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Victims' family seeks help to keep killer behind bars

Shearing was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years in 1983

More names are needed on a petition to keep convicted killer David Shearing (Ennis) in jail, says Tsawwassen resident Shelley Boden.

In 1982 Shearing murdered her uncle, Bob Johnson, along with his wife, two daughters, and his wife's parents.

The killings took place north of Clearwater, just outside Wells Gray Park.

“It's been a nightmare ever since, but it's getting worse when he comes up for parole every few years,” Boden said.

Shearing was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years in 1983.

He first applied for parole in 2008 but was turned down. He applied again in 2012 with the same outcome.

Now he has applied for a third time, with the hearing scheduled Sept. 4 at a federal prison near Innisfail, Alberta.

This time he is asking for either full parole or day parole, which would see him stay at a halfway house.

“He already has the halfway house in Calgary that he wants to go to picked out,” the family spokesperson said.

Several members of the family are terrified that, if he is released on parole, he will come after them.

Considering that he's already killed six family members, this is not an unreasonable fear, Boden felt.

“He's a monster. He will re-offend ... that's our opinion anyway,” she said.

 

Copies of the petition are available at several locations in Clearwater. Alternatively, there is an online petition at Change.org. Boden asked that people be careful to put their names on only one, not both.