Under the Bridge

In November 1997, in the small suburb of View Royal near Victoria, British Columbia, 14-year-old Reena Virk was beaten by a group of teenagers and then drowned in a saltwater inlet called the Gorge. Author Rebecca Godfrey reconstructs the events leading to Reena's death, the investigation that followed, and the trials that consumed the community.

The book opens with the elite Dive Unit searching the dark waters of the Gorge for a girl who had been missing for over a week. Sergeant Bob Wall discovered underwear and jeans in the eelgrass but not the body. A Coast Guard helicopter later spotted the girl floating in reeds, her black hair spread across the water.

Part One introduces the youth of View Royal. Colin Jones, a 16-year-old, was frequently visited by three younger girls: Nevada, a redhead; Josephine Bell, who idolized the mafia; and Kelly Ellard, teased at school with the nickname "Grubnut." Colin considered Josephine "a twisted little troublemaker." Kelly told Josephine she would take blame for any crime on Josephine's behalf, and Josephine thought of Kelly as "like my sister."

Warren Glowatski spent his childhood in western Canada with a mother who had an alcohol addiction and an emotionally distant father. He stayed in View Royal because of his girlfriend, Syreeta Hartley, one of "The Five," the most popular girls at Shoreline Junior Secondary school. Warren joined a local gang called the CMC (Crip Mafia Cartel), whose members modeled themselves on the Los Angeles Crips street gang. Girls called him "Little Romeo" for his innocent looks. He moved in with the mother of a friend but was told to leave, and Syreeta's mother refused to take him in.

Reena's father, Manjit Virk, held a master's degree from Punjab University in India but worked as a lumberjack after immigrating because his credentials were not recognized. Reena grew up as a Jehovah's Witness in View Royal, where she was teased for being dark-skinned and heavy. She rebelled, entered a group home called Kiwanis, and met Josephine and Dusty Noble, a volatile 15-year-old. Her uncle Raj warned her she would end up "dead or in jail," but she was fixated on impressing Josephine.

Reena stole Josephine's address book and called Josephine's friends, spreading rumors that Josephine had AIDS. Josephine was enraged. Her mother, Elaine Bell, overheard Josephine and Kelly discussing plans to kill Reena but dismissed it as a "what-if scenario." Dusty, sent to Alberta after violent incidents, learned that Reena had been wearing the jacket of Dusty's boyfriend, Jack Batley. She returned to View Royal on November 14, the night of the murder.

That evening, Josephine called Reena and invited her to a party. Reena was hesitant but agreed, leaving home with pajamas, perfume, and a new diary. At 9:12 P.M., a Russian rocket reentered the atmosphere and exploded, drawing dozens of emergency calls. After police dispersed a gathering at Shoreline School, about 14 girls and 2 boys, including Warren, moved under the Craigflower Bridge.

Under the bridge, Josephine screamed at Reena and burned a lit cigarette into her forehead. When Reena swung back, Kelly punched her. A semicircle of girls surrounded Reena, kicking and punching. Warren kicked Reena in the head before his friend Dimitri pulled him away. Laila, a kickboxing champion who had been among the group at Shoreline field, stopped the beating by threatening anyone who continued. Reena walked away, staggering and dazed.

But Reena did not make it home. Kelly and Warren followed her across the bridge. Kelly ordered Reena to remove her shoes and jacket. They beat her until she was unconscious and choking on blood, then dragged her toward the water. Kelly held Reena's head beneath the surface until, as Warren later told police, "red stuff floated to the top."

Part Two follows the week after the murder. Reena's mother, Suman, filed a missing persons report, but police treated it as a routine runaway case. Kelly told a boy at a bus stop that she held a girl's head under water; he dismissed the story. Days later, Warren confessed to Syreeta, pointing to a stereo playing "187," slang for murder, and saying, "Exactly that." Syreeta did not fully believe him but promised silence.

The investigation began because of two sisters. Josephine bragged about the murder to her roommate at Seven Oaks group home, Nadja Barusha. Nadja called Reena's mother and heard the grief in Suman's voice. Nadja's 13-year-old sister Anya insisted they report what they knew to police. Once officers connected their account to Suman's missing persons report, the case was reclassified as a possible homicide.

On November 21, eight teenagers were arrested. Kelly denied everything. Josephine demanded "John Gotti's lawyer" and refused to talk. Detectives John Bond and Bruce Brown interrogated Warren for hours, suggesting he would be seen as a rapist because Reena's underwear was missing. Warren confessed, assigning responsibility as 30 percent his and 70 percent Kelly's.

The next morning, Reena's body was spotted from a Coast Guard helicopter. Dr. Laurel Gray's autopsy revealed massive internal injuries, a sneaker print on the back of Reena's brain, and a cigarette burn above her eyebrow. Eighteen small pebbles in her lungs evidenced her last breath taken underwater. The cause of death was drowning; Reena was alive when she entered the water.

The case generated enormous media attention, and the arrested girls were dubbed "The Shoreline Six." In the youth custody center, a girl overheard Kelly saying, "Maybe I was the one who held her head under water, but I didn't mean to kill her," and reported the remark to police. Sergeant Gosling of the Dive Unit, returning to search the Gorge, found Reena's diary, its pages still legible.

Part Four covers the trials. Josephine, Dusty, and Laila pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm; three other girls were convicted after trial. Warren was tried as an adult for second-degree murder. Syreeta testified reluctantly, and the judge called her "a bold liar at trial, but not a sophisticated or clever one." Warren claimed Kelly led the fatal attack, but the judge found him guilty, concluding he "actively participated in the further beating" and "helped drag Virk, while she was unconscious, to the water." He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Kelly pleaded innocent at her first trial. The jury found her guilty, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. Before the second trial, Josephine, devastated after hearing Kelly blame her on tape, revealed that Kelly had called the morning after and said, "She's dead and I drowned her." Crown prosecutor Catherine Murray persuaded Warren to testify. At the second trial, Warren admitted that he and Kelly both kicked and stomped on Reena before dragging her to the water. Kelly denied involvement but was found guilty a second time.

Part Five follows the characters into adulthood. Dusty, now a mother of two, said, "I can't heal. I can't get over it. We were monsters." Syreeta exchanged letters with Warren after years of silence. Reena's father Manjit described a dream in which Reena came home and he asked, "Reena, where have you been?"

In 2005, Warren and the Virk family met in a restorative justice session. Manjit, who had once fantasized about strangling Warren, listened as Warren recounted Reena's last moments. Suman felt a burden lift but resisted calling it closure: "It's just not possible to say there's a happy ending. Warren took our child's life." In 2007, the Virks supported Warren's release at his parole hearing. In 2017, Kelly admitted to a role in Reena's death and was granted conditional day parole. Seven Oaks was closed after the murder and never reopened; View Royal invested in a casino rather than a youth center. Reena's diary, recovered from the Gorge, remains unread by the public.