Park Predators - The Watcher

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

For days in the summer of 1982 a predator stalked a family at their campsite in British Columbia, then made his move. The trail of death and destruction David William Shearing left behind is remembered by all who visit Canada's Wells Gray Provincial Park.Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://parkpredators.com/the-watcher/ Park Predators is an audiochuck production. Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @audiochuckTwitter: @audiochuckFacebook: /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck 

Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the case I have for you today shook me to my core because it's the harrowing tale of a through-and-through predator who literally hunted a family for days in the wilderness of British Columbia, Canada. What happened to the Johnson and Bentley families inside the rugged and beautiful woods of Wells Gray Provincial Park in the summer of 1982 is considered to this day one of the worst mass murders in Canadian history. The park itself is located five hours north of East Vancouver and is one of 391 parks in the country that's considered a Class A wilderness area. Now, Class A status means that the parkland is fully protected. No one, including commercial companies, are permitted to extract industrial resources from

it, even though the land is rich for mining and logging. The park is mostly uninhabited, and since 1939 has been considered a pristine sanctuary for nature. In August 1982, one man used several remote locations within this park to carry out horrific crimes. What he did forever changed two families and the natural fear of people all across Canada. This is Park Predators. On August 22nd, 1982, a 38-year-old man named Kurt Crack was picking berries and walking through some densely wooded area of Wells Gray Provincial Park. He was just minding his own business when all of a sudden he noticed something strange. There, a few feet ahead of him, stashed behind a bunch of brush and berry bushes, was the burned-out shell of a sedan. Kurt, who was from the area, initially thought the car was just another case of someone dumping abandoned property in the park. With so much uninhabited wilderness, it wasn't uncommon for

people to just let nature take its course with their unwanted junk. But Kurt noticed that the spot where the car was located, so far off the beaten path, seemed more odd than usual. For one, the sedan wasn't close to any roads, so Kurt knew whoever had put it there had driven a ways in the woods, and likely they intended for it to never be found. And then there was the fact that the car was also severely charred. That concerned Kurt, enough that he couldn't get it out of his head. Towards the end of his hike, he stopped two people he saw riding on horseback, and he asked them to call the local office for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The two riders told Kurt that they would and rode off.

At the time, Kurt didn't know it, but what he just found would launch one of the largest manhunts in Canadian history and be the critical clue in solving six murders. A month before Kurt found that car, 44-year-old Robert Johnson, his wife, 41-year-old Jackie, and their two daughters, 44-year-old Robert Johnson, his wife 41-year-old Jackie, and their two daughters, 13-year-old Janet and 11-year-old Karen, left their home in West Bank, British

Columbia for a long-planned camping trip. The family intended to spend a few weeks hiking and fishing with Jackie's parents, George and Edith Bentley, in Wells Gray Provincial Park. This kind of trip made total sense for the two families because, according to their friends, they were very close and got along really well, especially when they all spent time in the outdoors together. After Robert and Jackie and their two girls left their house on August 2nd, they spent a few days visiting friends in Red Deer, Alberta, before making their way to Clearwater, British Columbia, a town just outside of Wells Gray Provincial Park. According to the Vancouver Sun,

the family left their friends in Alberta on Friday, August 6th, and made the eight-hour drive to Clearwater to meet up with George and Edith on Saturday, August 7th. After 36 years of marriage, George and Edith had sold their home near Vancouver the previous year and were taking a lot of road trips in their brand new 1981 Ford pickup truck that had a camper attached to the bed of it. Now, according to the documentary, The Wells Gray Gunman, the camping trip with Robert, Jackie, and the girls was the first time Edith and George had been to Wells Gray Provincial Park. In the three years prior, the couple had taken a lot of summer

trips, mostly to southwestern United States and other parts of British Columbia. But now that they had the camper and truck, they were going to take up traveling full time. Their friends told the Vancouver Sun that the elderly couple usually liked to camp in secluded spots because they didn't like crowds. George was an introvert who enjoyed quiet afternoons fishing by himself or with his granddaughters. Edith was the more outgoing of the two, and she lived to be on trips with her family and grandchildren whenever she could. In addition to their adult daughter Jackie, George and Edith also had two other grown children, Brian and Karen, who lived in nearby

Vancouver. Friends of George and Edith told the newspaper that the couple was routine about checking in with family or friends during their travels. At the age of 66, George's health wasn't super great. He'd been forced to take an early retirement from a career job at a logging mill because of an ongoing heart condition. Edith, who was 59, cared for her husband closely. She never missed the opportunity to phone one of their kids while they were traveling to let someone know how they were doing and how George was feeling. how they were doing and how George was feeling. Edith always wanted someone to know where they'd be, and she'd often even send letters or make phone calls from pay phones whenever they got to a new city or a new park.

