WARNING: The details in this story are disturbing; discretion is advised.
It has been 43 years, but the memory of what happened to Shelley Boden’s family still brings tears to her eyes.
“I’m just afraid, you know, for society and the people that are out there that if he gets parole, because he’s trying very hard to get parole, to be and go to a halfway house,” Boden said.
In August of 1982, David Shearing, who now goes by David Ennis, shot grandparents George and Edith Bentley and parents Bob and Jackie Johnson as they camped just outside Wells Gray Provincial Park in Clearwater.
He then abducted the Johnsons’ 13- and 11-year-old daughters, Janet and Karen, and spent several days torturing and sexually assaulting them before killing them.
He then put all six bodies into the Johnsons’ car and set it on fire.
After a long, cross-Canada investigation, Ennis was arrested and later pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree murder.
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In 1984, he was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years.
He was last denied parole in 2021 for the fourth time.
“It upsets me that I have to do this,” Boden said.
“Every three and a half, four years, every four years I have to drum it all up and having to ask my friends to help me out and sign the, you know, change.org (petition) to keep him behind bars… I just don’t want him getting out.”
Ennis’s next parole hearing is set to take place in August 2026.
Boden would like the public’s help to sign the petition and write letters to the Parole Board of Canada, urging them not to grant Ennis parole.
Boden’s best friend, Joan Nicholson, has been helping get the word out about the upcoming parole hearing because if Ennis does get parole, they don’t know where he might be released.
“I don’t think that I would want that person being in my community, near my grandchildren or family or anybody’s and that’s why I think it’s important,” Nicholson said.
Boden, fighting back tears, said she wants everyone to know how grateful she and her family are for everyone’s support.
–with files from Rumina Daya
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