The Tragic Story of Reena Virk: A Life Cut Short by Cruelty and Betrayal

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Reena Virk, born in Saanich, British Columbia, grew up in the suburb of View Royal, which was known for its predominantly white and upper-class community. Born into a Jehovah's Witness family, Reena's background set her apart in a community where Sikhism and Hinduism were the predominant religions. This led her to face challenges in terms of both popularity and racial discrimination. During late elementary school, Reena's parents noticed a significant change in her behavior. She transformed from a sweet and well-behaved child into a rebellious and angry preteen, often picking fights at home. Suspecting early signs of depression, her parents discovered that Reena was being viciously bullied at school. In an effort to help their daughter, the family decided to move in May 1994. 

Reena transferred to Burnside Elementary School, where she briefly flourished. She started to break out of her shell, make friends, and gain confidence. However, this positive phase was short-lived, as one friend suddenly shunned Reena, and the bullying resumed at her new school. A significant milestone for Reena occurred when she graduated from elementary school and entered middle school in May 1996. By August of that year, she became a student at Colquitz Middle School. Despite starting at a new school, Reena's insecurities persisted, leading her to do whatever it took to boost her social status. She formed a small group of friends with the "cool kids," engaging in activities such as staying out past curfew, drinking, and smoking. Reena's rebellious behavior extended to her home life, causing tension with her family. Her actions were an attempt to distance herself from the religious and more traditional values of her family, which they strongly disapproved of. Reena's father believed that her behavior was influenced by the company she kept, as he believed that "bad associations spoil useful habits," based on scripture. The situation becomes somewhat unclear depending on who is asked. However, it is evident that Reena's parents' strict household restrictions were stifling her sense of individuality. Frustrated by this, Reena decided that she needed to take matters into her own hands.

She wanted to be perceived as "cool" and was advised by a friend to lie as a way to escape her parents' control. When Reena was 13, she told the police that she was being physically abused by her parents in order to get into foster care. However, due to lack of evidence, no charges were pursued and she was sent to live with her grandparents for a few months. Reena's experience with her grandparents did not turn out as she had expected, and she felt uncomfortable for unknown reasons.

During this time, she also claimed that her father had sexually abused her, leading to his arrest. However, Reena later admitted to lying about the abuse allegations, and her father's charges were cleared. Despite this, emotionally, her father was deeply affected.  Eventually, she entered the foster care system, but it did not live up to her hopes. She realized that it was similar to her own home, with rules and boundaries, but lacked love and comfort. 

She became involved with a group of individuals who aspired to be gangsters and escalated her rebellious behavior by smoking regularly, discussing gangs, and even claiming to be a part of one. After losing interest in the glamour of the foster care system, Reena decided to apologize to her parents and return home. However, this reconciliation did not last long. She once again expressed her desire to leave her parents' house and sought refuge in a youth shelter, eventually ending up in the government's care. The relationship between Reena and her family was reaching a breaking point, as she continued to lash out at those she deemed "uncool" and desperately sought acceptance from her peers. When an invitation to party with the "cool kids" came her way, she eagerly accepted it.

On November 14th, 1997, Reena, who was in foster care, received a call from a friend inviting her to a party behind a local school. Initially hesitant due to recent animosity within the group, Reena eventually decided to go, hoping it would help mend their friendship. The party was interrupted by the police, prompting the group to relocate to Craigflower Bridge in Victoria, British Columbia, a popular hangout spot.

As Reena had a curfew and was still a ward of the state, she called her parents at 10:40 PM to inform them that she was on her way home. Little did they know that this would be the last time they would hear their daughter's voice. Under the bridge, everything seemed to be going as planned, with the teenagers engaging in drinking, smoking weed, and hanging out. However, a group of girls, known as the Shoreline Six, decided to attack Reena unexpectedly.

Different accounts describe the attack, with one suggesting that Reena got up to leave after being startled by a girl named Chloe, while another mentions an argument leading to the assault. Regardless, Reena was brutally attacked by six girls, including Nicole Cook, Nicole Patterson, Missy Grace Pleich, Courtney Keith, Gail Ooms, and Kelly Marie Ellard, along with one boy, Warren Glowatski, who had no prior connection to Reena or Kelly.

Warren and Kelly were the main perpetrators in the case, continuing their involvement even after the initial assault, but who were they and what did their past look like?

Warren Paul Glowatski, born on April 26, 1981, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, faced numerous challenges while growing up. His parents frequently relocated, making it difficult for him to establish a sense of stability in any particular place.

After his parents divorced, Warren lost contact with his alcoholic mother. He and his father moved to Nanaimo, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island in 1996. The following year, they settled in a trailer home in Saanich, near the southern tip of the island.

Kelly Ellard

Within a year, Warren's father remarried a woman he met in Las Vegas, Nevada, and relocated to California. Tired of constantly moving, Warren persuaded his father to leave him in the trailer in Saanich. He received financial support from his father while pursuing his fascination with gangs, particularly the Crips. Warren even formed his own gang called the Crip Mafia Cartel, where he designated his followers to wear blue while he wore all white.

