"Under the Bridge" is based on a tragic true story. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re discussing the true story of Reena Virk’s murder.
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00:00This story would haunt the island for years to come.
00:04It forever changed a fact that once seemed so immutable."
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo,
00:09and today we're discussing the true story of Rina Verk's murder.
00:12Young girls in Victoria were the ones we were supposed to protect.
00:20Not be protected from.
00:22The Troubled Life of Rina Verk
00:24Rina Verk was born on March 10th, 1983, in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada.
00:29The eldest of Suman and Manjeet Verk's three children.
00:32After converting from Hinduism,
00:34the Indo-Canadian family raised their kids as Jehovah's Witnesses,
00:38enforcing strict rules like not celebrating birthdays or certain holidays.
00:42What's wrong?
00:44I just kind of wanted something special.
00:50Rina, you remember what we learned at Kingdom Hall?
00:53According to family and peers,
00:55she was tormented at school over her weight, appearance, and religion.
00:59Among other things,
01:00Rina began to rebel and started hanging around with teens who were into gang culture.
01:05Oh, are you guys talking to B.I.G.?
01:09It's Biggie.
01:10In 1996, convinced that living in foster care
01:13would grant her freedom to do whatever she wanted,
01:15Verk alleged that she was mistreated by her father.
01:18She went to live in the Seven Oaks Youth Home
01:20where she met Nicole Cook and Missy Grace Plike, girls her age.
01:23Do you think she was trying to be like you and the other girls?
01:27A little tougher?
01:28I don't think she was trying to be like anybody.
01:30I think she was just trying to be.
01:33She's trying to fit in.
01:34Despite her shy and insecure demeanor,
01:37Rina Verk tried to be, quote,
01:38tough like her new friends.
01:40For unknown reasons, she spread rumors about Cook,
01:43criticizing her looks and making up lies.
01:46I left my phone book at her house and she called a bunch of people.
01:48What kind of things would she say?
01:50She said stupid stuff.
01:52Like, just stuff like my eyes were contacts or my boobs were fake,
01:55and I just couldn't really understand why she would do that.
01:57Plike also accused her of being intimate with her boyfriend.
02:01The girls, along with Cook's best friend, Kelly Marie Ellard,
02:04who was seemingly unacquainted with Verk,
02:06wanted to get her back, so they concocted a plan.
02:14The Night Under the Bridge
02:16On November 14th, 1997,
02:19Rina Verk planned to spend the night at her parents' home.
02:22By then, she had rescinded her accusations against her father
02:25and the charges were dropped.
02:26However, she later chose to go to a party Missy Plike invited her to.
02:30I thought I was invited.
02:32No, you're Tom, it's gonna be fun.
02:34Rina, it's dinner time.
02:36You should be sitting with us.
02:40Okay, I'm coming.
02:42It took place on the field of Shoreline School,
02:44though police quickly broke up the crowd there
02:47and the party was moved underneath the Craigflower Bridge.
02:50It's there that Nicole Cook said she confronted Verk
02:52about spreading false rumors and then burned her with a cigarette.
02:56Others at the party started attacking Verk
02:58until one aggressor called for everyone to stop
03:00and the crowd dispersed.
03:02No one called 911.
03:04No one seemed to care whether Rina Verk was hurt badly or needed help.
03:09This is how Nicole Cook rationalizes it now.
03:12She walked away.
03:13I mean, she caught up and left.
03:14Left with severe injuries,
03:16Verk got up and began to stumble home.
03:19While everyone else left,
03:20two people who had joined in on the initial attack,
03:23Kelly Ellard and Warren Paul Glowatzky,
03:25followed her and the violence continued.
03:27It was said that Ellard then held an unconscious Verk underwater
03:31while Glowatzky did nothing.
03:33Warren says that when they arrived near the water,
03:35he saw that Kelly wanted to drag Rina into the river.
03:40He asked her three times to stop,
03:44but Kelly didn't.
03:45Search and discovery.
03:46The day after the attack,
03:48Missy Plike, Nicole Cook, and Kelly Ellard returned to the scene.
03:52However, the details of their accounts differ.
03:55You sure you're okay?
04:00I told you I want to hear about it.
04:02According to Cook,
04:03Ellard didn't act like she had committed a murder
04:05because she, to Cook's knowledge, had not.
04:07Plike, on the other hand,
04:08said Ellard actually described what happened the night before
04:11and that Cook took home Verk's shoes,
04:13which had been left behind.
04:14She said, I killed her and Warren just sat there and watched
04:18and he didn't help me.
04:19Along with everyone else who knew what had occurred,
04:21they went on with their days as if nothing happened.
04:24Meanwhile, rumors of a fight and a possible murder
04:27spread around area schools,
04:29but none of the students or adults who heard about it
04:31brought the information to the police.
04:33Can you keep a secret?
04:35Something in the way, yeah.
04:39When their daughter didn't return home that Friday night
04:41or the next morning,
04:42Suman and Manjeet Verk filed a missing persons report.
04:45But Rina had a history of running away.
