First Woman Executed in Tennessee in 200 Yrs, Murdered Her Friend,Kept Skull as Trophy, Date Set

It is therefore ordered that you shall be put to death by electrocution  as prescribed by law and that you shall be transferred to custody of the war at the Tennessee prison. And further on the 12th day of January 1997, your body shall be subjected  to shock by a sufficient current of electricity.

God have mercy on my mom  before  Mr. B. Please on September 30th, 2026. Christa Gail Pike will be led into the death chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. She will be 49 years old. Her death would mark the end of a case that has spanned three decades, destroyed multiple families, and raised profound questions about youth, mental illness, justice, and whether barely legal adults should face the ultimate punishment.

 Christa faces execution for the torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Surmer, killed on a cold January night in 1995 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Colleen was beaten, tormented for up to an hour before Christa smashed her with a chunk of asphalt, killing her. Christa then carved pentagrams into Colleen’s chest, and took a piece of her skull as a trophy.

 She confessed within days, showed the skull fragment to friends, and never denied what she had done. Christa was 18 years and 10 months old when she killed Colleen, barely an adult under the law. During the months before the murder, Christa had fallen under the control of 17-year-old Tateral Ship, a violent gang member who recognized her vulnerability and exploited it completely.

 Witnesses testified that Ship physically abused Christa and directed much of the attack that killed Colleen. He brought the weapons to the murder scene. He carved the pentagrams into Colleen’s body. Yet, Ship was sentenced to life with parole eligibility because he was 17. just months younger than Christa. He was denied parole in 2025, but he will have another chance in 2031.

 Christa’s scheduled execution would make her the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years and the first person executed in Tennessee for a crime committed at age 18 in the modern death penalty era. Her case has become a test case for whether states can execute defendants who were barely legal adults at the time of their crimes.

 Chosen not because her guilt is in dispute, but because all her appeals have been exhausted. What remains disputed, even as her execution date approaches, is whether someone who was 18 and severely mentally ill at the time of the crime can be justly executed. But before that day arrives, there is a story that needs to be told.

 A story about a lady born into chaos and violence. About systems that failed at every opportunity to intervene. About a vulnerable teenager who fell under the control of a violent predator. And about a horrific crime that destroyed two families. If you’re drawn to stories of justice, betrayal, and the people who reach a point of no return, make sure to subscribe to No Way Out.

 This is where true crime meets truth. Real cases, real consequences. The darkest corners of human decision broken down into tiny pieces so you can see every detail and make your own conclusions better. Christale Pike entered the world on March 10th, 1976 in Beckley, West Virginia. Her arrival came prematurely, a beginning that would set the tone for the instability that defined her early years.

 Her parents, Cararissa Hansen and Emil Glenn Pike, had what could only be described as a volatile relationship. They married, divorced after Hansen was caught cheating, then remarried when Hansen attempted suicide. The pattern repeated itself over and over. But Christa’s problems began even before birth. Hansen abused alcohol heavily during her pregnancy, exposing Christa to substances that would cause permanent damage.

 Medical experts would later determine that Christa was born with organic brain damage and a mal foration of the brain directly caused by her mother’s drinking. This prenatal exposure would affect Christa’s impulse control and decision-making for her entire life. The home Christa grew up in was far from safe.

 An aunt later described scenes that still disturbed those who heard them. As an infant, Christa would crawl through piles of dog feces scattered throughout the house. Hansen, despite being a mother, continued partying and drinking heavily. When doctors informed her that her toddler daughter was experiencing severe seizures, Hansen’s lifestyle didn’t change.

 The seizures were likely related to the brain damage Christa had sustained in the womb, but they received minimal medical attention. Christa’s father showed little interest in raising his daughter. Glenn Pike was largely absent, leaving the bulk of child care to Christa’s paternal grandmother. This grandmother became the single stable figure in young Christa’s life.

 Years later, Christa would tell people that her grandmother was the only person who ever truly loved her. In a life filled with rejection and abuse, this one relationship provided Christa with the only sense of safety and belonging she would know as a child. The abuse Christa suffered began shockingly early. Starting around age 2, there are strong indications that she was sexually abused by her grandmother’s boyfriend.

 At age nine, Christa was raped by a man who lived near her family. State authorities were informed but failed to take action. The perpetrator was never prosecuted. This would be the first of many times that the systems meant to protect Christa would fail her. warning signs of severe mental illness appeared early.

 In third grade, she attempted suicide by overdosing on acetaminophen. Her mother testified that after this incident, Christa received psychiatric treatment followed by psychological care and therapy at different times, but the treatment was always brief and inadequate. No one diagnosed the bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder that were already taking root in Christa’s developing brain.

 No one recognized that the suicide attempt was a desperate cry for help from a child who was being systematically destroyed by abuse and neglect. But tragedy struck when Christa was just 12 years old. Her grandmother died in 1988, removing the one protective presence in her world. The loss devastated Christa.

 Unable to cope with the grief and suddenly thrust back into her mother’s chaotic household, Christa attempted suicide again. The response from her family was minimal. There was no sustained support, no proper followup to ensure she received the help she needed. Christa’s mother and father essentially abandoned her emotionally at the moment she needed them most.

 When Christa moved back with her mother after her grandmother’s death, Hansen introduced her 13-year-old daughter to marijuana. Christa began abusing the drug regularly. By age 12, she was drinking alcohol and would later claim she could outdrink grown men by that age. The substance abuse was both a symptom of her trauma and an attempt to self-medicate the pain she couldn’t process.

 That same year, when Christa was 13, she was sexually assaulted by one of her mother’s boyfriends. Children’s services finally intervened and removed Christa from the home. But the intervention was half-hearted at best. After just three months in foster care with minimal oversight, Christa was returned to her mother’s home. Nothing had changed.

 The boyfriend was still around. The drinking and partying continued. Christa was right back in the environment that had facilitated her abuse. The violence continued unabated. One of Hansen’s boyfriends punched Christa in the face after she chased him with a butter knife during a confrontation. Criminal charges were filed but quickly settled with no real consequences.

 At age 17, Christa was raped again, this time by a stranger. She went to the hospital and records documented the sexual assault, but local authorities conducted only a cursory investigation. Once again, no one was held accountable for the violence inflicted on Christa. Throughout these years, Christa was developing severe mental health conditions that would never be properly diagnosed or treated during her adolescence.

The repeated trauma combined with her organic brain damage and genetic predisposition created a perfect storm of psychiatric illness. She was experiencing symptoms of bipolar disorder with mood swings and periods of depression. She had severe post-traumatic stress disorder from the repeated sexual assaults and abuse.

 She was beginning to dissociate, a psychological defense mechanism where the mind disconnects from reality to escape unbearable circumstances. Her father wasn’t much help either. Glenn Pike actively rejected his daughter multiple times. He kicked her out of his home when she performed poorly in school. When Christa went to live with her father and his new family, one of her young halfsisters claimed that Christa had molested her.

The allegation was never proven, and later investigations would find no evidence that Christa had ever abused any children. But Glenn Pike used this claim as justification to eject Christa from his home. She was rejected again. At one point, Glen Pike even signed adoption papers to give Christa up, though this fell through when she was nearly 18.

 Christa later described feeling that her father actively chose his new wife and children over her. Every time there was conflict, every time Christa needed support, Glen Pike turned her away. The message was clear. She was unwanted. The constant upheaval in Christa’s home life destroyed any chance at educational stability.

 Between her mother’s household in North Carolina and her father’s home in West Virginia, Christa was in constant motion, never spending more than a few years at any single school. The moves were frequent and chaotic, often happening mid-semester when family situations exploded into crisis. The disruption took a devastating toll on her academic performance.

