The True Story Behind “Under the Bridge”: What Happened to Reena Virk?

Reena Virk was 14 when she disappeared in 1997

The Hulu limited series Under the Bridge, starring Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone and Riley Keough, examines what happened to Reena Virk.

The true story behind the drama sent shockwaves throughout Canada and inspired the 2005 book by Rebecca Godfrey, which the show is based on. Reena was 14 years old when a group of her peers, nicknamed the "Shoreline Six," invited her to a party under a bridge in Saanich, a suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, in November 1997.

During the get-together, the group beat her severely — and after she tried escaping, two of them followed and killed her. Over the next week, details of that Friday night began to emerge, and the information stunned authorities as they tried to understand what had taken place.

"Every time new information came to light, it opened your eyes a little wider and it was shocking," retired Victoria Police Sgt. Rob Dibden told the Vancouver Sun. "Even as police officers, I think most of us were taken aback by the savagery of it and the absolute senselessness of it."

In April 2024, Keough and Gladstone told PEOPLE why it was so important for them to work on this project. For Gladstone, it was the opportunity to examine why people "sensationalize crimes like this and continue to dehumanize the victim."

Keough said that having teenage sisters close in age to Reena when the incident happened meant that the story "hits close to home."

"The sort of things they go through, it's not dissimilar," she said. "It's obviously not this horrific, but the interactions, the bullying, all of that is very much still alive and well, and I think that it certainly hits home for me with regards to them."

Read about the true story behind Under the Bridge and what happened to Reena Virk — and her killers — in real life.

Who was Reena Virk?

Reena Virk was 14 years old when she went missing from Saanich on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

She had a troubled relationship with her parents and lived in a foster home at the time, according to Real Crime. Reena's father, Manjit Virk, emigrated to Canada from India. The family were Jehovah's Witnesses, the way Reena's mother, Suman, was raised, making them a minority in their neighborhood, which consisted of mostly Sikh Indian Canadians.

In an article written for Vice in 2017, Godfrey details that Reena, a fan of East Coast hip-hop and blue nail polish, rebelled against her parents frequently. She'd run away from home more than once and reportedly falsely accused Manjit of sexual abuse so she could stay at a group home, per CBC News. Reena later recanted the statement, and the teenager kept in touch with them.

Why was Reena Virk bullied?

Scott Green, a constable of the Saanich Police, said on Real Crime that Reena tried hard to fit in and was sometimes accused of lying about her parents and her life to peers.

According to the Associated Press (via The New York Times), at least one person accused Reena of spreading rumors about one of the girls who bullied her.

Those rumors were detailed further in Under the Bridge, which alleged that Reena stole a phonebook from Nicole Cook and called her friends, telling them that Cook had fake breasts, wore colored contact lenses and had AIDS. In MSNBC News' special, Bloodlust Under the Bridge, Cook said she believed Reena was jealous of her.

The Globe and Mail reported that Reena was also rumored to be involved with one of the girls' boyfriends. In Under the Bridge, Reena was described as being in a relationship with the boy in question and wearing his black-and-white Adidas jacket.

What happened to Reena Virk?

On Nov. 14, 1997, Reena was invited to a party under the Gorge Waterway bridge, per the Associated Press. Cook and a group of six other teens — since nicknamed the "Shoreline Six" — were also at the event. One of them was Missy Pleich, whom Reena and Cook met while in foster care, according to Bloodlust Under the Bridge.

Once there, Cook confronted Reena, asking why she was spreading rumors about her. Cook claimed in Bloodlust Under the Bridge that Reena called her "a bitch," prompting Cook to put a cigarette out on Reena's forehead. Cook and Pleich said that Cook's best friend, Kelly Ellard, and Pleich both began hitting and kicking Reena and then the rest of the group, including Warren Glowatski, joined in.

Ellard, then 15, and Glowatski, then 16, followed Reena when she staggered away from the group and kept attacking her. The Globe and Mail reported that Glowatski testified that Ellard held Reena underwater until Reena drowned. A coroner's report obtained by Vice indicated that Reena sustained multiple blows throughout her body and suffered a "convulsion injury as often seen in car crash victims."

Investigators said on Real Crime that because of Reena's history of running away from home, it wasn't necessarily unusual for her to not arrive back at her foster home in time for her curfew on Friday night. But by Monday, rumors began circulating at her school, and police started investigating the case more seriously.

Police found Reena's body on Nov. 22, 1997, eight days after she was killed. Initially, Cook refused to answer police questions about Ellard's involvement in the killing, while Ellard claimed Cook was the likely culprit and said she was being used as a scapegoat.

According to Godfrey's piece for Vice, police found Reena's jacket in Ellard's closet with saltwater stains on it consistent with water from the Gorge where Reena's body was found, but Ellard claimed it was her own.

Several other teens told police that Ellard and Glowatski were the ones who ultimately killed Reena, and eventually, Glowatski confessed to the slaying.

What happened to Reena Virk's killers?

Glowatski was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison with a chance at parole after seven years served, CBC News reported.

He openly expressed remorse and participated in restorative justice programs, including one in which he apologized in person to Reena's parents. Suman told reporters at the time, "We would have hoped that somebody would have learned something from this whole thing, and so far, it looks like Warren has done that. Out of all the accused in this whole process, he's the only one that's done that."

Glowatski was granted day parole in 2007 and full parole in 2010, The Globe and Mail reports.

Ellard, like Glowatski, was charged with second-degree murder. In 2000, she was convicted in adult criminal court, CBC News reported, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. A second trial ended in a mistrial, followed by a third trial in which Ellard was convicted again. Her subsequent appeal attempts were overturned, and she began serving her prison sentence in 2005.

Fast forward, Ellard was denied day parole at a May 2016 hearing, which The Globe and Mail reported that was the first time she acknowledged responsibility for Reena's death. In October 2016, Vancouver Sun reported that Ellard conceived a child with another convicted criminal while she was in prison.

In November 2017, Ellard was granted day parole and in the years following, she reportedly changed her name to Kerry Sim. She rejected a chance at full parole in May 2022, telling the Parole Board of Canada that she was "situationally ... not ready" for freedom, according to Victoria News.

The remaining members of the "Shoreline Six" — Cook, Pleisch, Gail Ooms, Courtney Keith and Nicole Patterson — all pleaded guilty to assault but denied involvement with or responsibility for her killing. They reportedly left the bridge after the initial attack.

What happened to Reena Virk's parents?

After Reena's death, her parents worked in anti-bullying initiatives throughout Canada.

In 2008, Manjit wrote a book about their experience titled Reena: A Father's Story, in which he criticized the legal system for removing Reena from the family home amid her false sexual abuse allegations, as well as the trials following her death.

"I think people have to also see that any normal family, no matter how they try hard to keep their family intact, they can be derailed by this system," he told CBC News. "I think that's what has happened here and I hope others can find something about the book that they can use in their lives."

In June 2018, Suman died at the age of 58 after choking while eating at a cafe, according to the Vancouver Sun. Before her death, she told the Victoria Times Colonist in 2009 that she had processed Reena's murder by connecting with Glowatski.

"You don’t really want to sit down and talk to the person who has taken your child’s life," she said. "Seeing what he had to say for himself, it doesn’t make things right or take away the pain, but you can let go of the questions you have and put it behind you. It gave us a voice to say whatever we needed to."

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