19-year-old Colleen Slemmer brutally murdered by her classmates

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, USA – JANUARY 12, 1995 Colleen Slemmer was a 19-year-old girl from Florida who enrolled in the Job Corps computer program in Knoxville to study computer skills. At that time, computer technology was booming, and anyone who mastered it had a promising future ahead. The same course was attended by 18-year-old Christa Gail Pike, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and 18-year-old friend Shadolla Peterson.

Christa Gail Pike did not have a very good reputation at school. She was known for her violent tendencies and interest in the occult and satanism. She became very jealous of Colleen and was convinced that Colleen was trying to steal her boyfriend. Therefore, she decided that she and her friends would kill Colleen.

On the fateful night of January 12, 1995, Colleen was asked to go for a walk with Pike, Tadaryl, and Shadolla to a remote part of the University of Tennessee agricultural campus under the pretense that they needed to discuss something important. They then lured her into the woods.

There, all three brutally attacked her, with Pike being the main and most savage attacker. During the roughly half-hour assault, they beat, humiliated, and cut her. They carved a pentagram symbol into her chest. Finally, Pike took a piece of asphalt and fatally crushed her skull. As Colleen was dying, Pike took a piece of her skull home as a souvenir.

Christa Gail Pike in prison

Her mutilated body was found the next day by university staff, who immediately contacted the police. Investigators put Pike on the suspect list just days later and took her into custody. Shipp and Peterson were also arrested afterward.

In March 1996, the trial took place, and Peterson received a suspended sentence thanks to her cooperation with the police. Shipp was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. Pike was sentenced to death by electric chair, becoming the youngest person sentenced to death in the United States. To this day, she remains on death row awaiting execution.

READ MORE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_Pike