 Christa failed third grade and had to repeat it. Years later, she failed seventh grade and repeated that as well. These weren’t failures due to lack of intelligence. Psychological testing conducted during her youth showed Christa had an IQ of 111, placing her slightly above average. She was capable of learning and had shown flashes of being a bright student during brief periods of stability.

 But capability means nothing without stability, support, and mental health treatment. Christa was trying to learn while suffering from untreated bipolar disorder, severe post-traumatic stress disorder, from repeated sexual assaults, and organic brain damage from prenatal alcohol exposure. She was experiencing dissociative episodes where her mind would disconnect from reality as a defense mechanism against unbearable circumstances.

By 9th grade, Christa had essentially given up on traditional schooling. She never completed any formal education beyond that point. Her transcript was a patchwork of absences, failures, and transfers from school to school. No one had invested in helping her succeed because she kept moving before anyone could form a relationship with her or understand the depth of her problems.

When Christa was in 10th grade, the situation reached a breaking point. The exact circumstances that led to her placement in a juvenile facility remain unclear from public records, but it was likely related to truency, running away from home, or conflict with her parents. Christa was sent to a juvenile detention or residential facility for approximately 1 year.

 For many troubled youth, such facilities represent another failure, another rejection. But for Christa, it offered something she had never experienced: stability. In the juvenile facility, Christa’s basic needs were met consistently for the first time in years. She had regular meals. She had a bed she could count on. She wasn’t being sexually abused or physically beaten.

 The chaos of her home life couldn’t reach her behind the facility’s walls. And with this stability, something remarkable happened. Christa was able to focus on education again. Staff at the facility encouraged residents to work toward their GED, a high school equivalency credential. For Christa, this represented a second chance.

 She threw herself into the GED preparation program. Her above average intelligence finally given a stable environment to flourish, allowed her to make rapid progress. She studied diligently, attended classes, and completed practice tests. In 1993, Christa successfully passed the GED examination and received her credential.

 This achievement was significant. It proved that when given stability and support, Christa was capable of success. It should have been a turning point. Evidence that with the right environment and resources, she could turn her life around. It was during her time in the juvenile facility that Christa first heard about JobCore.

 Counselors and staff frequently talked about the program as an option for residents once they were released. JobCore is a federal program administered by the US Department of Labor. Created in 1964 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty. The program’s mission is to help young people aged 16 to 24 from lowincome backgrounds by providing free vocational training, education, and career skills.

 JobCore offers something unique. It’s a residential program. Participants live at JobCore centers, receiving not just training, but also housing, meals, health care, and a small living allowance. For troubled youth who come from unstable homes, this residential component is often the most valuable aspect. It provides the stability they need to focus on building skills and planning for the future.

 The program offers training in numerous fields: healthcare, construction, automotive technology, culinary arts, information technology, and many others. Upon completion, JobCore helps graduates find employment in their trained field. The program has graduated millions of young people over its six decades of operation, giving many of them their first real chance at a legitimate career.

 For Christa, JobCore seemed like the answer to all her problems. here was a program that would provide her with vocational training, a place to live, and support services, all free of charge. She wouldn’t have to depend on her neglectful mother or rejecting father. She could learn a practical skill and build a career.

 She could finally escape the chaos that had defined her entire life. Christa decided she wanted to train as a nursing assistant. This choice was significant. Despite everything her mother had put her through, Hansen had worked as a nursing assistant, and it was one of the few areas where Christa felt some connection to her.

 Perhaps she hoped that pursuing her mother’s profession would somehow earn Hansen’s approval or create a bond between them. Or perhaps she simply recognized that healthc care was a field with steady employment and opportunities to help people, something that appealed to her despite all her trauma. After her release from the juvenile facility in 1994, Christa applied to JobCore and was accepted.

 She enrolled at the Knoxville JobCore Center in Tennessee in late 1994. At 18 years old, Christa arrived at the center in late 1994 with genuine hope for her future. She imagined completing her nursing assistant training, finding a job, maybe eventually getting her own apartment. She pictured a life of stability and independence, free from the abuse and neglect that had defined her first 18 years.

 She saw a job core as her escape route from a traumatic past. But the Knoxville JobCore Center was not the safe haven Christa imagined. Behind its mundane exterior as a converted hotel, the facility had developed a dark reputation in the community. Local merchants complained about thefts and violence involving job core residents.

 The center had previously been located on Knoxville College campus, but the college had asked them to leave due to criminal activity. Just a year before Christa’s arrival, JobCore residents from this center had committed violent crimes, including the rape and assault of University of Tennessee students. The center had become a gathering place for troubled youth from across the region.

 Some genuinely seeking to turn their lives around, others simply looking for free housing while they continued destructive patterns. Gang members found the residential setting convenient for their activities. Drug dealers operated openly in the converted hotel’s hallways. Fights were common. The staff was overwhelmed and unable to control the violence that simmerred constantly beneath the surface.

Christa had no way of knowing that this decision, enrolling at the Knoxville Job Course Center in late 1994, would lead her down a path that would end with her becoming the youngest woman sentenced to death in modern American history. Because while Christa was settling into her new room and attending her first nursing assistant classes, another young person named Tatterel Darnell was also arriving at the center with very different intentions.

You see, while Christa Pike struggled through her troubled childhood in West Virginia and North Carolina, another young person was growing up 400 m away in Memphis, Tennessee. Tateral Darnell Ship was born in 1977, making him just one year younger than Christa. But where Christa’s childhood was marked by sexual abuse and parental neglect that created a desperate victim, Toddel’s path led him into gang violence and a fascination with darkness that would create a dangerous predator.

 Two damaged young people, both products of failed systems, were about to collide with devastating consequences. Details about Tatterel’s early family life remain limited. What is known is that he was raised by a single mother who did her best in difficult circumstances. She worked to provide for her son and tried to keep him on a constructive path.

 But by his teenage years, Tadel had already veered away from anything his mother hoped for him. He dropped out of high school in the 9th grade, abandoning his education, just as Christa had been forced to abandon hers. though for very different reasons. By his mid- teens, Toddell was using drugs regularly and had become deeply involved with gang activity in Memphis.

The gang culture of Memphis in the early 1990s was violent and unforgiving. Drive-by shootings were common. Territorial disputes over drugdeing corners led to beatings and murders. Young men carried guns and knives as routinely as they carried wallets. In this environment, violence wasn’t an aberration.

 It was currency, a way to gain respect and status. Toddel embraced this culture fully. He didn’t just participate in gang activity. He seemed to revel in it. Where other teenagers might eventually mature out of gang involvement or recognize its destructiveness. Tadder appeared to find his identity in the violence and intimidation. His reputation for brutality grew.

 Other gang members knew him as someone who would escalate any situation, who would go further than others were willing to go. He dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. He was using drugs regularly and had become involved with gang activity in Memphis. The gang culture of Memphis in the early 1990s was violent and unforgiving, and Tatterel embraced it fully.

 Fellow students who later knew him at JobCore described him as someone with a reputation for violence that preceded his arrival. When Tatarel walked into a room, the atmosphere changed. Other teenagers, even those with their own troubled backgrounds, recognized that Tatterel was different. He wasn’t just troubled or acting out.

 He was genuinely dangerous. Tatarell’s interest in the occult and devil worship set him apart from typical troubled teens. This wasn’t casual curiosity or teenage rebellion against authority. He immersed himself in the symbolism and imagery of Satanism. Wearing pentagram necklaces and keeping a satanic Bible in his room.

 He created an altar dedicated to his dark interests. These weren’t just props for show. They reflected a genuine embrace of an identity built around transgression and fear. At Tadel’s mother’s urging, hoping to give her son one last chance to turn his life around, Tatterel enrolled in the Knoxville Job Core Center.

