Canadian True Crime - 86 The Johnson-Bentley Family Murders

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

BRITISH COLUMBIA | In August 1982, a family of six set out on what was supposed to be an idyllic two-week camping trip. They never returned home.This sparked what would be the most expensive and highly-publicized manhunt in Canadian history.Petition: Help the Johnson and Bentley FamilyRead and sign the petition here Thanks for supporting our sponsors!See the special offer codes here Don't like the ads?Access early episodes without the ads plus bonus content and more on Patreon and Supercast. Learn moreCredits:Research: Haley GrayAdditional research and writing: Kristi LeeAudio editing and production: We Talk of Dreams Disclaimer voiced by the host of TrueTheme Song: We Talk of DreamsSocial medias:Facebook: facebook.com/CanadianTrueCrimeTwitter: @CanadianTCpodInstagram: @CanadianTrueCrimePodInstagram: @kristileehello All credits and information sources can be found on the page for this episode at canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded through advertising and direct donations. The podcast contains course language, adult themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature. This episode also includes crimes committed against a child, although no graphic details are given. Listener discretion is advised. It was the summer of 1982,

and three generations of one family were getting ready to leave on a camping trip together in British Columbia. George and Edith Bentley were the grandparents. 66-year-old George was known to be friendly and always helpful, but also quiet and reserved. He wasn't much into people or crowds, and preferred to be camping and fishing with his wife. 59-year-old Edith was the more outgoing and social one,

jolly with a great sense of humour, but she also loved spending time in the quiet of nature with her husband. They got on really well together. Three years earlier, George's heart condition had forced him to take an early retirement, so the couple decided a life change was in order. After much planning, they purchased a Ford pickup truck, red up top and silver on the bottom,

with a 10.5-foot camper mounted up the top. George worked hard to make custom modifications to make sure they had the perfect setup for their needs. They rented out their house in Port Coquitlam and set out on the road just the two of them in their new trucking camper. Throughout most of the year, they'd find wilderness-type camping spots in British Columbia, off the beaten path away from the crowds where they could relax.

In between camping trips, their adult children would take turns having them stay for a while, and the six grandkids could enjoy time with their grandparents. And when the winter months came, George and Edith Bentley would head south to Arizona to escape the cold. They loved the travelling and camping lifestyle so much that they decided to put their house up for sale, planning to upgrade to a full motorhome once it was sold.

But for now, it was them on the road with their trucking camper. Now, George and Edith had three grown children, Jackie, Sharon and Brian, and they were delighted when their daughter Jackie expressed interest in her family coming along on a camping trip. 41-year-old Jackie Johnson was an avid photographer. She was never far from her camera and loved nothing more than to take photos. Particularly of her family. Her husband Bob was 44, known as a funny guy who loved practical jokes.

He was also a proud family man, an avid motorbike enthusiast and a hard worker. He was well respected at the Gorman Brothers Lumber Sawmill where he had worked for 25 years. Jackie and Bob lived in Kelowna, British Columbia, with their two daughters, 13-year-old Janet and 11-year-old Karen. They were cheerful girls who got on well together and liked to keep busy. When they weren't at school,

they could often be found practicing piano or working on a new badge for Girl Guides. On August the 2nd, 1982, George and Edith set off to show the Johnsons how exhilarating wilderness camping can be. Their custom setup featured bright colours. The truck was of course right up the top and the camper mounted on the bed of the truck had a pretty mural of an orange sunset on one of the passenger windows. And on top of the camper, George had carefully secured a 10-foot aluminum boat.

Everything was set for a wonderful trip. They had planned to meet the Johnson family near Wells Gray Provincial Park, a massive wilderness park located in East Central British Columbia, about five hours northeast of Vancouver. Wells Gray covers over 5,000 square kilometres, almost double the size of the entire Greater Vancouver area. It boasts gorgeous mountains, rivers, creeks and beautiful iconic waterfalls. But the park is mostly uninhabited and is proper wilderness camping, not for amateurs.

George and Edith Bentley couldn't have been more at home there and once they'd greeted their daughter Jackie and her family, they led the way inside the park to show them all it had to offer. The family set up a campsite at a secluded location known as the Old Bear Creek Prison Site. A mobile prison had previously been there but had been shut down and cleared out years before. What remained was a nice clearing beside a body of water called Fage Creek,

the perfect spot to camp for two weeks. Now this was 1982 and there were no cell phones, no way to connect anyone if you were out of civilisation. So Edith and George had a habit of finding a public phone so they could check in with family back home. Four days after they settled at Bear Creek, Edith drove to the town of Clearwater just south of Wells Gray Park to phone home. She reported back to her other daughter Sharon

that they were all okay and having a great time on the trip so far. That was August the 6th. The camping trip was supposed to be for two weeks but they didn't return on time. The first to notice was Bob Johnson's co-workers at the Sawmill where he worked. After 25 years of high reliability, Bob simply not showing up for work was most unlike him.

They weren't able to get in contact with his wife Jackie either. So after a few days, Bob's employer decided to file a missing persons report with the Kamloops RCMP who started looking into it immediately. It was soon discovered that no one had heard from either of the Bentley or Johnson families for over two weeks and the girls hadn't been to school either. No one seemed to know exactly where the families were camping in the park

and there were no park records available at the time due to an employee strike. An official search was initiated in Wells Gray Provincial Park. The RCMP started searching right away with the help of park rangers, private citizens who lived in the area and local pilots who conducted aerial searches. In the local town of Clearwater just to the south of the park, the RCMP door knocked as many of the several thousand local residents as they could, asking everyone where they were the first three weeks of August. They were asked if they saw the Bentley's or the Johnson's in their travels.

Did they see their distinctive truck and camper? Unfortunately nothing panned out as a serious lead. The search party drove down hundreds of hidden logging road trails but Wells Gray is a vast wilderness and the searches went for a week or two with no sign of the families found. RCMP investigators had nothing to work with so they knew they needed to get the media involved. Two families, three generations, six people seemingly vanished into thin air. Someone must have seen something.

As lead detective Staff Sergeant Mike Eastern would write in his book The Seventh Shadow, they knew that if they got the right publicity and the public were on alert, they had a good chance of gathering some leads and potentially finding some answers about where this family might be. So Mike Eastern and another investigator appeared on a public affairs program on Primetime TV to make a public appeal for more information. The press pumped out pictures of the Johnson and Bentley family as well as the distinctive truck and camper and the Johnson sedan and 1979 Chrysler Plymouth.

