Disgusting act death row inmate committed after murder as US state prepares to execute first woman in over 200 years
The Tennessee Supreme Court has set Pike’s execution for September 30, 2026. If this takes place, she will be the first woman executed in Tennessee in two centuries and only the 19th woman in modern U.S. history to face the death penalty.
Back in 1995, Pike was just 18 years old when prosecutors claimed that jealousy led her to lure Slemmer, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps, into the woods.
Christa Pike believed that Colleen was attempting to take her boyfriend away from her.
Over a period of one hour, Pike beat, stabbed, and carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest. Court records reveal that she even boasted afterward, showing her classmates a piece of Slemmer’s skull that she kept as a trophy.
The shocking murder attracted significant media attention and became known as the “Job Corps murder,” as both the victim and the perpetrator were enrolled in the program.
Hours after the body was found and the area secured, Pike appeared at the crime scene again. She engaged with officers, inquiring if they had identified the victim and where Slemmer’s body was located. One officer noted that Pike seemed almost excited about the situation.
“She was giggling and moving around,” an officer testified during the trial.
Pike was arrested the following day.
In March 1996, she was sentenced to death. A jury of seven men and five women found her guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Reports at the time indicated that she broke down in tears when the verdict was announced.
“Can I please hug my mom before I go? Please let me just hug my mom,” Pike pleaded, as her mother, Carissa Hansen, wept behind her in the courtroom.
Her mother’s tragic confession
Hansen testified earlier in the trial, admitting she had been a negligent mother who allowed Pike to have a live-in boyfriend at the age of 14. In an effort to connect with her daughter, she confessed to even sharing drugs with her and smoking marijuana together.
“I should be the one in her seat,” Hansen stated. “I should be punished for her crimes.”
Christa Gail Pike’s case is one of only 48 involving women currently on death row across the nation, compared to almost 2,100 men.
Since 1976, only 18 women have been executed in the U.S., making Pike’s situation extremely rare.
Pike’s words from behind bars
Now 49, Pike has spent most of her 30 years in prison in near-solitary confinement as Tennessee’s only female death row inmate.
In a letter to The Tennessean, she acknowledged her guilt but claimed she is not the same person she was at 18.
“Think back to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager,” Pike wrote. “Mine happened to be huge, unforgettable, and ruined countless lives… It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime.”
Her attorneys argue that, considering her youth and mental health conditions—such as bipolar disorder and PTSD from years of abuse—she would not have been sentenced to death if tried today.
They are advocating for life without parole instead.
For Colleen Slemmer’s family, there is no compassion. Her mother, May Martinez, has been vocal in her calls for Pike’s death sentence to be executed.
“I just want Christa down so I can end it,” Martinez expressed to local reporters.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Colleen or how she died and how brutal it was.”
What happens now
Unless appeals or clemency requests succeed, Pike will be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, which houses Tennessee’s death chamber.
Her execution would mark a significant moment for the state and one of the rarest occurrences in America’s judicial system: a woman being executed.