CY@CY Says Welcome to my dreamscape. Where a Lim is also a Ling.
The road to justice was a long one for Reena Virk. On the night of November 14, 1997, the 14-year-old Indian girl was badly bashed up by a group of young teens comprising of almost all girls and then beaten again by one of the girls and a boy and forcibly drowned under a waterway bridge.
Her death in the Victoria suburb of View Royal, British Columbia, Canada, created shock waves in Canada and captured international headlines. It is one of the most notorious and heart-breaking cases in Canadian history.
From a small East Indian community, Reena was a social misfit who tried hard to be accepted by her peers. In her home, she was alienated from her family. A couple of the girls held a grudge against her, and Reena was lured to her violent end by a promise of friendship and partying. Six girls were charged with assault and one girl and one boy were charged with murder.
The initial assault of Reena was witnessed by a big group of teens but none of them tried to stop it. After the initial assault, the crowd dispersed. Reena, in her badly injured state, slowly walked over the bridge but 15-year-old Kelly Ellard and 16-year-old Warren Glowatski followed her and assaulted her again. They dragged her to the water where Kelly forcibly drowned her.
Warren Glowatski was found guilty and was given a life sentence. Kelly Ellard, whose family hired top-notch lawyers to defend her, was only found guilty in 2005 after three trials and also given a life sentence.
The events and characters involved in this tragedy are the subject of Under The Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey. Godfrey gives the teens a voice and seeks to find answers to questions such as how so many teens withheld the terrible assault of Reena from their parents, teachers and police for eight days.
Under the Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey
Godfrey spent six years researching the case, conducting exclusive interviews with parents, classmates, police, prosecutors and several of the youths including Warren Glowatski.
The story is sad and captivating but I struggled quite a bit with the author’s writing style. Maybe it is because I am not comfortable with her journalistic style.