Who is Christa Pike? All About The Death Row Inmate Who Survived Two Lethal Injections During Botched Execution
Christa Pike is still alive.
Oct. 7 2026, Updated 3:42 p.m. ET
She is the youngest woman ever sentenced to death in America — and nearly 30 years after a murder that shocked the nation, her name is back in headlines.
Christa Pike, 50, has spent almost three decades locked away on Tennessee's death row. But her story started long before the crime, in a childhood that court records describe as almost unbearably abusive.
A Childhood Marked By Trauma And Abuse
Christa Pike did not have a very normal childhood.
Pike was born on March 10, 1976, in Beckley, West Virginia. From day one, life was brutal.
Defense filings say her mother drank heavily while pregnant, leaving Pike with organic brain damage and seizures as an infant. She bounced between her mother, Carissa Hansen, her father, Glenn Pike, and her beloved paternal grandmother, Delfa Pike, who mostly raised her.
It was brutal at home. Court records document beatings, neglect and sexual abuse starting as a toddler by her grandmother's boyfriend. At age 11 in 1987, she was r---- by a neighbor in a trailer park — a man who pled to a lesser charge and kept living nearby. At 12 in 1988, after Delfa died of cancer, she tried to kill herself for the first time.
By 15 in 1991, she was breaking into a community center for candy and was shipped off to a Juvenile Evaluation Center in Swannanoa, North Carolina. She earned her GED there, but the damage was done.
The 1995 Murder That Made Her Infamous
In 1993, Christa tried to start over at Job Corps in Knoxville, Tenn., which is where she met 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
On January 12, 1995, consumed with jealousy and convinced Colleen was after her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, Christa lured Colleen into the woods near campus with Tadaryl and friend Shadolla Peterson.
Prosecutors said Christa tortured Colleen for over 30 minutes, beating her with fists and a chunk of asphalt, slashing her with a box cutter and carving a pentagram into her chest. Colleen's body was so mutilated that cops first thought it was an animal.
Christa even kept a piece of skull as a trophy. She was sentenced to death on March 30, 1996.
Prison Attack and Botched Execution in 2026
Christa Pike attacked her fellow inmate in 2001.
Prison didn't calm her down. On August 24, 2001, she tried to strangle fellow inmate Patricia Jones with a shoelace at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center. She was convicted of attempted murder in 2004.
Then came September 30, 2026. Christa was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819. But the lethal injection failed — reports say the team spent nearly an hour finding a vein, and two full doses of pentobarbital didn't kill her. She was rushed to a Nashville hospital in critical condition.
Where Is She Now?
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Christa Pike is battling bipolar disorder and PTSD.
Today Christa remains in max security under 24/7 watch. Her lawyers say she has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD and has expressed deep remorse after decades of treatment behind bars.
The state has paused all executions for the rest of 2026 while it investigates.
