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SAANICH — Reena Virk struggled to understand why people considered her different and a target for school bullies, her father said Tuesday at a memorial to mark the 20th anniversary of the Victoria teenager’s death.

Standing just steps away from the beach where his daughter was murdered in November 1997, Manjit Virk said Reena was a naive, 14-year-old girl trying to find herself in a hard world and ended up the victim of a “horrible act.”

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About 200 people gathered outside a historic schoolhouse along the Gorge Waterway to mark the sombre anniversary during a pounding rainstorm. The site overlooked the beach near where Virk was killed and is not far from the Craigflower Bridge where the teen was lured and beaten by a group of girls.

“When she went to school, she had a hard time,” said Manjit Virk. “She was very puzzled. Why would people pick on her?”

He said as parents, he and his wife, Suman, were worried about their daughter’s struggles to find acceptance among her peers. Virk said his daughter was trusting, and their attempts to warn her about possible troubles ahead did not sink in to a teenager seeking her independence.