The public were asked to be on the lookout for any leads on where they might be. Straight away hundreds of tips started coming in. One of them was from a mushroom picker who had been working in the area. He said he'd been picking mushrooms during the last week of August, deep in the heart of the provincial park and saw what he thought was just another derelict car. Once he returned to civilization, he saw the news reports and recognized the car he saw as being very similar to the Johnson's Chrysler Plymouth. He contacted the RCMP straight away and told them the location of the car.

It was in a very remote area of the park, an area usually travelled by horseback or four by fours, not a standard family sedan. And it was found in a secluded mountain logging road wedged between trees. The spot proved to be difficult for the RCMP to find and access and from the road it was almost impossible to see the car. The only visible clue to the car's presence were tire tracks that angled off into the bushes. The officers followed the tracks stepping through long thick brush as they went. When they reached the car, it was obvious that it had been driven in until it got stuck on a log and boulder and couldn't be driven any further.

The car was also a burnt wreck, so much so that it was clear to investigators that some kind of accelerant must have been used. It may have taken a while to identify the car, but fortunately the license plate was still intact and able to be read. This was the Johnson's Chrysler, but where was the family? I'm Christy, an Australian who's called Canada home for more than a decade and this is my passion project. Join me to hear about some of the most thought-provoking and often heart-breaking true crime cases in Canada. Using court documents and news archives, I take you through each story from beginning to end with a look at the way the media covered the crime and the impact it had on

the community. This is Canadian true crime. The RCMP had just found the burnt-out Chrysler Plymouth belonging to the Johnson's, well hidden in the bush. On the roof of the car was the remnants of a rooftop carrier. Everything had melted in the fire and all that was left on the roof of the car were a line of bottles of old stock beer, the same kind of beer that Bob Johnson drank, as well as some tins of canned food. The driver's side door was left open and officers peered inside. There was no mistaking what they saw on the back seat, a pile of ash that contained burnt bones, including a skull that had a clear bullet wound in it. Was it the remains of one person or more?

There was no way of telling. A forensic team would need to be called in, but either way, this was not good news. Detectives then went around to the back of the car. According to the Vancouver Sun, a set of rusty keys dangled from the trunk lock. They opened the trunk and were again confronted with a sight they would never forget. RCMP investigator Mike Eastham would describe it on CBC's The Detectives as being two little skeletons. Since there was a clear bullet wound, investigators searched the area for shell casings, signs that a gun had been fired in the area, they found nothing. It was clear that this location likely wasn't the crime scene. Whoever was in the car had been shot at a different location, their bodies put into the

Chrysler Plymouth driven to this hidden location and set alight. The person responsible probably thought that the car would never be found. The burnt out Chrysler was loaded into a U-Haul and sent off to the crime lab in Vancouver where the forensics team went to work to confirm the identities of the people in the car. It would take more than two months for an announcement to be made, but at the end of November 1982, the coroner Doug Jack gave a press release where he announced that there were six bodies in the car. Through dental records, a positive identification was made for 13-year-old Janet Johnson and 11-year-old Karen Johnson who were found in the trunk. And in the backseat of the car were the remains of the four adults. Their

mother, 41-year-old Jackie Johnson, was also identified through dental records. Jackie's father, 66-year-old George Bentley, was identified through x-rays he'd had three years earlier. Both Jackie's mother, 59-year-old Edith, and husband, 44-year-old Bob, wore dentures which melted in the fire, but their identities were determined through the process of elimination. And as for that bullet hole, that was from a .22 caliber rifle. There was other evidence of bullet fragments, but the coroner was unable to determine a cause of death because the bodies had essentially been cremated. He told the press, quote, in 32 years I've never seen anything so totally destroyed. The remaining members of the Bentley and Johnson family were

devastated. Six of their loved ones, including two young children, wiped out, reduced to ashes. Who could do something like this and what motive could they possibly have? The RCMP were determined to find out. The search intensified and now they were looking for three things. One, the person or persons responsible for this horrific crime. Two, the location of the crime scene. The place where the murders happened before the bodies were driven to the place they were found. And three, the truck and camper owned by George and Edith Bentley. The RCMP set out again to search Wells Gray Provincial Park, but again they had no luck. And while they'd received a lot of leads so far, none of them had materialized into anything that moved the needle

on the case. So they continued to work with the media to publicize the case, distributing pictures of the truck and camper with a request to contact them if there were any sightings. Before long, they received a call that looked promising. A woman said she believed she'd seen the same truck and camper at a service station on or around August 24, about a week after the Bentley and Johnson family should have returned home. But she said she was not in British Columbia at the time. When she saw the truck and camper, she was on vacation in North Battlefield, Saskatchewan, over a thousand kilometers east of Wells Gray Provincial Park. And she saw two men exit the truck, head into the restaurant and sit down for a meal. According to the book The Seventh

Shadow, she described the two men as, quote, shabbily dressed and quite rugged looking. Both were in their late twenties with unkempt shoulder length hair. The police looked through their notes. Staff Sergeant Mike Easton remembered that the RCMP had previously received a similar tip. He thumbed through the notes until he'd found it. A waitress from the nearby town of Clearwater had told them she believed she'd spotted the truck and camper and had served the two men occupying it, specifically remembering them because they tried to hit on her. She described them as two scruffy, French speaking guys, and their physical descriptions matched the description given by the woman who had spotted

them in Saskatchewan. Straight away, a sketch artist was brought in, and the composite drawings were distributed to the media, showing two very mean looking men with furrowed brows. Soon, a new tip came in that two French speaking men who matched the same description had been hired temporarily in the area for slash burning and were working there at the same time that the families were camping. These two French guys looked promising, and more and more tips started to come in. By the end of October 1982, they'd received hundreds and hundreds of them, with a new one coming in every three minutes. Around 40 investigators worked the case full time, doing 16-hour days without a day off for

several months. One person said they saw the truck and camper with the two men inside heading east on the Trans-Canada Highway. It was clear that locating these two men was going to take some time, and by that point, they really could be anywhere. But then, the RCMP received a tip a bit closer to home. A ranger from Wells Gray Provincial Park had just come into town after some time in a cabin with no TV access, and when he saw the news about the truck and camper, it sparked a memory. He contacted the RCMP and told them that he'd remembered seeing a similar truck and camper in the park a few months back at a place referred to as the Old Bear Creek Prison Site. In the book The Seventh Shadow, lead detective Mike Eastam described arriving at the

