Christa Pike (18) convicted of the torture murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer (19).

[jennafyre]

https://okcfox.com/news/nation-world...e-pike-christa

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WKRC) - A woman who murdered her classmate and carved a pentagram into her chest and forehead will be the first woman to be executed in her state in over 200 years.

Christa Gail Pike was a member of Job Corps, a program for troubled teens, when she was 18 years old in 1995. On January 12 of that year, Pike and two co-defendants coerced a classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, into the woods, and brutalized her.

Pike and her codefendants allegedly beat, stabbed, and sliced the victim, culminating in Pike carving a pentagram into Slemmer's chest and forehead, per court documents obtained by Law&Crime. When the body was discovered by a groundskeeper from the University of Tennessee, he said it was so disfigured that he could not immediately tell it was a human corpse.

The other two individuals involved were reportedly Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp who was 17 at the time, and Shadolla Peterson, who kept watch during the murder. Shipp was sentenced to life in prison and Peterson was sentenced to probation for their involvement in the attack.


Much of the information surrounding the murder was revealed when Pike told another student, Kim Iloilo, about what she had done. Iloilo testified that Pike told her on the day before the murder that she was going to kill a classmate because she "just felt mean," per court documents.

Iloilo testified to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1998 the story that Pike spun for her when she returned to the campus after committing the murder.

"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," the testimony began. " 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."

"Pike told Iloilo that the victim had begged 'them' to stop cutting and beating her, but Pike did not stop because the victim continued to talk. Pike told Iloilo that she had thrown a large piece of asphalt at the victim's head, and when it broke into smaller pieces, she had thrown those at the victim as well. Pike told Iloilo that a meat cleaver had been used to cut the victim's back and a box cutter had been used to cut her throat. Finally, Pike said that a pentagram had been carved onto the victim's forehead and chest."

"Iloilo said that Pike was dancing in a circle, smiling, and singing 'la, la, la' while she related these details about the murder. When Iloilo saw Pike at breakfast the next morning she asked Pike what she had done with the piece of the victim's skull. Pike replied that it was in her pocket and then said, 'And, yes, I'm eating breakfast with it.'"

Pike was the only woman on death row in Tennessee, and the Tennessee Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that she would be the first woman put to death in the state in over 200 years. The execution was scheduled to take place on September 30, 2026.

[jennafyre]

Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_Pike

[Angiebla]

Thanks Jenna for making this thread!

So I have been enthralled with this case lately. Christa is obviously a Psychopath. She tried to kill a woman in jail with a shoe string!

Then...I watched this You Tube video by Danielle Kirsty. She laid out details of assaults, sexual and violent that Christa went through. Her mother didnt want her and she lived with dirt and shit on the floor, and would crawl around in it. Her mother's husbands/boyfriends would rape her. It honestly made me feel a bit sad for her.

I do not know what to think. So so many criminals have had their sentence commuted to life (like the Petitt family murders who should FRY). She definately is a danger to society. There has to be a reason why her appeals were rejected.

[Bewitchingstorm]

Yes, thank you, Ang for the suggestion...and thank you, Jen for starting the thread.

This is a really odd case, as there really wasn't very much exposure to it back in the day when it happened. I remember reading about it back then, but then it just seemed to fade away.

Christa was clearly a product of her environment. I wonder how much psychiatric evaluation she has had throughout the years.

[Boston Babe 73]

Wow. That's GNARLY. It was also during all of the the "Satanic Panic" crap going around in the late 80s and 90s. I seem to remember a case where they took a piece of the skull and that's what did them in.

Other than being crazy pants, I wonder if there was a motive. Her boyfriend helped her do the crime, where is he right now? Where is the girl that acted as lookout? Was it because she was hitting on her boyfriend? So many questions!

[marshmallow]

I watched something on her the other day. The keeping of the piece of the skull says it all to me.

