Reena Virk (March 10, 1983 – November 14, 1997) was a resident of Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Her status as a bullied murder victim attracted substantial media scrutiny in Canada. Virk was beaten and killed by a group of teenagers, one of whom was given a life sentence after being convicted of second-degree murder. Another was tried three times for the crime. 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. The Globe and Mail commented at the time that her case was "elevated into a national tragedy." A pair of Canadian sociologists have described the case as a watershed moment for a "moral panic" over girl violence by the Canadian public in the late 1990s. Reena Virk Virk's father was an immigrant from India, while her mother came from an Indo-Canadian family who had converted from Hinduism to the Jehovah's Witness religion after arriving in Canada. Her immediate family was "a minority within a minority," as they were Jehovah's Witnesses in the local South Asian community of 3,000 which was predominantly Sikh. Virk was described as desperate for acceptance amongst her peers, but was taunted and/or ostracized by these girls whose subculture was influenced by Los Angeles street gangs. She had begun to rebel due to such peer influence, smoking marijuana and cigarettes. Bullied for her weight and insecurity, she was said to feel restricted by the rules of the family's faith. In 1996, she falsely reported her father for sexual molestation in hopes of being moved to a foster home and having more freedom. As a result, she was moved from her family's home into the care of the state for several months in 1996. She later dropped the charges and returned home. Murder On the evening of Friday November 14, 1997, Reena Virk, then aged 14, was invited to a party by her friend near the Craigflower Bridge, in the city of Saanich, British Columbia. While at the bridge, it is claimed that teenagers drank alcohol and smoked marijuana as Virk stood among them. Virk was swarmed by a group later called the Shoreline Six. Witnesses said that one of the girls, Cook, stubbed out a cigarette on Virk's forehead, and that while seven or eight others stood