Christa Pike, Tennessee's only woman on death row, the subject of Investigation Discovery's 'Mean Girl Murders'

Christa Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee, was recently featured on an episode of Investigation Discovery's TV series "Mean Girl Murders."

Pike, 48, was convicted of murder for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer at the Job Corps campus in Knoxville. Pike is the last person in Tennessee sentenced to death for a crime they committed when they were 18.

The episode featuring Pike, called "She-Devil," aired on ID on Monday. Minutes into the episode, one of the guests compares Pike to serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer.

Here are some of the facts of Pike's case.

Who is Christa Pike?

Christa Pike was a student at the Knoxville Job Corps, a federal job training program, when she brutally killed fellow student Colleen Slemmer in 1995.

Born in West Virginia in 1976, Pike had an extremely traumatic upbringing marked by violence, sexual abuse and substance abuse. Her attorneys say she developed severe mental illness as a result.

Pike has been on death row at Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville since she was convicted in 1996. While in prison in 2001, she attempted to kill another incarcerated woman, Patricia Jones, by strangling her with a shoestring. She was convicted of attempted murder in 2004.

Who was Colleen Slemmer?

Colleen Slemmer was a 19-year-old student at the Knoxville Job Corps when Pike, Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp lured her to a remote area of the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus to carry out the killing.

What happened during the murder of Colleen Slemmer?

When she was at Job Corps in Knoxville, Pike began dating fellow student Shipp. Prosecutors said Pike and her friend, Peterson, plotted to kill Slemmer when she suspected Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend.

The three students killed Slemmer on Jan. 12, 1995. The killing involved a lengthy beating and torture during which the killers etched a pentagram into Slemmer's chest and Pike took a piece of her skull.

Death row case: Christa Pike, who would be first Tennessee woman executed in 200 years, moves to reopen appeal

When was Christa Pike sentenced?

Pike confessed to the crime and was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder at trial on March 22, 1996. She was sentenced to death by electrocution on March 30, 1996.

If she is executed, she would be the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

What happened to Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp?

Shadolla Peterson turned state witness and pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. She received a six-year probationary sentence.

Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to life. He becomes eligible for parole in 2026, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.

What has happened with Christa Pike's case?

Pike has not yet been executed. She has filed numerous appeals, and her most recent attempt to have a judge review her case was denied in October 2023.

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has repeatedly called for Pike's execution and said that the piece of her daughter's skull that Pike was taken remains in state custody. Pike has since said that she was experiencing an acute mental health crisis during the killing. A psychologist told The Tennessean she believed Pike was not in touch with reality at the time.

She has filed a federal lawsuit arguing that she is subject to de facto solitary confinement as the only woman on death row because those sentenced to death are housed separately from all other incarcerated people. She has been the only woman on Tennessee's death row since 2010, when then-Gov. Phil Bredesen commuted the death sentence of Gaile Owens, who died in 2010.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Christa Pike: What to know about Tennessee's only woman on death row