This chapter describes a homicide. We report what courts and investigators established, without graphic detail beyond what is needed to understand the case.
The evening
At 6 p.m. on January 12, 1995, Colleen Slemmer spoke to her mother, May Martinez, by phone. She said three students were bothering her[1]. It was the last time they spoke.
That evening Pike, Shipp, Peterson and Slemmer signed out of the Job Corps dormitory together. Slemmer had been told they wanted to make peace and share marijuana[2]. The dorm log would later show four people leaving and only three returning[2].
The attack
The group walked to a wooded area behind an old steam plant on the University of Tennessee Agricultural Campus, near Tyson Park[1]. Pike and Shipp attacked Slemmer for as long as half an hour while Peterson acted as lookout[2][1]. The weapons included a box cutter, a meat cleaver and a piece of asphalt[2][3]. A pentagram was cut into Slemmer's chest; Shipp has been identified as the person who did it[2]. Pike struck the fatal blow[1].
Two university employees found Slemmer's body the next morning[1].
The investigation
Knox County detective Randy York had attended training on cults and Satanism shortly before the killing and later said the pentagram was the key that unlocked the case[4]. A tip from a parent worried about a "satanic cult" at Job Corps pointed police toward Pike, though the dorm sign-out records were a more direct link[4].
The three were arrested within days[2][1]. Detectives found a fragment of Slemmer's skull in Pike's jacket pocket; classmates said she had shown it to them[5][1]. Pike waived her Miranda rights and confessed, telling police the plan had been to scare Slemmer and that it "got out of control"[2]. On tape she sobbed that she had begun hitting Slemmer and "just didn't stop"[4].
"When the piece of skull got out, that's kind of the death knell for Christa. You're not coming back from that."A former Knoxville journalist, on the podcast Unrestorable[4]
Three defendants, three outcomes
| Defendant | Age | Role | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christa Pike | 18 | Attacker; fatal blow | Convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy; sentenced to death on March 30, 1996[6] |
| Tadaryl Shipp | 17 | Attacker | Convicted in January 1997; life with parole eligibility plus 25 years; denied parole in October 2025[2] |
| Shadolla Peterson | 18 | Lookout | Testified for the state; pleaded guilty as an accessory after the fact; probation[2][1] |
Because Shipp was 17, prosecutors could not seek the death penalty against him under state law[4]. His trial lawyer later wrote that "the defense I presented was to shift as much blame as possible to Christa"[4].
The satanic panic lens
The killing came at the tail end of the 1980s and 1990s "satanic panic," and the pentagram made the case a national story[4]. Investigators and later reporting agree that Satanism was not the motive. The motive, by Pike's own account and the state's, was jealousy over Shipp[4][2].
Sources for this page
- The Tennessean: Remembering Colleen Slemmer, the teenager killed by Christa Pike
- Wikipedia: Christa Pike (court record summary)
- USA Today: Tennessee governor orders investigation into failed Christa Pike execution
- The Intercept: The 'Satanic Panic' made her a true-crime obsession. The truth is more haunting.
- Nashville Banner: Christa Pike survives botched lethal injection attempt
- Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide: Christa Pike