Christa Pike was just 18 when she tortured and killed classmate Colleen Slemmer. Now Tennessee’s only woman on death row, her execution is set for 2026.
Christa Pike
American Female Murderer
Last Update November 20, 2025
- Full Name: Christa Gail Pike
- Date of Birth: March 10, 1976
- Place of Birth: West Virginia, U.S.
- Crime Date: January 12, 1995 (murder of Colleen Slemmer, Knoxville, Tennessee)
- Arrest Date: January 13, 1995 (arrested within hours of the crime after bragging to classmates)
- Conviction Date: March 1996 (convicted of first-degree murder)
- Sentence: Death penalty + 25 years (plus additional 25-year sentence for 2001 attempted murder in prison)
- Current Status: Incarcerated on Tennessee’s death row, only female prisoner awaiting execution; execution date set for September 30, 2026
- Accomplices: Tadaryl Shipp (life with possibility of parole), Shadolla Peterson (probation, accessory after the fact)
Classification & Characteristics
Christa Pike is classified as a sadistic and thrill-driven killer, though her violence was not the product of a long-term compulsion like many serial offenders. Instead, it stemmed from a volatile mix of jealousy, obsession, and impulse. Pike’s motivation was rooted in control – she believed her victim, Colleen Slemmer, was competing for her boyfriend’s attention. This insecurity, combined with her manipulative nature, drove her to plan and carry out one of the most brutal single-event murders in recent American history. Her psychological profile reflects traits of narcissism, emotional instability, and volatility, with a tendency to seek attention and dominance both before and after the crime.
Her behavioral patterns revealed sadistic hallmarks: Slemmer was tortured for over 30 minutes, a pentagram was carved into her chest and Pike kept a piece of the victim’s skull as a trophy. These acts demonstrated a chilling desire not only to kill but to humiliate and dehumanize. Pike’s notoriety is further cemented by her status as the youngest woman sentenced to death in the United States since the reinstatement of capital punishment, and the only woman currently on Tennessee’s death row. Even in prison, she continued violent and manipulative behavior – including an attempted murder of another inmate – confirming her lack of empathy and reinforcing her classification as dangerously sadistic.
Christa Pike | Woman On Death Row
👉 The Story
The Murder of Colleen Slemmer
On January 12, 1995, 18-year-old Christa Gail Pike lured fellow student Colleen Slemmer to a secluded area near the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus in Knoxville. Pike, convinced that Slemmer was trying to “steal” her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, brought her into the woods under the pretense of making peace.
Instead, Pike and Shipp – along with friend Shadolla Peterson – tortured Colleen for more than 30 minutes. She was taunted, beaten, slashed and even had a pentagram carved into her chest. Finally, Pike crushed Slemmer’s skull with a piece of asphalt. In the aftermath, she pocketed a fragment of Colleen’s skull and carried it as a trophy.
The Road to Death Row for Christa Pike
In 1995, Christa Gail Pike, a troubled high school dropout from a fractured home, entered the federally funded Job Corps program in Knoxville, Tennessee. The program, designed to give disadvantaged young people vocational training and a chance to rebuild their lives, often carried another reputation – dormitories that became breeding grounds for conflict, drugs, and crime. For Pike, instead of opportunity, Job Corps became the stage for a murder that would shock the nation.
It was there that Christa met Tadaryl Shipp, a 17-year-old student. Their relationship was intense, obsessive and destructive. Both were drawn to the occult, experimenting with dark symbolism and devil worship, which only deepened Pike’s volatile emotions.
Before long, she became fixated on another student – 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a newcomer from Florida. In Pike’s jealous mind, Colleen was a rival, a threat who wanted to take Shipp away. Friends and classmates denied any such rivalry, but Christa’s suspicions hardened into rage. In mid-January 1995, she confided in Shipp with a chilling promise: That girl has to be taught a lesson.
Christa Pike Lures Colleen Slemmer Into the Woods
On January 12, 1995, Christa Pike and fellow Job Corps student Shadolla Peterson, 18, devised a deadly ruse. They told Colleen Slemmer, just 19, that Christa wanted to make peace – to share a joint, talk things through and settle the growing tension between them. To Colleen, it may have sounded like an uneasy truce. But it was nothing more than bait.