site, quote, the entrance was so overgrown that unless you slowed your vehicle right down, you'd miss it. He described seeing a fire pit surrounded by river rocks with large pieces of cut logs sitting upright and long boards resting on them. Obviously, this was seating for six people around the campfire. Sergeant Eastam had seen pictures of George and Edith Bentley's previous camping trip setups and recognized something familiar at the site when he saw it, a square can with a wire through it resting on two blocks of wood at the campsite. It was a setup they used to stabilise their camper and as the truck and camper were not there, it stood out. The officers searched the area carefully and turned up some more items. There was evidence that the family had been roasting

marshmallows and they'd found some bottles of beer keeping cool in the creek, that same brand of bottle that remained in the melted carrier on top of the Johnson's burnt out car. So the RCMP had now found the family's campsite, but they wanted to know if it was also the crime scene. A ground search uncovered six shell casings from a .22 caliber rifle. This matched the bullet wound found in one of the skulls. And while this was good news for the investigation, there was no evidence of whoever was responsible for the attack. Several months had passed since the Johnson and Bentley families went missing and there had been rainfall during that time. And there were notable things missing from the campsite. The truck and camper of course was

still missing, as was the aluminum boat that was secured to the top along with a bunch of camping gear and tools. And the RCMP was still on the lookout for those two French speaking guys who by now could have made it to the other side of the country. Investigators decided to keep the location of the campsite a secret. The fact that it was at the old Bear Creek prison site would be hold back evidence that only the killer would know. They hoped it wouldn't be long before more information came to light. As the months passed and 1982 turned into 1983, the case seemed like it was growing cold. It was now one of the most highly publicized missing persons cases in Canada with dozens of investigators still working full time. By this point investigators had tried just

about anything they could to generate leads, but hadn't made much headway. Mike Eastham wrote in his book that they had used helicopters and long aerial searches of the park and tracked down all the people on file that had stayed in the park that summer. He wrote they'd connected with Fish and Wildlife, Department of Highways, BC Telephones and Hydro, Interpol, Customs, US Law Enforcement. They tried hypnosis, psychics and infrared. They looked at almost all pawn shops and second-hand goods stores in BC and Alberta for missing items that belonged to the families, as well as searching ditches along the Trans-Canada Highway. Nothing of interest turned up. Everyone was on the lookout for that truck and camper and the two scruffy-looking men who the RCMP believed were still heading out

east. But by April of 1983, the tips again started to slow down. The RCMP couldn't continue to have this number of operatives working this investigation with no new leads while they were needed on others. A reluctant decision was made to cut the number of investigators working the case to just five. At this point the investigators were in a strange position. Their instincts were telling them that the answers they needed were local to Wells Gray Provincial Park. But if they went by the tips they'd received, the answers they needed were out east with the two men driving what was thought to be the Bentley's truck and camper. It was time for the team to do something that made a big splash. The RCMP arranged for a reenactment to be filmed as a special program to be aired on Primetime TV.

Actors were chosen that resembled each of the six family members and it showed them getting ready for their camping trip in Kelowna and camping together in the park. The reenactment didn't depict the murders or the burning of the Johnson's car out of respect for their loved ones. Nor did it reveal the location of the campsite as being the old Bear Creek prison site because this was still hold back evidence. When the program was ready it aired on Global in April of 1983. Tips surged again but none of them resulted in any solid leads. So the next month it was time for a new plan. An exact replica of the Bentley's truck and camper was created complete with its distinctive bright colors and custom modifications. There was even

an aluminum boat secured on top. In May of 1983 the replica truck and camper went on a very public press trip. It was driven from British Columbia on the west across to Quebec in the hope that someone would see it and remember something that might trigger a new lead. The plan was that as the camper was driven through selected cities there would be local press conferences held to ramp up publicity for it so that the local public were aware of what was happening. At the press conferences the composite sketches of the Frenchmen were shown. News releases were distributed and thousands of reward posters offering a $35,000 reward for information were distributed. And the tips again started flowing in. This was 1983 and the RCMP were receiving a massive data

that they needed to organize and store so it was a newsworthy development that they were using computers. They had to hire extra personnel just to operate the machines. In total almost 1,300 people called police with new sightings of both the truck and camper and the two scruffy Frenchmen. But again none of them resulted in a solid lead. It was incredibly frustrating for everyone from the investigators tirelessly working the case to the local residents of the area who were worried about a killer still on the loose to of course the loved ones of the Johnson and Bentley family who needed to know why this happened. The tactics the RCMP had used the reenactment the replica truck and camper and using the media were criticized for being too far out of the box not to

mention extremely expensive. The chase for the two Frenchmen was described as a wild goose chase across Canada. One retired former RCMP detective even came out of the woodwork to criticize the work of his former organization to the Vancouver Sun. Telling the paper he believed what he referred to as a couple of 16 and 17 year old psychotics had committed the crime. Robbery was the motive and he believed the truck and camper had never left the park. The investigators working the case were crushed at all this feedback and criticism but they had to keep going. With nothing left to go on they had devised innovative creative ideas to get the media and the public engaged with the case and away Canadians had never seen before. It was the most publicized investigation to date

but it was so hard not to be discouraged when they still had no answers. Another month went by and then a new tip came in that got instant attention. It was from an auto body mechanic in Windsor Ontario. He had seen one of the national bulletins about the case and called to say that around three or four months earlier two French speaking men driving what looked like the Bentley's red Ford pickup truck approached him. The men told him they had recently removed a camper that was mounted on top and they wanted the body of the truck painted a different colour. The mechanic looked over the truck and noticed there were modifications to the front and rear bumpers and also to the bed of the truck. The details of George Bentley's modifications

were never made public and the investigators noted the details this mechanic was giving were eerily similar. The mechanic said the two men asked if they could have a midnight paint job meaning a job usually done outside business hours and paid in cash with no record of the transaction. It's illegal and they had another question. They wanted to know if he had any recommendations for how to get rid of two guns. The mechanic said to the RCMP that he was a former criminal trying to stay on the straight and narrow and didn't want to get involved with whatever these two men were doing but he did give them the name of someone over the river in Detroit Michigan that could help them. He gave that same name to the RCMP. This was a massive tip

but the RCMP can't just cross the border and interview someone in the US as they have no jurisdiction there. Official process must be followed so they had to start by reaching out to the FBI to assist them. It took weeks of planning and organization but finally all their ducks were in a row and a trip to Detroit to conduct an interview was arranged but just as they were getting ready to leave another tip came in that would change everything. Do you have a passion project that you're ready to take to the next level? SquareSpace makes it easy for anyone to create an engaging web presence, grow a brand and sell anything from your products to the content you create and even your time. When I launched this