Kelly Marie Ellard, born on August 9, 1982, has limited information available. According to the book "Under the Bridge" by Rebecca Godfrey, she was depicted as a sociopathic and violent preteen who experienced a lack of a father figure in her life. While some portrayed her as an ordinary girl who had a fondness for animals and displayed kindness towards children, there were stark contradictions to this image. For instance, she was known to have set another girl's hair on fire and was once caught holding a knife to a classmate's throat.

It is important to note that none of these details justify the actions committed by these reprehensible teenagers.

At this stage, tensions had reached a boiling point, and the assault that followed was truly horrifying. The combination of intense anger, adolescent hormones, and a group of merciless individuals resulted in a brutal attack on Reena. One girl went so far as to extinguish her cigarette on Reena's forehead, a particularly cruel act considering her South Asian heritage. It is speculated that this act was intended to target Reena's cultural background. The group relentlessly beat Reena until one girl unexpectedly called for a halt to the violence. Seizing the opportunity, Reena gathered herself, abandoned her belongings, and escaped as quickly as her battered body would allow.

After the gang rummaged through Reena's belongings and took what they wanted, they discarded everything, including her diary, and went their separate ways, except for Warren and Kelly. According to numerous witness testimonies, Kelly separated from the group and convinced Warren to accompany her. They pursued Reena, who was already barely conscious at that point. They claimed that their intention was to ensure that Reena wouldn't report them, but the nature of the attack revealed a more sinister motive.

Warren and Kelly forcefully seized Reena and dragged her to the opposite side of the bridge, where they unleashed a renewed wave of aggression upon her. They mercilessly beat her, causing her to stumble and fall, and then continued their assault by repeatedly stomping and kicking her 14-year-old body. The autopsy later revealed the extreme violence of the attack, resulting in deep bruising that damaged Reena's internal organs to such an extent that the medical examiner likened it to being struck by a car. According to a witness, Kelly even boasted about forcefully smashing Reena's head into a nearby tree during the attack and pointed out the location of the tree.

The subsequent events are subject to conflicting accounts. According to Kelly's version, once Reena lost consciousness, she instructed Warren to grab one of Reena's feet while she took the other, and together they dragged her to The Gorge Waterway, a narrow tidal inlet that connects Victoria Harbour to Portage Inlet. This inlet lies between the Craigflower Bridge and the Selkirk trestle and eventually flows into the ocean.

Warren testified that upon reaching the shoreline, he noticed that Reena's jeans had been pulled down during the dragging. They proceeded to remove her jeans, underwear, jacket, and shoes, leaving her with only her T-shirt. The exact timing of when Reena was undressed remains unclear, as details have been withheld to spare the family unnecessary anguish. However, it is important to note that, for unknown reasons, they decided to further degrade and humiliate Reena by leaving her partially naked. This led to speculation of sexual assault, although DNA analysis never confirmed it.

At this point, Kelly, acting alone, pulled Reena's body into the water, forcefully holding her head down and waiting for several minutes until she was certain that Reena had died. Red foam was observed floating around Reena's face, indicating the tragic end of her life.

After releasing Reena's lifeless body to float down the inlet, Warren and Kelly distanced themselves from the scene, severing any connection to their heinous actions. Warren, who still lived alone in his trailer, returned home to find his girlfriend and another friend already present. They noticed what appeared to be bloodstains on Warren's jeans, prompting him to hastily bleach and wash them.

Kelly, living with her middle-class family at the time, remained composed and seemingly unaffected by the events. She returned home, took a shower, and went to bed as if nothing had occurred.

We previously discussed how Reena was expected to be at her parents' home for the night, but she failed to return by curfew, causing her mother to panic and involve the police the following morning. Unfortunately, due to Reena's history of running away and lying to authorities, her disappearance was not taken seriously. In an interview, it was mentioned that it was not uncommon for a foster child to go missing over the weekend and show up on Monday for school, leading the authorities to wait and see. Even when Reena didn't come home by Monday, they still lacked the motivation to initiate a search. It took a whole week before they began focusing on potential suspects, despite the swirling rumors among students and teachers. The reasons behind the teachers' decision not to report are as unclear to me as they are to you. One possibility is that they believed reporting would lend credibility to the rumors, but regardless, they chose to remain silent and engage in gossip instead. Despite the agreement to keep things quiet, impulsive and foolish teenagers couldn't resist spreading rumors starting on Monday. Some of the girls involved in the initial assault bragged about breaking Reena's nose and laughed about beating her up. The authorities swiftly intervened at the school, encountering conflicting stories. Some students claimed to have seen Reena walking around town throughout the week, suggesting she was simply missing and not dead, while others firmly believed the rumors were true.

It didn't take long for an unnamed individual to break and point to Kelly and Warren as the true killers, confessing to her involvement in the initial attack, so  on November 21st, 1997, Warren and Kelly were arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault. The remaining Shoreline Six girls faced charges of aggravated assault and were taken to the police station, where officers were horrified to witness their nonchalant and laughing demeanor in the lobby while awaiting interrogation.

