To tell the tragic true story behind the murder of Canadian teenager Reena Virk in the new Hulu crime drama Under the bridgecreator and executive producer Quinn Shephard and showrunner Samir Mehta pulled from multiple sources.
The eight-part limited series, starring Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone, is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Rebecca Godfrey. The show premiered its first two episodes on April 17, and the rest of the season aired weekly on Wednesdays.
While crafting the sensitive story, Mehta told Jugo Mobile that he was in touch with the late teen’s father, Manjit Virk.
“In fact, I was in touch with Reena’s father and we also bought her book,” says the showrunner. “That was a big part of the telling of the story.”
Ahead of the series’ release, Jugo Mobile spoke with Shephard and Mehta about their investigative process and how they gained a “local perspective” on the complex murder case.
Showrunners in research for Under the bridge
Under the bridge was filmed in Vancouver, near the site of Virk’s murder, which Mehta says added depth to the story they set out to tell.
“Filming the show so close to where it happened in Vancouver, almost every week, we would run into someone who had some personal connection,” Mehta shares. “In the process, I feel that [the show] We began to imbibe that local perspective because we were surrounded by people who lived this.”
Godfrey, whose book won British Columbia’s National Canadian Non-Fiction Award in 2006 and was the first optional by Reese Witherspoon’s Type A Productions, deceased in 2022 due to complications from lung cancer. But before that, Shephard and Mehta consulted her while they were in the early stages of creating the series. They gained access to the writer’s “meticulous” archives and reviewed her “seven years of research.”
In an Instagram post from 2022, Shephard wrote“I have had the honor of interviewing @_rebecca_godfrey_ for the past three years for my new TV show. Under the bridge, a project that explores the life and murder of Reena Virk in 1997 in British Columbia. She has given me the greatest gift by allowing me into the beautiful mind of her and the seven years she spent living and writing this story. “I can’t wait to help bring this to life.”
During our interview, the show’s creator explained: “We had access to virtually every article that had been written about the crime, we found things that weren’t in Under the bridge and they were not in Manjit’s book. “We tried to zoom out as much as possible and include all the critical details that might have been left unresolved.”
The real story behind Under the bridge
Under the bridge is based on the actual murder of Virk in 1997. The case inspired Godfrey’s book, which was published in 2005.
On November 14, 1997, the 14-year-old girl was invited to a party by a group of teenagers, called the “Shoreline Six”, in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. According ViceThe gathering began in a field behind Shoreline School, but was moved to a location under a bridge leading to the Gorge Canal after authorities arrived to shut down the party.
There, the teens beat Virk and left her with cigarette burns on her skin and other injuries. Virk walked away from her after one of the girls told the group to stop, but two of the attackers followed her.
The two dragged Virk to the other side of the bridge and stripped off her clothes before hitting her a second time. They disposed of her body in the water. After Virk’s body was found eight days later, the coroner ruled that her death was due to drowning, but found that the injuries she suffered were serious enough to have caused death anyway.
Vice writes that the coroner reported multiple blows sustained to the abdominal area, a crush seizure injury often seen in car accident victims, extensive bruising under the skin of the face, a sneaker print-shaped bruise on the back of his brain and eighteen pebbles in his lungs.
The beating was reportedly sparked by tensions Virk had with her schoolmates, and she was said to have been spreading rumors about one of the girls bullying her. During the investigation, there was widespread outcry in the media about teenage bullying among girls and many were pided over whether racism played a role in the murder.
Several teenagers received sentences for their participation.
Under the bridge is streaming on Hulu.
