One night in 1997, Reena Virk was invited to hang out with friends. Virk, an Indo-Canadian teenager, knew a girl named Nicole Cook would also be there, about whom Virk had been gossiping. So Virk —who was just 14 years old — thought twice before he said she would attend.
Nonetheless, Virk decided she would go. It was the last decision she ever made. At around 9 p.m. that night, a group of as many as 14 teenagers, a mix of boys and girls, including Virk, watched a Russian satellite explode in the sky near their school. But before long, the rumors Virk spread about Cook became an issue, and it must have been clear to Virk it was an ambush, so she fled. One teenager involved’s sister later said, “That was the motive: she was supposed to be spreading rumors. They were not a gang. They were a group of friends hanging out, and things happened.” The teens there that night were minors, and as per Canadian law, most have never been identified in the press.
After Virk ran, Cook and the other teens chased and cornered her under the Gorge Waterway Bridge, near where they lived. Cook confronted Virk about the lies she spread around school, putting a cigarette out on Virk’s forehead. A fight then broke out, and six teenagers, later known as the “Shoreline Six,” left Virk under that bridge, badly beaten and bleeding. A short time later, she was dead. According to Virk’s father, Manjeet Virk, Reena’s biggest problem was “her associations, her friends.”
Who killed Reena Virk?
Although Reena Virk was injured in the initial “Shoreline Six” fight, she walked away from the scene. Most of the teenagers left. But two teens, Kelly Ellard and Warren Glowatski, stayed behind. They followed Virk and attacked her again. The New York Times says that Virk’s arms, neck, and back were broken in the assault, and Ellard and Glowatski then held her underwater until she drowned.
At first, Virk was reported missing but Virk’s body was discovered eight days later, and the coroner said her injuries were so extensive, they were consistent with a car crash. In a crime that shocked Canada, Glowatski and Ellard — who later changed her name to Kerry Sim — were tried as adults, convicted of second-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years. The “Shoreline Six,” including Nicole Cook, were tried in juvenile court and served time in a juvenile detention center.
Today, Glowatski remains incarcerated, although he has been granted day parole and temporary leaves of absence from prison, according to the CBC. Sim, meanwhile, reportedly lives in a halfway house and is allowed day parole and overnight leave privileges.
The story of Reena Virk’s murder was told in Rebecca Godfrey‘s 2005 memoir Under The Bridge. Godfrey grew up in British Columbia, where Virk’s murder happened, and her book has now been adapted into a fictionalized Hulu series with the same name. Actress Vritika Gupta plays the character based on Virk in the show.