Murder of Colleen Slemmer

The murder of Colleen Slemmer is the crime at the center of Christa Pike’s death sentence and the later failed execution that made the case nationally significant. Slemmer was 19 years old when she was killed in Knoxville, Tennessee, in January 1995.

The crime and conviction

Tennessee Department of Correction records state that Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 for Slemmer’s 1995 killing. The department’s death-row record lists the offense date as January 12, 1995. Pike was sentenced to death and entered Tennessee’s women’s death-row system in March 1996.

The homicide has repeatedly returned to public attention because every later stage of Pike’s case—appeals, clemency requests, execution litigation and the September 2026 failed execution—traces back to the sentence imposed for Slemmer’s murder.

Victim-centered context

Connection to the 2026 failed execution

On September 30, 2026, Tennessee attempted to carry out Pike’s death sentence at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. The execution did not result in her death even after the state administered its pentobarbital protocol. She was taken to a hospital and later regained consciousness.

That event created a second historical layer around the case: an ordinary murder prosecution from the 1990s became connected to one of the most unusual execution failures in modern American history.

Sources

– Tennessee Department of Correction — Women on Death Row – Associated Press — Christa Pike execution and case background, October 2026