Tonight, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row is challenging the state’s execution protocols. Attorneys for Christa Pike are requesting an alternative method of execution by hanging. We do want to warn you the details of this story may be disturbing for some viewers. >> This is >> Breaking news out of Tennessee.

 A woman is set to die. Her name is Christa Pike. Her execution date is the 30th of September 2026. If it happens, she will be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. She will also be the only person executed in the state’s modern history for a crime she committed at just 18 years old.

 But here’s the twist that nobody saw coming. Her own lawyers are not fighting to save her from execution. They are fighting over how she should die. And the method they are asking for is not lethal injection. It’s hanging. What her attorneys are asking for is impossible to believe. To understand why, we have to go back. Back to 1995.

Back to a Job Corps campus in Knoxville. Back to the murder that started it all. Before we get into it, if you’re new here, welcome. This channel covers real cases, real courtrooms, and real consequences. Hit subscribe so you don’t miss what happens next. Because this story is far from over. Her name was Colleen Slemmer.

 She was 19 years old. Colleen was a trainee at the Knoxville Job Corps. It’s a program built for young people trying to learn a skill and build a future. That’s exactly what Colleen was doing. She had no husband, no children. Just a young life still being built one day at a time. Court records don’t give us long paragraphs about her hopes or her dreams, but they do give us this.

 She was a Job Corps student working alongside other young people her age trying to move forward. One of those people was Krista Pike. Colleen and Krista knew each other through the program. They weren’t strangers. They crossed paths often. Same halls, same campus, same age group, all trying to figure out life at the same time. But there was a problem.

Krista Pike had a boyfriend. His name was Tederrel Ship. He was 17 years old, also enrolled at Job Corps, and according to court records, tension grew between Krista and Colleen. Jealousy, rivalry, the kind of conflict that in most cases ends in silence or maybe a shouting match. Not this time. Colleen Slemmer had no idea that a personal conflict at a training program would cost her her life.

 She was 19 years old, just trying to build something. She never got the chance to finish. Her name was Krista Gail Pike. She was born on the 10th of March, 1976. By the time she was a teenager, Krista’s life had already been marked by pain. Court filings document a history of childhood sexual violence, trauma that, according to her own attorneys, followed her for the rest of her life.

At 18 years old, Krista was enrolled at the Knoxville Job Corps. That’s where she met Tederrel Ship, a 17-year-old fellow trainee. The two became a couple, but according to court records, something else was building alongside that relationship. Jealousy. Krista Pike had grown increasingly obsessed with the idea that Colleen Slemmer was a threat to her relationship with Ship.

That obsession did not stay quiet. It grew day by day, interaction by interaction. People around her noticed the tension. The jealousy was visible. It was not hidden. Court records show a warning sign no one acted on. Krista Pike was 18 years old. She had already survived trauma most adults never face. But instead of getting help, she was heading towards something far worse.

Nobody at that Job Corps campus in Knoxville could have imagined how far her jealousy would go. Colleen Slemmer was about to find out the hard way. The tension at Knoxville Job Corps did not appear overnight. It built slowly, day after day. Krista Pike, Tater Elship, Colleen Slemmer, three young people tangled in the same conflict, walking the same halls.

 There was another person watching all of this unfold. Her name was Shadola Peterson. She was 18 years old, also enrolled at the program. According to court records, Peterson was aware of the growing conflict between Pike and Slemmer. She saw it happening in real time. In the days leading up to the killing, reports show a confrontation was brewing, not a single outburst, a pattern building, getting worse, and yet nothing stopped it.

 No counselor stepped in. No formal intervention took place. No one pulled these teenagers aside and asked, “What is going on between you three?” The hostility was visible. People around them noticed it. But visible is not the same as addressed. At a program built to help young people build better futures, a conflict was allowed to grow unchecked.

 Krista Pike’s jealousy over Colleen Slemmer had reached a boiling point, and nobody at Knoxville Job Corps saw what was coming next. Three teenagers, one plan. Krista Pike, 18 years old. Tadaryl Shipp, 17 years old. Shadolla Peterson, 18 years old. According to trial testimony, Colleen Slemmer was lured away from the Job Corps campus under a pretense.

She had no reason to suspect what was really happening. She thought she was just walking with people she knew. She was wrong. Trial testimony describes a makeshift improvised weapon used in the attack. Not something bought or planned in advance with a store receipt. Something put together in the moment.

 Shadolla Peterson was there. She knew what was happening. But later, she made a choice that would change the direction of this entire case. She cooperated with prosecutors. Her cooperation became one of the most important pieces of this case. Without her, the truth about that day may have taken much longer to come out.

 Before we go into what happened that night, I want to hear from you. Based on everything so far, what do you think was going through Krista Pike’s mind in those final hours? Drop your theory in the comments below. And if you haven’t already, hit that like button. Now, let’s go back to 1995. To the night everything changed. It was January 1995 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

 Colleen Slemmer had no idea this would be her final night. According to court records, she was lured away from the Job Corps campus and taken to a wooded area nearby. A quiet place, far from help. Far from anyone who could hear her. She trusted the people who brought her there. That trust would cost her everything. Trial testimony lays out what happened next in disturbing detail.

 Krista Pike and Tadaryl Shipp carried out a brutal attack on Colleen Slemmer in that wooded area. Court records describe an assault that went on for an extended period of time. Colleen was not killed instantly. According to testimony, Pike played a direct role in the attack, and so did Ship.

 Prosecutors argued that Pike was the driving force behind what happened that night. There was no quick ending in those woods. What happened in those final minutes still divides investigators. Some parts of that night are documented clearly in court records. Other details testified to by different witnesses do not fully agree with each other.