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Just before the RCMP left for Detroit, two forestry workers in Wells Gray Provincial Park called in to report something they'd found on Trophy Mountain in the park's southeast region. To give you some perspective it's about 23 aerial miles from the Bear Creek campsite and about 4,700 feet up Trophy Mountain down an old abandoned logging road two forestry workers found what they believed to be George and Edith Bentley's Ford truck and camper they called the RCMP. Just like the Johnson's Chrysler the Bentley's truck and camper had been set alight with an accelerant and was now a completely burnt out wreckage and it was clear that the vehicle had been driven deep into the bush with the intention of letting it roll into a deep gorge where it

likely wouldn't have been discovered for a very long time luckily there were some large logs in its path and it stopped short but the attempt to hide it was still successful it wasn't known how long it had been there but by the time it was found a year after the murders it was almost impossible to see the burned out truck and camper contained no evidence except this a 22 caliber bullet hole in the passenger side the RCMP announced that the Bentley's truck and camper had been found at Trophy Mountain but did not release the bullet hole information to the public this detail was kept as hold back evidence along with Bear Creek the location of the campsite details that only the killer would know but this discovery meant something important for the investigation

as the Vancouver Sun reported it meant that the person or persons responsible for murdering four adults and two children was clearly quote intimate with the relatively pristine wilderness and the back roads connecting each location involved in the crime the burnt out Chrysler the campsite turned crime scene and now the burnt out truck and camper all access through abandoned logging roads and areas of Wells Gray Provincial Park that only a local would know what this meant was that the RCMP had to start at square one again they focused back on the clear water area that small town to the south of Wells Gray Provincial Park more investigators were added to the case and more than 20 of them went door to door and re-interviewed everyone a second time

now that more than a year had passed since the murders maybe someone had heard or learned something of interest in that time after all with a killer still on the loose everyone had been paying attention early into their second round of interviews they received a tip that they should look into a local man called David Shearing there were also whispers that David was responsible for a hit and run in the park a couple of years earlier and had gotten away with it that same day an investigator was eating lunch at a local diner when a waitress slipped him a mysterious piece of paper it read two words Dave Shearing police quickly looked into this David Shearing he was 24 and at the time of the murders he lived in his mother's farmhouse only a

few kilometers away from the Bear Creek campsite his father had died of cancer and his mother was living in a retirement home his brother was reportedly a sheriff from what they could see he came from a nice normal family who lived on an isolated farm in the area and had enjoyed a simple upbringing with hard-working parents and two siblings but it was clear that David Shearing had somehow diverged from his family he'd been in trouble with the RCMP many times before for drugs drunk driving and getting into fights investigators had also heard rumors that he liked underage girls around the age of 13 or 14 lead investigator Mike Eastam recalled interviewing David the first round of interviews with Clearwater residents thumbing through his old notes he saw

that David was cooperative he told them he didn't see anything and couldn't remember anything from that time he added that he didn't know who could do such a thing and quote the guilty people deserve whatever they get he promised to call if he remembered anything investigators learnt that at the time David worked in Clearwater this meant that every day he likely drove past the old Bear Creek prison campsite on his way to work he knew exactly where it was but now David Shearing was no longer in town and as investigators worked to find out more about him and locate him others continued to go door to door in Clearwater conducting interviews they had an interesting experience with a local resident who was at first reluctant to speak after prompting from his wife

he told investigators that he had heard Dave Shearing talking about re-registering a truck that might have been stolen a truck with a bullet hole in the door as you'll remember the information about the bullet hole in the door had never been released to the public this was a big break for police everything they were digging up was pointing at David Shearing police interviewed a man called Ross one of David's closest friends who confess that he was in the car when David ran over and killed a man on Wells Gray Park Road this was fact-checked the young man had left a party and was walking on the road when a car apparently driven by David Shearing hit him David and Ross had both been drinking and Ross told the RCMP that David didn't

even bother to stop the car he just kept driving and of course the young man tragically died with this information the RCMP had something to bring David Shearing in for and at least get him out of the community while they continue to gather evidence about his possible involvement and what was now widely referred to as the Johnson Bentley murders they suspected that a person might act a little differently after they had murdered two adults and four children so asked residents if anyone they knew seemed to change suddenly there were no reports of this even people who knew David Shearing said there was no noticeable change in his demeanour or behaviour around the time that the families went missing he was observed getting drunk

and socialising with his friends as if nothing had happened the RCMP tracked him down in a town called Tumblr Ridge about 800 kilometres north of Clearwater they discovered that only two months beforehand David Shearing had been arrested for being in possession of around $40,000 worth of stolen tools he had been released and was under an agreement to stay in the local area working until he returned to court the RCMP found him two days before his court date and asked him if he would come to the station to help them with an investigation at the station he was introduced to investigators Ken Lybal and Mike Eastam who wrote about the interview in great detail for his book The Seventh Shadow starting with their attempts to make David relax by asking the usual

casual questions about his family his background and where he worked David said he was currently working for a local craftsman but he'd also done cabinet making general labour worked at a fertilizer company and had also done construction work David Shearing was a big guy around six foot three inches and 250 pounds people called him moose and tank detective Eastam expected him to have a big booming voice but was surprised that he was quietly spoken Eastam described his drooping brown moustache that gave him a tough western look coupled with eyes that were described as dark and lifeless it was clear to Eastam that David Shearing had quote had his nose rearranged a few times it was spread all over his face must have been in one of those fights Eastam asked

if David had any issues with the police the man admitted he didn't have a lot of money and was trying to supplement his income by stealing he described himself as being really stupid and also blamed the crowd he hung out with Eastam noticed that David was getting uncomfortable so he switched back to casual questions asking him about friends and hobbies he had and what he liked to do in his spare time David said he got along with pretty much everybody in clear water and as for hobbies he liked to play the guitar work on trucks and go fishing when asked about alcohol and drugs he confirmed he liked to drink alcohol and said he hadn't done many drugs since high school Eastam then asked David if he liked to hunt and David quickly replied no too quickly

