Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ST. GEORGE — It was supposed to be a night of looking at Christmas lights, making Christmas fudge and cookies and decorating the Christmas tree.
But first, Jerrica Christensen, always willing to help someone, was going to help a friend of a friend move.
"She figured she'd be home. She didn't know she wouldn't be coming home," said her mother, Ellen Hensley.
On Dec. 11, Christensen and another woman were killed and another man injured after being shot.
As Hensley and her family continue to mourn their tragedy, they are also faced with making it through the holidays without their beloved daughter whose "quirky" ways always made people laugh.
"You can't even imagine. You can't even imagine the pain. The tree sat undecorated. She was supposed to be decorating with me the night she was murdered. Her older sister finally convinced me that I needed to put something on it because Jerrica would expect it," Hensley said. "It was really hard taking back her Christmas gifts to the store."
Christmas was Christensen's favorite day, even more so than her birthday, her mother said.
"The candy, the food, the people who came over," Hensley said. "I just wish Christmas wasn't here yet."
Christensen was killed along with 27-year-old Brandie Sue Dawn Jerden. A third person, 28-year-old James Fiske, suffered non life-threatening injuries after being shot.
Paul Ashton and Brandon Smith were each charged in 5th District Court with aggravated murder and aggravated assault.
Few details about a motive for the double homicide have been released. But in recent posts on social network pages on the Internet, there have been indications that the slayings might have been because of a dispute over something trivial, such as a mountain bike.
On Fiske's own Facebook page, he posted the day after the homicides, "I was shot in the back when my girlfriend was murdered over a missing mountain bike! I wish I could take her spot!! I would take her spot anytime!!! I miss her so much!"
The Washington County Attorney's Office could only say Thursday that police were continuing to investigate all aspects of the case.
Hensley also declined to talk about the alleged mountain bike dispute, saying she did not want to say anything that might potentially jeopardize her daughter's case. But she said she had been in close contact with both investigators and prosecutors.
Hensley said her daughter's death was a tragic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and once details about the killings are released, the public will be "astounded at how senseless" they were.
"This didn't need to happen. This was senseless in every sense of the word. I simply don't know how that man who murdered her is living with himself."
According to court documents, Ashton shot and killed one of the women, but documents do not say which one. He also shot Fiske.
Ashton then ordered Smith to attack the other woman. She died as a "result of incised wounds," according to a St. George police report.
Hensley said her daughter was strangled, beaten and stabbed to death, allegedly because she witnessed the first shooting.
"This was an absolutely non-questionable wrong place at the wrong time (situation). She was murdered by the hands of strangers. She didn't know these people," Hensley said. "She was brutally murdered. There was absolutely no mercy."
Review hearings for the suspects, who are being tried separately, were scheduled for Jan. 11 and Jan. 12.
Now, Hensley has only memories of her daughter whom she described as happy and energetic and who loved the outdoors, especially riding ATVs.
"She got a kick out of getting muddy. The muddier the better," she said.
"She had a charming personality. She'd light up the room. She loved being happy and enjoyed being around people," Hensley said. "She was quirky in a funny way. You very seldom got a picture of her when she wasn't pulling faces. I can't even begin to enumerate the quirky things about her. We'd go to Disneyland and she'd pick the noses of the statues."
For Hensley, it's the second tragedy she has had to endure with her children. Her son was killed many years ago in a car accident when he was 3. When Jerrica was buried last week, she was laid to rest next to her brother.
As Hensley looked through pictures of her daughter, she recalled a cruise she took with her husband and Jerrica along the western Mexican coastline, stopping at places like Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.
"She brought out the teenager in me. We had so much stinkin' fun. We'd go dancing and stay out really late," she said of the fun-loving nature of her daughter. "She just had a way about her. That's why she was out with her friends all the time."
E-mail:preavy@desnews.com