The same unnamed student also provided information about the location of the assault, leading the search to focus on the bridge and the surrounding waterways. At this point, the police presumed they were searching for a body rather than a live girl, prompting the dive team to comb through the murky water. 

On the first day, their hopes were briefly raised when Reena's underwear was discovered stuck in the mud. The items were collected and sent for analysis. Another breakthrough occurred when her jeans were recovered, bolstering their optimism of finding her body that day. Unfortunately, luck eluded them, and the divers were unable to locate her remains.

Undeterred, the following day, they intensified their efforts and enlisted a police helicopter team. Some sources suggest they were the ones to spot her, while others insist it was the ground team. Regardless, on November 22nd, her body was found entangled in weeds. Surprisingly, it had floated upstream instead of downstream as anticipated.

An autopsy was conducted, revealing the extent of her injuries. While the cause of death was determined to be drowning, the coroner noted that even if she hadn't drowned, her brain injuries were severe enough that survival would have been unlikely.

In February 1998, three girls from the Shoreline Six group confessed to their involvement in the assault, leading to charges of bodily harm. The remaining three girls faced trial and were found guilty of the same offense. They received varying sentences, ranging from a 60-day conditional sentence to one year in jail.

In April 1999, Warren Glowatski's trial began, and by June, he was convicted of second-degree murder, resulting in a life sentence. Since Glowatski was a minor at the time of the murder, he became eligible for parole after serving seven years in prison.

During his incarceration, Glowatski discovered his Métis heritage, which belongs to a First Nations group in Canada. This newfound understanding allowed him to involve tribal elders from his community in his parole proceedings, as part of the restorative justice process. He also engaged in meetings with Reena's family to seek reconciliation.

In July 2006, Glowatski was granted unescorted temporary absences from prison, and eventually, in June 2010, he was released on full parole. Reena's family did not oppose his parole application, believing in his genuine remorse for his actions.

However, Kelly Ellard's trial and conviction faced significant challenges.

At the age of fifteen, Kerry Ellard, now known as Kerry Marie Sim, was implicated in Reena's murder. Her lawyer attempted to have her case tried in youth court, but the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the request due to the severity of the crime and perceived lack of remorse. Initially convicted of second-degree murder in March 2000, her conviction was overturned in February 2003 due to an unfair trial. After serving 18 months of her life sentence, Ellard was released on bail pending her appeal.

However, just a month later, she was charged with assault causing bodily harm for attacking a fifty-eight-year-old woman in a Vancouver park. Her bail was revoked, and she returned to prison by March 2004.

In June 2004, Ellard faced a new trial. Witnesses came forward, alleging that she had bragged about Reena's murder. Her co-accused, Glowatski, claimed to have witnessed Ellard drown Reena, while Ellard's lawyer accused Glowatski of lying during his statements to the police and at trial.

During her trial, Ellard admitted to punching Reena out of fear for her friends' safety but denied committing the murder. She shifted blame onto Glowatski and two other girls, showing no remorse for her actions or providing a clear motive for the attack.

After five days of deliberation, the jury failed to reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial declared in July 2004. A new trial for Ellard commenced in February 2005, with Glowatski serving as a key witness. Glowatski once again testified that he and Ellard beat Reena and left her lifeless in the water. On April 12th, 2005, Ellard was convicted of second-degree murder for the second time, receiving a life sentence with no parole eligibility for seven years.

The legal battles continued, with Ellard's second-degree murder conviction being overturned by the BC Court of Appeal in September 2008 due to incorrect instructions given by the judge during her third trial. However, in June 2009, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld her conviction, finally concluding the protracted legal proceedings.

Kelly was granted day parole in 2017 and later received overnight leaves and extended day parole in 2019. On July 14th, 2021, the Parole Board of Canada approved her continued day parole, attracting renewed media attention due to her life sentence but significant time spent on day parole.

Under her new name and while on parole, Kelly has adhered to the conditions of her release, including abstaining from drugs and alcohol and avoiding contact with the Virk family.

The motive behind the murder of Reena Virk by this group of teenagers remains a question. Revenge was believed to be a possible motive, with allegations of Reena stealing a phone book and spreading rumors, as well as anger over her alleged involvement with another girl's boyfriend.

In 2000, Reena's parents filed a lawsuit against the involved teenagers, the British Columbia government, and other parties. Reena's father expressed his belief that holding them accountable was a way to make them responsible for their actions, as he felt that society often failed to do so.

The tragic murder of Reena Virk serves as a distressing reminder for both law enforcement officials who have sworn to uphold justice and protect the community, as well as for teenagers who can cause devastating consequences due to their still-developing minds. It is crucial for parents to regularly check on their children, especially foster parents who may be caring for troubled youth. It is important to remember that despite their challenging behaviors, these young individuals are still in need of support, arguably more so than those fortunate enough to grow up in stable households. In our society, we must embrace the notion that it takes a collective effort to safeguard one another. We should always be vigilant, report anything suspicious, and prioritize safety to the best of our abilities.