Reena Virk

Passions

Canadian murder victim of Indian descent. Her extended family had emigrated from India. They were of the Jehovah's Witness religion in the local South Asian community of 3,000 which was predominantly Sikh. On the evening of 14 November 1997, Virk was invited to join a female friend near the Craigflower Bridge, west of the city of Victoria, British Columbia. While at the bridge, several female teenagers drank alcohol and smoked marijuana. Virk was subsequently swarmed by a group later called the Shoreline Six. Witnesses said that one of the girls stubbed out a cigarette on Virk's forehead, and that she was repeatedly hit, punched and kicked. On 22 November 1997, police using a helicopter found Virk's partially clothed body washed ashore at the Gorge Inlet, a major waterway on Vancouver Island. The coroner ruled the death was by drowning. However, an autopsy later revealed that Virk had sustained significant injury, and that the head injuries were severe enough to have killed her if she had not been drowned. Virk was 14 years old. The names of six of the girls involved in the first beating, known collectively as "the Shoreline Six," have not all been released. Following the first beating, Warren Glowatski and Kelly Ellard murdered Virk. Glowatski was given a life sentence after being convicted of second-degree murder. Ellard was tried three times. The verdict of her third trial, a conviction, was set aside. The verdict was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada which ruled not to hold a fourth trial in an 8-1 decision, upholding the conviction and sentence. Link to Murder of Reena Virk