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You are now listening to True Murder the most shocking killers in true crime history and the authors that have written about them, Gasey Bundy, Dalhmer, The Nightstalker DTK. Every week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host, journalist and author Dan.
Zufanski, Good Evening. It was a crime on leath, unlike anything seen in British Columbia. The horror of the Wells Gray murders, almost forty years ago transcends decades. On August second, nineteen eighty two, three generations of a family set out on a camping trip, Bob and Jackie Johnson, their two daughters, Janet thirteen and Karen eleven, and Jackie's parents, George and Edith Bentley. A month later, the Johnson family car was found off a mountain side logging road near Wells Gray Park,
completely burned out. In the back seat where the incinerated remains of four adults and in the trunk were the two girls. But this was not just your average mass murder. It was much worse. Over time, some brutal details were revealed, however, most are still only known to the murderer, David Ennis, formerly Shearing his crimes had far reaching impacts on the family,
community and country. It still does today. Every time Shearing attempts freedom from the parole board, the grief is triggered as everyone is forced to relive the horrors once again. Time six shines a spotlight on the crime that captured the attention of a nation, recounts the narrative of a complex police investigation, and discusses whether a convicted mass murderer should ever be allowed to leave the confines of an institution.
Most importantly, it tells the story of one family forever changed. The book that we're featuring this evening is Murder Time six, The True story of the Wells Gray Park murders, with my special guest, journalists, author and radio host Alan R. Warren. Welcome back to the program, and thank you very much for this interview. Alan R.
Warren, Well, thanks for having me. It's always good to talk to you.
Thank you very much for this congratulations on this new book, Murder Time six. Tell us how you came to want to write Murder Time six.
Well, you know, I get asked that sort of question all the time I was in Colowna. It's a town in British Columbia, UH in the interior, and I have a place here, and so I was up here for UH near Christmas time, and there's a hair salon in town that always buys my books, and I had a couple of new ones. So I dropped by, uh just before and and UH to give them some of my books. There's three three different girls there that that buy them.
And the owner came up to me and asked me, UH, why I have never written about this h sharing case, the Wells Gray Murders. And I said, well, you know, I've never heard of it, not being from Kelowna originally. And she kind of explained some of it and some of the details and uh, and that that there was an aquatics center in the western side of the city that was dedicated to the family and to the and and so I thought, wow, this is jeez. So when I went home, I kind of looked it up and
kind of put her to side. And you know, I always have four or five stories going at a time, and so when I located family members, I sent them, you know, letters or emails and stuff, and just to see what they thought about a book being written and if they would be interested and if they wanted to be involved, and the response was really good. It seemed like everybody was on board. And so with such a positive sort of feedback, I thought, well, it's let's start
on this. And that's that's how it all started.
Now take us back and to Bob Johnson, forty four year old man and his wife Jackie forty one years old, and they had two daughters, Janet which was thirteen, and Karen eleven, and they had planned to go to Jazzer National Park in Alberta with Dockie's parents, George and Edith Bentley, and George was sixty six years old and Edith Bentley was fifty nine years old, and Georgia just retired from his job in the lumber mill and bought a brand new heavy duty nineteen eighty one silver Ford pickup truck
with a ten foot vanguard over the cab camper and hung an outdoor motor on the back. Tell us about this family trip and where they were eventually going. We mentioned Jasper National Park, but tell us where this trip camping trip took them to, and tell us a little bit more about the Johnson and Bentley families.
Well, the Johnson's lived in West Colowna and back then and it was just a small town outside of Kelowna, just called West Bank, so it wasn't part of the city. As the family used to do everything outdoors, you know, camping, fishing, snowboarding, snow everything, just any chance to get away they could and where they lived, you know, especially back then, you drove for ten to fifteen minutes you were in the woods.
So that's kind of them. And the father worked at Gorman Mills, which he had been at for quite a while and had a really good reputation. The two daughters were in school and they in their house. They had his parents living downstairs. They're helping to take care of them, and yeah, so this trip was really kind of the summer vacation. Take two weeks off and go up to the park and go fishing and spend time together. And
they loved doing that. Wells Gray Park is a very popular park in the interior, but they sort of were more to themselves and they weren't at big into going right into the main park campsite and hanging out with everybody. They would go kind of to the outskirts. They would looked for kind of a quieter, more private place and that's what they did. So they went and found that, and initially there were going to be more members of
the family going. They were going to kind of meet up in the Jasper area and then go to Wells Gray from there, but a couple of the other family members decided they had some other things to do and there was something that kind of a wedding of a friend that they thought they'd go to, so a lot of them went their own direction, so it was just the six members of this family.
Now this Wells Gray Park. Tell us a little bit about how big this park is and the kind of park it really is. And you mentioned that they really wanted the family to get away from popular I guess capping sites, so they picked Gray'swell Park for that reason as well. But tell us a little bit more about the park itself.
Well, the park is it's it's a really popular park, especially back then it was kind of the place to go in the interior of BC. So you know, you're you're kind of between Vancouver and Calgary, the two big cities. You're a good couple hundred miles away from either one. So it's a really good location and great weather, lots of wildlife, fishing and just everything you could think of was there. So if if I think it's the third largest park in Canada, if I remember right, so, so
very very big park, very nice, beautiful area. And that was sort of their idea. And you know, like I said, instead of being in the center of the park, Uh, they kind of went out and looked for just any place that that was flatten available to camp. And that's sort of what they found. They found a nice secluded place close to the fishing, close to the river, and it was near an old abandoned prison site that was in the park. It had been closed down and most
of it had fallen apart. There wasn't a whole lot left of it. But it was a really good flat ground area. So they could set the grandparents camp rup and on flat ground and set up the tent and everything, and it was you know, do have a big bonfire and it was a perfect place.
Now you talk about the Johnson family, they had packed up all of their belongings in their nineteen seventy nine Plymouth caravel with a cartop carrier and they had left on August second, nineteen eighty two. The Bentleys had checked into a campsite two hundred and fifty miles northwest of Calgary, like you had mentioned, August eighth, and then the Johnson's arrived at August eleventh, and after that they all headed to Wells Gray Park, grandparents, the parents, and the two
girls Janet and Karen. Now they got to that park August eleventh. And when they got there, like you mentioned, they found a secluded spot. So from everything, as you write in the book, what happened once they got there. They had the ten sleeping bags, the camper, the adults were going to be in sleeping in the camper. Tell us what they did. And you talk about the grandmother wanting to make her favorite dish or favorite pie. Pardon me.
