Christa Pike’s Execution Is 26 Days Away – Loses Final Fight to Be Hanged

This woman has been on death row for over 30 years.    A woman who just a few days ago begged the judge for a different method of death.    A woman who asked to be hanged rather than put to death by lethal injection.  The judge said no.  She will be executed in a few days.  Her name is Krista Pike.  And if this execution goes ahead, she will be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee since 1819.

Christa Pike, convicted of the 1995 murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.  Pike is scheduled to be executed on September 30 for the brutal murder of a Job Corps participant in Knoxville in 1995, when Pike was 18 years old.  Her team is pushing for alternative methods of execution, including hanging.

Over 200 years ago, the state claims she would faint less than 30 seconds after the injection began.  Her own defense team says that’s a lie.  They say she will be fully conscious.  They say she will feel everything.  And that’s what makes this case unlike anything you’ve heard before .  What Christa Pike did to a 19-year-old girl in January 1995 is described by court documents as almost unbelievable.

A pentagram, a skull fragment left as a trophy.  The details are so extreme that a dead silence fell in the courtroom.  These are Red Mark Files.  If this is your first time here, hit the like button and subscribe to this channel, because by the end of this video, you will understand how one night in January 1995 led to the most disturbing execution news in Tennessee history.

Stay with me. I think I deserve to spend the rest of my life here.  I think so.  I know that’s true.  I know I don’t deserve to walk freely with others in normal society.  I did a terrible, unacceptable thing, and I realize that, but I do n’t deserve to die for the actions of three people. Before we talk about what happened, you should know who we lost.

  Her name was Colleen Slemmer.  She was 19 years old.  She was from the Knoxville, Tennessee area. Colleen’s life wasn’t perfect.  She was young, still finding her way and yearning for something better.  That’s why she joined the Job Corps program in Knoxville.  Job Corps is a federal program. It was created to give young people with difficult pasts a real chance.

  Professional training, life skills, a path to stable employment.  This was not a program for criminals.  It was a program for young people who simply needed support.  Colleen was one of them. She appeared every day .  She had classmates.  She had a routine.  She was doing what the program was designed to do—building the future step by step.

  Court records indicate that prior to her death, Colleen had a past relationship with a young man on the program named Tater Rawlship.  It wasn’t an ongoing relationship.  This was not a long-term situation.  It was simply the story of two young people whose paths once crossed.  This old connection, which Colleen probably didn’t even remember, was the reason she found herself in the crosshairs of someone else.

  She had no idea.  She went to class.  She communicated with people.  She lived her life.  Colleen Slemmer didn’t bother anyone.  She simply existed.  And for one person at Job Corps, that was enough.  Now let’s talk about the person who saw Colleen as a threat.  Her name is Krista Gale Pike.  She was born in 1976, a year younger than Colleen.

  From the very beginning, her life was not normal.  Court records show that Pike was sexually abused in early childhood, again at age 11, and a third time at 17, about a year before Colleen Slemmer’s murder.  Three separate attacks, three separate moments that left scars that no child should have to bear.  The doctors who testified during her case agreed on one thing.

  This level of repetitive trauma does not go unnoticed by a person.  Court records confirm that she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder. Both states later became the focus of her 30- year struggle on death row.  As a teenager, Pike joined the Job Corps program in Knoxville.  Same program, same building, same daily environment as Colleen Slemmer.

  At Job Corps, Pike developed a relationship with Tater Ship. Then she learned about Spike’s past relationship with Colleen.  That’s when everything changed. Fellow students on the program began to notice changes in Pike .  She became hot-tempered.  She became obsessed.  And she stopped hiding her feelings.

  She began to openly talk to people who knew her and Colleen about wanting to harm her.  Not hints, not vague comments, but direct words spoken out loud .  No one at Job Corps reported this. No one called her aside.  No one warned Colleen. What everyone around her didn’t understand was that Pike wasn’t just angry.    The warning signs were obvious.

The words were spoken aloud.  What no one yet understood was what exactly she was already willing to do. In the days leading up to January 12, 1995, changes were taking place inside Christa Pike.  Her obsession with Colleen Slemmer was no longer just anger.  This acquired a certain purposefulness. Fellow Job Corps students later recalled specific moments from those final days.

