A family has once again launched a petition in hopes of keeping a man convicted of killing six members of their family more than 40 years ago behind bars.
Kristal Woolf is the great-niece of one of the victims and was just a toddler when the killings happened.
“We grew up knowing that there is such thing as a monster in the dark,” she said.
David Ennis, who has changed his name from David Shearing since the mass murder, killed three generations of a family in August 1982 in central British Columbia.
The adults were shot first.
He gunned down grandparents George and Edith Bentley of Port Coquitlam, their West Kelowna-based daughter Jackie Johnson and her husband Bob Johnson while the family was camping outside Wells Gray Provincial Park near Clearwater, B.C.
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The Johnsons’ daughters — 13-year-old Janet and 11-year-old Karen — were then abducted.
Ennis spent nearly a week torturing and sexually assaulting them before taking them into the woods, one at a time, and killing them as well.
Johnson- Bentley family. They were all killed by David Ennis.
Tammy Arishenkoff
He then put the six bodies into the Johnsons’ vehicle and set it on fire. The
“He hunted them,” says Woolf.
“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,” she added.
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After a long, cross-Canada investigation, Ennis was arrested and later 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.”
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1:57
Family of victims of notorious Johnson-Bentley murders fight potential parole of killer
All of the parole applications since then have been fiercely opposed by relatives and friends of the Bentley-Johnson family, and all have been rejected by the parole board.
Ennis applied for parole in 2008 and again in 2012. His applications were both rejected because he still had violent sexual fantasies and hadn’t completed sex offender treatment.
He applied again in 2014 but withdrew his request a month before the hearing was to take place.
He was last denied parole in 2021 for the fourth time.
He can reapply for parole every five years.
David Shearing is shown in 1983. The convicted mass murderer, who killed a family of six nearly 40 years ago, is to once again seek his release when he appears before the Parole Board of Canada at Bowden Institution in central Alberta. Shearing, who now goes by the name David Ennis, shot and killed George and Edith Bentley; their daughter, Jackie; and her husband, Bob Johnson, and the Johnson’s two daughters, while the family was on a camping trip in 1982 near Wells Gray Provincial Park, about 120 km north of Kamloops, B.C.
The Canadian Press
Ennis is currently incarcerated at the Bowden Institution medium-security prison, located just south of Red Deer in central Alberta, and is up for parole next year.
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“Every couple years we need to gather our troops, get everything organized and we have to face him,” says Woolf.
Shelley Boden, who was the Johnsons’ niece, was 18 years old and in high school when the murders happened. She’s spent her adult life working to keep Ennis behind bars.
Her worry is that one day the parole board may decide in Ennis’s favour, despite him having his parole application denied for a fourth time four years ago.
“You don’t know what their decisions going to be,” she said.
“We just hope and pray that this monster does not get out.”
2:39
Petition started to keep killer behind bars
A petition has been started in hopes that won’t happen.
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“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,” says Boden.
“We would love for him to waive his rights to never go ahead with another parole hearing so everyone could just heal,” says Woolf.
If Ennis were to be granted day parole, he would be allowed to live in a halfway house. If full parole were granted, he would be allowed to live in the community.
The next parole hearing is scheduled for August.
2:34
Battle begins to have Wells Gray Park killer denied parole
–with files from Rumina Daya and Amy Judd, Global News
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
