The state of Tennessee may soon carry out its first execution of a woman in more than two centuries after the Tennessee Supreme Court approved the request to move forward with the sentence imposed on Christa Gail Pike.
Pike, now 49 and the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, was just 18 years old when she lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer into a wooded area near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus in Knoxville on January 12, 1995. Both young women were part of the Knoxville Job Corps, a residential career-training program meant to give teens new opportunities. But according to investigators, Pike had become convinced that Slemmer was interested in her then-boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp — and jealousy spiraled into something unimaginably violent.
With the help of Shipp and another Job Corps student, Shadolla Peterson, Pike coaxed Slemmer into the woods and unleashed a brutal attack. Court documents and investigators say Pike used a box cutter to slash Slemmer’s throat, struck her with a meat cleaver, carved a pentagram onto her chest, and ultimately crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt.
In one of the most disturbing details revealed during the investigation, Pike kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull as a trophy. Retired detective Randy York, who worked the case, later recalled Pike’s demeanor during questioning.
“During the interview, she was very giddy, laughed, very cooperative. She wanted to tell us all about it,”
he said. He added that she carried the piece of skull wrapped in a napkin in her pocket and even showed how it fit into the fracture “like a puzzle.”
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death. Shipp received life without parole — a recent parole board again denied him any chance of release — while Peterson, who testified against the others, avoided prison and received probation.
Nearly a decade after her conviction, Pike received an additional 25 years after attempting to strangle another inmate in 2004.
Her case has wound through the appeals system for almost 30 years, but according to recently filed documents dated September 30, the State of Tennessee formally requested an execution date, which has now been set for September 30, 2026.
Pike’s attorneys continue to push back, arguing that her youth, her history of trauma, and her mental health diagnoses must be weighed more heavily. Psychological evaluations diagnosed her with bipolar disorder and PTSD, and her defense team maintains that her upbringing — marked by chronic abuse, neglect, and instability — contributed significantly to her actions.
“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect,”
her legal team said in a statement. They added that with treatment, Pike has shown remorse and become “a thoughtful woman” deeply aware of the harm she caused.
If the execution proceeds, Pike will be the first woman put to death in Tennessee since 1820 and only the fourth in the state’s recorded history. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the last known execution of a woman in Tennessee involved Martin Eve, who was hanged for acting as an accessory to murder.
Tennessee temporarily halted executions in 2022 after Governor Bill Lee ordered a review of the state’s lethal injection protocols. Following revisions and new testing standards, executions resumed in May 2025.
Now, with legal battles narrowing and a date officially set, Tennessee is preparing for a case that is as historically rare as it is deeply unsettling — and one that continues to raise questions about justice, trauma, and the complexities of sentencing those who committed horrific crimes as teenagers.