 The program was meant to provide vocational training and life skills to help disadvantaged youth find employment. Tadel enrolled in the culinary arts program, learning to cook and work in restaurant kitchens. But he had no real interest in building a legitimate career. For Tateral, JobCore was simply another environment where he could exercise power over others.

 Fellow JobCore students lived in fear of him. One student, Mr. Drace, would later testify about the terror Tatarell inspired. Gang members at the center, would regularly assault other students in coordinated attacks. They would burst into victims rooms with towels or sheets, covering their heads so they couldn’t identify their attackers, and then beating them viciously.

 These attacks served no purpose beyond establishing dominance and spreading fear. Tataro led one of these gangs. He made sure everyone knew he was a thug who wouldn’t hesitate to hurt someone. Other students described him as violent and threatening. He used physical intimidation to control those around him.

 If someone crossed him or showed respect, Tatterel’s response was swift and violent. Mr. Drace experienced Tadel’s violence firsthand in an incident that nearly cost him his life. One day, Tatterel tried to pick Drace up and throw him off a bridge onto railroad tracks 200 ft below. It would have been murder, plain and simple. Drace only escaped because several cars stopped on the bridge and Tadel feared having witnesses to what he was about to do.

Tadel backed down, but the message was clear. He was willing to kill. Tatarell was also looking for someone he could control and influence completely. He wanted a partner who would participate in his dark interests and follow his lead without question. He wanted someone vulnerable enough to be manipulated, isolated enough to be dependent on him, and damaged enough to accept violence as normal.

 He was looking for a victim he could mold into an accomplice. He didn’t have to wait long. Within weeks of his arrival at the center, Tatterel would find exactly what he was looking for. Within days of arriving, Christa met Tadel’s ship. The encounter was not accidental. Tadel had noticed her immediately when she arrived. He recognized her vulnerability the way a predator recognizes prey.

 He saw the way she carried herself. Shoulders slightly hunched, eyes downcast, the body language of someone who expected rejection and abuse because that’s all she’d ever known. He saw someone desperate for protection in a dangerous environment. He saw exactly what he’d been looking for. Tadel approached Christa and began talking to her.

 He was charming at first, asking about where she came from, what program she was enrolled in, acting interested in her life. For Christa, this attention was intoxicating. A confident, powerful young man was paying attention to her. Other students feared him, which meant he could protect her from the violence that permeated the center.

He seemed strong. He seemed to care. The attraction was immediate on Christ’s part. For someone who had spent her life being rejected and abused, Tatterel’s attention felt like love. She didn’t recognize that his interest in her was predatory. She didn’t see that he was assessing her weaknesses and determining how to control her.

 She saw only that someone seemed to want her. And after a lifetime of being unwanted, that was everything. For Toddel, Christa was exactly what he had been looking for. She was vulnerable and desperate for connection. She had no support system, no family who cared, no friends who might intervene, no one who would notice if she started changing.

 She was willing to do anything to keep his attention and approval. She was isolated, damaged, and completely defenseless against manipulation. Within weeks, they were dating. The relationship moved quickly, as abusive relationships often do. Tadel quickly established complete control. He told Christa who she could talk to and who she couldn’t.

 He controlled her time, insisting she spend every free moment with him. He isolated her from other residents who might have been positive influences. He began introducing her to his interests in the occult and Satanism. Testing how far she would go to please him. Tatterel was physically abusive toward Christa from the beginning. He hit her.

 He shoved her. He grabbed her roughly and left bruises on her arms. He was violent and intimidating using physical force to reinforce his control. Other students saw this happening and recognized it as abuse, but no one intervened. In the dysfunctional environment of the job course center, violence between couples was common enough that staff either didn’t notice or didn’t care to get involved.

 But instead of pushing Christa away, this abuse seemed to bind her closer to Toddel. This reaction confused those who witnessed it. In her damaged psychological state, having grown up in an environment where violence and love were constantly intertwined, Christa interpreted Tadarel’s control as caring. Her father had been violent. Her mother’s boyfriends had been violent.

The men who raped her had been violent. In Christ’s experience, violence was simply what men did. Tadel’s treatment of her felt familiar, and familiar felt like home, even when home was terrible. The abuse also created a trauma bond, a powerful psychological attachment that forms between an abuser and victim.

The cycle of violence followed by reconciliation, of abuse followed by apparent affection, creates an addictive pattern where the victim becomes psychologically dependent on the abuser. They developed a shared identity built around transgression and darkness. Other students at JobCore began referring to them as a couple who worshiped Satan together.

 Around the same time, another young woman entered their orbit. Shadola Peterson was 18 years old from Cleveland, Tennessee. She had arrived at the job course seeking vocational training just like most residents. Shidollola and Christa became friends. They spent time together and Shadola became part of the social circle that included Christa and Tatterel.

 As Christa and Tadel’s interest in a cult symbolism grew, Shidollola was there observing and occasionally participating. She wore pentagram necklaces, too. She listened to their talk about Satanism. She was present for many of their conversations and activities. Shadala represented a different type of person in this dynamic.

 She didn’t have Christa’s severe trauma or Toddel’s capacity for violence. She appeared to be someone who simply fell into a dangerous situation through proximity. But her presence would prove crucial in what came next. While this toxic relationship was forming and intensifying in the converted Holiday Inn’s hallways, another young woman at the center remained focused on why she had come to Knoxville in the first place.

 Colleen Slmer had traveled over 700 m from her home in Orange Park, Florida with a clear goal to learn computer technology skills that would launch her career. She was 19 years old, energetic, and enthusiastic about her future. Colleen had been at the center since September 1994, arriving three months before Christa Pike enrolled.

 She came from a stable, loving family. Her mother, May Martinez, worked hard to support Colleen and her younger sister. The family couldn’t afford to send Colleen to college, which is why she chose the job core. The Jacksonville Center near her home didn’t offer computer training. So, Colleen made the long journey to Knoxville specifically because this center had a strong technology program.

Unlike many residents who arrived at JobCore after repeated failures and rejections, Colleen came with hope and ambition. She had dreams of working in the booming computer industry. In 1994, the internet was just becoming mainstream, and anyone with programming skills had bright prospects. Colleen wanted to be part of that technological revolution.

She attended classes diligently, spent hours in the computer lab, and talked excitedly with her mother during their regular phone calls about what she was learning. Colleen knew who Christa, Tadel, and Shadola were. Everyone at the center knew about the Satan worshiing couple and their friend who wore pentagrams.

 But Colleen wasn’t part of their social circle. The occult interests, the darkness, the violence, none of that appealed to Colleen. She was there to learn computer skills and build a better future. She maintained a polite distance from residents who seemed troubled or dangerous. When she passed Christa and Tatterel in the hallways, she would nod politely but keep walking.

She didn’t engage them in conversation. She didn’t attend the gatherings where they talked about Satanism and dark rituals. She stayed in her lane, focused on her classes, and maintained friendships with other residents who shared her goal of self-improvement. What Colleen didn’t know was that her very distance from their circle, her normaly in an environment of dysfunction, her focus on building a legitimate future, all of these things would eventually draw dangerous attention.

 She didn’t know that Christa Pike was beginning to develop obsessive thoughts about her. She didn’t know that in Christa’s damaged, delusional mind, ordinary interactions would be twisted into threats. Tensions began building between Christa and Colleen. The source of this conflict was Tateral ship. Though the reality of what happened versus what Christa believed happened were two very different things.

 Christa became convinced that Colleen was interested in Tateral. She told people at the center that Colleen was trying to steal her boyfriend. In Christa’s mind, Colleen represented a direct threat to the one stable relationship she had. Given Christa’s history of abandonment and her desperate, dependent attachment to Tadel, this perceived threat consumed her thoughts.

 The situation escalated when Christa claimed to her friends that she woke up one night to find Colleen standing over her bed holding a box cutter. This story became part of Christa’s justification for what came next, though there’s no evidence this incident actually occurred. What is certain is that by early January 1995, Christa had decided that Colleen needed to be dealt with and she wasn’t alone in this decision.