The meeting place was an abandoned steam mill on the edge of the University of Tennessee campus – a walkable distance, but buried in the woods, far from help, far from witnesses, and far from rescue. On that cold night, Colleen signed out of the dorm and followed Christa, Peterson, and Christa’s boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp into the trees. Hidden in Christa’s pockets was a box cutter and a small meat cleaver.
Once isolated in the shadows, Pike turned. She accused Colleen of trying to sleep with Shipp. Colleen denied it, but her words didn’t matter. Christa snapped. She kneed Colleen in the face, then slashed her stomach with the blade. Shipp followed suit, driving the edge of the cleaver into Colleen’s chest. The attack had begun – and there was no escape.
For the next 30 to 40 minutes, Colleen was tortured. Cut, stabbed, and slashed again and again. When her strength began to fade, Christa and Shipp pinned her down and carved a pentagram into her chest – a mocking signature of the occult games they had been playing. Still, Colleen clung to life.
At last, Christa picked up a heavy piece of asphalt and brought it down on Colleen’s skull – over and over – until her victim lay silent. Then, in a grotesque finale, she reached into the wound, pulled out a fragment of bone, and slipped the bloodied piece of skull into her pocket as a keepsake.
The three signed back into the dorms as if nothing had happened. But the woods outside Knoxville now held the evidence of a killing so savage it would place Christa Pike on Tennessee’s death row – the youngest woman condemned to die in the modern era.
Christa Pike | Woman On Death Row
The Aftermath & Investigation
Christa Pike didn’t run. She didn’t hide. Instead, she bragged. In the hours after Colleen Slemmer’s body was left in the woods, Pike returned to the dormitory as if nothing had happened. She laughed, joked, and told other students what she had done. With a sick sense of pride, she even showed off the fragment of skull she had pocketed, passing it around as a trophy.
Whispers spread quickly through the Job Corps campus. Some students dismissed her as unstable. Others were horrified. But enough people had heard the same story that word soon reached authorities. By the next day, Colleen’s body was discovered near the abandoned mill – mutilated, beaten, and marked with a pentagram.
When investigators began questioning students, Christa’s name surfaced immediately. Witnesses recounted her threats, her jealousy and her chilling boast: “I killed her.”
When officers searched her dorm room, they found the blood-soaked fragment of Colleen’s skull tucked away in her belongings – physical proof of the crime.
Confronted with evidence, Pike initially tried to downplay her role. But the testimonies of her peers and the gruesome reality of Colleen’s injuries told another story. It was clear this was not a fleeting act of rage but a sustained assault filled with ritual, cruelty and a desire to dominate.
Within days, Christa Pike was under arrest.
Her arrogance, her inability to keep quiet and her morbid pride sealed her fate. In the end, it wasn’t cunning or planning that brought her down – it was her own arrogant mouth.
Trial & Sentencing
Christa Pike went to trial in 1996, just a year after Colleen Slemmer’s murder. She was only 20 years old, but the evidence against her was overwhelming. Witnesses testified to her confessions in the dorms. Prosecutors laid out the torture, the occult symbolism and the grisly souvenir she carried with her. The fragment of Colleen’s skull, retrieved from Pike’s pocket, became the chilling centerpiece of the case.
The jury didn’t take long. Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy, and after hearing testimony about her brutality and lack of remorse, they sentenced her to death – making her the youngest woman on death row in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated.
Her accomplices faced far different outcomes. Tadaryl Shipp, just 17 at the time of the killing, was spared the death penalty due to his age. He received a life sentence with the possibility of parole, meaning he could one day walk free. Shadolla Peterson, who had accompanied them to the woods but never struck a blow, cooperated with authorities. She was charged as an accessory after the fact and received probation.
The courtroom made it clear: while others had played their parts, Christa Pike was the ringleader. The jealousy was hers, the rage was hers, and the final act – crushing Colleen’s skull and pocketing a fragment of bone – was hers alone. That singular brutality is what placed her on death row.