Pike openly threatened Colleen. Not in quiet corners, not far from others, but in common areas where staff and students moved freely every day.  Witnesses described her nature at the time as unpredictable and frightening—one that made people uncomfortable enough to remember but not enough to report. Nobody did this .

  Pike didn’t plan on confronting Colleen alone.  This became quite clear from the court records. She began to act. She began to involve others. First she turned to Tatro Shipa.  He was the young man around whom everything revolved, and the reason her jealousy first caught up with Colleen. Pike involved him in this plan.  Shipp agreed to be a part of it.

  Then she turned to a third fellow Job Corps student, Shadola Peterson.  Peterson also agreed to join.  Three people, one goal, the location has not yet been chosen.  Job Corps staff were present throughout this time.  They were able to notice it. Court records do not contain any documented intervention prior to the night of January 12.

  No report filed. No official conversation.  Meanwhile, Colleen Slemmer continued to live her normal life on the program.  She saw these people every morning.  She had no reason to see any threat in their faces.  The three have already agreed on what should happen.  Colleen knew nothing about this.  And when they asked her to go for a walk with them that evening, she agreed.

  Three people, one goal, and a plan that doesn’t need to be complicated to be deadly.  Court records clearly show everyone’s role in what was about to happen. Krista Pike was the initiator.  She was the one who decided Colleen needed to be hurt.  She was the one who recruited the others. She was the driving force behind everything that happened next.

  Tatro Ship was involved with Pike.  He was present and involved from the very beginning.  His agreement to participate eliminated any chance of stopping Pike before things went too far. Shadola Peterson was third.  Court records indicate that her role was more limited than Pike or Shipp’s, but her presence that night mattered.

Three against one meant Colleen had no real chance of escape.  The plan itself was not complicated. This was not necessary .  The goal was simple: lure Colleen to a quiet, remote location, away from anyone who might interfere .  The location they chose was the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus, a wooded, remote patch of land, separated from the main dormitories and classrooms, dark, quiet, and far enough away from pedestrian paths that no one would hear anything.

  Court documents describe the weapons used that night as items that were not specifically purchased or brought from home. A piece of asphalt found nearby and a utility knife, sometimes called a mock-up knife.  There was no money involved, no insurance policies or contracts.  These were not business disputes. It was jealousy, pure and personal.

Jealousy that had been building up for weeks and finally materialized into an action plan. If you’re still with me , leave a comment below and tell me where you’re watching from.  And if you haven’t subscribed yet, do it now.  This story will become increasingly difficult to listen to. January 12, 1995, night. Pike did not approach Colleen with aggression.

  There was no loud confrontation or argument in the hallway. Court records describe nothing dramatic about how this happened. She simply approached Colleen and asked her to come with her.  That was it , and Colleen agreed.  She had no reason to refuse.  These were the people she saw every day at Job Corps. Familiar faces, people she was in the same program with, walked through the corridors with , sat next to during meals.

  At that moment, nothing indicated that this agreement would be her last decision in life.  All four of them walked together to the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus.  Pike, Shipp, Peterson and Collin. The agricultural campus was far from the main buildings, dormitories, and academic buildings. The area they were heading to was wooded and dark, so quiet that no one could hear anything in the distance.

  No one could have walked by at the wrong moment and changed what was about to happen.  When they reached a remote area, the attack began.  Court records describe how Pike hit Colleen with a piece of asphalt, not once, not twice, but over and over again .  Repeated blows, one after another.  Colleen fought back.

  She didn’t give up.  She was trying to survive. The court documents clearly confirm this.  This was not a quick, one-sided attack. Colleen resisted, but three against one in a dark and isolated place meant the odds were completely against her .  At some point during the attack, Pike picked up a utility knife. She used it against Colleen when she was still alive, still breathing, still resisting.

  What happened next is described in the court documents in dry clinical language.  This language will stay with you. Court documents state that Pike carved a pentagram into Colleen’s chest while she was still alive. 19 years old, she was still breathing, and this was done to her.  The violence did not end there.  Court records describe injuries that went far beyond what would have been required for murder.

It wasn’t fast.  It did n’t end instantly.  It was a prolonged torture that is difficult to describe in words and almost impossible to comprehend. Shedolla Peterson was present the whole time.  Later accounts described her role as more limited than that of Pike or Ships.  She did not commit the most brutal violence.

