Christa Gail Pike (Image courtesy Pike’s legal team).
The Tennessee Supreme Court has approved the state’s request to execute a female inmate for the first time in over two centuries, mandating that 49-year-old Christa Gail Pike be executed for the 1995 torture and murder of a fellow participant in the Job Corps, a program designed for at-risk teens.
The court has scheduled Pike’s execution for September 30, 2026, citing her inability to demonstrate any extenuating circumstances that would justify granting her a commutation certificate under state law. The execution is set to occur at Nashville’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, where the majority of the state’s death row inmates are held.
Pike, who was 18 at the time, along with two accomplices, viciously murdered 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike even kept a fragment of the victim’s skull as a “memento.” On January 12, 1995, the group lured Slemmer into a wooded area in Knoxville, where Pike horrifically used a box cutter for over an hour to carve a pentagram into the victim’s chest.
The day following the murder, a University of Tennessee groundskeeper discovered Slemmer’s body, recounting that the remains were so brutally disfigured, he initially did not recognize it as human.
Prosecutors, in court documents, contended that Pike believed Slemmer was attempting to steal her boyfriend, then-17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, who was also convicted of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The third participant, Shadolla Peterson, acted as a lookout during the assault and cooperated with prosecutors, resulting in a probation sentence.
On January 11, 1995, Pike reportedly informed another Job Corps student, Kim Iloilo, of her intent to kill a classmate, claiming she “just felt mean that day,” according to court records. Iloilo stated that on January 12, 1995, she witnessed Pike, along with the two accomplices and Slemmer, entering the woods around 8 p.m. and returning without Slemmer just over two hours later.
The Tennessee Supreme Court in 1998 penned a detailed summary of Pike’s gruesome behavior in the immediate aftermath of the murder.
Later that night, Pike went to Iloilo’s room and told Iloilo that she had just killed Slemmer and that she had brought back a piece of the victim’s skull as a souvenir. Pike showed Iloilo the piece of skull and told her that she had cut the victim’s throat six times, beaten her, and thrown asphalt at the victim’s head. Pike told Iloilo that the victim had begged “them” to stop cutting and beating her, but Pike did not stop because the victim continued to talk. Pike told Iloilo that she had thrown a large piece of asphalt at the victim’s head, and when it broke into smaller pieces, she had thrown those at the victim as well. Pike told Iloilo that a meat cleaver had been used to cut the victim’s back and a box cutter had been used to cut her throat. Finally, Pike said that a pentagram had been carved onto the victim’s forehead and chest. Iloilo said that Pike was dancing in a circle, smiling, and singing “la, la, la” while she related these details about the murder. When Iloilo saw Pike at breakfast the next morning she asked Pike what she had done with the piece of the victim’s skull. Pike replied that it was in her pocket and then said, “And, yes, I’m eating breakfast with it.”
The state is required to notify Pike about the method of execution by Aug. 28, 2026, per the Supreme Court’s order.