04:48Yes, but she always tells me where she's going.
04:51She doesn't just disappear.
04:53A week later, police arrested the eight attackers
04:56and through interrogations,
04:57found out where to start their search.
04:59On the morning of Saturday, November 22nd,
05:02eight days after Rina Verk's death,
05:04a helicopter spotted a body in the gorge inlet.
05:07Contrary to logic, the body had drifted upstream
05:10and became snagged in the tall weeds,
05:12hiding it from sight, except from the air.
05:15The community was shocked to see that
05:17seven of the attackers were girls.
05:19In addition to Plike, Cook and Ellard,
05:21three others, including Nicole Patterson,
05:23Courtney Keith and Gail Ohms, were charged with assault.
05:26It had a big impact on the city, in my opinion,
05:30because of the age of the people involved.
05:33Kelly Ellard and Warren Glowatzki are considered separate
05:36due to their actions after the first assault.
05:38But the remainder of the perpetrators,
05:40plus one more unnamed girl,
05:41are known as the Shoreline Six.
05:44It's been reported that none initially expressed any remorse.
05:48This is not a case where you had young people
05:50breaking down and crying and getting upset.
05:52And I can recall a number of the young females
05:58who were responsible for the assault,
06:00sitting in there and chatting and laughing.
06:02A long road of legal proceedings.
06:05Between February and May of 1998,
06:08six of the girls pleaded guilty to assault
06:10causing bodily harm and received sentences
06:12ranging from 60 days to a year in juvenile detention.
06:16In June of 1999,
06:17Warren Glowatzki was convicted of second degree murder
06:20and later sentenced to life
06:22without the possibility of parole for seven years.
06:25Despite the efforts of her lawyers,
06:27Kelly Ellard was tried as an adult.
06:29And in March, 2000,
06:30she received the same conviction and sentence as Glowatzki,
06:34though she would be allowed to apply for parole
06:36after five years.
06:37And she sort of broke down and said,
06:42you've got what you wanted.
06:43I'm going to be convicted.
06:45I'm going to be in jail for the rest of my life.
06:48Does that make you happy?
06:49However, it was overturned in 2003
06:52and a second trial began in June, 2004.
06:55A month later,
06:56the judge declared a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury.
06:59A third trial commenced in February, 2005.
07:02And on April 12th, Ellard was found guilty again.
07:05She was again sentenced to life in prison
07:07with the possibility of parole after seven years.
07:10While serving time,
07:11she had two children
07:12and was granted conditional parole
07:14varying in length over the years.
07:16In 2017, she changed her name to Carrie Marie Simm.
07:20Nothing that's happened surprises me
07:23because it seems like Kelly's getting everything she wants.
07:28Unlike Ellard,
07:29Warren Glowatzki made changes in prison,
07:31participating in volunteer programs
07:33and seeking forgiveness through restorative justice.
07:36Suman and Manjeet Virk,
07:38who became vocal anti-harassment advocates,
07:40forgave him after some efforts for reconciliation
07:43and approved of him being fully paroled in June, 2010.
07:47I would say I felt compassion for them as young people.
08:09In the media,
08:10due to the unprecedented nature of the crime,
08:13the tragic murder made national headlines.
08:16A number of scholarly texts,
08:17books and podcasts have covered the case.
08:20It's one of those tragedies that when I was researching it,
08:24it was the futility of what led to this
08:28that is really difficult to swallow.
08:31Creative works have also paid tribute to the story over the years,
08:34including plays and a 2015 collection of poems
08:38by Canadian writer Soraya Pirbhai.
08:40In 2008,
08:4110 years before the untimely death of his wife, Suman,
08:44Manjeet Virk released his own account
08:46of the devastation his family went through in Rina,
08:48a father story.
08:50Before that, and shortly after the crime occurred,
08:53New York-based author Rebecca Godfrey
08:55returned to her hometown of Victoria
08:56and began researching the case.
08:58I was just saying,
08:59no one is forcing you to write about Victoria.
09:02Yeah, well, I can't seem to think about anything else.
09:07Her book, Under the Bridge,
09:08The True Story of the Murder of Rina Virk,
09:10was released in 2005,
09:12and reissued in the midst of the true crime boom in 2019.
09:16An eight-part limited series based on the book
09:18went into development
09:19with writer-director Quinn Shepard at the helm
09:22and Godfrey as an executive producer.
09:24Sadly, Godfrey passed away from lung cancer in October 2022
09:28before production began.
09:30Under the Bridge premiered on April 17th, 2024 on Hulu,
09:34with Riley Keough starring as the late author.
09:37The highly anticipated series also stars Oscar nominee
09:40Lily Gladstone as police officer Cam Bentland.
09:43What's going on here exactly?
09:46With what?
09:46You don't step foot in Victoria in 10 years,
09:50and you just show up in the middle of my homicide investigation?
09:53Will you be watching Under the Bridge?
09:55Let us know in the comments below.
09:56You're not about to ride on me, are you?
10:02That's what I thought.
10:10You're not about to ride on me, are you?