in Eastam's opinion and he also said no to owning guns this was especially interesting because he'd told the officer on the ride to the station that he had a 22 caliber rifle that had been at his mum's house the investigators asked him if he had any idea why they'd brought him to the station David replied that he didn't know he was an honest guy who didn't have anything to hide detective Eastam then read him his rights the first time he would be read his rights several times throughout this interview David suddenly asked them are you guys investigating the Johnson Bentley murders it was interesting that he would be the one to bring it up Eastam asked him if he'd been questioned about the crime before and David confirmed that he had been interviewed the first

time by the RCMP in any event Eastam told him that wasn't why he was there today he told David they'd brought him in because of the hit and run and the rumors they'd heard from multiple people about his involvement David Shearing immediately confessed I was driving I guess you know that Eastam asked him to recount what happened that night the story was the same as what his friend Ross had told the RCMP he was driving after a night of partying and they were going too fast up the top of a hill when suddenly his headlights illuminated a shape and before he had time to react they collided and the whole car bounced David said he was scared shitless because that meant the shape was a person and they were likely now dead and he'd been drinking when asked how he

felt at the time David said he was really confused and upset that he'd killed someone he was upset about it for a while afterwards too and still thought about it often at this point detective Eastam left to grab some coffee and when he came back David appeared to be crying later he rested his head in his left hand with his elbow on the table in a kind of slouched over position with a pen and paper David wrote down his statement of the events of the hit and run and they reviewed it together before he signed off when they were done the detective asked David what do you think about the Johnson and Bentley murders David replied that it was pretty bad for the community Eastam asked if he knew the area where the truck and camper were found David said yes

Trophy Mountain Eastam started to ask if he knew where they'd been killed and David suddenly interrupted and said Bear Creek the Bear Creek location was never made public and instantly a look on David's face made it clear he'd realized what he'd done he said I think I need to speak to a lawyer now as his lawyer was contacted and told to come to the station Eastam knew they had the man they'd been looking for and needed for him to confess and they needed to find out why David had decided an entire family of six needed to die that day but they knew once his lawyer arrived he'd be advised not to talk so they had a very limited amount of time and they had to be strategic Eastam used the tactic of assuring the perpetrator that they're a good person they just made a

massive mistake he told the 24 year old quote David I don't know what triggered you to do it I know it happened I just don't know why you do need a lawyer there's no question about it you need one but I know what happened and so do you the difference is you know all the details and I don't as David started crying again Eastam had detected that he was worried about what his mother might think and said don't make me involve your mother I don't want to go and search her place or your brother's place as David cried even louder Eastam tried to reassure him as best he could this was his chance to make things easy he'd already confessed about the hit and run so he probably wants to confess to this too but they did understand that he was scared and felt

under pressure David replied I could shoot myself Detective Eastam's experience and instincts told him they were inching closer to a confession after more prompting questions about the murders of the Johnson and Bentley families Eastam asked David point blank if he remembered it well he replied yes and with that the person responsible for the murders of George Edith Jackie Bob and Janet and Karen a horrific crime that had led the RCMP on an expensive and highly publicized wild goose chase around the country had just taken the first step and admitted to it but now to get the details to find out why still crying David told them the gun was still at his mother's farm and drew a map of its location

he also drew maps of the Wells Gray Provincial Park to mark each of the points of his confession and from there it all came out David confirmed the RCMP's theory that he had seen the families camping at the old Bear Creek prison when he'd been driving home from work he said he decided to take a walk that night and found himself heading back to that spot he went to a vantage point and watched with idle curiosity as the four adults and two young girls bustled around a fire lit campsite he told the investigators that at one point he thought he'd been spotted so he went back across the field and hid in some shrubs after he realized he was wrong and the campers were still not aware of his presence lurking in the bushes David headed home

he said the next night he went back following the same path being a local bushman an expert on the terrain he knew exactly how to approach the campsite he went through the bushes to enter the campsite area from the other side where the back of the truck and camper was he crapped up beside the truck and saw that the four adults were sitting around the campfire he slowly crapped up behind them and raised his gun the 22 caliber rifle four bangs four people shot in the head he had crept up so close that he only spent what he needed one bullet per person the lives of George and Edith Bentley and their daughter Jackie and her husband Bob were extinguished by David shearing before they had a chance to realize what was happening David then went to the tent

where he said Janet and Karen were sleeping he said he shot them both too he dragged the bodies to the Johnson's Chrysler Plymouth and piled them inside then he went back to the campsite took down the tents and quickly cleaned up stealing any tools and gear that caught his interest he drove the car with the bodies of the two families he'd just killed to another area and parked it and the next day he drove the truck and camper and parked it near the Chrysler leaving the two vehicles together before returning again to rifle through their belongings and take what he wanted he then waited until a dark night and drove the Chrysler up to Battle Mountain right in the heart of the provincial park taking it into the bush as far as he could moving logs

and a couple of rocks along the way eventually the car got stuck and he decided to leave it where it lay he poured gas inside and in the trunk and then set it alight the car exploded David said he watched the car burn for a while flames leaping toward the sky and then he headed home and a few more days later David drove the truck and camper up Trophy Mountain Road again driving it into the bushes and tending to roll it into the gorge but it too got stuck he used a full gerry can of fuel to set it on fire and again stood and watched as it burned before returning home so David Shearing had confessed to the murder of the Johnson and Bentley families but the RCMP was still unclear on the motive all David would say

was that he wanted their stuff their tools and their camping gear to kill six people just for some tools and gear did not make sense investigators had been interviewing David for six hours and didn't believe he was telling the whole truth but they at least had enough to charge him enough for a conviction they asked him if he had anything more to say he said he didn't and then added just that I feel really bad about it David Shearing was charged with six counts of second degree murder the crown considered charging him with first degree murder but didn't think they had enough evidence to prove planning and intent after David Shearing had been charged pictures of him appeared in the local media and he was described by the Vancouver Sun as about six foot