 On January 11th, 1995, Christa told her friend Kim Alo something chilling. They were in one of the rooms at the job center when Christa announced that she was planning to kill Colleen Slumber. When Elo asked why, Christa gave a response that revealed just how disconnected from reality she had become.

 She said it was because she just felt mean that day. Elo was taken aback, but didn’t take the threat seriously. It seemed like just talk, the kind of exaggerated statement troubled teenagers make without meaning it. Christa was prone to dramatic statements and mood swings. The Lylo assumed this was just Christa venting her anger and jealousy.

But Christa wasn’t just talking, she was planning, and she wasn’t planning alone. Tadel was fully involved in the scheme. Shadola Peterson knew about the plan, too. The three of them discussed how they would lure Colleen away from the job center to an isolated location. They needed somewhere remote where screams wouldn’t be heard, where no one would accidentally stumble upon what they planned to do.

 The premeditation was clear. They didn’t just decide impulsively to hurt Colleen. They discussed it over multiple days. They planned it carefully. They prepared for it. Tyrell brought specific weapons. A box cutter and a miniature meat cleaver. These weren’t tools for intimidation or self-defense. They were instruments chosen specifically to cause harm and inflict pain. The plan was simple.

 They would tell Colleen they wanted to make peace. Christa would approach Colleen and say she wanted to resolve their differences. They’d offer her marijuana and suggest they all hang out together to talk things through. Colleen, not knowing the danger she was in, would agree. She would think they were extending an olive branch.

 Once they had her in an isolated location far from help, they would attack. On the evening of January 12th, 1995, they put their plan into action. At approximately 8:00, Christa approached Colleen and invited her to come out with them. She said they wanted to smoke some marijuana and talk. Colleen was hesitant at first, but agreed.

 She thought this might be an opportunity to clear the air and reduce the tension that had been building. She had no romantic interest in Tadel and wanted Christa to understand that. Christa, Tatterel, Shadola, and Colleen signed out of the dormatory log book. The log was a security measure that tracked when residents left the facility and when they returned.

 They said they were going out for a walk and would be back in a few hours. The log book recorded all four names and the time they left approximately 8:00 p.m. on January 12th, 1995. They walked from the JobCore Center on Dale Avenue north toward the Fort Sanders neighborhood, then down to the Cumberland Avenue strip near the University of Tennessee campus.

From there, they headed to Tyson Park. The group walked in the darkness along a popular greenway used by students and local residents. Then they veered off onto a paved pathway that led onto the agricultural campus. They were heading to the place Christa and Tatterel had chosen.

 It was a remote spot behind an abandoned steam plant. The area was dark and isolated. During the day, it might see occasional foot traffic, but at night, it was completely deserted. It was the perfect place to commit murder without witnesses. Kimalo watched them leave together from her window at the Jobcore Center. She saw Christa, Toddil, Shadola, and Colleen walking away into the night.

 The Loylo felt uneasy remembering what Christa had said the day before about killing Colleen, but she pushed the thought away. It was just talk. Christa said things like that all the time. There was no way she was actually serious. Elo had no idea that Christa’s threat from the day before had been completely serious.

 In a few hours, Colleen Slmer would be dead. They reached the isolated area near the abandoned steam plant. It was dark, cold, and completely secluded. Trees surrounded them on all sides. The nearest buildings were hundreds of yards away. If someone screamed here, no one would hear. Christa and Todderel knew this, that’s why they had chosen this spot.

 What happened next would last between 30 minutes and an hour, though the exact timeline remains unclear. What is certain is that once they reached the remote location, everything changed in an instant. There was no marijuana. There was no peace offering. It had all been a lie. Christa and Tatterel suddenly turned on Colleen.

 They started cursing at her, accusing her of trying to steal Tatterel from Christa. Their voices were loud and aggressive. Colleen must have been confused and frightened. Realizing too late that she had been tricked, she tried to back away, but there was nowhere to go. They were in the middle of woods, far from help, with three people against her.

 The attack began with Christa slashing at Colleen with the box cutter Taterel had brought. The blade caught Colleen’s back, cutting through her sweater and into her skin. She cried out in pain and tried to protect herself with her hands. Christa slashed again, this time catching Colleen’s chest. Then her neck. Blood began flowing immediately.

 Colleen fell to the ground. She was screaming now, begging them to stop, but they didn’t stop. Christa and Tatterel forced Colleen to remove her pink sweater. She was shaking from cold shock and terror as they stripped the sweater away, leaving her in just her bra. Shadala Peterson stood watch during this attack, acting as a lookout to ensure no one stumbled upon what was happening.

Colleen begged for her life. She tried to reason with her attackers through her tears and screams. She promised that if they would just let her go, she would walk back to Florida and never return to the job corps. She wouldn’t tell anyone what happened. She just wanted to live. She wanted to see her mother again.

She wanted to finish her computer training. She had done nothing to deserve this. But Christa later told police she didn’t want to hear Colleen’s please. She said she told Colleen to shut up because it’s harder to hurt somebody when they’re talking to you. So Christa wanted Colleen silent. When Colleen tried to run away in the dark, Tatterel chased her down.

 She didn’t get far. She was injured, bleeding, and disoriented. Tatterel grabbed her and brought her back to where Christa was waiting. The attack would continue. At some point, Christa took the hairband from her own hair and jammed it into Colleen’s mouth to silence her screams. Then came an act that would shock investigators when they discovered the body.

 Pike and ship carved pentagram symbols into Colleen’s body, reflecting their shared interest in occult imagery. The attack continued until Pike used a piece of asphalt to inflict fatal head injuries. In Colleen’s final moments, Pike leaned close and asked, “Colleen, do you know who’s doing this to you?” Colleen could only moan in response before dying from her injuries.

 After Colleen’s death, Pike took a piece of skull from where the bone had been fractured and kept it as a trophy. The three then scattered Colleen’s clothing in nearby bushes and returned to the job course center, leaving Colleen’s body at the scene. Appreciate you taking the time to watch this documentary.

 If you’d like to see more cases like like this one covered in detail, please subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications so you never miss an episode. It really helps the channel grow and allows me to keep bringing you these stories. The three returned to the job course center around 10:15 that evening, just over 2 hours after they had left.

 Kimmy Lelo, the friend Christa had told about her plans the day before, noticed that three people returned, but Colleen Slmer wasn’t with them. The log book would later show this clearly. Four people signed out, only three came back. But instead of staying quiet about what had happened, Christa couldn’t contain herself.

 Later that night, she went to Kimmy Llo<unk>’s room and told her exactly what she had done. She said she had just killed Colleen Slmer. She said she had brought back a piece of Colleen’s skull as a souvenir. Then she showed it to Elo. Christa didn’t display guilt or horror at what she had done. Instead, she danced around the room smiling and singing la while describing the murder.

 The next morning at breakfast, when Alo asked about the skull piece, Christa said she had it in her pocket and yes, she was eating breakfast with it. This wasn’t someone trying to hide a crime. This was someone celebrating it. Over the next day, Christa showed the skull fragment to other students at JobCore, describing what she had done as if it were an accomplishment she was proud of.

 She turned the murder into a show and tell presentation, displaying her trophy and recounting the violence. Another friend, someone named Wilson, heard Christa’s account of the murder. Christa told Wilson that she had slashed Colleen’s throat six times and beaten her head with a rock. She described how blood and brain matter had been pouring out and how she picked up the piece of skull when she left the scene.

 Both Elo and Wilson heard these detailed confessions, but neither immediately reported what Christa told them to authorities. Meanwhile, through the cold night of January 12th, 1995, Colleen Smer’s body lay undiscovered in the woods behind the abandoned steam plant. The remote location that had made it perfect for murder also meant no one stumbled upon the scene.

