NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The state of Tennessee has scheduled the execution of Christa Pike, the only woman currently on the state’s death row, for September 30, 2026, more than three decades after she brutally murdered a fellow Job Corps student in a case that shocked the nation with its premeditated savagery and the disturbing trophy she kept from the killing.
Pike, now 49, was just 19 years old when she lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to an abandoned steam plant on the University of Tennessee Agricultural Campus in Knoxville on the night of January 12, 1995. Over the course of 30 to 45 minutes, Pike beat Slemmer with a chunk of asphalt, slashed her more than 300 times with a box cutter, and carved a pentagram into her chest. The attack was so vicious that the groundskeeper who discovered Slemmer’s body the next morning initially could not identify the remains as human.
The execution date was set by the Tennessee Supreme Court after all of Pike’s appeals were exhausted. She will be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. The method of execution will be lethal injection, though Pike was originally sentenced to death by electrocution.
Her attorneys have not yet filed a final clemency petition, but legal observers expect a last-minute push to spare her life based on her history of severe mental illness and childhood trauma.
Pike’s case has long been a symbol of the failures of the mental health and juvenile justice systems. Born prematurely in Beckley, West Virginia, in 1976, Pike suffered organic brain damage and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder due to her mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy. She experienced seizures as an infant, was sexually abused by a mother’s boyfriend, and attempted suicide at age 12 after her grandmother—the only consistent source of love in her life—died.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder by her teenage years, she received little follow-up care.
When Pike arrived at the Knoxville Job Corps center in late 1994, she seemed to have a chance at a fresh start. She wanted to train as a nursing assistant. Instead, she became entangled with 17-year-old Tadaryl Ship, a fellow student with a history of violence and involvement in satanic worship since age nine.
Pike quickly adopted Ship’s worldview, wearing a pentagram necklace and engaging in occult rituals. Forensic experts later described the relationship as a classic folie à deux, where Ship’s distorted reality enveloped Pike’s fragile psyche.
The jealousy that would destroy Slemmer began when Pike became convinced—without any evidence—that Slemmer was trying to steal Ship away. On January 11, 1995, the day before the murder, Pike walked up to a classmate named Kim Iloilo and announced plainly that she was going to kill Slemmer. Her reason, she said, was that she “just felt mean that day.”
Iloilo did not report the threat. No one did.
The next evening, Pike, Ship, and another student, Shadolla Peterson, convinced Slemmer to leave the dormitory with them, telling her they were going to smoke marijuana and make peace. It was a lie. At the isolated steam plant, the attack began without warning.
Slemmer begged for her life, repeatedly asking “Why are you doing this to me?” There was no answer. Peterson held a flashlight, ensuring Slemmer had no escape route.
After the killing, Pike returned to the dormitory, went to Iloilo’s room, and described the murder in detail. She then pulled a piece of Slemmer’s skull from her jacket pocket, calling it a souvenir. That night, she danced and sang.
The next morning, investigators found the skull fragment exactly where Pike said it would be. She confessed openly, even acting out portions of the attack for police, imitating Slemmer’s body movements. The case was closed within 36 hours.
At trial in 1996, the defense argued that Pike’s severe borderline personality disorder and depressive disorder prevented her from forming the intent to kill. The jury deliberated for only a few hours before convicting her of first-degree murder and conspiracy. She was sentenced to death by electrocution, becoming the youngest woman on death row in the United States at the time.
Ship, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was tried as an adult and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Peterson, who cooperated with prosecutors, received six years of probation.
Behind bars, Pike’s behavior did not soften. In 2001, she and another inmate attempted to strangle a fellow prisoner with a shoestring, nearly killing her. She was convicted of attempted murder in 2004.
That same year, authorities uncovered a plot to seduce a prison guard and arrange an escape. In 2012, she was linked to yet another escape plan. Every appeal she filed was denied.
The scheduled execution has reignited debate about capital punishment in Tennessee, particularly for female inmates. Pike’s attorneys are expected to argue that her organic brain damage and history of abuse should spare her life. Victims’ rights advocates, however, point to the brutality of the crime and Pike’s subsequent violent behavior as evidence that she remains a danger.
Colleen Slemmer’s family has not publicly commented on the execution date, but in previous statements they have expressed a desire for finality. The young woman from Florida who came to Knoxville seeking a better future never got to go home. Her name, not Pike’s, is the one that should be remembered.
As the September 30, 2026, date approaches, the state of Tennessee is preparing for a process that has not been carried out on a woman in more than two centuries. The case stands as a grim reminder of what happens when warning signs are ignored, mental illness goes untreated, and a single bystander’s silence costs a life.