In the summer of 1982, the plan had been for Robert and Jackie and the girls to meet up with George and Edith, and together they would spend about 10 days on vacation in Wells Gray Provincial Park. But 10 days came and went, and it was August 16th, and no one had heard from anyone in the two families. Now, at first, this wasn't a huge alarm. You have to remember, this is 1982. No one was using cell phones or tweets or Facebook updates to stay in touch with family or friends. The first pang of concern came when Robert didn't show up for his scheduled shift at Gorman Brothers Lumber in West Bank on Monday, August 16th. His absence caused his co-workers to start to think that something was up.

was up. According to the Vancouver Sun, Robert was one of the mill's managers, and never in his two decades of working at the mill had he ever overstayed his vacation days. His colleagues wanted to take their concerns to the mill's manager, a man named Alan Bonner, but Alan was on vacation too. So instead, the mill workers called Jackie's brother and sister, Brian and Karen. And right away, Brian and Karen knew something wasn't right. They immediately went to Robert and Jackie's house in West Bank to check on things and found the home eerily quiet, but completely normal. According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, the house still had power and an operable phone line, and the family's shoes were

sitting on a staircase. There was also food in the pantry, and there were unpaid bills neatly piled on the coffee table. Literally all the things you'd expect to see if the family were planning to come right back. Trying not to think the worst, though, the family members waited a few more days to hopefully hear from either Robert and Jackie or Edith and George. But on August 23rd, Alan, Robert's manager, returned to Gorman Brothers Lumber from his own vacation, and that's when he realized that Robert was still MIA. So, sort of bewildered that one of his most trusted supervisors was not showing up to work, Alan started calling Robert's friends and family to figure out what was going on. When he spoke with Karen and Brian, they said that the last

time they'd spoken with their mother was on Friday, August 6th. Edith had called Karen from a pay phone in Clearwater and mentioned that her and George were looking forward to meeting up with Robert, Jackie, and the two girls. Everyone else that Alan spoke with echoed his own dark fears. As he talked to people, the first thought in everyone's mind was that maybe the Johnsons and Bentleys had gotten into a car accident or were trapped or lost somewhere in the dense forest. That seemed like a reasonable explanation. So the next day, August 24th, friends and family officially filed a missing persons report with the local branch of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, also known as

RCMP. With that information in hand, RCMP officials launched a massive search in Wells Gray Provincial Park, and investigators fanned out across the nearby town of Clearwater, where they knew Edith and George had been and where the Johnsons had told their friends in Alberta that they were headed to. As police tracked their steps, investigators had to rely on information from eyewitnesses who'd seen either the Johnson's sedan or the Bentley's truck and camper the weekend of August 7th and 8th, or any time between then and August 23rd.

According to the Vancouver Sun, authorities were able to confirm that before calling their adult daughter Karen, George and Edith had signed their names in a park registry book on August 3rd. But after that, government employees in the park had gone on strike, and no one put out the register in the days following that. So, based on the logbook and the known phone call that Edith placed from Clearwater, RCMP investigators felt sure that George and Edith had come and gone freely from the park between August 3rd and August 6th, but they had no concrete way of knowing when Robert and Jackie and the girls had arrived to meet up with them. On September 1st, the province reported

that a gas station clerk near Clearwater told police that they'd given the Johnson family directions into the park via an old logging road the weekend of August 7th and 8th. The clerk positively identified the two Johnson girls and told RCMP detectives that the family had specifically asked where camping areas were in the park that were close to wild berry patches. At the time, the girls had been excited to spend time berry picking on the trip with their family. Girls had been excited to spend time berry picking on the trip with their family. The directions the clerk gave the Johnsons would have put them on the old rural logging road, unfortunately, the same day that heavy rainfall hit the area.

