Christa Pike's victim's family issues verdict on botched execution 'I did not take my eyes off of her'

When Christa Pike's execution fell apart on September 30, one of the people in the room was her victim Colleen Slemmer's mother. May Martinez had come to see justice finally carried out for her daughter, who was just 19 when Pike murdered her back in 1995.

According to what May told PEOPLE, she and husband Raul made the long 11-hour trek up from Florida purely to be present for Pike's execution, held at Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

What they ended up watching instead was medical staff twice fail to properly administer Pike's lethal dose of pentobarbital.

Christa Pike revealed what lethal injection felt like in her body during botched execution

"I stood in front of that window and I watched her very, very carefully. I did not take my eyes off of her," May says. "I wanted her to remember who Colleen was and what they've done and never forget that thought, no matter where she goes."

The couple spoke out as they made the long journey back home, by which point Pike had already been transferred from the prison to a hospital whose location hasn't been disclosed.

From there, the pair found themselves ushered into an adjoining room, left waiting more than 60 minutes before finally getting face time with the commissioner, a conversation that, according to May, yielded next to nothing in the way of real answers.

Pike survived two rounds of lethal injection (BBC)

The only real update they received was confirmation Pike "was taken to the hospital," alongside the commissioner's own admission that he "doesn't know much about the drugs and if she was going to be alive or dead."

Neither of them can quite process how things went so badly wrong.

"It was a complete waste of time. I don't know. It sounds cruel, but how do you botch up killing somebody?" Raul says. "It's unheard of."

Raul also flagged a key difference in Tennessee's approach: rather than the three-drug cocktail commonly used in other states, the state relies on a single drug, with death resulting from overdose, a method that's already caused at least one other botched attempt this year.

The appeal against lethal injection was rejected in August (Jerry Cabluck/Sygma via Getty Images)

While Pike's case has drawn plenty of support from those hoping to see her spared, May makes no secret of where she stands. She wants her daughter's killer to die.

"She has no remorse. She's never had any remorse in 31 years," May explains. She also notes that not once has Pike offered her a personal apology for killing Colleen.

Even now, May admits she's still grappling with everything that happened at the prison, unsure if closure will ever come.

"We can't get justice for my daughter."