three a hundred and ninety pounds with curly brown hair and a thin brown moustache the public interest was massive with everyone wanting to know exactly who this monster was that could commit such a horrific crime and then evade capture for over a year by all accounts there was nothing out of the ordinary uncovered about David Shearing's childhood it all seemed very very normal he grew up on an isolated farm where he enjoyed exploring 160 acres of spectacular wilderness scenery his parents were hardworking and he had two siblings nothing notable happened in his childhood his school counsellor observed him to be quiet shy and self-conscious a c plus average student after high school he reportedly struggled to find

a full-time job so he found temporary work with a local craftsman he eventually decided to attend the local community college and studied mechanics for six months he did well and received an award for coming second in the class over the next five years he would move from job to job multiple former employers said David was a good and conscientious worker he would do any task without complaining but for some reason he never stayed at any one job for very long David apparently loved to read mostly mechanic magazines handyman books and science fiction he liked to fish and hike his brother would describe him as kind sympathetic and sensitive and quote although at times he drank to excess his drinking was not an obvious problem to the family at some point their father

was diagnosed with cancer which became terminal and he passed away in march of 1982 this was just five months before david murdered the johnson and bentley families a colleague observed him to be extremely upset after this because he admired his father greatly and felt like he'd lost a friend as well as a father but apparently by that summer he was back to himself that was the same summer that the johnson and bentley families disappeared david shearing appeared nonchalant during a short court appearance and after the hearing was over he tried to shield his face but media outlets managed to show a side profile shot of a man with a hardened face that looked much older than his 24 years the day after his confession

the rcmp took him back to each of the three locations so he could show them what he did at each bear creek where he murdered all six members of the family battle mountain where he burned their bodies inside the johnson's chrysler and trophy mountain where he burned their truck and camper david then showed investigators where he hid the small aluminum boat and the other belongings then he took them to his house and took the 22 caliber rifle off the gun rack in the living room wall and handed it over it was the same size bullet wound that forensic investigators had found in the cremated remains and it matched the six shell casings found at bear creek david also returned a walkman that belonged to janet and caron the johnson's family camera and a bunch

of the family's clothes as well as some tools and then he was taken back to jail after 14 months the investigation was finally over in total police had processed nearly 13 000 tips and leads and had 30 filing cabinets worth of paperwork but the rcmp still wanted what they suspected was the real motive for the crime detective mike eastam asked david shearing if he would ever tell them what his true motive was and he said he would tell them when he was ready david was looked over by a local physician who assessed his potential need for a referral for treatment for mental illness he was deemed to be not mentally ill and fit for trial in the lead up to the hearing where he would be required to plead guilty or not guilty

detective mike eastam continued to visit him in jail he said he thought it was time that david told the truth about why he murdered the families david still refused to speak eastam promised he eastam promised he would be back to check again on april 16th 1984 25 year old david shearing cried as he pleaded guilty to six counts of second degree murder the edmonton journal described him as a hulking broad-shouldered man with a hook nose at the sentencing hearing the crown asked the judge to give the 25 year old the maximum sentence quote there is never an excuse for murder but there's usually a reason but here there is not even that there was no alcohol and no drugs involved there is not the slightest

suggestion that these six people annoyed the accused or even insulted him there is nothing it was a senseless killing of six innocent and totally defenseless strangers the defense argued for leniency and gave a few reasons they claimed the death of david's father of cancer a few months before he committed the murders had left him distraught and drinking heavily his lawyer reminded the judge of his client's cooperation in the investigation and emphasized that he appeared remorseful and david had apparently contemplated suicide often but decided he couldn't go through with it the defense said that the reason why he was pleading guilty is because he didn't want the family and friends of the johnson and bentley families or his own friends and family to go

through a trial according to the edmonton journal letters from his friends former employer and brother were presented as positive testament to his character describing him as a polite shy and charming young man who was always trying to help other people and was more at home on a mountain side than in a large crowd all maintained they were shocked when it was announced that david shearing was the murderer it seemed so out of character for what they knew of him his mother had said that she hoped it was a bad dream david's brother had been angrily quoted in the media saying he had a hard time believing everything and was going to refrain from saying anything because it quote wouldn't be fair to david he asked what happened to this young fellow who was kind and

considerate in the defense's closing statement david's lawyer called the murders a frightening and horrendous act but appealed to the judge to keep in mind that quote david shearing is still a human being before sentencing supreme court justice harry mckay described the crime as the cold-blooded and senseless execution of six defenseless and innocent victims for no apparent reason he described the case as being at the upper range of culpability because the johnson and bentley families were unknown to david shearing and they did not in any way provoke him quote he knew they were camped at the site and carefully scouted the situation he went home and returned either that night or the next with a loaded 22 caliber rifle why we do not really know

but it seems it was to rob and kill the judge added there were no mitigating factors and the enormity of the crimes demanded the maximum sentence as for all of those good character reports presented by david's family friends and acquaintances the judge stated that for the purposes of the matter at hand it was all negated by the enormity of his crimes quote obviously there is another side of him which even his family and closest friends are unaware a side that makes him in my view a very dangerous man there is a david shearing who without any apparent motive walked into a campfire light and deliberately shot and killed the four adults and who then knelt at the tent flap and shot and killed the two young girls and then there is the david shearing

who carried out an elaborate time-consuming and ghoulish cover-up yes i agree i must consider the character of the accused as described by his friends and acquaintances and by his family but i must also keep firmly in mind the other david shearing the one who committed these dreadful crimes david shearing was sentenced to the maximum penalty of six life sentences to be served concurrently or at the same time with no chance of parole for 25 years which would make him eligible in 2008 just as harry mckay said it was the harshest sentence ever given for second-degree murder in canadian history at the time but this was not the end of the story the bentley and johnson families had been obliterated what remained of their family

banded together to make sure their side were represented in court jackie had two siblings sharon and brian outside court brian told reporters that he could have understood what had happened if david shearing had been a hardened criminal but he said the family was satisfied with the sentence as he got the maximum quote now we can start putting it behind us david's lawyer did not file an appeal in the time after the sentencing lead detective sergeant mike eastam went to meet with david in prison everything was behind them david had been sentenced and there was nothing more to be done nothing for him to lose it was time for him to tell the real motive for the murders as eastam wrote in his book the seventh shadow he had an idea of what the answer might be