Yeah, Well, the family liked to spend a lot of time fishing and you know, doing a campfire. It was just really a time to spend together and you know, talk about their lives and they're a very close family that way. So so really it was that's what it was about. It was very warm, it wasn't out. It was a good time of the year to be there. And as far the grandmother, yeah, so they would go
out picking berries because she loved to make pies. For everybody, and so that was kind of the key thing for them. So they're going to pick berries and no no real agenda, no real time frame. I think they kind of like to get lost in, uh, just just being away from home and work and just kind of, you know, just in that atmosphere of of being a family and being together and camping and just enjoying each other and sitting
around talking about things and things like that. It wasn't, like I said, there was no big strip, you know, just pick huckleberries and things like that.
You talk about that they had an uneventful like you mentioned, a night they set up quite easily. There wasn't much to do. The girls set up the tent, They had a night around the campfire. The next day, the girls ran in the woods and explored likely swam there in their bathing suits. It's caught a small fish, he said. And so everybody was having a great time. And this, you know, Bob was just newly our pardon me, the
grandfather was just newly retired. So the thing is is that they had another great day, but uneventful in terms of anybody coming around and seeing anybody, any intruders or any visitors, whatsoever, not even roasted some marshmallows. So we'll say about the third night that they are there, what happens. As you read in the book, the girls are in the tent, and just from their perspective, what happens one night again when they're ready to go to bed. It's a little bit later, what happens.
Yeah, it was. It's kind of I played with the dates a little because talking to the killer and looking at the police reports and the family and kind of going through everything, I got a few different dates from from everybody, so I kind of put it as as second or third day. I was kind of loose on that.
Apparently what had happened was the killer had watched family for at least one night, and in his mind he wanted to be with the two girls, the two young girls, and so he would have to eliminate the four adults, and so I guess he came up with a plan in his own mind of how he was going to do that. And on the night you were talking, Yeah, the kids got put the bed in their tent and the four adults were sitting around the campfire having a beer. I believe one was standing and the killer sharing he
came out and shot the adults. Basically, I kind of explain how it happened and how he shot all four adults and with the father. The father he had shot in the neck first, and he was still alive and bleeding and was laying out on the ground. So he killed the other three adults, and then he went to the tent and what he did with the girls in the tent is still we don't know for sure, because he gave me a different story than he gave the police,
who there was a lot of you know. Either way, he went into the tent, he spent time with them, and then when he came out with the girls, he was going to take them back to his place. He could see the father was making noise and still alive, so he shot him in the head and that's right
in front of the girls. And so anyway, he took the girls back to his place, and before he did, he did put the adults in the back of the car at that time, and then he said he put the two girls in the front seat with him and drove back to his place. And again that's a questionable thing as well.
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Part of this story. Even though we've kind of stopped it and tried to explain it. In that David Ennis Well former Sharing, we'll call him David Sharing, he talked about coming up to the campsite after he had observed the girls the night before. He had seen them originally supposedly and spotted the whole family coming home from work one day, then did this surveillance of them. Then he thought maybe he might have been heard or something, so
he came back. But what he did is he said, he came there, one of the women stood up, likely Jackie Johnson, and he said, listen, I've got a gun. Don't move, and he shot her. Then Bob Johnson seemed it looked like younger man, he said, stood up and
he shot him. And then you what's interesting is that the original story we haven't even got to anything yet, but the original story of when all is said and done is much different than the story we just told about how he shot the parents and the grandparents and then went in and likely sexually assaulted these girls and then later they were killed. So we have a different story than the one that comes up at his trial and then later comes up according to a detective east Ham.
So let's go back to what happens right after this murderous rampage of at least four people. What happens well with work and with Bob Johnson. This is August the twenty third.
Right, So they had not showed up back home, and Bob Johnson had not showed up at work. So you know, the boss, who happened to be a really good friend, was a little bit concerned because that never happens, you know, And so he called home and nobody knew anything, and he started searching around, and so he called the Cologna police detachment and informed them about what was going on. And so eventually they realized that the family had not come back, there was nobody home, and something was gone,
you know, gone wrong. Initially, in their minds, I think they were thinking, you know, they got broke down, something happened in that way, or they weren't thinking, of course, what had happened. That wasn't on their minds. It wasn't on anybody's minds initially, and so that's how that went. And then eventually they caught on and realized that there
was something a little more going on. So it became concerning and the police got involved and they set up and they started doing their you know, some basic search in the parks and things like that for the family to see who had signed in and where and when and try to locate where they were. And that's how that went. Yeah, so I think that's the best I can say about that.
The first tip you write is from a local gas station near clear Water, and then an attendant there had seen the grandparents traveling with their two grandchildren and they had asked if he knew of a good spot to pick these huckleberries, which was the grandmother's favorite. That led police onto a search, including help like you had mentioned from the community, including private planes as well, and this search went on for weeks. On September thirteenth, you write,
this is still nineteen eighty two. A man, Kurt Crack remembers seeing the Johnson vehicle when he was out picking mushrooms in the park in late August, and for some reason, he doesn't report it till September thirteenth. I think because he just wasn't available for him too, or he saw the report on the news later for whatever reason. It's now September thirteenth, and he said he saw a burnt out Chrysler in the woods just off battle Mount Road.
So the person that had been contacted is Sergeant Veruda. He heads to the location. Now this is an old horseback riding trail and they find tire marks. What do they find.
This?
What is this car? And is it the car that police are looking for?
Think initially when they saw the tire tracks going off the road and Baruda got there, I guess, I guess the initial thing was that he just saw an outline of what looked like a burnt out car. And even some of the police reports, the comments were that the first thought was just it was a rusted, old, abandoned car. But he could see the license plate and read the numbers, and that's kind of when they when when they connected it that this was it, This was the car that
was missing. This is the Johnson, Bob Johnson and his wife's car. So they roped it off immediately, and then they got a hold of Easton, who's then Kamloops. Baruta was a Clearwater r c MP. And then what they did, you know, and Easton was in charge of kind of the serious crime unit, so murders and and things like that. So when they got a hold of him, they said, well, we found that we filmed the Johnson car and uh, you better get out here. And so that was it.
So of course they got their unit together and headed out to find out what was this was all about? What what evidence they could find in the car and around the car.
So they looked in the back initially, and they didn't know how many bodies were in the back. They couldn't recognize how many were there were bone fragments. So when Eastham comes he takes a look, he doesn't know either, but there's a key or a key key ring in the trunk tell us. Eventually how many bodies they found were determined were Uh, we're established that they were in the back seat and what did they find in the trunk?
Yeah, Initially Baruda and his team first knew there were bodies or they had no idea how many or what was going on. So when Easton and the other team showed up again, it was questionable. They didn't know how many people because it was all burnt out. The key ring and the key the back part where you would put the key in of the trunk to open it was busted, so he had to pry it open with a crowbar, and inside of that he found what they
thought were probably two bodies, maybe one. It was questionable immediately, but you know, once the skulls came together, they knew there was two in the back. They were also very small, and so they figured the two in the back with the children. Now this is important because then the assumption was that the two in the back seat were Bob Johnson and Jackie. And so at that point, the grandparents
were still missing. The camper which belonged to the grandparents was not around, or the bolt or the mortar and the whole thing. So at this point they thought, okay, we've got four bodies and we have to put a lookout for the grandparents and the camper. So that was kind of what it was at that point.