 Students walking the greenway stayed on the main path. No one ventured into the isolated area where Colleen’s brutalized body lay in the dirt and debris. The next morning, January 13th, 1995, around 8:00, a University of Tennessee grounds department employee was working near the agricultural campus when he noticed something in the woods.

 At first, he thought it was a dead animal. The body was so badly beaten and damaged that it didn’t immediately appear human. But as he got closer, he saw the victim’s pink sweater among the bushes and realized with horror that he was looking at the body of a young woman. The employee immediately contacted law enforcement.

Within minutes, patrol officers arrived at the scene. They secured the area, establishing a perimeter around the body and the surrounding woods. This was clearly a homicide and a particularly brutal one. The Knoxville Police Department’s criminal investigation division was called in immediately. Detective Randy York, a criminal investigator with the department, took the lead.

 He arrived at the scene on the morning of January 13th, 1995, and what he found would stay with him for the rest of his life. York was an experienced investigator who had worked many violent crimes, but this case was different. The crime scene told a story of prolonged violence and exceptional cruelty. Colleen’s body was found face down in the dirt and debris near the pathway, partially hidden by brush, but not truly concealed.

 The upper half of her body was nude, her pink sweater and bra having been removed during the attack. Her body was covered in numerous cuts, slashes, and bruises. Her head had been severely bludgeoned, the skull visibly fractured. Her neck had been slashed multiple times. When investigators examined the body more closely, they could see that a pentagram had been carved into her chest.

 The level of violence shocked even experienced investigators. This wasn’t a quick killing. This was torture. While the crime scene was being processed and documented, something remarkable happened that would later provide powerful evidence of Christa Pike’s complete lack of remorse. That same morning, as police were still working the scene, Christa returned to the location with several other female students from JobCore.

A University of Tennessee police officer named Harold Underwood was working perimeter security at the crime scene when Christa and her group approached. Christa walked right up to the crime scene tape and started asking officer Underwood questions. What was going on? What had happened here? Did the police have any suspects yet? Had they identified the victim? Christa appeared amused and giggly during the conversation.

 She showed no signs of distress or concern. Her body language was relaxed, almost playful. She smiled as she asked questions. She seemed to be enjoying watching the police investigate the crime she had committed just hours earlier. None of the other female students with her spoke during the 15-minute encounter.

 They stood quietly while Christa dominated the conversation, asking question after question. What caught officer Underwood’s attention most was the necklace Christa was wearing. It was in the shape of a pentagram identical to the symbol carved into the victim’s chest. At the time, Underwood didn’t make the connection. He simply noted it as unusual and somewhat inappropriate given the circumstances.

But after learning at roll call the next day that the murder victim had a pentagram carved on her chest, Underwood immediately reported Pike’s strange behavior and unusual necklace to his superior officers. That observation would help break the case wide open. After documenting the scene, investigators arranged for Colleen’s body to be transported to the Knox County Regional Forensic Center for autopsy. Dr.

 Sandra Elkins, the medical examiner, would perform the examination to determine the exact cause of death and document all injuries. While the medical examination was ongoing, Detective York and his team began focusing on the job core center. The location of the murder near the UT agricultural campus was close to where jobcore students often spent time.

 The pentagram carved into the victim’s chest suggested possible satanic or occult connections, and investigators knew that gang members and troubled youth at the JobCore Center sometimes played with such imagery. The brutality of the crime suggested it might be connected to the gang violence and general dysfunction that plagued the center.

 Detectives went to the JobCore center and began interviewing students. They started with basic questions. Did anyone know the victim? Had anyone seen her recently? Did anyone notice anything unusual on the evening of January 12th? It didn’t take long before a pattern emerged. Multiple students mentioned seeing Colleen Surmer leave the premises on the evening of January 12th with three other people.

 Christa Pike, Tateral Ship, and Shadala Peterson. Several students specifically noted that while four people left together, only three had returned. When asked to check the dormatory log book, investigators found documentary evidence. Four names signed out at approximately 8:00 p.m. on January 12th, but only three of those names appeared in the return column.

Then investigators heard something that broke the case wide open. Multiple students reported that Christa Pike had been talking about killing Colleen Slmer in the days before the murder. One student, Tim Alo, told investigators that Christa had explicitly stated her intention to kill Colleen on January 11th, the day before the murder occurred.

 Even more damning, students said Christa had been showing people a piece of skull since the morning of January 13th, claiming it belonged to Colleen Slmer. She had shown it to Kimalo the night of the murder, dancing around and celebrating what she had done. She had shown it to another student named Wilson, describing in graphic detail how she had killed Colleen.

 She had even kept it in her pocket during breakfast, telling Alo she was eating with a piece of Colleen’s skull on her person. The evidence was overwhelming and pointed clearly to three suspects, Christa Pike, Toddel Ship, and Shadala Peterson. Investigators had witnesses who heard Christa plan the murder beforehand. They had the log book showing four people leaving and three returning.

 They had multiple witnesses who saw Christa displaying what she claimed was a piece of the victim’s skull. They had Officer Underwood’s account of Christa’s bizarre behavior at the crime scene. And they had a missing piece of skull from the victim’s head. On January 14th, 1995, just 2 days after the murder, Detective York and his team were ready to make arrests.

 But first, they would bring the suspects in for questioning and search their belongings. What they found would seal the case completely. When police searched Christa’s belongings, they found the piece of skull in her jacket pocket. When they searched Toddel’s room, they discovered his satanic Bible and the altar he had created. They recovered black gloves and two of Colleen’s identification cards from a Texico station on Cumberland Avenue where the group had stopped.

 Blood and mud stained jeans were found in Christa’s room. The physical evidence was overwhelming, but what happened next sealed the case completely. Investigator Randy York separately interviewed Christa and Tatterel at the Knoxville Police Department. He advised Christa of her Miranda rights. She chose to wave them and agreed to make a statement.

What followed was a 46page confession that detailed exactly what had happened to Colleen Slmer. The statement was tape recorded and later transcribed. Christa walked investigators through every step of the murder, from the planning to the execution to the aftermath. She described the attack in chilling detail, showing no emotional distress as she recounted how she and Todder had tortured and killed Colleen.

 In her statement, Christa claimed that Colleen had been trying to steal Toddel from her. She said Colleen had been running her mouth everywhere and causing problems. She claimed that one night she had woken up to find Colleen standing over her bed with a box cutter. But though there was never any evidence this incident actually occurred, Christa described luring Colleen to the isolated area with promises of marijuana and reconciliation.

She detailed how they attacked Colleen, how they beat her and cut her, how they carved the pentagrams. She admitted forcing Colleen to remove her clothing. She described how she increased the violence as Colleen begged for her life, saying it was hard to hurt someone when they’re talking to you, so she told Colleen to shut up.

 Christa explained, grabbing the chunk of asphalt and repeatedly striking Colleen’s head with it. She described leaning down in Colleen’s final moments and asking if she knew who was doing this to her. she said. Colleen could only moan in response. Then Chris admitted taking the piece of skull and keeping it as a souvenir.

 The confession was damning not just for what it revealed about the crime, but for the attitude Christa displayed while giving it. She showed no remorse. She didn’t cry or express guilt. She simply recounted the murder as if she were describing something mundane that had happened. This lack of remorse would become a crucial factor in what came next.

 Randy York also obtained a confession from Tateral Ship, though he was less forthcoming than Christa. Ship admitted his involvement, but tried to minimize his role. Shidollola Peterson’s involvement was different. When police interviewed her and informed her that they had substantial evidence against all three suspects, Shidola made a decision that would determine her fate.

