A family is once again petitioning to keep David Ennis, convicted of killing six members of their family in 1982, incarcerated.
Details of the 1982 Murders
Kristal Woolf, the great-niece of one of the victims, was a toddler when the killings occurred. “We grew up knowing that there is such thing as a monster in the dark,” she said.
David Ennis, who previously went by David Shearing, killed three generations of a family in August 1982 in central British Columbia. The adults – grandparents George and Edith Bentley of Port Coquitlam, and their West Kelowna-based daughter Jackie Johnson and her husband Bob Johnson – were shot while camping outside Wells Gray Provincial Park near Clearwater, B.C.
The Johnsons’ daughters, 13-year-old Janet and 11-year-old Karen, were then abducted. Ennis tortured and sexually assaulted them for nearly a week before taking them into the woods and killing them individually.
He then placed the six bodies into the Johnsons’ vehicle and set it on fire.
“He hunted them,” Woolf stated. “So just knowing that he can come out and he could hunt another family again — that definitely is our biggest fear… is that he can get out.”
Previous Parole Attempts
After a cross-Canada investigation, Ennis was arrested and pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree murder. In 1984, he was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years. The judge at the time described the murders as “a cold-blooded and senseless execution of six defenceless and innocent people.”
Ennis applied for parole in 2008 and 2012, but both applications were rejected due to ongoing violent sexual fantasies and a lack of completion of sex offender treatment. He withdrew a parole request in 2014 shortly before the hearing. His fourth parole application was denied in 2021.
He is eligible to reapply for parole every five years.
Ennis is currently incarcerated at the Bowden Institution medium-security prison, located south of Red Deer in central Alberta, and is scheduled for a parole hearing next year.
“Every couple years we need to gather our troops, get everything organized and we have to face him,” Woolf said.
Shelley Boden, the Johnsons’ niece, who was 18 at the time of the murders, has dedicated her life to keeping Ennis behind bars. She fears the parole board may eventually grant Ennis release despite his previous denials.
“You don’t know what their decisions going to be,” she said.
“We just hope and pray that this monster does not get out.”
A petition has been started in an effort to prevent his release.
“The world is changed, the world ain’t like it used to be and I think he will reoffend. He is a menace to our society, and he should not come out whatsoever,” Boden stated.
“We would love for him to waive his rights to never go ahead with another parole hearing so everyone could just heal,” Woolf added.
If granted day parole, Ennis would reside in a halfway house. Full parole would allow him to live in the community.
The next parole hearing is scheduled for August.
–with files from Rumina Daya and Amy Judd, Global News
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