Wells Gray Provincial Park murders

In August 1982, six members of one family, spanning three generations, were killed during a camping trip in the Clearwater Valley near Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. The victims were George Bentley, 66, and his wife Edith Bentley, 59, of Port Coquitlam; their daughter Jackie Johnson, 41; her husband Bob Johnson, 44; and the Johnsons' two daughters, Janet, 13, and Karen, 11, from the Kelowna area of the province's interior.

The family set out on August 2, 1982. The four adults were shot at their campsite. The two girls were held captive for nearly a week before they were killed. All six bodies were placed in the family's car, which was then set on fire.

The family was reported missing after Bob Johnson did not return to his job at a lumber company. On September 13, 1982, a mushroom picker reported a burned-out vehicle near Battle Mountain Road, and searchers found the remains of the four adults inside, with the two girls' remains in the trunk. All had been shot with a .22-caliber weapon. The absence of shell casings indicated the family had been killed elsewhere, and the Bentleys' Ford camper truck was missing.

The case became one of the largest and most expensive investigations in Canadian history. Police re-enacted the presumed sequence of events for television and drove a replica of the missing truck across the country to prompt witnesses, gathering thousands of tips. A decisive lead came when a resident recalled that a local man, David William Shearing, had asked about re-registering a Ford pickup and repairing a hole in its door, a detail matching an undisclosed bullet hole in the Bentleys' truck.

Shearing, then 24, was arrested in Dawson Creek on November 19, 1983, and charged with six counts of second-degree murder. Investigators later established that he had sexually assaulted the two girls during their captivity. On April 16, 1984, he pleaded guilty to all six counts and was sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.

Now known as David Ennis, he has sought parole several times. Applications were rejected in 2008 and 2012, a 2014 application was withdrawn shortly before its hearing, and a further request was denied in 2021. He has remained incarcerated at Bowden Institution in Alberta, and relatives of the victims have continued to oppose his release ahead of a further parole hearing anticipated in 2026.