Grisly details surrounding the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer by Christa Pike, then 18, have resurfaced following Pike's own near-fatal execution. Pike, 50, was scheduled to be the first woman executed in Tennessee on September 30 but became the first U.S. prisoner to survive a lethal injection.
Pike was sentenced to death for the torture and murder of Slemmer, 19, in Knoxville in January 1995. She kept a piece of Slemmer's skull as a macabre souvenir.
"This case appeared in January of 1995, at the beginning of my career, and the nature of it has stayed with me throughout my entire career," said Knox County Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Murray Marks in a new documentary by The Post titled "No Mercy: Christa Pike Unravelled." Dr. Marks testified during Pike's trial.
Slemmer endured severe injuries during a 30-minute assault in a secluded area of the University of Tennessee's Knoxville campus, where Pike and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, had lured her. Pike ultimately killed Slemmer by striking her head with a large piece of asphalt, according to the notes.
Dr. Marks recounted the moment he was asked to testify about the missing bone fragment from the left side of Slemmer's skull. "The District Attorney brought forth a little paper bag, and from that, withdrew a piece of bone, and so that was presented to me," he said. "I took it and, you know, I took my time and made sure it fit exactly. I looked at the edges, it fit precisely, the edges were a perfect match, and at that point, when the skull was demonstrated by me, the gallery gasped."
Pike received the death penalty, while Shipp was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole due to his age at the time of the crime.
Don Jacobs, a former reporter for the Knoxville News-Sentinel who covered the case, revealed that Pike had written to Shipp expressing bewilderment at her sentence. "She said, 'I didn’t deserve that. I showed him a great deal of compassion because I didn’t let her die slowly,'" Jacobs recalled.
Following the botched execution attempt, Pike was transported to a hospital after receiving two doses of pentobarbital. She remained unconscious until waking on October 6. Pike is currently held at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, and her attorneys have stated she is now speaking in full sentences.
Outgoing Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has halted all remaining executions for the year and ordered an independent review of the incident. Frank Strada, the state's commissioner of the Department of Correction, resigned following the failed lethal injection, citing it was "in the best interest of Tennesseans."
Pike's legal team has requested her sentence be commuted, arguing she has "endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty."