Ep. 28: Christa Pike: The Murder of Colleen Slemmer & the Execution She Survived

Colleen Slemmer was 19 when she moved to Knoxville to study computers and build a future. Months later, she was lured off campus and brutally murdered by classmates. Christa Pike believed Colleen wanted her boyfriend. She would later show other students a piece of Colleen’s skull. This week, we cover the murder that sent Pike to death row, the disturbing behavior that followed, and the decades of appeals leading to an execution attempt she survived. We discuss her childhood abuse, the arguments for sparing her life, and the medical warnings her attorneys say Tennessee ignored. With Pike hospitalized after the failed lethal injection, Colleen’s mother is left facing more uncertainty after 30 years of waiting. We’re talking about how this happened, what remains unresolved, and the young woman whose life was taken long before this case became an execution headline. Content warning: Graphic violence, childhood sexual abuse, and discussion of an execution attempt.