Yeah, And it was interesting and very very vivid description in the book as well, and very cinematic in terms of when Eastam tried to open the trunk with a crowbar, the girl's skulls were looking at them. One was shot in the back of the head, very much like the parents were shot, but there was a hole just over the left eye, and they took the bullet from that skull, and at that point you write that didn't know what happened.
Eventually they was confirmed that through dental records only. There was no DNA at that time, that all of the people in that car were all of the four adults and the two girls were in the back in the trunk. You right too, that the Johnson and Bentley families, the surviving families were forced into hiding as the media camped out in their yards and people had high hopes that they'd be found. Okay, they had a funeral service ten days after, but now there was the priority for police
to try it. As you write, find the truck and camper. This nineteen eighty one very distinctive brand new truck with a ten and a half foot Vanguard camper. You provide a great photo in there, so they all is also carrying a lunium boat and an Evan Rude motor on top of the camper. So this is a distinctive looking vehicle. And so what did the police do? What do they what's their plan to try to get people and tips about this vehicle.
Yeah, it was to think of it. And remember it was in eighty one and this is eighty two, So to them, this is like a brand new truck and camper.
So what they decided to do was get a duplicate as close to the exact same truck, camper and boat that the grandparents had, and they decided they would drive it across Canada from Vancouver to Montreal and further, and they would stop in each center with it and talk to people and hand out, you know, brochures and papers and try to get anybody to have a jog memory, to try and get them to kind of go, oh, I remember seeing this, or I saw them or something.
They just want it, And plus they wanted to keep it in the spotlight, keep it in the news, because as with anything, things start to fade, right and it no longer gets talked about in the news, and people forget and it moves on, you know. So they wanted to keep the attention of Canada, and they wanted to keep attention of everybody in all these towns so that
they might get some piece of information. They might hear something from someone that could lead them in the direction of of possibly where the camper went, because in their mind, whoever did the killing had taken off and they have at least the truck with them, if not the camper too, so they were searching for that.
You're right as well.
Though.
The real reason why they decided to do something so dramatic like this is because they when they put out initially the first they got tips on the missing truck.
Before they got hatched this idea about driving a replica across Canada, a BC resident called and said he saw two men get out of the truck at a gas station in the province of Saskatchewan, and it wasn't a family and they ended up in the same restaurant as he as he and they spoke French, and he described them as late twenties, long hair, and so anyway, sketches were made because they thought this was a reliable tip.
So that is part of the reason why they went to the outlandish or dramatic effort to bring this truck across Canada, with the hopes of somebody spotting or remembering seeing this truck somewhere along the line in their travels across Canada. Isn't that correct?
Yeah, for sure. They added that as well, you know, hoping that maybe these two French speaking guys maybe would have sold the truck or the can or they'd you know, had some sort of interaction with a mechanic or something down the road. They were hoping there was that could jog a memory as well, But it was just the whole scenario, the whole site of a camper and truck coming into your town and had signed on it, and
just the police talking to people. It was just they just wanted people to be talking about it.
You're also right too that they received a lot of tips because of this novel idea about the truck, and they also got another really good tip, at least east him thought it was a great tip in Windsor, Ontario, where two men walked into a shop needed their truck painted, immediately hung around the shop while he painted it, and then they showed him a twenty two caliber rifle and a Saturday Night Special handgun and said they needed to get rid of the of the rifle and the truck
had modifications done to the front and rear bumpers like apparently George Bentley had made similar modifications to his truck before the trip. The mechanics info looked good and Easton was called Detroit Homicide and was making his plans to go to Detroit when Sergeant Baruda from Clearwater detachment called him. What information did Sergeant Baruda have from the Clearwater detachment? What had happened?
What was found? Well, a couple of forest rangers had came in and reported it that they had saw again another burnt out vehicle, and so when he checked the license plates of that, he realized it was the truck and probably the camper, but initially they weren't sure it was still burnt out, and so he called east of them and told them, this is it. You've got to come back. I think we found it. And Eastam couldn't
believe it. He really thought he was on to the right right characters, and they certainly did sound like the people you would think would be involved in something like this. It just had too many parts that were connected and it found it right on, But it wasn't and you know, and it's true they received well over twelve hundred tips. I heard it was just over thirteen hundred from one
of the police guys later that. And the thing is when they received these tips, people actually have to review them and make sure that they're good or no good. So it does take up a lot of resources and a lot of time to go through this. So I know that they got a bad time for at the time, especially for not necessarily doing say a good job. But I think they did a really good job for the amount of manpower they had and how much was going on. So yeah, that was so, I was a big break they had found it.
Yeah, you're right though that there was criticism in the community, and especially there was an RCMP retired recently retired RCMP homicide detective Norman Lee had conducted weeks of his own investigation, and he claimed that later police ignored the fundamentals of the homicide investigation, and he criticized the original search, said it was haphazard done in piecemeal instead of centralizing in
the area of the park. He figured that the police had been distracted by the reports of the French Canadian duo and so he thought it was hard to believe that a murderer would take the time and trouble to hide the bodies in the truck and then drive across can in such a distinctive vehicle. Regardless, as you mentioned, this was a big break. August October eighteenth, nineteen eighty three. This is a big break for Eastam and German and
the other detectives. So now they're going to concentrate on door to door canvassing of clear Water and the Wells Gray areas, and I guess maybe they might have took Normal Lee's criticism to heart. They said this time they'd be contacting every single homeowner, going to every single house.
Yeah, I think they were really feeling the pressure. I think that the media and everybody was sort of starting to get on their case, and I think Eastam was really under pressure to do something. So this wasn't the first time they can This was going to be the third time they canvas in Clearwater, but they were going to do it more thoroughly and not leave any unknocked doors on answer type thing, So if there was nobody there, they would actually go back until they got someone at
every single residence. So it was a totally different time. On the third, third round, this was very important because they really had to find an answer and to figure out where this where this all came from. And he got to realize with both vehicles the way they were found in the locations there were found, it was kind of a sure sure bet that whoever it was that had done the killings knew the area, they knew they
knew the back roads. They knew where they were and how to get back home, and you know, they they so it was someone from that area, someone that had lived in Clearwater or area or was still living there now, so that was kind of in their mind there. It had to be someone local.
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You talked about the canvas and the name of David Sharing was first brought to police attention from an informant, and they had heard a story about what tell us what this informant had told them about something that had happened a few years before on the Wells Gray Highway.
