'Keep murderer behind bars'

Photo: Contributed

David Ennis is shown in a 1983 file photo. Awful memories are flooding back for a woman who lost two of her schoolmates when Ennis murdered six family members who were on a camping trip 26 summers ago. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

A BC woman whose friend was killed by a mass murderer says she has collected more than 2,400 signatures on a petition to keep the man behind bars.

David Shearing killed six members of the Johnson-Bentley family in August 1982 as they camped in Wells Grey Provincial Park near Clearwater.

Shearing is expected before a National Parole Board hearing in September, but West Kelowna resident Tammy Arishenkoff  is fighting against that, saying the man should serve out his life sentence.

Arishenkoff's childhood friend Janet Johnson was among those killed by Shearing, and her petition is in support of a bill put forward by local MP Dan Albas to increase parole ineligibility to 40 years from 25 years.

About 25 friends and relatives of the Johnson and Bentley families attended Shearing's last parole hearing in September 2012, and Arishenkoff says they all had to relive the horror of the crime and travel to Alberta, where the man is in prison.

The board ruled Shearing, who now goes by his mother's maiden name, Ennis, still has violent sexual fantasies, hasn't completed sex offender treatment and is not ready for freedom.