Pike’s defense team wanted to introduce evidence that the doctor who performed the botched execution would perform Pike’s lethal injection. Her attorneys point to an interview suggesting that would be the case, but the court rejected the idea as not backed up by records. [snorts] >> Team has also asked that woman officers be involved in her execution.

 The court said they will try to put all female staff in the capital punishment unit when she is housed at Riverbend. She is currently >> 30th of September 2026. Tennessee plans to execute a woman. Her name is Christa Pike. She is the only woman on death row in Tennessee. If this execution happens, she will be the first woman put to death in this state since 1819.

But 3 days ago, a judge made a ruling that sealed her fate. He said Christa Pike failed to prove her case against the state’s lethal injection method. Court records say she carved a pentagram into a dying woman’s chest. Court records say she kept a piece of that woman’s skull as a trophy. Now, the state says she will lose consciousness in less than 30 seconds once the injection begins.

 Her own defense team says that is not true. They say she will suffer. So, did the judge get it right or did he just clear the way for a woman to die in pain? Welcome back to the channel. If you are new here, hit subscribe because by the end of this video, you will understand exactly how a 19-year-old college student’s murder led to this moment. Stay with me.

 This story is far from over. Colleen SLMur was 19 years old. She was a student connected to the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville. Like many young people her age, she was still building her life. She had time ahead of her. She had people who cared about her. Colleen’s path crossed with Christa Pikes through the JobCore program, a federal program meant to help young people learn skills and build better futures.

 It was supposed to be a place of second chances. Instead, it became the place where Colleen met the people who would take her life. Court records do not describe a love triangle between Colleen and Christa Pike directly. Instead, the connection ran through a young man named Tatarell Ship. Ship and Pike were involved with each other, but Ship had a past connection to Colleen.

 That connection was enough to plant something dangerous in Pike’s mind. On the night of January 12th, 1995, Colleen walked into a wooded area on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus. Court records say she walked there with people she knew. People from job corps, people she likely believed she could trust.

 She had no reason to expect what was coming. She was 19. She should have had decades ahead of her. Instead, she became a name in a court file, a name that a judge and a defense team are still arguing over more than 30 years later. But on that night in January, none of the legal arguments mattered yet. All that mattered was a group of young people walking into the dark and only some of them planning to walk back out.

 Christa Pike was born in 1976. Her childhood was not a normal one. Court testimony says she was raped as a toddler. She was raped again at age 11. She was raped a third time at age 17, about 1 year before she killed Colleen Surmer. Doctors who testified in her case agree on one thing. This repeated trauma left deep damage.

 Court records say she developed post-traumatic stress disorder. By her teenage years, Pike had entered the JobCore program in Knoxville. It was meant to give her a fresh start. Instead, it placed her in the same circle as Colleen Slimmer. At JobCore, Pike became involved with a young man named Tatterel Ship. But Ship had a past connection to another young woman. That woman was Colleen Slurmer.

Pike became fixated on this. Jealousy took hold of her. She could not let go of the idea that ship’s past connection to Colleen was a threat to her relationship. People around Pike noticed her behavior changing. Classmates and peers at JobCore later described her as volatile. Some had seen flashes of her temper before.

 Some had heard her speak with anger about Colleen. None of them stopped her. In hindsight, the warning signs were there. A troubled young woman with untreated trauma, a jealousy that would not fade, and a growing obsession with a woman who had done nothing wrong. What nobody around her understood in early 1995 was how far that jealousy would go, or how quickly it would turn into something no one could undo.

 In the days before January 12th, 1995, the tension inside Christa Pike was building. She could not accept the connection between Tateral Ship and Colleen Slmer. Every day that passed, her jealousy grew stronger. Witnesses later told investigators that Pike had spoken openly about wanting to hurt Colleen.

 Not in a quiet, hidden way. She said it out loud to people who knew her. Nobody reported it. Nobody stopped her. Instead, Pike began pulling people into her plan. She brought in Tateral Ship, the young man at the center of her jealousy. She also brought in a third classmate, a young woman named Shadola Peterson. Three people, one target.

 At JobCore, staff members were responsible for the safety of the young people in the program. But court records and later reporting show no sign that anyone intervened before it was too late. The warning signs were there. The words were said out loud. And still nothing was done. This is one of the hardest parts of Colleen SLmer’s story.

Her death was not a complete surprise to everyone around her attacker. Someone could have said something. Someone could have asked questions. Someone could have warned Colleen. Instead, on the night of January 12th, 1995, Colleen walked into the woods with the same people who had already decided what would happen to her.

