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Nearly 30 years after 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer was brutally murdered in Knoxville, Tennessee, the state has set an execution date for her killer. The Tennessee Supreme Court announced that Christa Gail Pike, now 49, will be executed on September 30, 2026. If carried out, she would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in two centuries and only the 19th in the U.S. modern era.
Pike, 18 at the time, lured Slemmer, a fellow Knoxville Job Corps student, into nearby woods in 1995. Fueled by jealousy, she tortured, beat, and stabbed Slemmer, carving a pentagram into her chest. Pike later boasted about the murder and kept part of Slemmer’s skull as a trophy, leading to her 1996 death sentence.
Now Tennessee’s only woman on death row, Pike has spent nearly three decades in isolation. While she has expressed remorse, citing youth, trauma, and mental illness, her attorneys seek clemency or life without parole. Slemmer’s family supports the execution, viewing it as long-awaited justice at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
