For Evelyn McIntyre and Michael Brown's families, the slow-healing wounds of a 40-year-old tragedy have been ripped open.

McIntyre and Brown were murdered by their friend David Chenevert in 1979.

"This man killed two people asleep, stabbed them to death, took the sheets and mattress that had blood on it, threw it in a dumpster at Chateaux Dijon like you would throw out trash. The only reason they knew it was my sister is she had a tattoo. He stabbed her that many times," McIntyre's brother Richard Boudreau said.

On Monday, Chenevert, who pleaded guilty to the murders and was given a life sentence, could be set free.

"Why is he up for parole?" asked Brown's widow, Judy Poche.

In 2021, the Louisiana Board of Pardons voted to reduce his sentence to 99 years with immediate parole eligibility.

Governor John Bel Edwards signed off on the decision, granting his parole hearing next week.

"In this case, in such a violent crime, there's people who have done way far less that I know their files are sitting on your desk to be paroled. How did his climb up the ladder so fast?" asked Brown's daughter Alicia Vaughn.

Edwards says he's confident the board will make the right choice.

For the families, that choice is clear.

"His sentence for not getting the death penalty, was life in prison. Not to get out and be a free man. Michael and Evelyn never had that chance to know their children, to love on their children, to care for their children. That's what this is all about. We shouldn't even have to be going in front of the parole board for this. His sentence is life in prison, where he didn't get death like Michael and Evelyn," Poche said.

"He's not lily-white. He's the devil and I feel like the governor and the parole board is making a deal with the devil," added Boudreau.

Chenevert's hearing is Monday at 8 am.