 She agreed to cooperate with authorities. She returned states witness and testify against Christa and Todderel in exchange for a reduced charge. Shadola’s testimony and confession provided crucial details about how the murder was planned and executed. She described conversations she had heard between Christa and Tadel about killing Colleen.

 She explained how the plan had developed over several days. She detailed how they lured Colleen to the isolated location and what happened once they arrived. Her confession also revealed something significant about the dynamics between the three defendants. According to Shadola, Tatterel directed much of what happened during the attack.

He told Christa what to do repeatedly during the commission of the crime. This suggested that while Christa may have been motivated by jealousy, Toddil was the one orchestrating the violence. With confessions from both primary suspects, physical evidence, including the skull fragment, and a cooperating witness, prosecutors had an extremely strong case.

 On January 14th, 1995, all three were formally arrested and charged. The question now was what charges they would face and what penalties the state would seek. The Knox County District Attorney’s Office moved quickly to build their prosecution. District Attorney Joe Helm would lead the case, assisted by Assistant District Attorney Bill Crabtree.

 They faced several decisions about how to proceed, but the most significant was what sentence to seek for each defendant. For Christa Pike and Toddal Ship, prosecutors charged them both with firstdegree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The first-degree murder charge was clear. The evidence showed extensive premeditation and planning.

 The crime wasn’t an impulsive act of violence. It was planned over multiple days with weapons selected in advance, a location scouted, and a ruse developed to lure the victim. But there was a crucial difference between Christa and Tadel that would affect their potential sentences. Age. Christa was 18 years old when the murder occurred.

 She was legally an adult under Tennessee law. Tadel was 17. He had turned 17 barely 2 months before the murder, making him a juvenile. This age difference was legally significant. In 1995, the Supreme Court had not yet issued its 2005 ruling in Roer v. Simmons, which would eventually ban the death penalty for anyone under 18.

But Tennessee law already prohibited seeking the death penalty against juveniles. This meant that while prosecutors could seek death for Christa, they could only seek life in prison for Tadel, despite the fact that he appeared to have directed much of the violence. For Shadola Peterson, the situation was different.

 She was 18 years old, making her legally an adult. She could theoretically have faced the death penalty as well. But her decision to cooperate with prosecutors changed everything. She agreed to testify against Christa and Tadel in exchange for a plea deal. She would plead guilty to being an accessory after the fact, a significantly lesser charge.

 As prosecutors prepared for trial, they compiled the evidence that would be presented to a jury. The case was extraordinarily strong on several levels. First, there was Christa’s full confession. The 46-page transcript and audio recording detailed every aspect of the crime from Christa’s own mouth. Second, there was physical evidence.

 The piece of skull found in Christa’s pocket that Dr. Murray Marks could prove fit perfectly into the missing section of Colleen’s skull. The bloody clothing, the weapons, the evidence from the Texico station. Third, there were multiple witnesses. Kimmy, Lylo, and Wilson could testify that Christa had talked about killing Colleen before it happened and that she had bragged about it afterward, showing off the skull fragment.

 Shadala Peterson would testify about the planning and execution of the murder. Officer Harold Underwood could describe Christa’s giggly, amused behavior when she came to the crime scene the day after the murder. Fourth, there was the crime scene evidence itself. the photographs of Colleen’s brutalized body, the documentation of blood evidence showing a prolonged attack, the medical examiner’s findings about the severity and extent of injuries.

 All of this would paint a picture of extreme cruelty and torture. The defense attorneys for Christa and Tadel faced an uphill battle. The evidence was overwhelming. Their best strategy would be to focus on the sentencing phase rather than trying to win an acquitt. For Christa’s defense attorney, William Tolman, this meant he needed to develop mitigation evidence that might convince a jury to spare her life, even if they found her guilty.

Tolman hired Dr. Diana McCoy as a mitigation expert. Christa Pike’s trial began on March 22nd, 1996, just over a year after Colleen Smer’s murder in Knox County Criminal Court with Judge Mary Beth Lieowitz presiding. The trial occurred during a unique period when Tennessee allowed television cameras in courtrooms as a pilot project, bringing extensive media coverage that Pike’s defense would later argue made a fair trial impossible.

The courtroom was packed with media, community members, and Colleen’s family who had traveled from Florida to witness justice. The prosecution, led by district attorney Joe Helm and assistant DA Bill Crabtree presented an overwhelming case built on Pike’s confession, physical evidence, and witness testimony.

 The most dramatic moment came when forensic anthropologist Dr. Murray Marx demonstrated how the skull fragment found in Pike’s jacket pocket fit perfectly into the missing section of Colleen’s skull, like a puzzle piece clicking into place. Medical examiner Dr. Foron Sandra Elkins described Colleen’s extensive injuries in clinical detail.

 The jury heard Pike’s taped confession in which she matter-of-actly described the torture and murder, including the chilling moment when she asked the dying Colleen if she knew who was attacking her. Witnesses from JobCore testified about Pike’s planning beforehand and her celebratory behavior afterward, dancing and showing off the skull piece.

Officer Harold Underwood described Pike’s amused, giggly demeanor when she returned to the crime scene while police were investigating. Defense attorney William Tolman faced an impossible task given the evidence. So, he attempted to present Pike as a victim of abuse, neglect, and mental illness who had lost control rather than acting with premeditation.

However, Tolman made critical strategic errors that would become the basis for decades of appeals. He had originally planned to call Dr. Diana McCoy, who had prepared an extensive social history, documenting Pike’s horrific childhood, but changed strategy at the last moment. Instead, he called only Pike’s mother, father, and aunt, who testified about her difficult childhood, but provided limited detail. Dr.

 Eric Angum testified that Pike suffered from severe borderline personality disorder and argued she had lost control rather than acting with premeditation. Dr. William Bernett testified that the satanic elements were adolescent theater rather than genuine religious practice. What Tolman failed to present would haunt the case for years.

 The jury never heard about Pike’s prenatal exposure to alcohol causing organic brain damage. the full extent of her documented sexual abuse, including hospital records of multiple rapes, her undiagnosed bipolar disorder and severe PTSD, her dissociative episodes, or the abusive controlling nature of her relationship with Tateral Ship.

 The jury never heard testimony about how Ship had been violent and dangerous, how other students feared him, or how Pike had been completely dependent on him after her grandmother’s death. All this evidence existed and had been compiled, but the jury never heard it. After only a few hours of deliberation, the jury found Pike guilty on both counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit firstdegree murder on March 22nd, 1996.

Pike cried and asked to hug her mother, but the emotional moment changed nothing. The case moved to the penalty phase where prosecutors argued two aggravating circumstances. The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel, involving torture beyond what was necessary to cause death. And the murder was committed during another felony.

Both were proven beyond doubt given that Colleen had been beaten, slashed, and tormented for up to an hour before death. During the penalty phase, Tolman made another stunning strategic error. Rather than arguing Pike’s life should be spared due to her youth, mental illness, and trauma, he bizarrely suggested the jury should impose life in prison because Pike would receive less attention that way, arguing she enjoyed the attention the case brought and that life imprisonment would actually be harsher punishment. This essentially

asked the jury to inflict the harshest available punishment. The prosecution also introduced a letter Pike had written from jail to Toddel complaining that she got the death penalty despite trying to be nice by killing Colleen quickly signed Lil Devil. The letter demonstrated her complete lack of genuine remorse viewing herself as the victim.

 On March 30th, 1996, just 8 days after conviction, Judge Liboitz sentenced 20-year-old Christa Pike to death by electrocution for murder, plus 25 years for conspiracy. Pike became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the United States in the modern era of capital punishment. The sentencing disparity between the three participants reveals how significant a few months of age difference can be in the American justice system.

