Hulu's new true-crime series "Under the Bridge" not only tells the story of a brutal murder in 1997, but also the story of the murder.
The novel series is based on the late Rebecca Godfrey, who was played on screen by Riley Keough. The series (which premiered on April 17) follows Godfrey as he returns to a small Canadian town to cover the chilling death of 14-year-old Reena Virk after she was attacked by a group of her peers .
But slowly, we discover that the author is dealing with his own loss. In fact, in real life, that really informed how she covered "Under the Bridge." Here's what happened to Rebecca's brother Jonathan (named Gabe on the show).
family tragedy
The New York Times obituary for Godfrey, who died of complications from lung cancer in 2022, noted that her brother, Jonathan, died when she was just 16. He fell from a local cliff and drowned, the newspaper reported.
His death affected Godfrey in several ways. She was just 13 at the time, and she told The Believer that the loss resulted in a "fraught and very difficult teenage experience."
"I went a little crazy after that, lost interest in high school and got into the punk scene in downtown Victoria," she explained in 2019. "It was great to be in that scene because I could hide behind a mask of anger and coolness and be strong and think, 'Oh, I look terrible, so everyone is going to leave me alone.'"
written under the bridge
This traumatic time prompted Godfrey to write her first book , The Torn Skirt, a "very autobiographical" work that she actually wrote while writing "Under the Bridge" Sent to some of the alleged teenage attackers. According to Mary Gaitskill's introduction to the later book, this helped establish Godfrey as someone who understood the complex throes of adolescence and whose stories could be believed.
Likewise, after experiencing such a devastating loss, Godfrey knows "it's extremely difficult to intervene in other people's grief," she told The Paris Review.
"I remember a reporter knocking on the door and asking, 'Did you know the boy who died?' It was incredibly scary," she recalled in 2019. "I didn't want to be that intrusive or voyeuristic, so by journalistic standards I was pretty hesitant."