Now that information only fueled investigators' fears that perhaps the families had gotten into some sort of accident. RCMP detectives spent six days searching for the family and their vehicles. They even brought in airplanes to fly over Clearwater and most of Wells Gray Provincial Park. The pilots were instructed to look in washed out areas for any sign of the Johnson's 1979 Plymouth Caravelle and the Bentley's Ford pickup truck with that camper on the back. Police knew that the sedan would be harder to spot, but authorities knew the truck with the camper would be a larger target. The family's friends told investigators that the Bentleys had an aluminum metal boat strapped to the top of the camper, which should have made it stand out even more. The pilots were also instructed to be on the lookout for any tents

or remnants of tents in remote camping locations inside of the park. But shockingly, after two weeks of intense searches, not a single clue about the family's whereabouts surfaced. No sign of the two cars, no metal boat, no tents, nothing. But what police didn't know was that they were actually sitting on a huge clue the entire time. According to several Canadian news reports, 19 days passed between the time when berry picker Kurt Crack had first stopped those horseback riders in Wells Gray Provincial Park and asked them to call police about a burned out car he found and when those riders came forward to RCMP detectives with that information. It wasn't until September 9th that they finally reported what Kurt had told them that he'd found in the woods.

Keith Morgan reported for the province that three more days passed before RCMP finally looked into that report. So, just to recap, that's 25 days after the Johnsons and Bentleys were first overdue from their vacation, Bentleys were first overdue from their vacation and almost a complete month since they'd started their camping trip before RCMP officials learned that a burned out car was found in the same park around the same time that they vanished. When investigators finally got a hold of Kurt on September 12th, he took detectives to the same spot that he'd been berry picking. And sure enough, they found the burned out shell of a 1979 Plymouth Caravelle camouflaged in the wilderness. The sedan was the same year, make, and model that police knew the Johnson family had been driving. When RCMP checked the license plate number, it came back as belonging to Robert and Jackie Johnson.

Somehow, even in all their weeks of searching, RCMP teams had never seen the vehicle. When officers peered inside, they realized that whoever had burned the car didn't just splash a little bit of accelerant around and light a match. just splash a little bit of accelerant around and light a match. Detectives knew that whoever set it on fire had to have doused it with gasoline because everything inside was melted. All that remained were the springs for the seats and metal floorboards. Piled in the back seat area was a bunch of ashes and what appeared to be an assortment of human bones. Right away, the detectives called in a forensic photographer and pathologist to start processing the car. A man named Harvard Boswell was the forensic photographer RCMP called in, and he told producers for the Wells Gray gunman that his job was to photograph and record all of the evidence to make sure that everything was documented and collected.

He said the task took hours. When the pathologist arrived and began examining the pile of ash and bones in the back seat, he recognized several of the bones appeared to be fractured in multiple places. Next to the bones, he found the metal head of an axe. The wooden handle was completely gone, but the iron blade remained. After the pathologist removed all the bones from the back seat,

he determined that in total, four sets of adult skeletal remains had been piled in the sedan and set on fire. The police were suspicious that the remains belonged to Robert and Jackie Johnson and Edith and George Bentley. The only question was, where were 11-year-old Karen and 13-year-old Janet? Police decided to search the car's trunk for any more remains. RCMP investigators got a tire iron and pried open the trunk. And just as they suspected, inside they found two more sets of burned bones. Both appeared to belong to children.

Eventually, dental records for all six victims confirmed what police already knew in their hearts. The bodies belonged to the Johnsons and Bentleys. They had finally found their two missing families. In the pathologist's report, he noted that because of the way all of the remains were positioned, piled on top of one another, it was highly unlikely that they died in the fire. He determined it was more likely that all six of the victims were killed before being stuffed into the car and setting it ablaze. killed before being stuffed into the car and setting it ablaze. According to the documentary The Wells Gray Gunman, one of the victim's skulls had a distinct bullet entry hole that indicated

they'd been shot. When the pathologist conducted an autopsy on that skull, he was able to retrieve a bullet. Within a few weeks, the ballistics results came in and confirmed that that bullet was fired from a.22 caliber rifle. RCMP officials didn't release that information to the public right away, though. All they told the media was that they believed both families had been shot to death. They wanted to keep the specific details of the type of murder weapon a secret from the public because it was a detail that only the killer or killers would have known. When news of the six gruesome murders and arson was released by the police, it spread far and wide across Canada. Families in all of the provinces, but especially British Columbia, were fearful that a violent murderer was on the loose and out there waiting to strike again.

