A two-member National Parole Board panel determined David Ennis continued to have limited insight into his crimes when they denied him day and full parole at a hearing last week.
In their decision, the board wrote that Ennis - who was known as David Shearing when he killed three generations of the same family in Wells Gray Provincial Park in 1982 - needed to re-enrol in a high-intensity sexual offender program before he could be released.
The board members also concluded Ennis needed to first downgrade to a minimum-security institution and to gain credibility with escorted and unescorted temporary absences before being granted day or full parole.
"Regardless of the gains that you have made since your incarceration, you are not a low risk for public safety," the board wrote.
In the 28 years Ennis has been behind bars, he has participated in numerous programs but his "sexual deviance in fantasy" continues to be problematic. His case management team concluded Ennis does not fully understand the risk factors for his behaviour or how to manage them.
And while he has expressed remorse, regret and shame, the panel wrote Ennis still believes he was "caring and compassionate" to the girls he confined and that they could have "left at any time."
"It is clear that you lack insight in this regard and is further evidence of your distorted thinking," the panel stated.
In August 1982, Ennis watched the Johnson and Bentley families - George and Edith Bentley of Port Coquitlam, their daughter Jackie Johnson and her husband, Bob, of Kelowna and their two daughters, 13-year-old Janet and 11-year-old Karen - at their campsite for a couple of days before shooting the four adults.
He kept the girls hostage for a few days and sexually assaulted them before shooting them as well.
The families' remains were found in the fall but it was another 14 months before Ennis was arrested.
In 1984, he pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. He was denied parole in 2008 and did not apply in 2010.
