Drug use sees parole revoked for Kerry Sim, who killed B.C. teen Reena Virk in 1997

VANCOUVER — Day parole has been revoked for the woman who drowned Victoria teenager Reena Virk 28 years ago.

A Parole Board of Canada decision released Monday says Kerry Sim, known as Kelly Ellard when she was convicted, breached her conditions to abstain from drugs.

The decision says Sim adamantly rejected the test result for methamphetamine, and instead argued it was a false positive from her own medication.

The board says that Sim, at 42 years old, still has an anti-social and delinquent value system and is unwilling to accept responsibility for her own actions, putting her at high risk for future delinquent behaviour.

It says when Sim doesn’t adhere to minimum supervision expectations she “presents a greater risk to the public than simply failing to comply with (her) parole conditions.”

Sim was sentenced as a young offender but her case was raised to adult court. Appeals took the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada and she had three trials, but was handed a life sentence for second-degree murder in 2005.

In November 1997, 14-year-old Virk had already been badly beaten by a group of teenagers under the Craigflower Bridge in Victoria before Sim, then 15, drowned her in the nearby Gorge waterway.

The swarming attack on Virk and subsequent trials and appeals gained international attention, with the judge saying that Virk was the defenceless victim of a prolonged and brutal attack in which Sim played a central role.

Sim’s accomplice, Warren Glowatski, was also handed a life sentence but was given full parole in 2010.

Sim is a single parent of two children and the decision says she has struggled emotionally due to one child’s behavioural issues and managing legal custody issues with her ex-partner.

“In addition, you voiced safety concerns following the release of a television miniseries documenting the index offence,” the decision says, referring to the series titled “Under The Bridge,” that aired last year.

This isn’t the first time her parole was revoked. She was initially granted day parole in 2017 and gained more freedom until July 2021 when a urine test came back positive for codeine.

In January, when a warrant was issued for her arrest over the methamphetamine, she was unco-operative and screaming and kicking while in police custody, the decision says.

“While in provincial custody your behaviour remained problematic. You showed poor emotions mismanagement, hit, and kicked walls, threatened suicide, and stated you were not going to return to the federal prison,” it says.

The likelihood of Sim failing to comply with her conditions is elevated by her recent poor behaviour, the decision says.

“The Board must be satisfied that you will not, by reoffending before the expiration of sentence according to law, present an undue risk to society.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2025.

Terri Theodore, The Canadian Press