People in news outlets also theorized that maybe the perpetrator wasn't working alone. There could be a network of killers in and around Wells Gray Provincial Park. I mean, after all, there were six victims found inside the Johnson's torch sedan. Everyone was asking how one person would be able to overpower that many people. On September 24th, 400 people gathered in the town of West Bank to honor the Johnsons and Bentleys. After marrying in July 1961, Robert and Jackie had planted deep roots in British Columbia and were well-liked. Robert had worked for the Gorman Brothers Lumber Company for almost 25 years and was described by his co-workers as being a dedicated family man

who loved his wife and two daughters deeply. There wasn't much information out there that I could find on Jackie, but in her obituary, she was described as a quiet and unassuming person who shared a lot of her life with her two daughters. According to the Vancouver Sun, 13-year-old Janet was an honor student at her school and was involved in sports and music. Karen, the youngest, was described by her teachers as always being full of humor and sass. During the family's eulogy, Robert's boss, Alan, talked about how much the family meant to the West Bank community, saying, quote, their memories will live on and on. Those of us who knew them will be better off for it. Their loss cannot be replaced, end quote. Detectives with RCMP

were equally as disturbed by the crime, but investigators had to focus their attention on understanding the crime scene in and around the Johnsons' car, which, not surprising, was huge. We're talking dozens of acres of wilderness that could have been part of the crime scene in one way or another. Investigators started combing through as much of the woods near the burned-out car as possible to try and find more clues. One rural dirt road a few hundred yards away from the sedan caught their attention. On that road, they noticed a freshly chopped tree off to the side that appeared to have been cut down, almost as if a path was being cleared to the spot where the Johnsons' car ended up. almost as if a path was being cleared to the spot where the Johnson's car ended up. The stump of the tree made a lot of sense to investigators because of that axe head they'd found with the victim's bodies in the backseat of the burned-out car.

Police connected these two things and realized that the killer had intended to hide the sedan as far into the woods as possible. Whoever they were, they'd gone as far as bringing an axe with them to clear a path, which RCMP found incredibly disturbing and intriguing at the same time. But despite making good connections like this in the investigation early on, the lead investigator, Michael Easdom, told the producers for the Wells Gray Gunman that the big problem facing the investigation from the start was that all of the victims weren't found until more than a month after they disappeared. That kind of delay really set RCMP detectives back in terms of being able to quickly develop a suspect, and investigator Easdom said he knew that reality would be very difficult for the public

and the families of the victims to accept. Easton was determined to make progress, though. A day after discovering the Johnsons' car, he ordered crews to tow it to an RCMP warehouse for further processing. However, not much else came from that examination, simply because the fire had consumed everything inside. Right after that, RCMP's Vancouver Serious Crime Unit arrived to assist in the investigation. And one thing everyone noted right away was that George and Edith's pickup truck and camper was missing from the crime scene. They knew if they could find that vehicle, it might bring them one step closer to identifying the killer. Investigator Easton made finding the truck his top priority, and once again, hundreds of law enforcement officers began searching Wells Gray Provincial

Park. They split the vast wilderness into quadrants and began walking trails and roadways, looking for the vehicle or any tire tracks. RCMP sent up airplanes again to survey the woods from the sky, but the forest cover was so thick that those efforts weren't all that helpful. At the same time, Investigator Eastham and a squadron of officers started door-knocking at homes in Clearwater, British Columbia. They wanted to speak with every single person who lived and worked in town to try and figure out if anyone had seen or heard anything that could help the investigation. Within a week of doing that, RCMP got two major breaks. A park employee came forward to report that during the week of August 9th, they'd seen Edith and George's pickup truck with the camper fixed to the back of it parked in a remote clearing inside of the park. This specific area was called Bear Creek Campsite.

There was no water hookup or bathhouse facility near this campsite. It was just a patch of flat bush where you could build a fire and set up a tent if you wanted to. The clearing was not a well-known camping area by any means, but friends of Robert Johnson said he knew where it was located and had spoken once about taking his family there. Immediately, the investigators went out to that area, and when they arrived, they were in for the surprise of their lives. Almost as soon as they walked into the Bear Creek campsite in the wilderness of the park, they secured it with crime scene tape. It was obvious after quickly scanning the matted down

grass and recently used fire pit that someone had been camping at that location within the last month. Investigators started looking around for clues and they quickly located a cooking pot in the ashes of the fire pit that looked incredibly similar to one that the Johnson family had owned. Police also found an unopened pack of beer bottles lodged in the nearby creek. It appeared as if someone had put them there to stay cold, but then never returned to drink them. I couldn't find any reports that stated what specific brand of beer those bottles were, but according to Investigator Easton's interview with the documentary The Wells Gray Gunman, when authorities asked Robert's friends if he drank that particular brand of beer from the creek, everyone said yes.

