Christa Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee, was recently featured in an episode of Investigation Discovery’s television series “Mean Girl Murders.”

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

The episode featuring Pike, “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 you can find out everything you need to know about Pike’s Fall.

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 childhood marked by violence, sexual abuse and drug abuse. Her lawyers say she developed severe mental illness as a result.

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

Who was Colleen Slemmer?

Colleen Slemmer was a 19-year-old Knoxville Job Corps student when Pike, Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp lured her to a remote area of ​​the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus to commit the murder.

What happened during the murder of Colleen Slemmer?

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

The three students killed Slemmer on January 12, 1995. The murder involved prolonged beatings and torture, during which the killers carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest and Pike removed a piece of her skull.

Death row case: Christa Pike, the first Tennessee woman to be executed in 200 years, is seeking retrial

When was Christa Pike convicted?

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

If she is executed, she would be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.

What happened to Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp?

Shadolla Peterson became a key witness and pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the crime. She received a six-year suspended sentence.

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

What happened in the Christa Pike case?

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

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has repeatedly called for Pike’s execution and said the piece of her daughter’s skull taken from Pike is still in state custody. Pike has since said she experienced an acute mental health crisis during the execution. A psychologist told The Nashville Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, that she believes Pike was out of touch with reality at the time.

She has filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that as the only woman on death row, she is effectively held in solitary confinement because death row inmates are housed separately from all other inmates. She has been the only woman on Tennessee’s death row since 2010, when then-Governor Phil Bredesen commuted the death sentence of Gaile Owens, who died in 2010.

Evan Mealins is a justice reporter for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @EvanMeAlens.

This article originally appeared in the Nashville Tennessean: Christa Pike: What you should know about the only woman on Tennessee’s death row