Table of Contents
- Reena Virk
- Warren Paul Glowatski
- Kelly Marie Ellard
- The Shoreline Six
- Reena March 10, 1983 – November 14, 1997
Reena Virk
Reena Virk was born in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada, on March 10th, 1983, Reena Virk was the oldest of three children. Her mother, Suman, was from an Indo-Canadian family, and her father, Manjit, was an Indian immigrant. The family was Jehovah’s Witnesses and Reena was said to feel restricted by the rules of the family’s faith.
Reena Virk hoped to find acceptance from her peers, but Reena was bullied for both her appearance and race. In May of 1994, the family moved, and Reena transferred to a new School. Her parents hoped this would end the bullying.
In 1996, when Reena Virk was thirteen she went to child welfare authorities and reported her father had sexually molested her. Reena’s parents said Reena was lured by making false accusations by her friends who convinced her being placed in Foster care would get her the freedom she desperately wanted. As a result, Reena was moved from her family’s home into the care of the state for several months in 1996.
The charges against Manjit Virk were eventually dropped when Reena admitted that she had lied about the abuse. A report for the British Columbia Coroners Service would later state that social workers failed Reena Virk by putting her in foster care without confirming whether her allegations of family abuse were true.
On the evening of Friday November 14th, 1997, Reena Virk was invited to “party” at a location used for gatherings of teenagers near the Craigflower Bridge, which is located west of the city of Victoria. Reena, who had already been having difficulty fitting in with her schoolmates, decided to accept the invitation.
While at the bridge, it was claimed that the teenagers present drank alcohol and smoked marijuana while Reena stood amongst them. Several of the girls present, swarmed Reena, Reena was first beaten by a group of seven girls and one boy between the ages of 14 and 16. She was accused of stealing one of the girl’s boyfriends and spreading rumours. According to journalistic accounts, the attack began when one of the girls attempted to stub out a cigarette on Reena’s forehead.
Reena attempted to flee the attack, but the teenagers continued to kick her in the head and body numerous times, the attackers attempted to set her hair on fire, and brutalized her to the point where she was severely injured and bruised.
During the beating, Reena reportedly cried out “I’m sorry”. Battered, Reena staggered across the bridge trying to flee her abusers, but was followed by two of them, Warren Glowatski and Kelly Ellard. The two then continued to beat her, smashing her head against a tree, and kicking her to the point where she became unconscious. They then allegedly dragged her body into the water and forcibly drowned her.
The next day, Reena Virk’s parents called the Saanich police, who refused to classify her as a missing person and instead considered her a runaway due to her past behaviour.
Despite an alleged pact amongst the teenagers involved to not “rat each other out“, by the following Monday rumours of the alleged murder spread throughout Shoreline Middle School. Reena Virk was a student at nearby Colquitz Middle School. The rumours were confirmed eight days later, on November 22, 1997, when a police helicopter found Reena’s partially clothed body, washed ashore at the Gorge Inlet, a major waterway on Vancouver Island.
On November 24, ten days after Reena Virk went missing, the pathologist Dr. Laurel Gray, conducted an autopsy. She noted the extensive damage to young Reena’s body. “Multiple blows sustained in the abdominal area. A crush convulsion injury, as often seen in car crash victims. Extensive bruising under the skin of her face. A bruise in the shape of a sneaker print is on the back of the brain.” In Reena’s lungs, she found 18 pebbles. The presence of so many small stones led to her conclusion that Reena had been alive when she was in the water. Death by drowning, she concluded.
“A crush convulsion injury, as often seen in car crash victims. Extensive bruising under the skin of her face. A bruise in the shape of a sneaker print is on the back of the brain.”
Dr. Laurel Gray Pathologist
In a packed news conference, Crown prosecutor Don Morrison revealed the facts that would elevate Reena Virk’s case into a national tragedy and would shock a community. Eight teenagers had been arrested. Six girls were charged with aggravated assault for the first attack under the bridge. Two other teenagers had followed Reena over the bridge, beat her again, then dragged her body into the Gorge where she was forcibly drowned.
Because of the severity of the crime, the two teenagers would be charged as adults, which meant Morrison could release their names. Whereas the names of the six girls involved in the first beating, known collectively as “the Shoreline Six,” could not be released. The names of the two teenagers charged as adults were, Kelly Ellard and Warren Glowatski.
Warren Paul Glowatski
Warren Glowatski was born April 26, 1981 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, he was 16-years-old when he and Ellard murdered Reena Virk. He was convicted of Reena’s murder and sentenced to life in prison on 18 June 1999. Glowatski’s parents were never married, but stayed together in order to raise him. His mother, however, was an alcoholic which caused Warren’s father to leave in 1996. When they were together Warren and his parents moved around frequently.
In 1996, when his parents separated, Glowatski and his father moved to Nanaimo, British Columbia on Vancouver Island. In 1997, they settled in a trailer home near the southern tip of the Island in Saanich. The following year Glowatski’s father married a woman he met in Las Vegas, Nevada. Glowatski decided to remain in Saanich, living alone in the trailer and supported by money sent by his father.
Although Glowatski had never met Reena Virk before, he kicked and attacked her. In a statement to police Glowatski’s girlfriend Syreeta Hartley told police, he’d confessed that he’d followed Reena, with Ellard, and “something happened… Ellard did something to her.”
“something happened… Ellard did something to her.”