Needless to say, the campsite was looking promising, and after a few hours of processing it, officers got their bingo moment and knew that they'd found their initial crime scene where the murders had taken place. Right there in the grass, officers discovered six.22 caliber spent casings that had been shot from a rifle. Whoever killed the families struck there, then transported the bodies to where the burned out sedan was eventually found. According to news reports, the distance between where the car was found and the campsite was only about a few miles. At the time, RCMP didn't release to the news anything about the Bear Creek campsite or the shell casings. Detectives were very tight-lipped because they didn't want to tip off whoever the killer was. Right around the same time that the bullet casings were discovered, investigators

got another lucky break. Someone came forward to report that they'd seen the Bentleys truck and camper driving east away from British Columbia in the weeks that the family was missing. This tipster told RCMP detectives that he'd followed the same exact make and model truck into a gas station in the town of North Battleford, Saskatchewan, more than a thousand miles away from Wells Gray Provincial Park. The witness said two rugged-looking men had gotten out of the truck and went into a restaurant inside of the gas station. When RCMP followed up on that lead, they received several more reports of a similar sighting. Witnesses who worked at that gas station described the two men

as being in their mid-20s, appeared to be scruffy and disheveled, and spoke with thick French-Canadian accents. Detectives brought in a sketch artist to create drawings of the men, and not long after that, RCMP flooded local and national media outlets with the composite sketches. Authorities also released pictures of the Bentleys' missing camper and pickup truck. And no sooner did those images hit the news than more than 1,200 tips from across Canada poured into investigators. Some of the information was bogus, but a lot of the reports were super similar. The pattern that police noticed in all of the tips was that sightings indicated the truck and camper were traveling east across Canada, a little further and further every day after the murders made headlines. For example, tipsters who came forward

with information shortly after the murders were announced in mid-September, said they'd seen the truck and camper in eastern British Columbia. Then, a few days after that, somebody in Alberta reported they'd seen it. A week or two after that, it was someone in Saskatchewan, then Manitoba, and eventually East Ontario. So, at that point, police were sure that whoever stole the truck and likely committed the murders was definitely headed away from British Columbia. Through the end of 1982 and into the first few months of 1983, investigators processed and cataloged all of the information and tips coming in for the case.

By March of 1983, RCMP still had no named suspects, and to everyone's dismay, fresh avenues of investigation were beginning to dry up. So to help drum up new leads, RCMP decided to let a Canadian documentary crew from a program called Citizens Alert put together a segment on the unsolved murders. Detectives provided interviews and cooperated fully with the film crew. They even allowed them to stage reenactments inside of the park with hired actors, replica vehicles, and similar camping gear that the Johnsons and Bentleys would have owned. Lead investigator Easdom spearheaded an effort to drive a replica 1981 Ford pickup truck and camper shell along the same route through Canada that so

many tipsters had reported seeing the real vehicle. Officers mounted large signs on the side of the replica asking people to come forward if they'd seen a similar looking truck and camper since August of 1982. In May, two RCMP officers started driving the lookalike truck and camper from Wells Gray Provincial Park and stayed on the road for three weeks. At various stops along the way, officials held press conferences to keep the murders in the public eye. This effort, though atypical for law enforcement, worked. The road trip and media blitz throughout the summer of 1983 kept people talking about the case and brought in hundreds of more tips. Most of the information reinforced authorities' belief

that whoever had killed the families definitely traveled east across Canada. By September 1983, investigators focused a lot of attention on one lead in particular. A mechanic from an auto body shop in Windsor, Ontario came forward and reported that two men matching the description of the composite sketches police had released asked him to paint the outside of a 1981 Ford pickup truck with a camper on the back. This mechanic said that both men spoke with thick French-Canadian accents and were carrying a.22 caliber handgun. The men asked the mechanic where a good place would be to dispose of it in town. This information was the closest thing that RCMP detectives had had to a solid lead in months. They felt good about it

and continued to press the mechanic for more details. He told police that after he painted the men's vehicle, they told him they were headed south across the U.S.-Canadian border to Detroit, Michigan. Immediately, RCMP officials contacted the United States authorities to try and coordinate a search for these two men. But right as that was happening, forestry workers back in Wells Gray Provincial Park