and he believed the two girls janet and caron johnson were at the center of it all he reminded david that he had promised and it was time to collect it was time to tell the whole story and he was not going to take no for an answer david started talking the first night that he saw the family at the bear creek site on his way home from work he focused in on the two girls particularly 13 year old janet with her long blonde hair he said when he returned to the campsite the next night he waited until the girls had gone to bed quote i knew i was going to have to kill those other four to get the girls eastam couldn't detect any emotion or remorse in his voice as he spoke once they were in the tent david said he crept up behind the camper with his rifle in hand

one of the women saw him and stood up he wasn't sure if it was edith bentley or jackie johnson because it was a dark night david yelled don't move i got a gun then bob johnson stood up david shot him the first shot bob started gurgling and making a noise david assumed that he had shot him in the throat then david saw george bentley running over to the truck and he fired at him he then saw jackie run over to the tent to protect her daughter's janet and caron but as she passed the halfway point between the tent and the campfire david shot her in the head and she fell to the ground then he set his sights on edith who was trying to get inside the camper he came up behind her and shot her in the head david turned to the tent where he knew the girls

were and walked over he opened the front flap and saw 13-year-old janet and 11-year-old caron sitting up on their elbows they asked him what the noise was and he told them there were some bad people out there and that their parents had told him to stay in the tent with them while they went to get help the girls asked if it was motorbike people and david told them that yes it was and advised them to stay put and don't come out of the tent he told detective eastam that he shut the tent flap again and looked around he noticed that bob johnson was still alive still making the gurgling noises holding on for dear life he shot him again david said he then piled the bodies of the four adults in the back seat of the

car and covered them with a blanket when he was done he crawled back into the tent with janet and caron the girls must have been absolutely terrified just 13 and 11-year-old girls who had little knowledge of the dangers that exist in this world and were reduced to waiting in a tent for their parents to return for help at the mercy of the strange man who they hoped was on their side he was not as detective eastern wrote in his book i knew what he was going to tell me as soon as he was in that tent with those girls but there was no experience in the rcmp that could have prepared me for my reaction after janet and caron johnson survived their first sexual assault david shearing ordered them to help him take down their tent clean up the rest of their

site and put almost everything in the camper the girls kept asking where their parents were and each time he said they were still off getting help he told the detective that he knew they hadn't seen him shoot their parents so they didn't have any reason not to believe him he added that janet and caron considered him their hero mike eastern knew that was bullshit from his book the seventh shadow quote edith and jackie must have been screaming at the top of their lungs when bob was shot and the report of a 22 caliber while not very loud is a real awakening snap i firmly believed they had seen it all their dad being shot down in mid sentence their grandfather being killed near the truck mommy struck down by a bullet as she ran to save them grandma stalked and shot in the back

of the head at point blank range eastern said he believed the girls had seen it all and he would not be convinced otherwise david shearing kept janet and caron as hostages for around a week maybe longer he couldn't quite remember and during this time they were repeatedly sexually assaulted and tortured he said the first day he ordered them to get into the front seat of their family car the chrysler plymouth in the back seat were the bodies of their parents and grandparents covered in a blanket he drove them all to a different location and told janet and caron to set up the tent there and to just stay put because those biker people were still out there he said quote they were so scared they did everything i told him to with the girls in the tent he walked

back to the campsite to pick up the truck and camper he wanted to hide it somewhere within the woods on his mother's farm he then went back to the tent and fed the girls a story that he'd saved their parents and helped them get away and apparently they would be back once they were set up in the tent david warned janet and caron not to go anywhere because the bears walls and bikers could find them and when he felt they were settled he went back home the next day after work he went back to the tent where the girls were still waiting he told them that he talked to their parents again and they agreed it was the safest for them to stay put according to david quote they were pretty happy with that story and they trusted me

we talked a lot at night before they went to sleep three more days and nights of this nightmare situation for janet and caron who were doing everything they were told in the hope that they would stay safe to be reunited with their parents then david told them that their parents were going to meet them at a fishing cabin he told them it would be a long walk to the cabin through the brush in the dark he told detective estem that it was raining and the girls were wet and really cold and likely completely broken by this point the cabin was quite a way away it seemed and the first night of the walk they camped underneath a sheet of plastic that david had suspended with some string between some trees

he told estem that the girl slept in one sleeping bag and he slept in the other the next day he said they made it to the cabin same sleeping arrangements he carved the initials ds plus jj on the wall of the cabin david shearing and janet johnson the existence of this carving was later verified and it was clear now that janet johnson was the main target of the attack the next morning they woke up in the cabin and saw some people fishing in the river then there was a knock on the door david quickly hid the girls behind the door and ordered them to be quiet it was a local prison guard from the new bear creek correctional facility who told david that those people fishing in the river were local prisoners

on a supervised fishing trip and there was no need for concern the girls were silent and david was sure that the guard hadn't seen or heard anything detective estem would verify this story by tracking down the prison guard who remembered the encounter and was likely horrified to learn there were two young girls being held hostage behind the door david shearing continued with his story the next day he said he took janet and caron back to his mother's farm he then took 11 year old caron for a walk into the woods and told her to look away because he needed to urinate when she turned her head david shot her then he went back to where janet was and when she asked about her little sister david told her that he tied her to a tree

he kept janet alive for one more night describing it from his warped mind as though the two of them finally had some time alone together and they stayed up most of the night talking he also commented about janet's inexperience when it came to sex as though he wasn't a 24 year old man sexually assaulting a 13 year old child the next day david took janet out the back and told her to turn her head so he could urinate she lived 24 hours longer than her sister but her fate was the same david shearing had ended all six lives and now it was time to get rid of their bodies the entire time he'd held janet and caron as hostages the bodies of george, edith, jackie and bob had remained in the back of the chrysler covered in a blanket

he put janet and caron's bodies in the trunk then drove the car to battle mountain where he drove it into the trees until it got stuck he poured the gas on it and set it alight watching it burn before he returned home so finally the rcmp and the families had a motive for the crime and it was about as bad as anyone could imagine the remaining members of the bentley and johnson families were utterly devastated to learn the truth although horrific edith and george's son bryan told the vancouver son that this was really the only motive that made any sense he added that the family was still trying to come to terms with the murders as they knew them the fact that david shearing had shot all six of their family members

together but learning now that he had kept the girls alive for more than a week after that coupled with the unspeakable things he did to them before the horrific way they died was almost too much to bear quote it's something that we are learning to live with and when something like this comes up it's an upheaval when david shearing's family found out that pedophilia and sexual assault was the motive for the attack they were shocked again his mother roe said he was never after girls this is shocking he had several girlfriends but he didn't date them seriously he wasn't wild at some point david shearing changed his last name to his mother's maiden name

