Christa Gail Pike, sentenced to death for brutally murdering her classmate over a boyfriend, is set to be executed on September 30, 2026.
But now she’s making a chilling plea to stay alive, as the U.S. prepares to put a woman to death for the first time in over 200 years.
Christa Gail Pike, the woman who became the youngest inmate ever sentenced to death in Tennessee at just 20, is making a chilling plea as her execution date approaches.
Pike, now 49, was convicted of brutally murdering her classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, in Knoxville in 1995 — a killing fueled by jealousy over a boyfriend.
Pike’s crime shocked the nation. Over the course of an hour, prosecutors said, she tortured and killed Slemmer in a remote woodland, stabbing, bludgeoning, and carving a pentagram into her chest.
Colleen Slemmer and Christa Pike were classmates at the Knoxville Job Corps Center, along with Tadaryl Shipp. There was speculation that Pike and her boyfriend, Shipp, dabbled in the occult and even claimed to worship Satan, but authorities ultimately determined that a love triangle was the real motive behind Slemmer’s brutal death at Pike’s hands.
A fragment of Slemmer’s skull was reportedly kept as a trophy by Pike, who allegedly showed it to classmates. When a groundskeeper first discovered the body, it was so mangled he thought it belonged to an animal.
Colleen Slemmer’s skull became a key piece of evidence during the trial, and even 17 years after her death, it remained unburied. Her mother, May Martinez, repeatedly requested that the skull be returned for a proper burial, but the court refused, insisting it remain as evidence while the appeals process played out.
Broke down in uncontrollable sobs
Pike was sentenced to death in March 1996. The seven-man, five-woman jury found her guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
According to news reports at the time, she broke down in uncontrollable sobs when the sentence was handed down in court.
Now, after more than three decades behind bars, Pike is set to make history once again — but this time as the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has scheduled her execution for September 30, 2026, and she would become only the 19th woman executed in modern U.S. history. From her prison cell, Pike admits the gravity of her actions but argues she doesn’t deserve to die.
“I know I don’t deserve to be out walking around with everybody else in normal society. I did something horrible that is unacceptable and I realize that,” she said in a documentary filmed by WEtv.
Yet she insists the death penalty is too extreme, claiming she was only “one person” in what involved multiple perpetrators.
Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, convicted of first-degree murder alongside Pike, avoided the death penalty due to being 17 at the time and will be eligible for parole in November. Pike’s friend, Shadolla Peterson, who was involved but testified against her, received probation.
“I’m only one person,” Pike reiterated, emphasizing her role as part of a larger group. Her attorneys argue that today, with the benefit of modern understanding about youth, trauma, and mental health, Pike would not face the death penalty. They point to a “horrific childhood,” including years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect, that was not considered during her 1996 trial.
”It sickens me now..”
Pike also has documented diagnoses of bipolar disorder and PTSD.
“I think back to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager,” Pike wrote in a letter from prison to The Tennessean. “Mine happened to be huge, unforgettable and ruined countless lives… It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime.”
Pike’s case remains one of only 48 women on death row nationwide — an extremely rare situation compared to nearly 2,100 men.
For Slemmer’s family, there is no room for leniency. Her mother, May Martinez, has been vocal in her demand that Pike’s sentence be carried out. “I just want Christa down so I can end it,” Martinez told local reporters. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Colleen or how she died and how rough it was.”
Unless her appeals or clemency petitions succeed, Pike will be executed at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville — the site of Tennessee’s death chamber — closing a tragic chapter that began nearly 30 years ago.
READ MORE
- Missing worker found trapped behind store shelves after 10-year search
- Judge’s $1.5M beach home burns to the ground weeks after ruling against Trump
