In 1995, Christa Pike was just 18 years old when she took part in the murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Three decades later, the case made headlines again because of the execution Pike was facing in Tennessee.
Slemmer studied alongside Pike at a vocational training center for young people in Knoxville. According to court records, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and Shadolla Peterson took her to a wooded area of the University of Tennessee campus. There, an attack began that lasted between 30 and 45 minutes.
The young woman was beaten with a rock or a piece of asphalt and attacked with a box cutter and a small butcher knife.
During the assault, a pentagram was carved into her chest. When the body was found, a fragment of her skull was also missing.
The detail that horrified investigators most emerged later. Pike confessed to the murder and showed another student the fragment of skull she had kept as a memento.
Records also indicate that he had talked about killing Slemmer the day before the crime.
The prosecution argued that the attack was related to Pike’s jealousy, as she saw Slemmer as a rival for her boyfriend’s attention.
Shipp also took part in the murder, but he was 17 years old, so he could not receive the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison. Peterson, who acted as a lookout and later testified against Pike, was granted parole.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996, when she was 20 years old.