 Pike was 18 years and 10 months old when she killed Colleen and received a death sentence. Tatterel ship was 17 years and 2 months old and could not be sentenced to death due to his age. At his trial in January 1997, 10 months after Pike’s conviction, Ship faced the same charges with equally strong evidence, including his confession and testimony that he directed much of the attack and carved the pentagrams postconviction.

 hearings would reveal he brought the box cutter to the scene. The jury convicted him but couldn’t unanimously agree on life without parole. So, Judge Libowitz sentenced him to life with parole eligibility, plus a consecutive 25 years for conspiracy, ensuring he wouldn’t be eligible until his late 40s or early 50s. His first parole hearing in October 2025 resulted in denial with the board calling it one of the most horrendous cases they’d encountered and scheduling his next hearing for 2031.

Shidollola Peterson received the most lenient sentence by cooperating with prosecutors and testifying against Pike and Ship. She pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and received 6 years probation with credit for approximately 460 days already served. She never spent additional time in prison for her role in planning the murder and acting as lookout.

This disparity became central to Pike’s appeals with attorneys arguing that nearly 200 women had been convicted of firstdegree murder in Tennessee since 1978, but only two received death sentences and the other woman’s sentence was later commuted, leaving Pike as the only woman on Tennesseeey’s death row.

 They argued that if Pike had been born a few months later, making her 17 like ship, she wouldn’t face execution despite brain science showing no meaningful developmental difference between 17 and 18. On March 30th, 1996, Christa Pike entered the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, formerly known as the Tennessee Prison for Women.

 She was 20 years old and she would spend the next 28 years in conditions that her attorneys would later argue constituted cruel and unusual punishment. As the only woman sentenced to death in Tennessee, Pike was held separately from the general prison population. The men on Tennesseee’s death row were housed together, able to work jobs, eat meals together, and spend time outside their cells with good behavior.

 But Pike’s situation was different. There were no other women on death row to house her with, so she was kept in what amounted to solitary confinement. Pike’s cell measured approximately 3 m by 3 and 1/2 m, about the size of a parking space. This small space would be her entire world for the next three decades. She was allowed 1 hour per day for exercise.

She had virtually no meaningful human contact. She couldn’t work a job or eat meals with other people. She simply existed in that small space day after day, year after year. Over time, Pike filled her cell with stuffed animals, toys, family photographs, and trinkets depicting angels. These objects were her only comfort in an existence defined by isolation.

 The psychological toll of this prolonged solitary confinement was severe. Mental health experts would later testify that such conditions cause serious harm and can exacerbate existing mental health conditions. Pike was only the second woman sentenced to death in Tennessee since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The first was Gail Owens, who had been convicted in 1986 for hiring a hitman to murder her husband.

 But Owens was allowed to live with the general population for a decade before being moved to isolation. Even then, litigation over her confinement conditions led to her being brought out of isolation again. In 2010, Governor Phil Bradesen commuted Owen’s sentence to life imprisonment. She died later that year, leaving Pike as the sole woman on Tennessee’s death row.

 But Pike didn’t remain a model prisoner during this time. Her capacity for violence, which had led to Colleen Slmer’s death, would manifest again behind bars. On August 24th, 2001, just over 6 years after arriving on death row, Pike became involved in another violent incident that would add years to her sentence and demonstrate that she remained dangerous even in prison.

 Early in the morning of August 24th, 2001, a fire broke out in a wing of the Tennessee Prison for Women. The fire prompted staff to evacuate inmates from the affected area. Prison employees moved Patricia Jones, a woman serving a life sentence for the 1994 murder of an elderly woman in Knoxville, into an exercise cage where Christa Pike and another inmate, Natasha Cornet, were being held.

 Cornet was herself serving a life sentence for a notorious crime. She had been part of a group that murdered a Knox County family. Jones and Cornet had an ongoing conflict and tensions were high as soon as Jones was placed in the cage with them. When Cornet and Jones began arguing, Pike jumped in to defend her friend.

 Pike grabbed a boot lace and wrapped it around Jones’s neck, beginning to strangle her. Jones weighed over 200 lb at the time, but Pike was able to flip her onto her stomach. Pike then sat on Jan’s back and continued choking her with the shoestring. The attack went on long enough that Pike nearly succeeded in killing Jones. Only the intervention of corrections officers saved Jones’s life.

 When investigators questioned Pike about the attack, her response was chilling in its casualness. She said, “I don’t want to say that I intended to kill her, but I would say that I didn’t care if she died. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it if she did.” This statement showed the same lack of empathy that had characterized her murder of Colleen SLR 6 years earlier.

 But Pike’s own words to her mother told a different story. In recorded phone calls between Pike and her mother, Karissa Hansen, Pike was far more explicit about her intentions. She laughed and bragged about the attack. She said, “And I wrapped that shoestring around her and tried to choke the life out of her.

” When her mother expressed concern, Pike vowed to finish what she started. I bet you if she gets near me, I’m going to do it again, she told Hansen. The Tennessee Department of Correction maintained that Natasha Cornet had assisted in the attack on Jones, but investigators concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge her. However, there was more than enough evidence to charge Pike.

 She was convicted of attempted first-degree murder on August 12th, 2004. The conviction added a consecutive 25-year sentence to her existing death sentence and conspiracy conviction. This incident had significant implications for Pike’s appeals. Her attorneys were arguing that she should be spared execution because of her youth at the time of Colleen’s murder, her mental illness, and her capacity for rehabilitation.

The attack on Patricia Jones undermined that argument. It showed that 6 years in prison hadn’t changed Pike’s fundamental nature. Given the opportunity and motivation, she would still attempt to kill someone. The attack also reinforced the prosecution’s original argument at her trial that Pike was a dangerous individual who posed a threat to anyone around her.

 When prosecutors had sought the death penalty back in 1996, they argued that Pike had demonstrated exceptional cruelty and a complete lack of remorse. The attempted murder of Patricia Jones seemed to validate that assessment. Pike remained violent and dangerous even in the controlled environment of death row.

 But this wasn’t the only time Pike would make headlines during her decades on death row. Her next major incident would involve not violence, but a planned escape that demonstrated she was still capable of manipulation and planning. Around the beginning of 2011, Christa Pike began exchanging letters with a man named Donald Coot. Koh was a personal trainer in his early 30s from Flemington, New Jersey.

 How their correspondence started remains unclear, but by July 2011, Kov was making the nearly 1,700-mile round trip from New Jersey to Nashville once or twice a month to visit Pike on visiting days. The Tennessee Department of Corrections records show that Koh visited Pike 26 times between July 2011 and January 2012. During these visits, something developed between them.

 Eventually, Kov began communicating to Pike that he wanted to help her escape from prison. He had a plan and he would need help from someone on the inside to make it work. That someone was Justin Heflin, a 23-year-old corrections officer at the Tennessee Prison for Women. It’s not clear exactly how Coot and Heft connected, but they met during Coot’s visits to see Pike.

Coot propositioned Heftlin with an offer cash and gifts in exchange for help with Pike’s escape. Heftlin agreed. The plan involved obtaining a copy of a prison key. The key would be traced and then a duplicate would be created. With this duplicate key, Pike would be able to unlock doors and make her escape.

 The details beyond this basic framework were never fully revealed as the Tennessee Department of Correction cited security concerns in refusing to discuss the specifics. But in early 2012, prison personnel received information about the escape plot. The Tennessee Department of Correction immediately requested assistance from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The TBI launched a joint investigation with the Tennessee Department of Correction and the New Jersey State Police. Investigators gathered evidence confirming that Koh and Heftlin were actively planning Pike’s escape. The plot was still in relatively early stages when it was uncovered. According to the TBI, the jailbreak was not imminent, but the conspiracy was real and active.

 Investigators moved to arrest the conspirators before the plan could advance further. On March 5th, 2012, Justin Heftlin was terminated from his position as a corrections officer. Later that month, authorities arrested both men. He was indicted by a Davidson County grand jury on one count of bribery, one count of official misconduct, one count of conspiracy to commit escape, and one count of facilitation to commit escape.