Well, there was a story that what had happened was a younger guy had been run over and killed, and they had heard the story that it was David Sharing that was responsible for that, and there was also the gossip that it was a drug deal gone bad. There was just a lot of kind of unsavory talk about him as a character and what he had done to
this guy and how he got away with it. And so someone that had a sort of they were a little disgruntled or for some reason didn't like David Sharing at the time, decided to use that to get something and inform the police about this incident that had happened.
M hm.
Now there was another detective well, well actually an officer Haslett involved in the canvassing, and they went to a person's trailer and they asked a gentleman there, you may have heard we found the truck that belonged to the Bentleys, and the man as you write, yeah, I heard, and the woman asked, is that the one up my trophy Mountain? And the man scolded his wife for talking. He said, he's talking to me, And they said, well, we're wondering
if you saw anything suspicious. And then this man is really gruff with these officers and said, I told you guys, I haven't seen anything like that. So they said, what about you, ma'am? And the answer and you write the man answered for her, said no, nothing. We're not going to tell you any more than whatever we've told you. That's all we're going to tell you. And so they just bided their time for a little bit more and gave him a card and said if anything happens or
if you know anything, give us a call. Maybe not expecting much. Then they put the trailer under surveillance. Why did they put the trailer under surveillance? And what did these cops do once the husband went out.
For a ride. Well, they put it under surveillance because they had heard the female, the wife or girlfriend, say you're not going to tell them about David and the truck that he got shot up. And so when they heard that, the officer knew that he better not push it because he knew the man couldn't want to talk.
And so yeah, they put it under surveillance and they waited, and when the husband was gone, they had approached her when she was alone, and that's when she kind of told them that about the truck and about how sharing had approached her husband her boyfriend about fixing a bullet hole in the truck door, and he asked him a few other things about insurance and if you could kind of get rid of the uh, you know, the the number, the VIN number on the truck, and how if he
could reinsure it without one and stuff like that. It's just kind of shady stuff. And so they knew that the sharing had something to do with it, and so but now what they had to do was get that information from the actual husband or boyfriend. So actually, this is something later. What happened was that that same guy, that husband was out drinking in one of the bars and they waited for him to start driving, and they arrested them on a DUI and they made a deal
with him to get the information. So that's how they That was the real deep story of how they got that.
Yeah, I was but there was initially incredible break from that woman that couldn't, according to her husband, hold her tongue. Yeah, thankfully.
Yeah, that's it, you know, and they and they had a huge fight over that and broke up and it was just a real mess. Oh sure, yeah, it was terrible, terrible situation just for just for really kind of uh, you know, trying to tell the truth, and you know, it just it's just a terrible situation that someone would want to protect a killer like that.
You know, well, I don't even know if we wanted to protect. Everybody wanted to protect himself at that moment, because you know, the this guy Sharing had asked him stupid stuff like, you know, how to get rid of this serial number, but also how to maybe fix a bullet hole. So I mean, pretty incriminating stuff. And the woman woman couldn't, you know, couldn't keep that to herself. So so they do an investigation afterwards. They want to
find out who as David Sharing is. Obviously they look up his if he has a criminal record, but he lived on his father's one hundred and sixty acre hobby farm. His father tell us what his father does for a living. They also have a hobby farm, and Sharing had lived on this place till almost his whole life, except for four months of his life. So tell us what his father's occupation is.
Well, actually, his father had worked at the prison originally and was a prison guard or you know that there was another name for what he did. But he worked with prisoners in the prison, and so he was law enforcement, you might say. And yeah, they lived on the farm and he went to school. He had a fairly normal
school life. He didn't really get any trouble. His mother, she actually got really thick around this time or just before this time, and ended up being put in a hospital long Tair long term care hospital originally so and he had a brother and a sister, and he had a few girlfriends. He was so most things were. He was a pretty normal person as far as the area of the Clearwater area, small town did. All the things he fit in just fine. Just nothing stuck out, you.
Right, that Sharing was living on his dad's farm when his dad died the heart attack in spring of nineteen eighty two. His sister married and remained in the area, and David's brother became a deputy sheriff with the provincial government doing prisoner escorts and court security duties in Prince George.
That in fall of eighty three, Sharing move to tumblr Ridge. Now, tell us a little bit about this as you write about tumblr Ridge and the kind of work that he thought he would surely be able to get there.
Well, Tumblr Ridge was a fastly growing town. It was under construction twenty four to seven. He thought he would get a job up in construction. And there were a lot of camps around tumblr Ridge and one was called dog Patch and that's initially where he was, and he was doing odd jobs, but he kept getting fired from his jobs. He didn't last long. And so and you got to realize this area when I talked to a lot of the police that worked out of Dawson Creek
who took care of this area. A lot of people that would go to tumblr Ridge in the area for work were ex prisoners and people that couldn't get jobs. And so people were getting hired in these construction sites with no real reference. So so it was easy to get a job if you had you know, fairly decent you know, strength, fere and stuff like that. So he but he still couldn't keep a job there. So what he did was him and a few of his buddies decided to build a makeshift little cabin up there from
wood that they stole from construction sites. And uh yeah, so yeah, never worked out for.
And so what did they do to survive if they weren't getting the part time jobs. They're only getting part time jobs, and of course they didn't have enough money, didn't want to pay the dues to the to these little places. We're probably charging a lot of money for a little trailer. But how did they how did they make pens meet.
Theft? It was combination, mainly theft. What they would do was they'd go to construction sites and steal equipment and they would sell it, and so that was kind of the main source of income for them. And there was also some drug activity with some of the people he lived with, selling drugs and supplying that sort of thing.
So they kind of made it however they could, but it was all from illegal activity and they eventually he eventually got arrested for it as well for theft and I think forty thousand dollars theft and got convicted of that. So you know, he was living that way, and he also had a terrible habit of threatening people. Even one of the went before he made that cabin, one of the places he was staying at, he threatened to kill the manager and burn down the place because he just
asked him for his rent. So people were kind of scared of him as well. He was not like a friendly person up in that area. He was not well liked.
M you're right about another important detective here or RCMP or on German And he landed in tumblr Ridge, BC in September eighty two, or pardon me, we're talking about tumblr Ridge, BC, September eighty two, and he sees a yellow Ford pickup passing him on the road, loaded with tools. Intuitively, he figures he's going to stop them, and so you mentioned this stop. And when he stopped these two guys, the driver got out of the car and headed towards him.
He said, that's always kind of dangerous. So he put his big floodlights on so that would kind of stop the person in their tracks. And he asked for the drivers driver's license, but he was very frigidy and nervous, and he asked about the tools. Now what else did this officer German do? And see with the people that were with as we know now David sharing, well, I.