stumbled upon something disturbing that brought investigators' focus away from the United States and straight back to British Columbia. On October 18, 1983, two forestry workers walking through the woods on a remote mountainside in Wells Gray Provincial Park noticed something eerie in a thick section of evergreens and brush. When they peeled away a few tree branches, they discovered the burned-out shell of a pickup truck with a camper on the back of it. Because RCMP had been making so many requests for help about wanting to find Edith and George Bentley's truck and camper, these two forestry workers knew they had to call the police right away. police right away. Within a matter of hours, RCMP teams descended on that location and confirmed from the truck's license plate that it belonged to George Bentley. According to a short video documentary by the Vancouver Sun, the location of the truck was 12 kilometers or roughly seven and

a half miles from where the Johnson's burned out Plymouth Caravelle was ditched a year earlier with the six bodies inside. The pickup truck and camper was also less than 20 miles away from the campsite authorities knew was the primary crime scene. After the truck's discovery, RCMP investigators had to face and publicly address the reality that for a year, they'd been following leads across Canada about two men and a truck that likely weren't even connected to the murders. All the while, they'd been looking in the wrong direction, and the Bentleys truck and camper were in Wells Gray Provincial Park the entire time. Former detectives admitted in several interviews that the blunder was embarrassing, and they were dismayed to realize that they had essentially wasted an entire year on a wild goose chase. Edith and George's surviving children, Brian and Karen, told the Vancouver Sun that they were disheartened to learn that the truck and camper had been overlooked by police,

but they didn't criticize the authorities. As soon as the Bentley's truck and camper were identified, everyone refocused and got to work trying to start over on the case. The first clue that was obvious to everyone was that the truck was hidden extremely well in a thick grove of evergreen trees in an isolated ravine.

Police had to actually chop down all of the trees around the site to even get to the truck and process it for clues. According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, the vegetation in that area was so dense that during the first weeks of searching back in 1982, RCMP pilots that had been searching the park would never have been able to see the vehicle among the foliage. One search and rescue volunteer told the newspaper that in that remote area of the park, you could be standing within 15 feet of that truck and never know it was there.

That's how dense the woods were. Because the truck was so badly burned, RCMP said the likelihood of finding any usable forensic evidence like fingerprints or hair was sort of out of the question. The damage was so bad that they weren't even able to tell if the aluminum boat that the Bentleys owned was still attached to the top of the camper. Everything, including the truck body itself, the camper shell, and the interior had melted into one another. But one thing officers did find on the camper that was a huge clue was a.22 caliber bullet hole in the driver's side door panel. RCMP told news outlets that the location of the burned out truck revealed a lot about the killer. Investigators said that the only person who could have known to

burn and abandon the truck there was someone who was familiar with that area of the park and knew that police would never be able to search thoroughly there. When detectives fanned out from the truck, they noticed it was just a few meters away from the edge of a cliff. RCMP surmised that the driver had likely intended to launch the vehicle off of that cliff but been unable to get as far as they wanted to. Right after the truck's discovery, police officers began re-canvassing and interviewing everyone who lived in Clearwater or nearby homes close to where the burned-out truck and camper were found. At that point, the police had completely abandoned the idea that the killer or killers had left British Columbia and taken off into other parts of Canada. RCMP felt certain about this theory.

They believed that the perpetrator or perpetrators had murdered their families and then set the Johnson sedan on fire. Then they'd driven the Bentley's truck and camper, and it was the last vehicle to be torched. Then they'd driven the Bentley's truck in Camper, and it was the last vehicle to be torched. Investigators also speculated that the killer would have had all the necessary accelerants that they needed to burn both of the vehicles readily accessible. The fact that the Johnsons had been seen stopping at a gas station prior to entering the park meant that their gas tank was close to being full around the time that they'd been killed. The tanks in Edith and George's truck and camper could have contained close to 100 gallons of gasoline. With all of this information in mind, RCMP detectives were certain the murderer had to be from that area and likely only had to bring a.22 rifle with them and an axe to get away with the crime.

