A man responsible for what has been described as one of the worst mass murders in BC history is making headlines once again.
David Ennis, formerly known as David Shearing, was arrested in Tumbler Ridge nearly 44 years ago for killing six people.
Now, a petition calling for Ellis to be denied parole is gathering a considerable number of signatures across the country.
Ennis has been serving a life sentence for the murders of George and Edith Bentley, their daughter Jackie and son-in-law Bob Johnson, and the Johnsons’ young daughters, Janet and Karen.
The killings happened 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, when he became eligible after serving 25 years in prison, and again in 2012.
According to the petition, Ellis waived his right and opted out of his legislated parole review in 2010, 2014 and 2016.
In 2008, a parole panel at Bowden Institution in central Alberta ruled that Ennis, then 53, was still at medium-risk to reoffend, saying that “the desire for these sexual deviant fantasies still persists.”
Ennis will again be eligible for parole this August. The petition starter, Tammy Arishenkoff, is seeking for him to stay 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.
