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A parole hearing for Wells Gray murderer David Ennis has been pushed back to September, according a childhood friend of one of the victims.

Ennis, who used to go by David Shearing, has been serving a life sentence since 1984, for the gruesome killings of the Johnson and Bentley families in the summer of 1982 at Wells Gray Park.  He stalked the family of six from West Kelowna for days while they were camping before carrying out the murders over several days.

The bodies of Edith and George Bentley, Jackie, Bob, Karen and Janet Johnson were later found in the trunk of a car that Ennis had torched. He had killed the four adults and kept the children – Karen and Janet – alive for several more days, and tortured them before killing them on consecutive days.

Tammy Arishenkoff says the victim families had to submit documents to the Parole Board by May 1. But she says Ennis has now applied for day parole, as of last week, which has delayed the timeline for his full review that was scheduled next month.

“It essentially means they wouldn’t be ready for a hearing in July. And they’ve pushed it back to September… We’ve been told that it we want to amend our statements or submit any additional documents that we have until July 15 to do that,” Arishenkoff says.

She says Ennis could also apply to be moved from the medium-security prison where he is serving his sentence in Bowden, Alta to a minimum-security prison, and that he could also apply for unescorted temporary absences.

“It’s demoralizing. And it’s frustrating, and it makes you angry, and it’s just one more thing. But the group is riled up again now, so this may or may not come back to bite him in the butt. I don’t know, we’ll see.”

Arishenkoff says the victim families have had a stressful few months of doing interviews, written victim impact statements and submitting applications before May 1. And she says they’ve been playing a waiting game since then, only to have the can kicked down the road by two more months.

“It’s just another example of the flaw in the system. It favours the offender. They have a lot of leeway as far as timelines, and when they file applications there’s no set deadlines. Whereas the victims have to adhere to a more strict set of rules when it comes to submission of documents.”

Ennis is eligible for a full review from the Parole Board every five years, but he hasn’t had a hearing since 2012.

Since the parole hearing was first scheduled, earlier this year, there have been widespread calls to keep Ennis in jail.

A petition started by Arishenkoff asking to keep Ennis behind bars has received more than 94,000 signatures. It had 88,000 signatures when she sent it in as part of the application to the Parole Board.