ennis and nine years after his sentencing he met a woman called heather through a friend of a friend they started writing letters and then heather started visiting him in prison they began a relationship and the next year 1994 they got married heather reportedly already had two children and changed her name to heather ennis she would visit her new husband four times a week and every two months she would join him for a family or conjugal visit a three day weekend at the prison in special facilities court documents reveal that four years after they were married heather accepted a job as manager at an event venue but when the venue discovered she was married to david ennis formally david shearing they terminated her employment she took them to court for

wrongful dismissal and argued that david is a changed man and she has a hard time believing that he could kill a fly quote he feels remorse i've watched him cry this has hurt everyone the time has come for him to work his way back she said his heart is in the right place and she was there to back him up david ennis did complete some sex offender programs while in prison starting from 1995 the year after he and his new wife got married he did another program four years later and then he attended maintenance and relapse prevention programs in 2000 and 2001 he made multiple requests to complete another program in exchange for a transfer to a minimum security facility but his requests were denied the organizers of the program had assessed his

attendance and his progress when it came to awareness and change and had formed the opinion that he was only attending the programs to move to a lower security facility in 2008 49 year old david applied for parole as soon as he was eligible after serving 25 years as part of the hearing david had to talk about the things he'd done he repeated the story he'd told mike eastam about his fixation on the girls particularly janet and told a story about one of the times he sexually assaulted her ending with the statement quote i lost the excitement i had felt i wasn't able to continue any further with the sadistic part of it at this point david apologized to what was left of the johnson and bentley families for the first time he said quote my crime was an

enormous brutal and inexcusable tragedy resulting in tremendous loss to the community that i can never make up for he said he was deeply ashamed of his crimes and wanted a chance at a new life janet and caron's cousin shelly botan would tell the huffington post that it was the first time he'd said sorry and they felt that after nearly 30 years it seemed a bit too late david's parole officer told the panel that he was at a moderate risk to reoffend and recommended against his release according to reporting by the calgary herald five family members wept as they read victim impact statements one family member michelle said she didn't believe that david was truly sorry and a woman called callie one of the cousins of the girls recounted the memorial that had been

held for george and edith bentley and jackie bob janet and caron johnson she said all the remained of her much loved relatives fit into a single child's coffin quote four adults and two children all in a baby basket the board denied parole for david ennis saying they were suspicious of his motivation and weren't sure his taking the programs was really about understanding himself and getting better or whether it was just an attempt to get more freedom for himself in the judgment the board noted that he had been diagnosed with mild indications of psychopathy he had problems with empathy and didn't seem to have absorbed the full impact of the crimes he committed the judgment also stated he had problems with pornography and had limited insight into the

role substance abuse contributed to both his sexual deviances and his violent offending after a prisoner's first parole eligibility date they were automatically eligible for a new review every two years after that in 2010 david ennis waved his right to a second review two years after that he applied again telling the board that he continues to be shamed and aware of the devastation he's caused and will always be deeply sorry he again acknowledged that he killed janet and caron to cover up what he'd done quote the last weekend after six days i knew i was already responsible for the death of four adults and i knew it had to come to a conclusion i was very selfish and knew if i let them go i would be held accountable for what i had

done his parole officer again recommended he not be released saying quote it would be frivolous for me to say he could be safely released into the community the hearing was attended by 25 supporters friends and family members of the johnson and bentley families the board noted that their numbers spoke to their continued suffering david ennis's parole request was denied with the board noting that after 30 years there were still a large number of risk concerns present the decision noted that david still had fantasies of sexual deviants and he hadn't demonstrated a full understanding of the risk factors for his behavior or how to manage it the board specified that david needed to re-enroll in a high intensity sexual offender program he also had a number of

steps to take before he could be paroled including first earning his way into minimum security prison where he would then need to establish his credibility during temporary absences before he could be paroled so the johnson and bentley family supporters had made it through another parole hearing but they were extremely fatigued janet johnson's childhood friend tamir rishankov was taking a lead at helping the family navigate the criminal justice system helping them prepare updated victim impact statements submit petitions and other supporting documents and attend the hearing and face him themselves each time they have to drop everything and drop out of their lives for a little while and two years later david was eligible for another review he opted out of it in the meantime

the families had been fighting for an amendment to legislation which came through and increased the time period between parole reviews after a prisoner becomes eligible from every two years to every five years the year after that was david ennis's next parole review and he opted out of that one too that was 2016 and with the new legislation it meant that he would not be eligible for a review again for another five years and that brings us to july of this year 2021 since david ennis his wife and his legal team will be presenting his case for parole once again the supporters and relatives of the johnson and bentley families are back in preparation mode to make sure their side is also presented for the

parole board's consideration their submission references the parole board of canada's guidelines that state the protection of society is paramount in any release decision when considering the information available to them which includes the parole board's previous decisions and comments about david ennis's progress and rehabilitation the families do not feel safe with his release at this time so they have started an online petition with the goal of amassing enough signatures to present as evidence of public safety concerns at the upcoming parole hearing and i would like to pass on a message from the families they are asking you for your help if you live in canada you agree with their position and would like to help them in some small way please add your name to the petition

so that the parole board can take it into consideration when they make their final decision you can find direct links to the petition in the show notes or on the page for this episode at canadiantruecrime.ca slash episodes whatever happens i will be sure to update you thanks for listening and special thanks to the remaining members of the johnson and bentley families for their help and input into this episode particularly janet and caron's cousin crystal wolf and tammy erishenkov their childhood friend and thanks also to my lovely friend joe for connecting us canadian true crime is a completely independent production funded through advertising and the generosity of supporters on patreon and supercast thank you to everyone who

has told a friend or left a positive review wherever you listen to podcasts it really helps the show if you don't like the ads you can get early access to an ad-free version of every episode for just a couple of dollars a month there's also a few bonus episodes there as well as a monthly debrief where i take you behind the scenes visit canadiantruecrime.ca slash support to learn more a percentage of profits and all proceeds of merch sales are donated regularly to canadian charitable organizations related to helping victims and survivors of injustice thanks to the host of true for voicing the disclaimer and also to we talk of dreams who compose the theme song i'll be back soon with another canadian true crime story see you then

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