It’s been nearly three decades since Christa Gail Pike brutally murdered 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee — and now, the state has set the date when she’ll pay the ultimate price.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has scheduled Pike’s execution for September 30, 2026. If carried out, she’ll become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years and only the 19th woman in modern U.S. history to face the death chamber.
Back in 1995, Pike was just 18 years old when prosecutors say jealousy drove her to lure Slemmer, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps, into the woods.
Christa Pike believed that Colleen was trying to steal away her boyfriend.
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Over the course of an hour, Pike beat, stabbed, and carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest. According to court records, she even bragged afterward — showing classmates a fragment of Slemmer’s skull she kept as a trophy.
When a groundskeeper discovered Slemmer’s body the next day, it was so badly beaten he first thought it belonged to an animal.
Showed up giggling at the crime scene
The brutal murder drew massive media attention and became known as the “Job Corps murder,” since both the victim and the killer were enrolled in the program.
Several hours after the body was discovered and the area taped off, Pike showed up again at the crime scene. She spoke with officers, asking if authorities had identified the victim and where Slemmer’s body had been found. According to one officer, Pike seemed almost thrilled by the situation.
“She was giggling and moving around,” an officer testified during the trial.
Pike was arrested the very next day.
In March 1996, she was sentenced to death. The seven-man, five-woman jury found her guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. According to news reports at the time, she broke down in uncontrollable sobs when the sentence was handed down in court.
“Can I please hug my mom before I go. Please let me just hug my mom,” Pike said, as her mother, Carissa Hansen, sat crying behind her in the courtroom.
Her mother’s tragic confession
Hansen had testified earlier in the trial, admitting she had been a poor mother who allowed Pike to have a live-in boyfriend at just 14 years old. In an effort to bond with her daughter, she confessed she had even shared drugs with her and smoked marijuana together.
“I should be the one in her seat,” Hansen said. “I should be punished for her crimes.”
Christa Gail Pike’s case is one of only 48 involving women currently on death row nationwide — compared to nearly 2,100 men.
Since 1976, just 18 women have been executed in the U.S., making Pike’s case extraordinarily rare.