Think the big thing was, yeah, he was he had he had seemed really nervous and frigidity and all that. So what he did was he put him in the back of his car and and the big, the big thing he really noticed was the two passengers, the guy sitting in the middle and the guy sitting on the passenger side door wouldn't look back. They were they faced forward, and the whole commotion and the talking and the lights and all that stuff, they never they never moved. They wouldn't,
you know, not at all. And so I think it kind of you know, I think he said to me, a slighty senses were tingling, And so he approached the car from the right side and snuck up on them and put his gun through the window and told him to freeze. Now, those two guys had a rifle aimed at the driver's side, thinking that the officer Jermam would come up to the that side and they were going to shoot him. They were. One guy had the rifle cocked and ready and laid across the other guy's legs.
And you know, if he would have went to the wrong door, he would have been shot. Just a terrible situation. Now, and that's a very important thing that I bring up later. Actually, uh Germaine brought it up to me because he's one of the most important people in this whole case. He's one of the most important policemen in this whole case, and he's really the one that that that drove this home in a lot of ways that are very important, and even for the parole coming up, he's a very
important person in this case. But yeah, so that was it. So they were going to try and kill him. He ended up arresting them, you know, getting them cuffed and out of the car, and he never got shot.
It's interesting too, because he decides to take him back to the station and I guess asked the superiors to charge him for attempted murder considering the loaded weapon was in the lap and you could not deduce anything else. Now, now you talk about Jermaine again if that's the pronunciation of his name, right, And so two nights later, well, actually what happens is the next day, after they examined the truck with the tools, he gets a call about
a burglary, a theft of tools. So now they know they better go see David Sharing now, and they're looking for this cabin. So they go to Sharing's cabin. This is a couple of days later, and who is there from the other previous night, And what are these guys doing? What's the reaction once they see the police there. What these guys do?
Well, yeah, because initially he let Sharon go just see, you know, because Sharon had no wants and warrant at the time and so fine, and they didn't know the tools were stolen, so that's why there was a couple of days there. But yeah, when they came to it, of course him and his buddies were there, and they and they ran and they had to chase them through the bush and and and they did catch them out there.
But again another important part was that because then when they went he went to go into the cabin, the third guy was there and he had a he had he was sitting in the corner again with a rifle ready to shoot. So you know, the whole thing. It was just unfavory right from the beginning. But it was it was the same guy that Fred White who had Germaine had booked for the attempt at murder, and they had let him go, so they didn't keep him in,
so here we go. It was it was quite a frantic chase as well, for and he came with another officer, so there was two of them. So it's important to note just wasn't him.
It's very interesting, and I think in four and I don't know if the courts, well we'll talk about this, but you talk about that. The officer was smart enough to know, he was experienced enough from the previous two nights before. So he said, oh, we're going to go into that cabin. He said, you can't make me go in that cabin again. You're intuition would be, would be
that maybe there's something in that cabin. So then he puts Sharing in front of him like a shield, and then Sharing is screaming out to whoever's in there, Hey, Willie, it's me. It's me, like, don't shoot, don't shoot, and of course he has a weapon in there, like you're right. So again, these guys, for I don't know, to defend themselves against being I don't know, ripped off or arrested.
It seems like it doesn't matter if it seems like they were ready, if they were going to be arrested, or if somebody were going to confront them, they'd shoot to kill these guys. So very interesting that the one not even considered. Again. One officer figured, well, no, I don't think there's enough grounds for attempted murder. But two days later, these guys are acting again like they're very, very capable of it.
Yeah, that's a really it's an important point to think about later when you talk about parole and about someone being eligible to get out on parole, and just how capable of killing someone they are.
Now you write that as well. Is that the thing that they need now? And they've also got this three thousand wat generator And then they have another reason so that they can visit Sharing again. They use some ruse basically to say are you going to come into court on Monday? And he says yeah, And he said what are you going to plead? And he says guilty. And then when they left, of course they spotted the generator. They looked in the back of the truck and they said, well,
we'll leave us alone for later. Jermaine called Eastam and they were coming into Dawson Creek the next day, so Sharing was released. He was put on surveillance, but him and his body got on a bus to go to Tumbler Ridge. Now Eastam calls Germaine to go there and get Sharing for questioning, but they don't want to let on what they really believe he's They suspect him of doing. So what does Eastam tell Jermaine to do how to approach Sharing?
Well, you know, he wanted to. He wanted him to be able to get Sharing back to the to the attachment for them so they could interview him. But he had to do it without letting him know that it was a thing to do with the Johnson Bentley murders. So so he didn't want to give him any sort of a clue. He had to kind of trick him into uh coming in, which you know that was that was quite a thing to to ask of another officer, and it's like, well, you know, hey, that's pretty risky,
but you've got to do this somehow. It's because knowing what kind of a person he is by now, like you know, he already knows that this is you know, it wasn't the guy that possibly killed the Johnson Bentley families as well if he tried to kill him twice and he may have run over some other guy. So in his mind, this is not a nice guy, right, So he had to trick him into coming back and tell him it was it was about his problem of of parole and theft and and about the the other
thing that had happened earlier. So he said, if you don't come in and straighten us out, they'll probably come out and have to get you type thing. So it just sort of he just tricked him into coming, and.
When Jermaine did, he brought him down to Dawson Creek and or pardon me, it is Dawson Creek or Tumblr Ridge what we're talking about now. But what he does is that he is able to he's able to intimidate him and put this, he has this perfect balance. He says, then he needs to intimidate him enough into talking, but
not enough to ask for a lawyer. So it's Eastam and Ken Libel, and so they start in with the good things in life where he was born, so the have Eastam has a real approach and as you write, he I don't know if he befriends him, but he certainly has a technique to be able to get Dave to do this. And you described as in the book, you have all the conversations. What are some of the things that he plays upon? Is a religion, his mother? What how does he how does he get to him?
How's he trying to get to him?
I think the key thing was was talking about his mother and and kind of connecting with with him on certain key things like that, like his mother, that that really meant something to him, you know, how his mother would think of what she would do and how she is and where she is, and he he wanted to befriend him in that way, if that makes sense, kind of get him on a kind of a one to one basis and we talk about things, and then he
could slowly bring in some of the crimes. And then whenever Sharing was kind of upset or needed he needed him calmer, he could bring back something like that family was really important to Sharing at the time, and he knew that that was a thing to focus on. And I think that was the really the one key thing more than any of the other stuff. I think it was his mother.
He also knew and played upon the fact that his father had died, and he sensed at the father that the passing of his father was an important event in his life, so he played upon that. He also talked about honest He says, I know you're an honest guy. I know you're a good guy. So we've seen that before. But it was real masterful in this and terms of very very subtle, and he was very patient with him, and so he said, let's see if you're an honest guy.