According to the Wells Gray gunman, after about two weeks of canvassing the area, authorities caught a break when they visited the home of a couple living in Clearwater. Before leaving that couple's house, the wife said out loud to her husband, quote, tell the officers something Dave said, end quote. The husband was reluctant to explain more, but eventually told the police officers that their friend, a man named Dave, had asked them a few months earlier how to register a vehicle if it had a bullet hole in the door. Now, at that time, RCMP hadn't released to the media the information that the Bentley's truck door had a bullet hole in it. They'd released that the victims had all been shot

to death, but never mentioned anything about any of the vehicles being shot. So the fact that this couple's friend, Dave, had talked about trying to register a vehicle that had been shot at was incredibly interesting to RCMP investigators. The couple in Clearwater told officers the man they knew as Dave was 24-year-old David William Shearing. They said in the summer of 1983, he'd recently moved to Clearwater after living on his parents' ranch just outside of Wells Gray Provincial Park. When RCMP detectives checked their records, they learned that they'd already interviewed David once before, earlier on in the investigation while going door-to-door for tips and information back in September of 1982. But at that time, investigators didn't get any bad vibes from David. There was nothing that indicated he was related to the murders in any way.

When police tried to locate David in late October of 1983, they discovered that he was no longer living in Clearwater. When they dug into his background, they found a report connecting him to another crime in British Columbia a few years before the Johnsons and Bentleys were murdered. In that incident, a witness had come forward and accused David of hitting a person with his car on a main road near Wells Gray Provincial Park. David allegedly struck the person, ran over their body, and left them for dead. RCMP searched their records and discovered no one had ever been

arrested for that hit-and-run death, and David remained the only suspect. After a few days of searching for him, officers found out he was living in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, a town about 900 miles north of Wells Gray Provincial Park. In November 1983, RCMP homicide detectives working the murder investigation got in touch with the local RCMP chief in Tumbler Ridge. This man's name was Ron German. Ron told the homicide detectives that he was well aware of who David Shearing was because Ron had actually arrested David several times for petty theft and traffic violations. Ron told producers of the Wells Gray Gunman that he never got good vibes from David. He said that David would never look him in the eye,

and he had a general demeanor that was unsavory and untrustworthy. All of the times that Ron had arrested David, it was for things like theft, and Canadian laws in the 1980s for petty crimes were not very stringent. theft, and Canadian laws in the 1980s for petty crimes were not very stringent. So David was eventually released and continued to commit thefts and misdemeanors in town. When Ron learned that David was the prime suspect in the unsolved Bentley and Johnson murder case, he was eager to arrest David right then and there. But his counterparts in Clearwater told him to hold off. They wanted to surveil David and gather more information before moving in for an arrest. But on November 19th, 1983, an RCMP team led by Chief Ron German

converged and approached David as he was getting off of a bus in Tumbler Ridge. They asked him to come in for questioning. Ron said that David asked if he was under arrest or going to be arrested, and Ron told him no. According to his interview with the Wells Gray gunman, Ron said that he and David rode in his patrol car for two hours to the RCMP post in Dawson Creek. That post was equipped with better interrogation rooms. Ron said that the entire drive, David was calm. He sat next to him

in the passenger seat without handcuffs on, smoking a cigarette. Meanwhile, Ron was sort of freaking out. When the pair finally arrived in Dawson Creek, Ron handed David over to RCMP homicide investigator Michael Easton and another detective from Clearwater. Even though they didn't have any physical evidence tying David to the family massacre in the park, they decided to try and get him to confess. Investigator Easton's approach was to start asking David about the unsolved hit and run that a witness had accused him of committing years before the families were murdered. Easton told filmmaker Steve Allen that at the first mention of the hit and run,

David's expression softened and he appeared to be relieved. Within minutes, David confessed to the deadly hit and run. In that moment, authorities used David's sense of ease and relief to confront him about the Bentley and Johnson murders. For 45 minutes,

police talked with David about information in the murder case that was all public knowledge. Stuff like who the victims were, where their burned out cars were found, etc. Then, Investigator Easton asked David if he remembered hearing about where the victims had been killed. And David answered and said, Bear Creek Campground. Up until that point, RCMP had never released any information about the campsite to the public. The location of what police believed was the initial murder scene was only something the killer would have known. At that point, Investigator Easton realized he'd caused David to slip up, big time. The next few moments of the interrogation were critical for investigators in order to get David to confess.

