A small nature reserve created in tribute to a young woman killed 30 years ago today has grown into a place of peaceful reflection and remembrance.

Myles Darrell, the head of natural heritage at the Bermuda National Trust, said that significant progress has been made restoring the Rebecca Middleton Nature Reserve in Paget since it was established in 2006 as a memorial for the Canadian teenager murdered on July 3, 1996.

In recent years, teams of volunteers have rolled up their sleeves to replace invasive species with native plants, restore an historical dry stone wall and improve public access to the reserve.

Mr Darrell said: “The reserve is now flourishing, with Bermuda cedars and olivewoods establishing well, and the entrance has become a vibrant and peaceful space. It truly feels like a place of remembrance and reflection.

“Over the past few years, we have welcomed numerous community volunteers, corporate teams and school groups to participate in the restoration.

“Each visit provides an opportunity not only to improve the reserve but also to share Rebecca Middleton’s story and reflect on the legacy the reserve represents.”

The half-acre site, located on the Railway Trail near Ord Road, was donated to the BNT by Mr and Mrs Walter Cook in 2006 for the purpose of creating a permanent memorial for Ms Middleton.

The 17-year-old, a sailing and skiing enthusiast from Belleville, Ontario, was visiting Bermuda on a six-week holiday and staying with a friend, Jasmine Meens, at her family home in Flatts.

After drinking at The White Horse Tavern on July 2, 1996, the girls went to a friend’s home, from where they called three taxis in the early hours of the morning.

No cabs showed up, however, and the pair were eventually approached as they waited outside the house by men on two motorcycles, who offered them a lift home.

While Ms Meens made it back safely, Ms Middleton was found dead near Ferry Road, St George’s, with an autopsy finding that she had been sexually assaulted and suffered 35 stab wounds.

Justis Smith, 17, and Kirk Mundy, a 21-year-old Jamaican national, were accused of the killing.

Mundy received five years in prison after admitting being an accessory to the crime, although DNA evidence later showed that he had raped the victim, while Smith walked free from court after Justice Vincent Meerabux threw out the case against him.

A later attempt to try Mundy and Smith for the murder with new forensic evidence failed after the British Privy Council ruled that the case could not go ahead, and that Mr Justice Meerabux’s decision on Smith could not be overturned.

The incident is remembered as one of Bermuda’s darkest moments, and led to a drop in tourism owing to negative publicity and boycotts by those who believed a gross miscarriage of justice had occurred.

Mundy, who was on bail at the time of the murder, was separately sentenced in 1997 to 16 years in prison for the armed robbery of a Butterfield Bank security van two years before and had his sentence extended after cannabis was found in his cell.

In 2017, he was deported from Bermuda after spending more than 20 years behind bars.