The More You Read

 Under the Bridge is a true story of a murder that took place in Victoria Island, Canada in 1997.  The victim was Reena Virk, a 14-year old who had been having trouble fitting in with her classmates and getting along with her family.  Reena had been looking to fit in with a group of girls who were a little bit rougher than most of the girls at school, but were still fairly typical high school girls.  Two of these girls believed that Reena had been spreading rumors around the school about them and they started looking for ways to get revenge.

The murder happened one night when the girls asked Reena to go to a party with them.  Once she got there she heard that there was a plan to beat her up and she tried to leave.  The girls and a crowd of kids who had been kicked out of the original party site followed Reena and surrounded her taking her to a place underneath a bridge.  Down there a group surrounded and savagely beat Reena until one girl finally spoke up that it was time to stop.  There were some kids who witnessed this beating and did not participate, yet no one called the police or reported anything to their parents.  The next day Reena was reported missing as she had never made it home.  The pieces of the puzzle started coming together, particularly because some of those involved were bragging and talking about beating her up and one told people that she had held Reena’s head under water until she died. 

Approximately a week after this happened the police had the names of some of those involved and began interviewing these 14-16 year olds.  Reena’s body was found floating in the river and the coroner reported she was beaten so badly it was as if she had been hit by a car.  Numerous students who had been involved with the beating or had been witness to it were able to say that they had seen the victim get up and start to walk across the bridge.  They were also able to identify two indivduals who they saw later walking back across the bridge.  It was later learned that these two had followed Reena and continued the beating so that she would not be able to tell on them, and then while she was unconcious the female suspect had held her head under water.

Six teenage girls were eventaully convicted of aggravated assault and served up to a year in detention centers.  The boy that was involved was convicted of second degree murder and went to prison for ten years, eventually being paroled in 2007.  There are several reports that he was very remorseful of his actions and eventually connected with the victim’s family to make peace.  The girl that was involved was convicted of second degree murder but it has gone through several appeal processes.  As far as I could tell from research on the internet she is currently in prison serving time for this murder. 

I’m always interested in true crime stories but this one was just incredible to think about.  A mob of teenagers, some who didn’t even know the victim, were willing to participate in such a serious beating…or ignore it and not report what had happened.  The mob mentality is something that we studied in psychology class and this seemed to be an example of no one being willing to accept responsibility or step apart from the crowd.  And a life was lost because of it.

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Non Fiction, Rebecca Godfrey, True Crime