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On Jan. 12, 1995, Christa Pike was an 18-year-old student at the Job Corps career-training center in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she was dating fellow student Tadaryl Shipp, 17.
As the relationship continued, Pike grew increasingly jealous of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer, believing she was trying to steal her boyfriend.
Her suspicions, prosecutors say, ultimately led to a deadly plan.
According to court records, Pike, Shipp and another student, Shadolla Peterson, lured Slemmer into a wooded area in Knoxville. Prosecutors said Peterson kept watch while Pike and Shipp attacked Slemmer.
The next day, a groundskeeper found Slemmer’s body, beaten, stabbed and bludgeoned, with a pentagram carved into her chest.
‘Wanted a human sacrifice’
According to court records cited by USA Today, Pike later boasted about the killing to another student, claiming she slashed Slemmer’s throat six times with a box cutter, struck her with a meat cleaver and continued the assault even as the teenager “begged” her to stop.
Investigators also alleged Pike threw a large piece of asphalt at Slemmer’s head, a blow believed to have killed her.
Afterward, prosecutors said she kept a fragment of the victim’s skull as a souvenir and later showed it to other students.
For Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, the details have never faded.
“Christa Pike wanted a human sacrifice and my daughter was it,” Martinez told WBIR, referencing Pike’s growing interest in the occult. “They basically cut her over 300 times and carved a pentagram on her chest.”
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, becoming the youngest woman ever placed on Tennessee’s death row.
Shipp was also convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. According to inmate records, he will become eligible for parole in November, while Peterson testified for the prosecution and received probation.
‘Reckless teenager’
Over the years, Pike has acknowledged responsibility for the killing while describing herself as a very different person than the teenager convicted in 1995.
In a letter to The Tennessean, part of the USA Today network, she wrote: “Think back to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager. Well, mine happened to be huge, unforgettable and ruined countless lives,” she started in the 2023 statement.