 She did not know it yet, but time had already run out. Three people were now involved. Each one had a role. Tatarel’s ship stood at the center of Pike’s jealousy, but he did not step back. Instead, court records show he became part of the plan against Colleen Slmer. Shidollola Peterson, the third classmate, also joined in.

 The plan was simple. Get Colleen to walk somewhere alone, somewhere quiet, somewhere far from other people. That place became the University of Tennessee Agricultural Campus, a wooded, secluded stretch of land, far enough from the dorms and classrooms to hide what was about to happen. There was no gun involved in this crime.

 Court records described two weapons instead, a piece of asphalt and a box cutter, sometimes described as a craft knife. These were not planned like a movie scene. They were what was available, what was used to cause blunt force trauma and deep lacerations. Colleen Slmer had no idea what waited for her in that wooded lot. She trusted the people walking beside her.

 She had no reason not to. Before we go further into the night this happened, I want to ask you something. If you are finding this case as disturbing as I am, drop a comment below and tell me where you are watching from. And if you have not already, hit that subscribe button. This story only gets harder from here.

 Now, let’s go back to January 12th, 1995, the night everything changed. January 12th, 1995. Christa Pike found a reason to get Colleen Slmer alone. Court records do not describe a dramatic setup. They describe something much simpler and much colder. Pike approached Colleen under false pretenses, giving her no real reason to be afraid.

 Colleen agreed to walk with her. Tadal ship and Shadola Peterson came along. Four people walked toward the University of Tennessee agricultural campus that night. Only three of them would walk back. The group moved toward a secluded lot on the campus grounds. It was dark. It was quiet. It was far enough from anyone who could help.

 What began as a walk turned into a confrontation. Court records described the attack starting with a physical struggle. Pike struck Colleen using a piece of asphalt found near the site. This was not a single blow. Court records describe repeated blows one after another. Colleen fought back. She tried to survive.

 The attack did not end quickly. Court records describe what happened next as prolonged. Colleen was struck again and again. At some point, Pike used a box cutter, cutting into Colleen’s skin. Then came something that would shock even the courtroom decades later. Court records say Pike carved a pentagram into Colleen’s chest while she was still alive.

 Colleen Surmer, 19 years old, was still fighting for her life while this happened to her. What happened in those final minutes is impossible to believe. Court records describe injuries so severe that they went far beyond what was needed to end a life. This was not fast. This was not merciful. This was prolonged. Shadola Peterson’s role that night was more limited than pikes or ships.

 She was present, but later testimony described her as someone who did not carry out the worst of the violence herself. Still, she stood by while it happened. By the time Colleen Surmer died, court records describe a scene of extreme violence, one that investigators would later struggle to fully explain, even with a confession on record.

 And then, in a detail that still disturbs people who follow this case today, Pike took a piece of Colleen’s skull from the scene. Court records described this as a souvenir, something Pike kept and later showed to other people. Colleen’s body was left behind in that secluded lot. She was found the next day, January 13th, 1995, by a passerby walking through the area.

 What that person discovered would begin one of the most disturbing murder investigations in Knoxville’s history. Colleen SLMur never made it home that night. Her family had no idea, as the hours passed, that she was already gone, and the three people responsible were about to make a mistake that would help bring them to justice faster than anyone expected.

In the hours after the murder, Christa Pike did not hide. She did not show fear. Instead, court records describe her doing something almost impossible to understand. She showed the piece of Colleen Slmer’s skull to other classmates at JobCore. She talked about what she had done. Witnesses later told investigators that Pike seemed to brag about the killing rather than show any sign of guilt or shame.

 For the people around her, this was the first sign that something terrible had happened. Classmates who saw the skull fragment and heard Pike’s words began to understand that this was not a rumor. This was real. Word began to spread through the JobCore program. Staff members who had missed the earlier warning signs were now facing the reality of what had happened under their watch.

 For Colleen Slmer’s family, the news came differently. They learned that their 19-year-old daughter, a young woman with her whole future ahead of her, was gone. Not from an accident, not from illness, but from a planned violent act carried out by people she had trusted enough to walk with into the dark. Their world had changed overnight, and the investigation into who took her life was only just beginning.

 Unlike many murder cases, this one did not stay unsolved for long. Investigators did not need months of forensic testing to find their suspects. They needed witnesses, and witnesses were exactly what they had. Classmates at JobCore had heard Pike talk about the killing. Some had even seen the piece of skull she had shown around.