  But she stood nearby.  She was watching.  She didn’t stop it.  When it was finally over, Colleen Slemmer was dead.  Pike then retrieved Colleen’s skull fragment from the scene. In court documents, it is called a trophy.    The three of them emerged from that wooded area.  Colleen was left behind in the dark, alone. Most people who commit such crimes fall silent afterwards.

  Krista Pike did the opposite.  Within hours of leaving the forest, she returned to her Job Corps teammates.  And she wasn’t going to hide anything.  Witnesses later told investigators that Pike spoke openly about what happened— without regret, without fear. Court records contain evidence that she spoke of the murder more with pride than anything else.

  She still had that piece of Colleen’s skull.  And she showed it to people.  Not to one person alone.    To her fellow students, with whom she shared the curriculum every day .  Some of these same people had already heard her threaten Colleen a few days earlier.  Now they were being shown physical proof that these threats were not empty words.

  This happened that same night, in the early hours of January 13, 1995.  While Pike walked the program, bragging about what she had taken from the crime scene, Colleen’s body still lay in that dark wooded area of the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus, undiscovered .  Lonely, Colleen’s family didn’t even know.

  As the hours passed from the night of the 12th to the morning of the 13th, they lived their lives, completely unaware that the person they loved was no longer there .  The world they would wake up to on January 13 was completely different. They just didn’t know about it yet.  Pike had just committed one of the most brutal murders Knoxville had ever seen , and within hours she was bragging about the victim’s skull fragment as if it was something to be proud of.

  This decision was to destroy her entire business faster than she could have expected. January 13, 1995.    A passerby walking through a remote section of the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus made a discovery that stopped everything. Colleen Slemmer’s body was found .  What this man had encountered was not something he would easily forget.

  Investigators arrived at the scene and recorded what court records described as extremely serious injuries.  Injuries that went beyond what is usually recorded in forensic medical documentation.  The place was covered in blood stains.  A piece of asphalt used in the attack was found nearby.  At first glance, this was a case that could take months to solve.

  A violent crime, a remote location, no eyewitnesses directly at the scene.  But the investigation took a completely different path. Because Christa Pike has already done something no investigator could have predicted.  In the hours between the murder and the discovery of the body, she returned to Job Corps and began to speak.

  She was showing people a fragment of the skull.  She spoke openly about what happened. When investigators began interviewing people, rumors had already spread throughout the program. Fellow students, who had been shown a skull fragment the day before, were now overwhelmed by what they saw .

  And when investigators began interviewing Job Corps staff and students, names emerged almost immediately.  Krista Pike, Tinesha Shipman, Shonda Peterson. Pike’s behavior after the murder didn’t just expose her. She confirmed everything her classmates were now telling the police.  The bragging, the skull fragment, the threats they had heard a few days before.

  It all coincided.  The Knoxville media quickly picked up on the story.    A teenage girl, a college campus , a level of cruelty that is hard to explain. This matter did not remain silent for long.  The breakthrough in this case did not come from a forensics lab.  This did not happen after weeks of examinations or months of collecting paper evidence.

  This happened thanks to people who agreed to sit down before investigators and tell the truth about what they saw and heard.  The testimony of the Job Corps witnesses gave investigators exactly what they needed.  This wasn’t gossip passed down through a chain of people.  These were individuals who had heard with their own ears how Pike threatened Colleen.

These were individuals who saw the skull fragment with their own eyes the night after the murder.  And these were the people who heard Pike describe the crime in her own words before the first detective arrived on the scene. Physical evidence from the University of Tennessee agricultural campus site directly supported this testimony.

  The asphalt, the blood stains, the forensic details of Colleen’s injuries—everything the witnesses described matched what investigators found at the crime scene. Within days of the murder, all three suspects were taken into custody. Krista Pike, Tederell Shipp, Shadolla Peterson .  Finding them was quite easy. They didn’t escape.

  They were still in Job Corps.  All three were formally charged.  For investigators, the speed of this case was unusual, but the reason for such speed was not only high-quality detective work. The fact is that Pike’s own actions in the hours after the murder had already effectively cracked the case for them .