Life on Death Row
Prison did little to quiet Christa Pike. If anything, her years behind bars only confirmed what prosecutors had argued in court – that she was violent, impulsive and dangerous to anyone around her.
In 2001, while serving her sentence at the Tennessee Prison for Women, Pike attempted to strangle a fellow inmate with a shoelace. The woman barely survived. Pike was convicted of attempted first-degree murder for the attack and given an additional 25 years, a reminder that even behind steel bars, her violent urges had not diminished.
A decade later, another headline emerged. In 2012, authorities uncovered a plan involving an outsider and a corrections officer who intended to help Pike escape. Keys were to be duplicated, money exchanged and a new life carved out beyond the walls of death row. The plot was foiled before it could unfold, but the audacity showed that Pike had never resigned herself to die quietly in a cell.
Her confinement has been unusual as well. As the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, Pike has spent decades in near-total isolation – effectively a solitary existence. Lawyers and prison advocates have argued that this has compounded her psychological instability, though others note it may be the only safe way to contain her.
In March 2024, after nearly three decades of appeals and delays, the Tennessee Supreme Court set her execution date for September 30, 2026. If carried out, it will mark the first time a woman has been executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Meanwhile, the contrast remains striking: her boyfriend and co-defendant, Tadaryl Shipp, sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, may soon walk free. Possibly one month after the execution of Pike.
Christa Pike’s name, however, will remain etched in the history of American true crime – as the youngest woman sentenced to death in the modern era and a chilling reminder of how jealousy, obsession, and cruelty can end in savagery.
Sources:
📖 Case Background & Biography
- Wikipedia – Christa Pike (overview of life, crime, conviction, appeals, and prison incidents)
- Murderpedia – Christa Pike (detailed trial notes, quotes, case summary)
- 👉Images (very graphic!) 👉View Cautiously – https://murderpedia.org/female.P/p/pike-christa-crime-scene.htm
- People – Execution Date Set for Christa Pike (March 2024 coverage of execution date & accomplices)
📚 Additional Resources
- A Love to Die For by Patricia Springer (true crime book with a dedicated section on Pike)
- Deadly Women
- People Magazine – Execution Date Set for Christa Pike (2024)
- 👉Coverage of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s decision scheduling Pike’s execution for 2026 and noting accomplice Tadaryl Shipp’s parole eligibility.
- THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHRISTA PIKE: The True Crime Story of Christa Pike, America’s Youngest Woman Sentenced to Death
📚 Further Reading / Watching
- 🎥 Video / Streaming Sources on Christa Pike
- Meet The Youngest Woman on Death Row – YouTube video by The Infographics Show recounting Pike’s story. YouTube
- Youngest Woman on Death Row: Christa Pike — Episode in World’s Most Evil Prisoners on YouTube. YouTube
- Episode 16: The Depravity of Christa Pike — YouTube true-crime episode exploring Pike’s crime and sentencing. YouTube+1
- The Disturbing Case of Christa Pike — Documentary style video on YouTube by That Chapter channel. YouTube
- “Pike” – World’s Most Evil Prisoners, Season 1, Episode 8 — Streaming on Apple TV / Paramount-type platforms. Apple TV
- The Devil in Knoxville: The Satanic Crimes of Christa Pike — YouTube video focusing on the satanic / occult elements of her case. YouTube
- Christa Pike ‒ Documentary / Prime Video listing — Some streaming availability on Amazon / Prime Video. Amazon
- “She-Devil” – Episode of Mean Girl Murders (Season 2, Ep 9) — Covers Pike’s story. Apple TV+1
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This page is part of the WickedWe True Crime Archive – a resource for researchers, students, and true crime enthusiasts seeking verified facts, case records, and deeper historical context.
- Tennessee Department of Correction – Women on Death Row
- Official TDOC resource confirming Pike as the only woman currently awaiting execution in Tennessee.
- Death Penalty Information Center – Solitary Confinement Rulings
- Analysis citing Pike’s decades in functional solitary confinement as the lone female on Tennessee’s death row, and its devastating psychological impact.