They told newspaper reporters after the fact that as soon as David realized he'd said the family was killed at Bear Creek Campground, he started sweating profusely, chain-smoking cigarettes, and becoming combative with detectives. Investigator Easton didn't let up, though. He got more aggressive with his line of questioning, and after a half hour, David broke down and began to cry. He confessed and said that he'd committed all six killings and disposed of the family's vehicles. committed all six killings and disposed of the family's vehicles. After writing a full confession, David agreed to draw a map of Wells Gray Provincial Park and walk investigators through how he stalked and killed the families in August of 1982. He told police that while driving to and from his parents' ranch in the area, he'd seen the two families several times at Bear Creek Campsite.

in the area, he'd seen the two families several times at Bear Creek Campsite. One night, he snuck down to the spot and took the family by surprise while they were all around the campfire. He said Robert Johnson saw him first as he was coming out of the woods with a gun, and David fired at him. Then David said he shot and killed George, Jackie, and Edith at point-blank range. He said the last two people he shot were young Karen and Janet. He swore that his only motive for the killings was to steal their possessions, vehicles, and tools. But investigators suspected David's motives were much more sinister than that. They believed the crime was sexually motivated, specifically towards young Karen and Janet.

After several more hours of wearing David down, police learned that he sexually assaulted the girls. David eventually confessed that he had abducted Janet and Karen from the campsite after killing their family members, then kept them alive for several days in the woods to continue assaulting them. During that time, he took them to his parents' ranch and a remote cabin in the woods. At one point, David said a prison guard supervising inmates working on the Clearwater River had actually come and knocked on the remote cabin's door.

At that point, Karen and Janet were still alive inside. David said he was able to concoct a story and get the guard to leave, but after that he was fearful he would get caught, so he shot the girls in the woods the next day. He then placed their bodies in the trunk of the Plymouth Caravelle, doused it in gasoline, and set it on fire. After his confession, David took detectives to his family's ranch and showed them several items that had belonged to the Johnsons and Bentleys.

In a hiding spot in a barn, he also showed police the.22 caliber rifle he'd used to commit the murders. When word of David's arrest broke, everyone in British Columbia, and honestly all of Canada, breathed a sigh of relief. Most people were glad to see someone held responsible for such a heinous crime, but a lot of people in Clearwater who knew David were totally shocked to learn that he was the perpetrator. Some of his former high school classmates and longtime friends told the Vancouver Sun that they'd always known David to be a quiet, polite, highly intellectual person who never got into fights growing up or had any problems with anyone. David's mother, a woman named Rose, told the local newspaper that David worked odd jobs

his whole life in Clearwater and he'd always lived at home. He was the youngest of three siblings and never had a steady girlfriend or any close friends. In 1983, he'd finally moved out of the family ranch to Tumbler Ridge to find work at a coal mine. David's former employers told the Times-Colonist that in March of 1982, David's father had died of a heart attack, and that event really upset him. On April 16, 1984, David went to trial for six counts of murder. Shortly after the proceedings got underway, it became apparent how much evidence the Crown had against David, not to mention his detailed confession. In the end, David decided to plead guilty to all of the charges, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. That's the maximum sentence under Canadian law.

Canada's criminal justice system allows offenders, even if they're self-admitted murderers, the option to be granted parole. Many people from British Columbia were outraged by this sentence. A lot of residents wanted David to be put to death for his crimes. According to the Edmonton Journal, at some point while in prison, David changed his last name to Ennis. In October 2008, at the age of 49, he applied for parole. More than 9,000 people in the town of Clearwater, British Columbia, signed a petition opposing David's parole request. In the end, the National Parole Board denied him his

release. The board ruled the same way when David reapplied for parole in 2012 and 2014. In their summary report, board members wrote, quote, regardless of the gains that you have made since your incarceration, you are not a low risk for public safety. Although he has spent nearly 30 years behind bars and participated in several programs, his sexual deviance and fantasy remains. He does not fully understand the risk factors for his behavior or how to manage them, end quote. According to Tri-City News, in 2016, David waived his right to apply for a parole hearing. The next chance he'll get to apply for parole is this year, 2021. Currently, David is serving his life sentence at a medium-security prison in Canada.

He married a woman in 1995 and through conjugal visits has fathered two children. He claims that he has renewed his faith in God and is reformed. Author Alan Warren wrote in his book, Murder Times Six, that after interviewing David in person, he left the prison with the impression that the convicted murderer wanted to make himself out to be a changed and decent person, but Alan says that's what all serial killers do. During his interviews with David, Alan got to see the inside of David's prison cell. The small space was simple, had a TV, and on a regular basis, David could come and go as he pleased, even finding time to tend a garden in the prison yard. If the Canadian Parole Board denies David's request for release, his prison yard garden is the closest thing he'll ever see to the lush outdoors ever again.

And that's exactly what many residents in British Columbia say they want. park predators is an audio chuck original podcast research and writing by Delia D'Ambra with writing assistance from executive producer Ashley Flowers. Sound design by David Flowers. You can find all of the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?