  The question of who was responsible was no longer a mystery.  Now Knoxville had to find out what justice would be for each of the three. 1996.  Krista Pike appeared before a jury in a Knoxville courtroom. The evidence presented against her was compelling.  Physical evidence from the crime scene, testimony from the same classmates she spoke to after the murder, and her own words—what she said out loud to people who then repeated it under oath before a judge.

  The jury heard about the pentagram.  They heard about the skull fragment.  They reviewed court records that described the prolonged and extremely brutal nature of the attack on a 19-year-old girl who had done nothing to deserve it. They also heard from doctors, medical professionals who testified about Pike’s childhood, repeated sexual abuse, long-term psychological trauma, and diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder.

  Her defense team did everything to make sure the jury understood what kind of life Pike led before that January night in 1995 .  The jury weighed it all and found her guilty.  When it came to sentencing, they chose the death penalty.  At the time of this sentencing, Krista Pike became the youngest woman on death row in the United States.

She was barely out of her teens. Tederrel Shipp was tried separately. Since he was under 18 at the time of the crime, the law did not allow for the death penalty.  He received a life sentence. This sentence was later commuted in accordance with legal norms governing the consideration of cases of juvenile crimes. Shadolla Peterson has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Because it was determined that her role in the crime was less significant, she received a lighter sentence. She has since served her sentence and is no longer in prison. Pike’s appeals began almost immediately.  They will last for the next 30 years.  After the sentencing, Krista Pike was sent to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville.

There she would spend the next 30 years. Appeal after appeal was filed.  Each of them challenged part of her case, the sentence, the conditions of detention, and the fairness of the process that sent her to death row.  And one after another, all these appeals failed.  None of them overturned her sentence.

  None of them changed the punishment.  Then came August 2026 .  Her legal team made the final push. For three days, they presented arguments before Judge Mark Ward in a hearing focused on just one thing—the method of execution.  The Tennessee Supreme Court has appointed a special expert to review five specific defense claims.

  The court ruled on all five.  The first application concerned a blood disease called thrombocytosis.  The defense argued that this would cause her unnecessary suffering during the lethal injection. The court examined her medical records.  These records showed successful blood sampling procedures during her time in custody.

  The application was rejected.  The second statement concerned her post-traumatic stress disorder. Lawyers argued that being transferred to Riverbend Maximum Security Prison, being strip- searched and restrained by male guards would cause severe psychological harm given her history of sexual abuse.  The court acknowledged that Pike did indeed suffer from PTSD, but also noted that appropriate measures had been taken.

  Female officers will provide her transportation and supervision.  The Riverbend death row will be staffed only by female staff for the 24 hours before an execution.  The court found these measures sufficient.  The third statement concerned her veins.  The defense argued that they were too thin and damaged to safely install an IV.

  The court rejected this as well.  Her own medical records confirmed that venous access was successfully obtained during her imprisonment.    The fourth statement attracted the most attention.  The defense offered hanging as a less painful alternative .  The court ruled that this was impractical and no less painful.

  The court noted that hanging carries a real risk of prolonged suffering. The second alternative— using a central venous catheter without standard access—also did not meet legal requirements.  The fifth demand —the right to have a Buddhist spiritual guide present in the execution chamber— was resolved by agreement between the parties .

  This request was granted.  Another additional argument was put forward and rejected . The defense suggested that a doctor involved in a previous botched execution would perform Pike’s lethal injection.  The court found that this statement was not supported by verified data. Execution date: September 30, 2026. Drug: pentobarbital.

  According to authorities, she will lose consciousness in less than 30 seconds.  Her defense team claims this is not true.  Colleen Slemmer never turned 20. She didn’t finish what she started at Job Corps.    I didn’t build the career I wanted.  She didn’t get the future that was supposed to be hers.  She was 19, and three people she trusted took everything from her in a wooded area on a January night.

  Christa Pike, meanwhile, spent 30 years in courtrooms arguing not about whether she would die, but how.  The same young woman who showed no mercy on January 12, 1995, has been pleading with the courts about him for three decades. The judge refused.  Colleen didn’t have the last word.  She didn’t have a last request. She got a forest plot and three people who had already decided that she was done with.

  This is the only detail that should remain in your memory.  What moment in this story struck you the most? The verdict, the skull fragment, or the fact that no one stopped it before it all started?  Write to me in the comments below.  Subscribe and turn on notifications. We’ll be here on September 30, 2026, covering every detail of what comes next.