So when he says let's see if you're an honest guy, what does he talk about again the Wells Gray Road? What what does he talk about? What does he bluff and tell Sharing he knows about this?
Oh, you know, he wanted to bring up the guy that he had run over and that event that had happened and why it happened, and he could and so that what that did was that brought a big relief to Sharing because he thought, oh, this is what I'm here to talk about, right, and so it kind of put him at ease, it didn't, you know, because in the background, the Bentley Johnson murders had just hit a lot of news and a lot of talk and stuff like that had been mentioned a lot on the news.
And it's so much so that when Sharing had gone in that month to sign its probation slip because he was on probation for the thefts, he had to go in and see German and sign every month. It was on the news when they were together in the police detachment, and they even talked about it. So it was on his mind. It was on a lot of people's minds
at the time. So this put him at huge, you know, major relaxed ease, and all of a sudden he thought, wow, okay, and so then it became you know about running over a guy and how it was an accident and uh and yeah, and he played on that, Yeah, you know you're you're honest, and it was you didn't mean to do that. So he would do that and draw him in, So that was kind of a way of putting that ease.
Yeah, it's interesting. What he did too, is that he led him into the sea. Let's see if you're an honest guy. And then he admitted to the hit and run, but said, you know, he was innocent, he just ran over him, but said he was drinking. So that's why he didn't go to police. Made a lot of sense, he cried as he wrote out the statement. They got
them tissues and so they were very, very sympathetic. He asked if he was going to jail, and they said, well, I don't know, it's up to prosecutors, but they did. He did start do you believe in God? Dave? And Dave said no, but they said, does your mom and he said, well, not really. But they said, well, does she believe in principles? And he said yes, So they started with that and once they got that full confession from him from the Wells Gray Road, hit and run.
I guess what's awful they do is they take a break and they go for coffees and they take a little and then they're back in the room. Now he's also talking and giving him an out and telling him, you know, things happen, People do stupid things. I was stupid. Things can happen. Lots of things are stupid. But the tone changes eventually in that room. Again, he has to keep that balance to not get him to call a lawyer, ask for a lawyer, So he cautions him. But what
changes in that room? How does the direction change in terms of the questioning Now.
Well, you know they were kind of taking one step at a time and going further into it. And then yeah, they were taking their breaks and slowly getting them into it. But then it was time to you know, talk about the Johnson and Bentley family and what had happened and what he could talk about. And you know, it's kind of put I put as much of the detail in from East as I could from from his point of view.
And this in this particular part of the book. So you know, after the head and run, we get into the uh, how did how did you come across the family? Or or where did you see them?
And things like that, right, he talks about ask him first where did you first see the family? Then what was the next thing you did? And then he asked them do you know where they were killed? If he asked them first that you know where the truck was found? Do you know where the bodies were found?
You know?
Or pardon me, he knew where the trucks were found? Yes, do you know this? Yes? Then he asked them, do you know where they were murdered? And then he said Bear Creek? And you right, nobody knew that at that time, the r c m P had not reported on that. Let's put it that way. The public didn't know that anyway, correct, Yes.
And that was kind of helping him confirm that, you know, they've got the man. But he knew that he couldn't go too far with the question. You knew he couldn't, like he had to kind of keep bringing him back and forth with being friend and it's okay and you're a good guy, and don't worry about it, and asking him questions outside and then then getting more out of him, you know, at peace at a time.
Yeah, it's remarkable what you write that Eastam does. He says, don't make me involve your mother. You know, we'd come for you. And then this guy starts crying. He says, yes, he says, I know you're not that kind of person, David, And finally the pressure mounts and David Sharing blurts out, I could flip and shoot myself. Leave me alone in this room, and I'll take care of it. And then yet Easteam's approach reaction after that is what how does
he treat him after? What is what are the kinds of things he says to him after.
Well, you know, again, you know, he was trying to he was trying to Bacon believe that it doesn't have to end his life, and that he that he is a good person and that we we all make mistakes. He kept doing that back and forth, and that that he didn't have to kill himself, and and it was just kind of that back and forth. I think right through, like I said, I put most of the details in that of how he approached it, and the words he used and and so it's it's an interesting thing to
read through the details. M hm.
He he he is screaming now, oh God. And so he's got him broke down, He got him in that room. He's saying, it's difficult for us, Dave, will you help us out? And then he asks, sharing asks, what if I tell you, well, you'll be charged with murder. You'll be in custody and a psychiatrist. I thought this was brilliant. A psychiatrist will have to check you out to see why you did it. And then they asked him where the gun was and he told him what was at the ranch. And then he drew a series of maps,
didn't he indicating all kinds? He drew four different maps. So everything they asked him to do to document, he put on a map. So the next thing was to go and reenact the crime. So they took him to reenact that crime in that park, didn't they?
Yeah, And that was important. It's important to get them to write down things as much as possible. It's something you can use as evidence that you know of their knowledge of things and where things are.
And and.
Because you never know how it works in court if if certain parts of what they say and do get included or not. There's all sorts of technical issues. So they wanted to get down to him drawing things himself
and writing things about himself. So he did the maps, and then they flew down to Kamloops and drove over to the clear Water area and had him go through all of the steps and re enacting of what what he did, how he did it, you know, and and what he did with the vehicles and and all the details and stuff, because there was still a question of some of the detectives were still not quite sure if he was alone or if he had help maybe eliminating
the vehicles and stuff like that. So there was that question out there that the detectives had, so they wanted to see if he could show them how he could have done all of this himself and what the details were. So that's an important part of securing the evidence of the.
Crime certainly, And they took photos of were taken of this reenactment and again used likely a trial or used that trough. Now the trial was set for April sixteenth, nineteen eighty four, in Kamloops, and sharing gets a good lawyer Fred Katz, one of the very best in the province, and the prosecutors Bob Hunter. But they're all ready for this very important case and potential trial.
What happens with that prospect, Well, they basically have you know, they had Eastam and the rest of the detectives in said, he did a great job. Everything's great, We've got the man and we know this, but we won't be doing the trial. He's just going to We're going to take a plea basically, you know. So they were going to bargain for you know, the second degree murder charges and put him away. And so that's kind of how it went. So there was a big let down in that way.
The cops really wanted to kind of go. They were really looking for the trial. You know.
Well, you write about the reality in Canada in nineteen eighty two and just recently within the last five or seven years has this law been changed. Let's talk about the situation with six murders, six six counts a second degree murder. We can talk about why it's considered only second degree murder, but also the reality in terms of sentencing and consecutive sentences in this case, what were prosecutors and police really looking at in reality.
