BOWDEN, ALBERTA (NEWS1130) – Mass murderer David Shearing has been denied parole.

Shearing killed George and Edith Bentley of Port Coquitlam, their daughter Jackie and her husband Bob Johnson at Wells Gray Provincial Park in August, 1982.

Family and friends of Shearing’s victims travelled from BC to central Alberta to read victim impact statements at today’s parole hearing.

“He still just doesn’t get it,” says Tammy Arishenkoff, who went to school with Janet and Karen. “And that was obvious to the [parole] board and they, like I said, were not convinced that he’s made the steps he needs to make.”

She says whether it’s been 30 years or 50 years, Shearing (who also goes by the last name Ennis) is still “young enough to re-offend.”

“He’s still, in my opinion, has not made any effort to try and put forward a valid case as to why he should be let out.”

Johnsons’ daughters, 13-year-old Janet and 11-year-old Karen, were kept alive for a nearly a week so Shearing could sexually assault them.

About a month later, the bodies of all six victims were found in a burned out car at the bottom of an embankment.

“What those girls had to suffer for that extra week, there can’t be any forgiveness for that,” says Arishenkoff.  “I’m a forgiving person and I believe in forgiveness, but I don’t believe forgiveness will ever come in this case.”

Arishenkoff traveled from her home in West Kelowna to central Alberta so she can read an impact statement at the hearing.

George and Edith’s granddaughter Kelly Nielsen read one as well.

“I want him to know that it’s never ending for us,” Nielsen says. “Every two years it’s reliving it again and it’s painful.  If they do make the decision to let him out, they had better be really, really sure because I really wouldn’t want to see him back in society, that’s for sure.”

Shearing pleaded guilty to six murder charges in 1984 and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
He applied for parole in 2008 and was denied.

Shearing opted not to apply again in 2010.

“This has consumed our life,” Arishenkoff says. “This has been five and a half months out of our life, from the time the notice was delivered to the time of this hearing. We’re going to have less than two years before we have to go through all of this again.”

Arishenkoff says the federal government needs to change the rules of parole hearings so people in her position don’t have go through this process every two years.