 Once investigators began asking questions, those same people came forward. This was not a case built slowly out of fingerprints and blood tests. This was a case that moved fast because too many people already knew the truth. Word reached investigators within days. Christa Pike’s name came up again and again.

 So did the names Tateral Ship and Shadola Peterson. At the same time, media outlets in Knoxville began covering the case. A young woman, barely out of her teens, accused of a brutal killing on a college campus, was not a story that stayed quiet for long. Reporters focused heavily on Pike, drawn to the unusual nature of a young female suspect accused of such extreme violence.

 The investigation that many expected to drag on for weeks or months was already closing in on its suspects within days of Colleen Smer’s body being found. The breakthrough in this case did not come from a lab. It came from people willing to talk. Witness statements from classmates at JobCore gave investigators everything they needed.

 These were not vague rumors. These were direct accounts naming Christa Pike, Tatterel Ship, and Shadola Peterson as the people involved in Colleen SL’s death. Investigators moved quickly. Within days of the murder, all three were taken into custody. Physical evidence at the scene supported what witnesses were already saying.

 Blood stains were found at the secluded lot on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus. The piece of asphalt used in the attack was recovered as well, tying the weapon directly to the crime scene. For investigators, this was one of the more straightforward cases they had worked. The suspects had not tried very hard to hide their involvement.

 Pike herself had shown the skull fragment to other people. Ship and Peterson had been present that night and witnesses placed them there. By the time formal charges were filed, Knoxville authorities had three suspects in custody and a case built on both human testimony and physical proof. The story was no longer a mystery of who did it.

 Now it was about what would happen to them next. The case went to trial in 1996. Christa Pike stood before a jury as the person who led the killing of Colleen SL. The evidence was there. The witnesses were there. The confession in her own bragging words to classmates was there, too. The jury found her guilty. And when it came time to decide her punishment, they chose death.

 At the time of her sentencing, Christa Pike became the youngest woman on death row in the United States. She was not even out of her teenage years for long before she was sentenced to die. Tateral ship faced his own trial. He was sentenced to life in prison because he was under the age of 18 at the time of the crime.

 His sentence was later reduced in line with legal rulings on how the justice system treats those who commit crimes as minors. Shidollola Peterson, whose role in the killing was more limited, reached a plea deal with prosecutors. Her sentence was lighter than either Pikes or ships, reflecting her smaller part in what happened that night.

 For Pike, this was only the beginning of a much longer legal battle. Over the following decades, her case moved through appeal after appeal. Her legal team argued about her sentence, her mental health, and eventually the very method the state planned to use to execute her. Three decades would pass before her execution date was finally set.

For more than 30 years, Christa Pike sat on death row at the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville. Appeal after appeal came and went. None of them overturned her sentence. In August of 2026, her legal team made one final push. Over a 3-day hearing, they argued that Tennessee’s lethal injection method would cause her needless suffering.

 They pointed to a blood condition called thrombocytosis. They argued her veins were too small and too damaged for a normal IV. They argued that her post-traumatic stress disorder caused by repeated sexual abuse throughout her life would make the process of being strapped down and observed by male guards deeply traumatic. Judge Mark Ward rejected most of these arguments.

 He ruled that her medical records showed successful blood draws in the past. He ruled that a proposed alternative, execution by hanging, was more dangerous, not less. He did confirm that Pike suffers from PTSD and bipolar disorder, but he ruled that the state’s accommodations were enough to reduce the risk of harm.

 What the judge ruled next will decide if she dies in pain or in peace. Her execution remains scheduled for September 30th, 2026. Court records describe a lethal injection procedure using the drug pentobarbatital. She will be allowed a Buddhist spiritual adviser in the death chamber and will be moved to Riverbend Maximum Security Prison only 24 hours before her execution.

 As for her co-conspirators, Tateral Ship remains in prison under a reduced life sentence, and Shadola Peterson has already completed her lighter sentence under the plea deal she accepted decades ago. Colleen Surmer never got to grow old. She never got to finish her studies, build a career, or start a family of her own. She was 19 when her future was taken from her in a wooded lot on the University of Tennessee campus.

 Christa Pike, meanwhile, has spent three decades fighting to change how, not if, she will die. There is something bitter in that. The same young woman who showed no mercy that night in January of 1995 now stands in court asking for mercy in her final hours. What moment in this story hit hardest for you? Was it the pentagram, the skull fragment, or the judge’s ruling that sealed her fate? Tell me in the comments below.

 And if you want to see how this story ends on September 30th, hit subscribe and turn on notifications because we will be covering this case until the very end.