Featured Image Credit: Tennessee Department of Correction
Topics: Crime, True Crime, US News, News
Madison Burgess
Topics: Crime, True Crime, US News, News
A murderer who's set to become the first woman executed on death row in Tennessee for 200 years reportedly revealed why she committed her crime.
Christa Gail Pike, 49, will become the 19th woman in modern American history to be put to death for her crimes, following her execution, which has recently been scheduled for September 2026.
For those who need a reminder of the harrowing case, at just 18-years-old in 1995, Pike and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, 17, brutally Colleen Slemming, 19, in a murder that shocked the nation.
Pike and Slemming were classmates at a Job Corps centre based in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Pike reportedly thought Slemming was trying to 'steal' her boyfriend.
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The duo recruited the help of another friend, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, to lure Slemming into an abandoned steam plant, close to University of Tennessee’s Agricultural campus.
Slemming was reportedly offered marijuana from the pair as a 'peace offering' for their accusations. However, after arriving, she was viciously attacked by both Pike and Shipp whilst Peterson kept lookout.
The court testimony later ruled that Slemmer had been brutally tortured by the couple for as many as 30 minutes, being stabbed and beaten.
There were a number of horrifying details in the case, including that they carved a pentagram into Slemming's chest and took home a piece of the victim's skull as a souvenir.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, and Shipp also received a first-degree murder conviction, but was sentenced to life in prison and will reportedly become eligible for parole in November.
Pike's friend, Peterson, allegedly testified against Pike and was therefore sentenced to probation.
At the time of her incarceration, Pike was the youngest person on death row at age 20.
And according to Fox News and court documents from the case, Pike revealed why she wanted to commit the crime, the day before doing it.
She reportedly told her friend Kim Iloilo, another student at the facility, that she intended to kill Slemmer because she 'had just felt mean that day'.
Iloilo testified to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1998, revealing what Pike told her when she returned to the campus after committing the murder.
As per the outlet, the testimony read: "Pike went to Iloilo's room and told Iloilo that she had just killed Slemmer and that she had brought back a piece of the victim's skull as a souvenir.
"Pike showed Iloilo the piece of skull and told her that she had cut the victim's throat six times, beaten her, and thrown asphalt at the victim's head."
However, Pike has since expressed remorse for her crimes, and her lawyers have appealed numerous times for a lighter sentence.
In a statement, her attorneys told Fox News: "Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect. With time and treatment, she has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime."
She also expressed remorse in a handwritten letter provided to a local news outlet, The Tennessean, writing: "Think back to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager. Well, mine happened to be huge, unforgettable and ruined countless lives. I was a mentally ill 18 yr old kid.
"It took me numerous years to even realise the gravity of what I'd done.
"Even more to accept how many lives I effected. I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime."