A man behind one of the most notorious mass murders in BC history is back in the news.
David Ennis, formerly David Shearing, was arrested in Tumbler Ridge nearly 44 years ago for killing six people.
Now, a petition to deny him parole is gaining significant support nationwide.
Ennis has been serving a life sentence for murdering George and Edith Bentley, their daughter Jackie, son-in-law Bob Johnson, and the Johnsons’ young daughters, Janet and Karen.
The killings took place in 1982 while the families were camping in Wells Gray Provincial Park, near Clearwater in south-central BC.
Ennis was first denied parole in 2008, after serving 25 years in prison, and again in 2012.
The petition states that Ennis waived his right to a legislated parole review in 2010, 2014, and 2016. In 2008, a parole panel at Bowden Institution in central Alberta found that Ennis, then 53, remained at medium risk to reoffend, noting that “the desire for these sexual deviant fantasies still persists.”
He will be eligible for parole again this August, but petition starter Tammy Arishenkoff is seeking to keep him behind bars.
“Public safety must remain the foremost concern. The risk associated with granting him parole far outweighs any argument for his potential rehabilitation,” the petition states.
The petition has received over 31,000 signatures. Arishenkoff says that if day parole were granted, Ennis would be allowed to live in a halfway house that could be located in any city.
“If full parole were granted, he would be allowed to live among us in our communities and around our children,” she added.
In 2021, Ennis was denied day and full parole with the help of a petition that received over 100,000 signatures.
-with files from Noah Abel CJDC
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