First woman to be executed in over 200 years gets death date after carving pentagram into victim

Next year, Christa Pike will be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in over 200 years after she killed her classmate and carved a pentagram into her chest.

Back in January 1995, an 18-year-old Christa Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, lured Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer into a remote area to kill her. The murder, which happened on the University of Tennessee’s Agricultural campus, was particularly brutal, with Christa, her boyfriend, and another friend called Shadolla Peterson, stabbing and beating Colleen to death. They carved a pentagram into her chest afterwards, before taking a piece of her skull as a souvenir.

The body was discovered by a groundskeeper, who testified that Colleen was “so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal.”

Christa was charged with murder and the conspiracy to commit murder, with her boyfriend sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Shadolla got a six-year probationary sentence after pleading guilty to accessory after the fact, acting as a state’s witness to put her friends behind bars. Though Tadaryl Shipp will be up for release in 2026, in the same year, Christa will be executed for the crimes she committed decades ago.

Credit: Tennessee Department of Corrections

Christa Pike will be executed in 2026

In 1996, Christa Pike became the youngest person on death row at the age of 20 after a jury found her guilty of first-degree murder. For the 30 years she spent locked up, Christa was the only woman on death row.

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At the end of September, the Tennessee Supreme Court set Christa’s execution date for September 30, 2026. Only 18 women have been executed in the US since 1976, and Christa will be the first in the state for over 200 years. Local reports suggest that Christa will be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Though the date has been set, that doesn’t necessarily mean Christa will be killed. Already, her legal team have motioned for her execution date to be delayed indefinitely, claiming that no jury today would have sentenced an 18-year-old to death.

“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect,” her legal team told USA Today.

“With time and treatment for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, which were not diagnosed until years later, Christa has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime.”

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Featured image credit: Tennessee Department of Corrections