Well, I think it's important to say that what happened was at the time, it was sharing that was saying that he killed the family for the possessions, right, he wanted to steal their truck, camp or the boat and a lot of their items. So at the time when they were convicting him, in their mind, he was killing for the theft. At that time, there was no evidence and no proof or they didn't have any idea that what he done has killed the adults so that he
could sexually assault the girls. So that wasn't on the table. So it puts it in a different light. So all of a sudden, you're convicting a man of six murders, and so you know, the sentence tends to be life, and the judge consentence whether or not. You know, it's ten fifteen years, you know, before you're eligible for parole, like they set that date. And also, because all six murders happened at the same time, it would be served you know, not consecutively, but concurrently, so it's all done
at once. So if you killed four, six, one, two, it was done at the same time, So you get that's it. You know, you can get life six times that it's all served together. And if your parole date is set at fifteen years, fifteen years, you're up for parole. It's just how it's done. It's not necessarily fair or right.
But that also brings up the point that when he admits later about sexually assaulting the girls, this is not a case where they can make him go into treatment for it or he isn't you know if you think he's not a registered sex offender, right, he's never been convicted of it, right, So that's a huge hole in this case. That's probably very very important now that he's up for parole.
It's very very interesting too when you talk about how good an attorney is that Sam, this Cat's is the attorney cats. But also his experience and his background probably enabled him to get as sweet a deal for sharing as possible. And that's what this looks like. He knows what the implications are for later and despite having a person kill six people in can I wouldn't bet against a person being released on parole.
Now.
In terms of this, the judge gave him the maximum that is allowed in Canadian law twenty five years before eligible for parole. The six sentences are served concurrently, but we're talking about twenty twenty, So after twenty five years, this person was going to have a parole hearing and the families and the survivors, the family victims, families would have to relive this to a great extent again during
those parole hearings. Missed a detective east him though, knew that there was more to this story, and so what did he do and what did he vow to do with David Sharing once the sentencing had been completed.
It, I guess somewhere with the experience with the area, just something inside of him knew that there was more to it, that there was something else that Sharing wasn't talking about, and he vowed to find out. And he said that he wanted Sharon to tell the truth and and to know this. So he went back in after things were settled and he got to talk to him, and Sharing told him kind of a truth. And I say that because he's he's had different stories over different times.
But he did tell him about his sexual assault at the kids, and that he did kill the adults primarily to get at the kids. It wasn't about the boat and the motor and the camper or anything like that. It was it was nothing to do with that, so that that's not even part of the case. That's just that was, you know, his defense in the original charges. But there was much more to it than that.
He admits that he sexually assaulted them and that his primary motive once he had seen them was to kill all these four adults to be able to get to these girls. But one was eleven years old, and he talks about them being one of the young one being a virgin at eleven, not so surprisingly, but there's eleven year old and a thirteen year old, and so, as we talked about earlier in the story, kind of just interrupting it, there is the truth about what really happened.
And in your book you write that Sharing has told different stories, but one story he tells is is, I guess representative of his warps psychology and his view about things that happened. He could be lying, but there is some there is a certain window that we can see into this Avaranth the psychology of David Sharing. Tell us some of the things he said in terms of how long this was and sort of the almost romantic nature of some of this of his story.
Yeah, he's a strange character he had, so it could have gone anywhere from a week to thirteen days that he had the girls. And whether he assaulted them originally when he shot the parents and the tenter or not is still up for who knows. I sort of think that he did. I think he had done something, and then when he took them out and shot the father and all that see in his story to Eastim, even then when he was talking about having them in the car and driving and they would do anything for him,
and they believed him. You know, he was telling them that bad guys had come into the camp and the parent, their adults had left to go get help. And he even pretended when he was back at his cabin to be talking to their father on the phone and things like that, and he said they believed everything and they would do everything for him. I sort of don't believe him.
There's more to it than that, because you know, the thirteen year old is not going to see you shoot the father and see the dead parents and drive with them in the car and be doing everything because they you trust him and like him. There's something wrong with that story. But he didn't really change that much for me either, So I don't know, I think. And you're also going to look at what he's doing. As he's saying that he he used to be, he's sort of
suggesting he was abused. And what he does is he has fantasies about bondage with young children, like young girls, and tying them up and having sex with them. So but he said that that's all gone, he's cured of that fantasy. They no longer happened, and it went away years ago, and therefore he needs to get on with his own life and he should be allowed to get out on parole, you know, because he's got a new wife now and that sort of scenario. So so he's
kind of promoting that. But as Ron Jerman said before the cop this is a man that ran over that other guy and killed him and tried to kill this policeman twice for no reason other than to kill. There wasn't he didn't have, He wasn't having fantasies. He wasn't trying to kill in these locations to get to a child because he had an uncontrollable fantasy. So this is you have to realize that this is a man that is going to kill just for the fact of killing,
because he needs to for whatever reason. It's not about a fantasy. So even if you were to believe that he's cured of this sexual fantasy with girls, you know, it doesn't matter. Now it's kind of this. You know, this man should not be out period. He doesn't deserve to be in public, and you do who would want him as their neighbor, you know, So I leave it
at that as far as that goes. And one of the other things with him was that he's able to talk about abusing the younger girl because she didn't know how to have to do anything. It's how he put it, that was his words. So basically, she wasn't sexually active, she didn't know how to respond, she didn't know how to do things with him sexually. So he was so
upset he said he shot her in the head. Of course, you know, the original story was, you know, he walked through in the woods after a week and did it. But it sounds like from what I got, he did it almost within a day of getting back to the cabin. So it's some who knows it's somewhere in there. But to be able to just talk that way about an eleven year old means that this man there's something wrong with him. He does not need to be out in public.
And I can't emphasize that enough. You know, he's sick and I don't know how we can cure him. And even if he was cured, it doesn't alleviate the stress and what the family has to go through with these paroleherings. With each one that is going to come up every two years, they have to go through the whole thing and relive it as if it was yesterday. So it's not doing justice to the survivors. So it's wrong on a lot of levels.
It's lucky that all along the way that this was not as cunning a criminal as he could be. And that's all I could give him credit for, is that luckily he's not that cunning or clever, and the things that he got away with at the trial in terms of just being recognized as the killer of those six people without the establishment of the rape of these eleven
year old and a thirteen year old. So the pedophilic rape of these two girls as a motive, which in other jurisdictions would have been grounds for premeditation, sounds like premeditation when you go back a couple days later with a rifle and then shoot everybody to get to the girls. So he luckily again he got lucky with his lawyer, and just what happened at the trial with the plea bargain, Detective East him found out the truth to a certain
great degree. But luckily this David sharing trying to get parole, is again trying to be honest, and he talks about the most twisted things, like he was a hero to those girls for they thought he was a hero from
saving him from the bikers. And again this idea that he was having some kind of relationship for any amount of days is something that would what's happened with parole boards is they have not agreed to let him out, but I think it should be grounds for a parole board again, like you mentioned, forever prohibit him from ever getting out. Now, when we talk about parole, there was a woman named Tammy A rition Cough and she had
gone to school with Janet. They went to the same school, and after this murder and all of these subsequent years, she has been affected. So when we talk about parole, and I had her on the program years ago about this very subject of trying to get a petition and doing that and trying to get to make sure the public new and put pressure of some sort on the pro board not to release David Sharing. So tell us a little bit about the parole hearings and tammy erition cough.
