A man who killed six members of the same B.C. family more than 25 years ago has been denied parole.

David Ennis, known as David Shearing at the time of the murders, had his first parole hearing Wednesday at the Bowden Institution in central Alberta.

He told the board he wanted to be granted parole so he could make a positive contribution to society. The board spent about an hour deliberating before it denied his request.

In August 1982, Ennis killed George and Edith Bentley, their daughter Jackie Johnson, son-in-law Bob and grandchildren Janet, 13, and Karen, 11.

The family had been camping in Wells Gray Park in the B.C. Interior.

Police launched a massive search after Bob Johnson, who worked at a sawmill in Westbank, B.C., did not return to his job.

About a month later, the bodies of the four adults were found in a charred vehicle on the side of a mountain. In the trunk, police found the corpses of the two young girls.

The investigation eventually led to Shearing, who now goes by his mother's maiden name of Ennis, and he was arrested in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in November 1983.

Following an intense interrogation, Shearing eventually confessed to shooting the six family members, loading the bodies into the car and setting it on fire.

In April 1984, he pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree murder and received a sentence of life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.

Last summer, friends of the victims had launched a petition urging officials to keep Ennis behind bars. It drew more than 5,000 signatures.

"It's just an anxious time and I think a lot of people are angry. It's just bringing us all back to a place that we don't want to be in," Tamara Arishenkoff, who was friends with Janet Johnson, told The Canadian Press of the parole hearing.

Terri Prioriello, an activist seeking to toughen Canada's parole laws, said it was "wonderful" that Ennis would remain behind bars.

"To the families, it's a message that says the Parole Board is looking at this realistically and they're seeing this killer for who he is," Prioriello told CTV Newsnet from Brampton, Ont.

Her sister, Darlene, was killed 25 years ago in Ontario by David James Dobson, who faced his own parole hearing two years ago.

With files from The Canadian Press