The Tragic Story Behind Hulu's Under the Bridge

MsMojo

"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.

Transcript

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?

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