunting chapter in Canada’s story. It’s a tale of a girl who just wanted to belong, undone by cruelty, and a community forced to confront its shadows.