'Under the Bridge' explained: The real Rebecca Godfrey didn't actually hunt for Reena Virk's killers

• Hulu's "Under the Bridge" is based on Rebecca Godfrey's book about Reena Virk's murder.
• Godfrey is played by Riley Keough in the series as she aids the police in their investigation.

Hulu's "Under the Bridge" examines the 1997 murder of Reena Virk (Viritka Gupta) in Saanich, Canada.

She was attacked by a group of teenagers, nicknamed the "Shoreline Six," before two others beat her unconscious and then drowned her.

The show is adapted from Rebecca Godfrey's 2005 book of the same name. It stars Riley Keough as a fictionalized version of Godfrey, who helps the police investigate Virk's murder by trying to get the local teenagers to open up about what really happened.

True crime has long been popular but has exploded lately, driven by hit shows like "Baby Reindeer" and "Griselda."

"Under the Bridge" is widely praised too, with an 83% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Godfrey did not actually help the police investigate Virk's murder

"Under the Bridge" revolves around Godfrey working alongside Officer Cam Bentland (Lily Gladstone) to find out who killed Virk.

But she didn't actually work with the authorities during the initial investigation.

In 2019 Godfrey told The Believer, a magazine, that she started writing about the case after the suspects had already been arrested.

"I was given an assignment from a women's magazine to write about the fourteen-year-old girl who was accused of the murder, Kelly Ellard," she said.

"I went back home to Victoria, and sort of bluffed my way into the juvenile detention center," Godfrey continued. "I didn't know enough to call the warden or go through any official channel — I called the head of youth programs. I guess my voice sounded young because he assumed I was working on a school project."

Godfrey worked on the series, but she died in 2022

Director Quinn Shepherd spoke to Vulture about creating the series with input from Godfrey, who died mid-way through production in 2022 from lung cancer. She was 54.

Shepherd said Godfrey approved of being a character in the series, and was happy she was depicted as an "anti-hero" at times.

"This woman in her 20s went and did what no journalist, no cop, and no lawyer was able to do, which is get the real truth of what happened," Shepherd said. "It was a big priority for Hulu that the show have an adult perspective, and she felt like an obvious place to start.

She added: "Then we would have an opportunity to comment on the nature of true crime and what it does to somebody who immerses themselves in that."