 Donald Kohut was arrested at his residence in New Jersey on March 20th, 2012. He was charged with one count of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit escape. He was released on a $75,000 bond. Kovit was held at the Hunton County Department of Corrections on a $250,000 bond while awaiting extradition to Tennessee.

 Both men faced serious charges that could result in significant prison time. The question of Pike’s involvement in the conspiracy was more complex. Was she an active participant who helped plan the escape, or was she simply aware that others were planning to help her? The evidence suggested she knew about the plan and had communicated with Coot about it.

 But investigators weren’t certain they could prove she had actively participated in the conspiracy beyond being its intended beneficiary. Pike was never charged in connection with the escape plot. The case moved through the courts. Justin Heflin, recognizing the strength of the evidence against him and wanting to minimize his punishment, decided to cooperate with authorities.

 He provided information about the plot and testified about his involvement. In exchange for his cooperation, Heftlin served no prison time, though he lost his job and his career in corrections was over. Donald Koh wasn’t so fortunate. He was extradited to Tennessee and eventually sentenced on May 31st, 2012. He received 7 years in prison to be served at the Tennessee State Northeast Correctional Complex.

 His attempt to help the woman he had developed feelings for during their letter correspondence had cost him his freedom. The escape plot demonstrated that even after 16 years on death row, Pike remained capable of planning and manipulation. Christa Pike’s appeals spanned nearly three decades through Tennessee state courts and federal courts, all ultimately unsuccessful.

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals and Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed her conviction and death sentence in 1998. In an unusual move in 2001 and 2002, Pike asked courts to drop her appeals and allow her execution to proceed by electrocution, and an execution date was set for August 19th, 2002.

 But Pike changed her mind and a state appeals court allowed proceedings to continue. By December 2008, all state appeals were exhausted. Pike’s federal appeal in 2014 argued ineffective assistance of counsel, claiming her trial attorney failed to present crucial evidence about her prenatal alcohol exposure causing brain damage, documented sexual abuse, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and dissociative episodes.

 New experts testified that Pike had brain damage, severe mental illness, and a history of abuse. US District Judge Mattis rejected all claims in 2016, finding that while additional evidence could have been presented, it wouldn’t have substantially differed from testimony the jury heard about her difficult childhood. The Sixth Circuit upheld this ruling in 2019, though Judge Jane Strank wrote a concurring opinion expressing concerns that executing someone who was 18 at the time of their crime likely violated the ETH amendment, noting that if Pike had

been 17, like codefendant Tateral Ship, she wouldn’t face execution. In 2022, the Tennessee Supreme Court state v. Booker ruling gave Pike’s attorneys new hope by finding automatic life sentences for juveniles unconstitutional based on brain development science. Pike’s attorneys argued this should apply to 18year-olds, noting she would be the only person executed in Tennessee for a crime at age 18 since all eight men sentenced to death for crimes at that age had their sentences vacated.

 However, Judge Scott Green denied the motion in October 2023, ruling that Booker explicitly applied only to juveniles under 18, not legal adults. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed this in May 2024, and the Tennessee Supreme Court denied permission to appeal in September 2024, exhausting all legal options except gubernatorial clemency.

 On September 30th, 2025, the Tennessee Supreme Court set Pike’s execution date for September 30th, 2026. If carried out, Pike will be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years and the first person executed in Tennessee for a crime committed at age 18 in the modern death penalty era. Advocacy groups mobilized to prevent the execution, launching mercyforcha.

org or and collecting over 2500 petition signatures asking Governor Bill Lee for clemency. The Interamerican Commission on Human Rights issued precautionary measures requesting Pike not be executed, citing concerns about executing someone barely an adult at the crime and her nearly three decades in solitary confinement.

Pike’s attorneys reached a settlement in September 2024, improving her prison conditions, allowing her to work a job, share meals with other incarcerated women, and spend more time outside her cell after decades in a cell the size of a parking space with virtually no human contact. The clemency petition emphasized Pike’s age, severe mental illness never properly treated, horrific childhood abuse, and sentencing disparity.

 Tateral ship, who was months younger and appeared to direct much violence, has parole eligibility. Shadola Peterson served no additional time, but only Pike faces execution. Colleen Slmer’s mother, May Martinez, has fought for 30 years from Florida for Pike’s execution, which she sees as the only appropriate punishment. Martinez remembers her daughter as an energetic, caring young woman who ran marathons, loved computers, and helped disabled children.

 The brutality of the murder, torture lasting up to an hour, pentagrams carved into her body, Pike taking a piece of skull as a trophy, haunts Martinez daily. For years, Martinez fought to get all of her daughter’s remains returned. And while the skull held as evidence was eventually returned and cremated, the fragment Pike took as a souvenir remains missing.

 When Tyrell ship’s parole was denied in October 2025, with his next hearing set for 2031, Martinez expressed relief, but remained focused on Pike’s execution. Martinez acknowledges Pike had a difficult childhood, but argues this doesn’t excuse torture and murder, believing Pike made a choice and should face consequences. The execution scheduled for September 30th, 2026 would bring closure to a case that has defined three decades of Martinez’s life.

 As September 2026 approaches, Christa Pike remains at the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville. She is now 49 years old, having spent 28 years on death row. Under the terms of the September 2024 settlement, her daily conditions have improved. She can now work a job, share meals with other incarcerated women, and spend more time outside her cell than she could during the previous decades of near total isolation.

 Under Tennessee law and the terms of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s order, the warden of the prison must notify Pike by August 28th, 2026 of the method that will be used to execute her. Tennesseeey’s default execution method is lethal injection, which involves administering a dose of pentobarbodol, a barbiterate that causes death.

 However, Pike has another option available to her. Because Pike’s crime occurred on January 12th, 1995 before the January 1st, 1999 cutoff date established by Tennessee law, she is permitted to choose electrocution instead of lethal injection if she wishes. Tennessee reinstated the electric chair as a backup method in 2014, allowing it to be used when lethal injection drugs are unavailable or for inmates whose crimes occurred before 1999 as an option they can select.

 Only two people have been executed by electric chair in Tennessee since 1960. The most recent was in 2018 when Edund Zagorski chose electrocution over lethal injection. Ziggorski’s attorney argued that Tennessee’s three drug lethal injection protocol amounted to torture and that death by electrocution would be quicker and less painful.

 Whether Pike will make a similar choice remains to be seen. If Pike chooses lethal injection, she will be the 18th woman executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The most recent woman executed was Amber Mccclaclin in Missouri in January 2023. There are currently only 48 women on death row in the United States out of approximately 2100 total death row inmates.

 Since 2020, only three women anywhere in the US have been sentenced to death. If Pike is executed, she will be the first woman put to death in Tennessee in over 200 years. Records indicate that the last woman executed in Tennessee was Martin Eve in 1820, charged with accessory to murder. Pike would be only the fourth woman executed in Tennessee’s entire recorded history.

Pike would also be the first person executed in Tennessee for a crime committed at age 18 in the modern death penalty era. While eight men were sentenced to death for crimes committed at age 18 in Tennessee, all eight later had their sentences vacated. Pike would break this pattern. The execution will take place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, where Tennessee conducts all executions regardless of where the condemned person is housed.

 Pike will be transported from the women’s facility to Riverbend for the execution. If you found this documentary informative, please consider subscribing to our channel and hitting the notification bell to stay updated on future cases. Your support helps us continue bringing you indepth examinations of the most significant criminal cases in American history.

 We also encourage respectful discussion in the comments below. Share your thoughts on the issues raised by this case. But please remember that behind every true crime story are real victims, real families, and real lives forever changed by violence.