 That disagreement became a major point during the trial. What is clear is this: Colleen Slemmer did not survive that night. Her body was later discovered in the wooded area near the Job Corps campus. It was not searchers trained for this kind of tragedy who found her first. It was the aftermath of a plan carried out by three teenagers.

 One of them her own peer at the same program meant to build her future. When the discovery was made, it confirmed the worst fear. Colleen Slemmer, 19 years old, was dead. A young woman with no husband, no children, just a life still being built one day at a time, had that life taken from her in a wooded area she should never have been led to.

The investigation into her death was only just beginning. And it would eventually lead investigators straight back to the Job Corps campus where it all started. News of Colleen Slemmer’s death spread fast through the Knoxville Job Corps campus. Shock, disbelief, fear. This was supposed to be a place for young people to build a future, not a place where one of their own would be killed.

 Shadola Peterson made a decision that would shape the rest of this case. She chose to speak to authorities about what she knew. Her words gave investigators a starting point. Meanwhile, Colleen Slemmer’s family was left to face every parent’s worst nightmare. Grief, confusion, endless questions with no answers.

 Why did this happen? Who did this to her? 19 years old and her life was just gone. Back at the Job Corps campus, suspicion did not take long to build. People who knew about the tension between Pike, Ship, and Slemmer began connecting the dots. The jealousy, the conflict, the confrontations that had been building for days.

 Investigators began looking closely at three names: Krista Pike, Tinesha Ship, Shadolla Peterson. The community that once saw these three as fellow trainees now saw them as suspects. The investigation was moving fast, but it still had a long way to go. Knoxville police moved quickly to build their case. They started where every strong investigation starts, with witness statements.

 Shadolla Peterson’s account became central to the entire case. Her words gave investigators details that helped them understand exactly what happened in that wooded area near the Job Corps campus. Krista Pike and Tinesha Ship were brought in for early questioning. According to court records, their behavior during questioning raised concern among investigators.

This was not the reaction of two people with nothing to hide. At the same time, investigators worked to gather physical evidence connected to the crime scene. Every detail mattered. Every piece needed to line up with the accounts they were collecting from witnesses. Court records show that piece by piece the case against Pike and Ship was taking shape.

This was no longer just about jealousy at a Job Corps campus. This was now a homicide investigation with two named suspects and a key witness whose cooperation would prove critical, Knoxville police were closing in. >> [clears throat] >> And Krista Pike was about to learn that her actions in that wooded area were about to catch up with her.

 One confession changed everything. Shadolla Peterson’s statements to investigators became the turning point in this case. Her account gave Knoxville police enough to move forward with arrests. Krista Pike was taken into custody, so was Tatro Ship. Two teenagers, once fellow trainees at the Knoxville Job Corps, were now facing charges connected to the death of Colleen Slemmer.

Court records show that evidence gathered during the investigation directly linked both Pike and Ship to the killing. Witness statements, physical evidence, Peterson’s cooperation, it was no longer a case built on suspicion. It was a case built on evidence. For the Job Corps community in Knoxville, the arrests brought a strange mix of relief and heartbreak.

Relief that answers were finally coming. Heartbreak that those answers pointed to their own peers. Krista Pike, 18 years old, Tatro Ship, 17 years old. Two teenagers now facing the weight of the justice system for what happened to Colleen Slemmer. But this was only the beginning of a legal process that would stretch on for decades.

 The trial was next. In 1996, Krista Pike stood trial for the murder of Colleen Slemmer. Of the three teenagers involved, Pike was the only one capitally charged. The jury reached its verdict. Krista Pike was convicted. She was sentenced to death. At 18 years old at the time of the crime, she became tied to one of the most unusual death sentences in Tennessee’s modern history.

 Tatro Ship, who was 17 years old at the time of the killing, was tried as a juvenile. He received a life sentence. Today, Ship is eligible for parole. Shadola Peterson, who cooperated with prosecutors throughout the investigation, received probation. Three teenagers, three very different outcomes. One sentenced to death, one serving life, now parole eligible, one walking free after probation.

 But for Christa Pike, the 1996 conviction was not the end of her legal story. It was only the beginning of a decades-long process. Appeal after appeal followed her conviction. Year after year, her case moved through the courts. Court records show a legal battle that stretched on for close to 30 years with no final resolution in sight.

Christa Pike remained on death row, and the country moved closer to a day nobody thought would actually come. Nearly 30 years passed. Christa Pike remained on Tennessee’s death row the entire time. The only woman in the state living under a death sentence. In August 2026, a court hearing began that would decide how her execution should proceed.

Senior Judge W. Mark Ward, appointed a special master, presided over the hearing in Knoxville. Pike’s attorneys argued that lethal injection could not be used on her constitutionally. They pointed to her documented PTSD, her history of childhood trauma, and a blood condition called thrombocytosis, which they said could cause severe complications during the procedure.

Because of this, her legal team proposed an alternative method, not as a preference, as a legal requirement. That method was hanging. The state pushed back. Officials said Tennessee has no equipment to carry out a hanging. They said the method is not authorized under current state law. Only lethal injection and electrocution are permitted.

 Despite the legal fight, Christa Pike’s execution remains scheduled for the 30th of September, 2026. If carried out, it will make her the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. Colleen Slemmer never got to finish building her future. Christa Pike has spent almost 30 years fighting to keep hers. There’s a strange irony here.

A case now built around preventing suffering and death, born from a killing marked by extreme suffering. What moment in this story hit hardest for you? Tell me in the comments. And if you want more true crime cases like this one, subscribe so you don’t miss what comes next.