[Nic B]

I feel like I heard about this a while back, on some ID show. The pentagram thing sticks out (unless there have been other cases).

I wonder why she chose that victim? Was it random? Did she ever show remorse?

Edit: maybe I should read the wiki lol.

[Bewitchingstorm]

I feel like I heard about this a while back, on some ID show. The pentagram thing sticks out (unless there have been other cases).

I wonder why she chose that victim? Was it random? Did she ever show remorse?

Edit: maybe I should read the wiki lol.

It was jealousy. Yes, read the Wiki!!!

[Angiebla]

Wow. That's GNARLY. It was also during all of the the "Satanic Panic" crap going around in the late 80s and 90s. I seem to remember a case where they took a piece of the skull and that's what did them in.

Other than being crazy pants, I wonder if there was a motive. Her boyfriend helped her do the crime, where is he right now? Where is the girl that acted as lookout? Was it because she was hitting on her boyfriend? So many questions!

I heard conflicting things with Tadaryl. That Tadaryl did hook up with Colleen (doubtful) and thats why Christa killed her, but I do believe Tadaryl got life with the possibility of parole. Lookout chick is already out.

[Angiebla]

I feel really bad for the victim, she was stalked and harrassed for months. Then the murder lasted 45 min. That must have felt like an eternity. She was cut 300 times while alive still

She dropped out of highschool, because she was learning disabled and wanted to get a career working with computers. She was a good student and was in her room studying most of the time. By all appearances did not deserve this fate.

[Boston Babe 73]

I heard conflicting things with Tadaryl. That Tadaryl did hook up with Colleen (doubtful) and thats why Christa killed her, but I do believe Tadaryl got life with the possibility of parole. Lookout chick is already out.

Thanks for the recap, Ang!

[kevansvault]

If only there was a way to brutally punish every adult in Christa's life, that would be a wonderful start. It wouldn't bring Colleen back, but it would assign dire consequences to a group of adults who need to pay for their crimes. Yes, I meant every word. Fuck all of those degenerate shitbags.

As for Christa, she knew no better. There was likely no positive role model in her life at all, and even if there were, they would have had to be a literal angel and been present all the time to keep Christa from growing into a monster. I'm not in any way excusing what she did, do not be mistaken. She likely had seen others manipulated in her life, and engaged in manipulation to torture a classmate for whatever fucked up reason she had. Put her in intense therapy and a padded room for the next 75 years, she'll be fine.

The rest need to meet the Reaper at his earliest convenience.

[Bewitchingstorm]

Just more than a month before her scheduled execution, Christa Pike will be in court beginning Aug. 11 to watch her attorneys try to stop her lethal injection.

Pike, scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819, faces a Sept. 30 execution date at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

She has been in custody since 1995 when she was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1996 for the 1995 torture and killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

Pike was 18 when she, Slemmer, Shadolla Peterson and Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, went to a wooded, isolated area behind the University of Tennessee's agriculture campus steam plant, ostensibly to smoke marijuana.

Pike was jealous of Slemmer, who she believed was trying to seduce Shipp.

With Peterson serving as a lookout, Pike and Shipp tortured Slemmer for 30 minutes. Slemmer's body was found with a pentagram carved into her chest.

Slemmer was bludgeoned to death. The beating was so savage that a piece of Slemmer's skull was dislodged. Pike kept the skull fragment and showed it to friends afterward.

Pike also was convicted of attempted first-degree murder after a 2001 assault on a fellow inmate.

Pike's attorneys will argue that her execution is inherently cruel because it will be carried out in a men's prison by an all-male execution team.

They say Pike suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after childhood abuse at the hands of men.

Archived article: https://archive.ph/J05pk#selection-921.0-921.247

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_Pike

[raisedbywolves]

BWS, I copied your post to here too. I think it's good in the DP thread, but I remembered that we had this thread and wanted it in here too.

[Bewitchingstorm]

Thank you ~ I did not realize we had a thread on her.