Warren Paul Glowatski to Syreeta Hartley
The police arrested Glowatski and interrogated him. In interviews Glowatski claimed that he’d stood by helplessly while Ellard dragged and drowned Reena. Neither the police or the presiding Judge believed his version of events. In the spring of 1999, Judge Malcolm MacAulay declared Glowatski’s testimony “incomplete and improbable,”.
Glowatski was convicted of second-degree murder and given a life sentence in Matsqui Institution a federal medium-security prison. Because he was 16 at the time of the murder, he would be eligible for parole after serving seven years. In November 2004, he was denied his first chance at day parole.
Glowatski’s testimony “incomplete and improbable,”
Judge Malcolm MacAulay
Whilst in prison Glowatski took rehabilitation courses, and acted as a mentor to young people at risk of getting involved in crime. In June 2007, 10 years after Warren Glowatski murdered Reena Virk, Glowatski told a three-member parole board that he was a different person in 1997.
Speaking through tears, Glowatski told the parole board that meeting Reena’s parents had moved him more than anything else. He met with Suman and Manjit Virk several times in prison. “The topic of marriage came up and I realized just what I had taken away from Suman and Manjit,” he said. The parole board made its decision in just 25 minutes, Suman hugged Glowatski tightly, while Manjit shook his hand.
“We would have hoped that somebody would have learned something from this whole thing,”
Suman Virk
“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.”
Kelly Marie Ellard
Kelly Ellard was born August 9, 1982, she was 15 years old when she drowned Reena. Ellard has stood trial three times for Reena’s murder, she was convicted twice. Her lawyers had succeeded in having her first conviction overturned on appeal, and attempted to have her second conviction overturned. However, while a 2008 decision of the BC Court of Appeals overturned the second conviction, on June 12, 2009 the Supreme Court of Canada (Supreme Court), in an 8–1 decision, overturned the BC Court of Appeals, ruling that Ellard’s third trial had been fairly executed, and her conviction would stand.
Ellard was initially convicted in March 2000 for second-degree murder in Reena’s death. In February 2003, this conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered. The second trial ended in a mistrial (as the result of a hung jury) in July 2004. A third trial was ordered and Ellard was convicted again of second-degree murder in April 2005 and given an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for seven years.
On August 9, 2006, Ellard appealed her conviction, asking for a fourth trial or an acquittal. Prosecutors had the option to appeal, hold a fourth trail or abandon prosecution. In April 2009 Ellard’s appeal went to the Supreme Court of Canada, on June 12 the Supreme Court reinstated Ellard’s second degree murder conviction.
Ellard first applied for day parole in 2016 and was denied, Ellard said she took responsibility for the death of Reena after repeatedly denying that she was involved, but said she was a child herself at just 15 years old. She said she assumed more responsibility for her part in the murder, saying she rolled Reena’s unconscious body into the Gorge waterway. She has continued to deny holding the girl’s head underwater.
Board members rejected her request for parole then, saying she came across as “very entitled” in presenting her case for release.
“It would be hard to exaggerate the brutality of that index offence, It’s also disturbing in the view of the board that you continue to minimize it.”
Panel Member Alex Dantzer
In February 2017 Ellard was granted temporary escorted absences to go to parenting programs and doctor’s appointments with her baby. Ellard became pregnant the year before after having conjugal visits with her boyfriend Darwin Dorozan (pictured), who has also served prison time, the baby lived with Ellard at the women’s prison in Abbotsford, B.C.
Ellard admitted during her 2017 parole hearing that she was responsible for the death. She also said she was very sorry for what she had done and that Reena didn’t deserve what happened to her. Suman Virk, Reena’s mother, said Ellard’s words are too little too late.
“She could have taken responsibility a long time ago and saved us the pain and agony of first of all going through three different trials and waiting for 20 years to finally have some acknowledgement of her guilt,”
Suman Virk
In 2018 Ellard changed to name Kerry Marie Sim, her parole was extended while living at a halfway house.
As of 2021 Sim who is now the mother of two was allowed to live outside a residential facility for up to five days each week, the parole board said that Sim, remains “positive and compliant” in the community and continues to have high reintegration potential.
“The fact that the birth of your children has given you a purpose in life is tragically ironic as you ended the life of another mother’s child.”
Kerry Marie Sim’s Parole Board
Sim’s case management team reports that she has shown remorse for Reena’s murder and takes responsibility for the attack.
The Shoreline Six
The six female perpetrators involved in the first attack on Reena where referred to in court documents as N.C., N.P., M.G.P., C.A.K., G.O., and K.M.E.
N.C. is known to be Nicole Cook and M.G.P. is known to be Missy Grace Pleich. N.P. is Nicole Patterson, C.A.K. is Courtney Keith, and G.O. is Gail Ooms who is now deceased. Both have admitted involvement.
One girl in this group was found to be incapable of being kept in jail due to suicide attempts. This is due to PTSD since she witnessed her father’s violent death when she was a child.
Reena March 10, 1983 – November 14, 1997
The victim in the story, Reena Virk, stays a stranger. There’s a single, awkward yet poignant photograph of her.
Rebecca Godfrey author of Under the Bridge
Reena Virk was 14 years old when her life was brutally taken. Since that night in 1997 many thousands of words have been written, in all of the news articles, True crime blogs, books and academic papers but Reena continues to be an inaccessible space.
We are told that Reena was a troublesome teen, she was bullied, she was awkward and longed to fit in. She rebelled against the firm structure of her family’s faith. Tragically we don’t know who Reena Virk truly was, her life was taken before she could find who she was and what life promised.
Suggested Post, Lucy Letby