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Tennessee's Krista Pike execution

True crime · Heat 3.3 / 10 · 3 shows · 55m airtime

Tennessee scheduled the lethal injection execution of Krista Pike for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer on September 30, 2026. Pike was 18 at the time and has been on death row for 30 years; she was sentenced to death in the electric chair on March 30, 1996, with 25 years added on the conspiracy charge, and would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. The discussion has moved to the case record: prosecutors offered life without parole before trial, psychologist Eric Engum measured her IQ at 111, and her mother testified she smoked marijuana with her daughter to establish a friendship. Reporting has also detailed Pike's fifteen months at Swannanoa on a six-month commitment…

How 3 podcasts covered it

  1. Global News Podcast, 2026-09-29 (19:31 to 22:41)
    Lays out the case ahead of the execution
    Lays out the case ahead of Wednesday's scheduled lethal injection: the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer at a camp for troubled teens, Pike's age of 18 at the time, the co-defendant who carved a pentagram and got life, and the childhood abuse and bipolar diagnosis her defence says were never properly presented at sentencing.
    New angle: Pike would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
  2. Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski, 2026-10-14 (3:15 to 17:23)
    Traces Pike's life from 1996 testimony
    Part one of a two-part biography of Pike's life before the murder, built from 1996 Knoxville court testimony and family accounts: the Beckley childhood, the Swannanoa training school, the Job Corps dorm. It puts the abuse and instability on the record in detail, but the only claim about the murder itself is Pike's own uncorroborated story about Colleen and the…
    New angle: Pike's mother testified she smoked marijuana with her daughter to establish a friendship.
  3. Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski, 2026-10-16 (4:09 to 7:29)
    Walks the 1996 trial and plea offer
    Walks the 1996 Knox County trial in detail: the rejected plea deal, Eric Engum's testing and borderline diagnosis, the family testimony the prosecutor turned on cross, and the March 30, 1996 death sentence. Adds the plea offer and the IQ finding to the record.
    New angle: Prosecutors offered Pike a plea deal of life without parole before trial; psychologist Eric Engum measured her IQ at 111.
  4. Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski, 2026-10-16 (7:29 to 9:53)
    Walks through the 1996 sentencing
    Walks through the March 30, 1996 sentencing: the electric chair, the stacked 25 years on the conspiracy count, the judge's finding that Pike led the crime for pleasure, and the outcomes for Shipp and Peterson. Adds the jail letter signed Little Devil and the 1998 state Supreme Court affirmance.
    New angle: Pike was sentenced to death in the electric chair on March 30, 1996, with 25 years added on the conspiracy charge.
  5. Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski, 2026-10-17 (1:02 to 2:15)
    Retells the Christmas 1994 conversation
    Retells the Christmas 1994 conversation with Pike's family - the girl with the knife, Tadaryl Shipp as protector, the aunt's contrary memory that she was scared - and counts the nineteen days to Slemmer's death. Background already on the record.
  6. Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski, 2026-10-17 (2:15 to 6:35)
    Traces the childhood from birth to first case
    Traces Pike's childhood from her 1976 birth in Beckley through the grandmother's death, the CPS file, the adoption papers and the candy theft that produced her first juvenile case. A detailed retelling that stays inside the record already on the card.
  7. Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski, 2026-10-17 (6:37 to 9:00)
    Fills in the Swannanoa years
    Fills in the Swannanoa years: Pike arrived at the Juvenile Evaluation Center in November 1991 on a six-month commitment and stayed fifteen months, leaving in March 1993 with a GED. Adds the hobby-room pentagram incident and the eight family visits, background the case record had not carried.
    New angle: Pike spent fifteen months at Swannanoa on a six-month commitment, leaving in March 1993 with a GED.
  8. Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski, 2026-10-17 (9:00 to 12:01)
    Fills in the months before the murder
    Fills in the months before the murder: Pike living on the street with Brian Wilson and Jenny Robinson, then enrolling at the Job Corps Center on Rutledge Pike in fall 1994, where her mother saw graffiti and a bloodstain on a dorm wall and tried to bring her home.
    New angle: Pike enrolled at Knoxville's Job Corps Center on Rutledge Pike in fall 1994; her mother saw a bloodstain on a dorm wall there.
  9. Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski, 2026-10-17 (11:47 to 13:36)
    Interviews instructors who knew both students
    Turns to the Job Corps campus and the instructors who knew both students: they describe daily fear of one student and name Tadaryl Shipp, 17, while remembering Pike as sweet and good at the work. Adds Shipp's sworn Gangster Disciples membership and his statement that he had dabbled in Satanism since age 10.
    New angle: Shipp admitted under oath to Gangster Disciples membership and told police he had dabbled in Satanism since age 10.
  10. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, 2026-10-19 (4:35 to 7:43)
    Walks through the murder with a death investigator
    Brings on a forensic death investigator to walk through the murder itself: the jagged asphalt that fractured Slemmer's skull, the missing skull fragment, and the hour of torture before the fatal blow. Grace corrects him that Pike danced with the fragment. Retells the case record without adding to it.
  11. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, 2026-10-19 (14:14 to 18:50)
    Adds the medical examiner's stab wound count
    Brings on the former Knoxville police chief who worked the scene. He puts on the record the medical examiner's count: so many stab wounds she started the alphabet over, meaning at least 26, plus a six- to seven-inch throat laceration. The rest is the chief's recollection and the victim's mother's frustration.
    New angle: A medical examiner stopped counting Slemmer's stab wounds and restarted the alphabet, meaning at least 26.
  12. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, 2026-10-28 (2:52 to 5:07)
    Recounts the 1995 murder and plays the mother
    Recounts the 1995 murder - the stabbing, the pentagram, the asphalt blow - and plays an interview with Colleen Slemmer's mother, who says no one has apologized and that a piece of her daughter's skull was never found. Stays inside the case record already on file.
  13. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, 2026-10-28 (21:42 to 25:15)
    Reads the brutality as rage and dominance
    A psychoanalyst reads the murder's brutality as rage and dominance, saying Pike saw Slemmer as a rival for her boyfriend, and argues the state has disrespected May Martinez by denying her grandchildren. Interpretation and reaction, not new record.
  14. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, 2026-10-28 (32:27 to 36:13)
    Interviews Slemmer's friend from the dorm
    Brings on Rita Morris, a friend of Colleen Slemmer from the Job Corps dorm, who retells the skull-fragment display and the jealousy over Shipp. It adds a first-hand voice but no fact the record does not already hold.
  15. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, 2026-10-28 (37:34 to 39:36)
    Recalls Slemmer as kind and calls for execution
    A friend of Colleen Slemmer remembers her as kind and helpful, says her mother has never had closure, and calls for Pike to be executed soon. Reaction and victim-family framing, with no new development in the case.
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