Yeah, I think that. I think people have to look at a lot of times the parole board is and parole in Canada or even in the US for that matter, there's success is judged by how they can rehabilitate, so getting people back out into you know, popular into common society. So if if if if they're successful at getting people out and into the workforce and life force, that that's
considered good. So in their mind they're trying to get uh, they're there to really help the criminal and it sounds harsh this way, but that's really what they're there to do. They also say they're there to protect you know, society, but there's a lot of pressure on getting these people out and and even to the fact that even if without a parole, there's a certain amount of time where you get out anyway, So it's not really it's not
an it's an U feel battle. People like Tammy and and family members have to write up their impact statement. They have to send it in. Quite often with tammy it gets rejected because it might be to considered too mean or too aggressive. So they have to watch how they word things. And it's like, well, you know, you killed members of their family, you killed people, you've you've done some awful things. So they have some upset, they have rage, they have things they want to put out there.
This is how you affected them. You've made them into this person, so that should be allowed. But you know, they they they're very you know, consistent with that. And the other thing is when you go to the hearing as well. You know, he doesn't have to face the victims or the victims family. It's not quite like what it is what you'd see on TV. So he gets to sit up on the on the on the nice parole board thing with his new wife and minister or
whoever else he has on his side. So they sit there, they face the three member board and they answer the questions and they talk to the board and that's how it goes. And it can go anywhere from one to four days, depending on how much there is to read and talk and how many questions so that's kind of
what goes on. I think it feels kind of lackluster for the people of the family and friends that go to these because they don't get to face him and tell him what they think of him, and it's kind of watching from the sidelines, and I think it's very unfulfilling and it's more frustrating, and at the same time, they have to relive the whole event. The whole thing comes back to the day when it happened, and I think that's the struggle. And they've been through two of them,
and the next one comes up next summer. I believe it's June, the third week of June. I don't know what the COVID if things are changed because of that, but that's the date as far as I know.
And Tammy and her group will be there. And just to give credit to the parole Board, they don't they're not really mandated to let people out. It just looks like it seems like that there are programs that people after a bunch of years in prison, figure I better go through these programs to show the kind of I suppose it remorse and change in their life. They have to do a fair amount to be able to be released on this parole, and there is no early parole
for this person. It's twenty five years and it's not mandatory that he ever gets out. And from the other parole hearings that are done, it seems that have been completed that he is not prepared in any way. So he's doesn't seem close to me, but not that I would know, but having to relive it every two years
is disturbing element of the Canadian judicial system. The chance change now is I think was welcome when you have the ability to charge or to put three consecutive life sentences together and then piece those twenty five year eligibilities together. So in reality, in fact, that the perpetrator that killed three or more, I know it sounds you know, I have to kill three that you would get a seventy
five years before eligibility of parole in a sense. In essence, basically that is a life sentence in Canada now available in the last five or seven years, so people don't have to go through this over and over again. Very much like the Bernardo case. Those people have to again attend these parole hearings over and over again, so very disturbing.
Yeah, and I wasn't trying to make it sound like the parole board doesn't care or that not. I think what I'm trying to say is in their minds and the family mind because the family and Tammy and all the people that show up, it's not like the parole board is there with them in a group, and they don't feel partner. I think that's it now, like they're it's not all like we're here and then they stand
up and do their thing. It's almost like they're at a distance, watching it from the sidelines and letting these three people that they don't know try to assess whether
or not someone like Sharing can get out. And Sharing I think it has learned how to become better at staging parole because now he's you know, he's married, he's got a name change, he's got he just had all of those the manslaughter from running over that guy, all of his drug charges and theft charges have all been taken off his record now, so he's applied to remove
all of that. He's taken all these courses, like you said, so he's kind of I think he's setting himself up to be in a place where he could get members of a parle board to kind of go, oh, yeah, he's been in prison thirty years. He's never had any problems in prison, he's had no write ups, so he's got a good attendance. He's in a medium mile secure prison. Now he gets to have seventy two hours with his wife in a cabin on the property. Yeah, every month. So there's a lot he's got a lot of loose
restrictions in his life. And if he continues to be good and he has all these things, and now he's got a minister standing up for him as well, saying that you know, hey, this is a good you know, he's found the Lord and he's good and all this, he's got a good soul. I'm just saying that he's he's working toward trying to get out in every way that he can.
Yeah.
He's disturbing to me too, is that I just read about up to he's eligible after the twenty five years, which means now for the last bunch of years he's eligible for unescorted passes up to fifteen of them a year. Remarkably, and then again that I believe is used to demonstrate that this person look that he's out in the community, safe exactly.
And that's what I mean by the system. It's set up in order to see because they're trying to say that we're successful at getting let's say, forty percent of people out or whatever their number is and having a very low turnover rate. So they're trying to work it that way. And he was approved for this pass right
initially as well, and that was a big concern. Some of the friends that I talked to that now live in Calgary, that were neighbors in Cologne at the time are scared and didn't even want to be mentioned in the book, or they would give me information say well, you can't use my name because they're scared he's going to get out, and they'll you know what I mean.
So there's a real fear there that just the just the idea of him getting out scares people, and the idea of him being allowed to come out for a day path or a path I'm I'm not extorted by guards and knowing that they're in the area of where the prison is that he's then it really scares them.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's a it's a disturbing case. And and uh, I'm glad you added the reality of what happens post conviction in Canada and what is happening today for people like Tammy Rishcroft, Rishikov and and the other families as well, just and and friends. So I want to thank you very much for coming on and talking about this outstanding book, Murder Times six, The True Story of the Wells Gray Park Murders. Thank you so much, Alan R. Warren for this.
Is there a website? I know that you are a host of the excellent House of Mystery podcast every week, tell us a little bit about a website or how they might be able to take a look at this book.
Oh yeah, my website is just ALANAR Warren dot com and that's one al so, Ala M R. Warren dot com and you can get it links you to the show, it links you to all the books, everything's all in one now so and it links you to my Facebook, all social media, everything you need to know. And that's the one place. And of course if you want go to bookstores, this is out in all bookstores in US and Canada, and of course it's on Amazon and Cobo and all that as well.
Yes, thank you so much, Alan Warren. Murder Time six Cure Story of the Wells Gray Park murders. Thank you so much, you have a great evening.
Good night you tube.
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