He's a 'horrible, horrible human being,' mother calls her daughter's killer

08 Sep 2026, 20:34 by Pat Reavy ksl · KSL.com

Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Tammy Edmunds tearfully testified against Anthony Christensen at a victim impact hearing Tuesday.
Christensen was convicted of murdering his fiancée Kammy Mae Edmunds in 2017.
His parole hearing is scheduled for 2040; though, his next court hearing is Nov. 9.

SALT LAKE CITY — Tammy Edmunds remembers watching a police officer walk up her driveway on March 31, 2017.

She jokingly asked her son if he had any outstanding speeding tickets. But when the officer got to her door, he told Edmunds, "You might want to sit down."

"Has there been a car accident?" she asked.

"'No, we found Kammy deceased in the bathroom today,'" Tammy Edmunds recalled the officer telling her.

"And my first sentence was, 'Did he kill her?'"

Tammy Edmunds immediately suspected that Anthony Jeffrey Christensen had something to do with the death of her daughter — who was also Christensen's fiancée — 34-year-old Kammy Mae Edmunds.

Christensen, of Mt. Pleasant, was convicted of murdering Edmunds in 2020. He received a sentence of up to life in the Utah State Prison.

On Tuesday, Christensen, now 44, went before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole for a victim impact hearing. A victim's family can request a hearing before an inmate's scheduled parole hearing if they worry a family member will not be around to testify. Christensen's original parole hearing isn't scheduled until 2040. Tammy Edmunds says she isn't sure if she'll still be alive.

"I hope to be, but I'm not sure," she told the board on Tuesday.

For over 30 minutes, Kammy Edmunds' mother tearfully told the board about her daughter and how she doesn't want Christensen to ever be released from prison.

"I had the most beautiful daughter in the world. She was the kindest, sweetest … she was amazing, from the time she was born right up until the time of her death. There were no strangers in her life; they were all friends," her mother said. "But when it come to men, she had a horrible, horrible taste in men."

Investigators say Christensen tried to make it look like Kammy Edmunds died from injuries sustained in a drunken driving crash. But when police found her body in her bathroom, "There wasn't a spot on her body that didn't have bruises," her mother recalled. "He brutally, brutally beat her to death.

"She was so bruised and battered. There was bruises upon bruises," Tammy Edmunds continued. "He kept beating her after she died."

The Utah State Medical Examiner's Office determined that Kammy Edmunds died from "multiple blunt force trauma concentrated to the head" and that her injuries were "not consistent with being in an automobile accident," the report states.

"I died that day myself," Edmunds' mother told the board while noting that her daughter's possessions are still stored in her garage because she hasn't "been able to go through (them)."

Tammy Edmunds said her daughter was a great mother to her two autistic children who were still young at the time of her death, and needed her.

"Anthony knew those kids needed their mother and he viciously took her away from them," Kammy's mother said. "They're beautiful kids. Their mom would have been so proud of them."

Prosecutors stated in charging documents that Christensen had an "extensive" criminal history, mainly in Wyoming, even before his murder conviction. Tammy Edmunds says her daughter actually picked him up from prison in Wyoming 2 1/2 months before her death. He told her it was for a drug violation, she said. Court records, however, stated that Christensen pleaded guilty in 2013 to strangulation and battery against a family member, and pleaded guilty in 2015 to domestic battery.

"He's a very abusive, horrible, horrible human being," the mother told the board. "My daughter would be alive today if she had never met him.

"I never want him released on this world again. It would be horrific to let him out."

Since his conviction, Christensen's case has been entangled in appeals. He was sentenced to a minimum of five years and up to life in prison. But the Utah Attorney General's Office filed a motion shortly after Christensen was sent to prison to "correct an illegal sentence."

"The crime of murder is a first-degree felony, punishable by (an) indeterminate term of not less than 15 years and which may be for life," the motion states.

Christensen subsequently filed several appeals to block the correct sentence from being imposed, to have the trial judge disqualified and to withdraw his guilty plea. His next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 9.

When asked Tuesday if he wanted to reply to Tammy Edmunds' comments, he noted his upcoming court hearing.

"I still have an open case and I talked to my attorney. There's nothing more that I would like to do than speak and give them the answers they deserve," he said while adding that he "hopes that happens in November" and that he allegedly has information that "hasn't come to light yet."

Christensen went on to say that "actions speak louder than words" and that he is trying to "pay it forward" by helping other inmates prepare for release so they don't become repeat offenders.

"I do not waste my time in here," he said, and that he wanted to "give back to the community." Christensen said he prays that Tammy Edmunds and her family can find comfort.

"There's no rewind button, no matter how hard you grieve," he said.

Board member Dan Bokovoy, who conducted Tuesday's hearing, said Tammy Edmunds' recorded comments will be given to the parole board members who will conduct Christensen's original parole hearing in 14 years.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

He's a 'horrible, horrible human being,' mother calls her daughter's killer

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