Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She Should Be Dead // The Christa Pike Story

Episode Date: October 13, 2026

Christa Pike is an American convicted murderer who became one of the youngest women in modern U.S. history to be sentenced to death. In 1995, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and an accomplice lured their classmate Colleen Slemmer into a secluded wooded area in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they murdered her.

Everyone's talking about Krista Pike, but no one's talking about what she actually did. So this all starts with Krista. And Krista is 18 during this time, living in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Krista hasn't had the easiest life. Her parents are alcoholics. She's lived through a ton of physical and sexual abuse. She's also had undiagnosed bipolar disorder. Lots of stuff going on. So keeping that in mind, she's already been in trouble with the law and been in and out of

juvenile detention a few times. But one day in 1994, she enrolls in Job Corps, which is a program designed to help train at-risk teens for a future career. So she gets in this program, and she's there with a bunch of other badass kids. And that is when she meets this guy, Tadaril. And Tadaril is 17, and he's just kind of a weird dude. Like he's into some freaky shit like Satanism and pentegrams and devil worship and stuff like that. Despite that, he and Krista become instantly close, and he shows her his satanic altar and his satanic Bible and all that to her, and they like bond over it. And pretty quickly, she ends up falling in love with him, and she wants nothing more than to be with him, because she finally feels like she has someone in her life to love. But then, at Job Corps, Krista meets this girl, Slimmer.

And Slimmer knows to Darryl, and so she's friendly to him, and Krista doesn't like this at all. She gets paranoid that Slimmer wants to try and steal to Darrell from her, and Krista will do anything to make sure that doesn't happen. So she starts beefing with Slimmer, picking on her, and now there's drama, and to Darrell and another friend help pick on Slimmer too. And according to Krista, Slimer starts talking trash to her in response. Because, you know, what else is she going to do? So now, Krista is even more pissed off, and she is not going to let that trash talk slide. So Krista and to Darrell come to this very extreme decision.

They're going to kill Slimmer and get rid of her for good. So we're now in 1995, and here is when they put their plan into motion. One day, Krista approaches Slimmer, and she apologizes to her, and she pretends to make amends, like, I'm sorry about everything, I'm sorry we made your life difficult. Then she makes her a peace offering. She tells her that she stashed a little zaza in the woods,

and she asks her to come with her to Daryl and the other friend so that they can all go out there and smoke it together, and it'll be a good time. And Slimmer, she doesn't want any more beef with Krista or with any of them, so she agrees. And so the four of them sign out of their Job Corps dormitory, and they start heading towards the woods. And they lead Slimmer to this wooded area near an abandoned steam plant,

a place where they're sure no one is going to hear them. Once they're there, suddenly, boom, Krista starts confronting her. Like, why are you trying to steal my boyfriend? And Slimmer is like, what? And she tells them that this is all just a big misunderstanding and that she isn't interested in Tadrille? But Krista and to Daryl, they aren't trying to hear any of that. They straight up ambush her.

and they start beating the shit out of her, while their other friend goes to be a lookout. Then Krista and to Daryl pull out a meat cleaver and a box cutter they brought, and they start stabbing Slimmer, cutting her up. And after she's very wounded, DeRle takes the time to carve a pinagram into Slimmer's chest because he loves Satanism so much

and because, like I said, he's just a weird guy. After that, Krista grabs a huge chunk of asphalt and pow, she smacks. smashes it right into Slimmer's head. And this, unfortunately, kills her. Then, Krista does something really disgusting. She takes a piece of Slimmer's skull as some kind of trophy, and she puts it in her jacket pocket.

After that, she and to Darrell and the other friend, they leave the scene. Later, when Krista gets back to the training center, she starts bragging to the other students about what just happened. Like, she's proud of it. Meanwhile, someone is going through the woods and they find Slimmer's body, so they call 911. And pretty quickly, police start investigating. And because of all the bragging Krista did, it doesn't take them too long to figure out exactly who was involved. And so, bam, Krista gets arrested.

Here's her mugshot. And bam to Darrell gets arrested too. Here's his mugshot. And bam, the other friend also gets arrested. Here's hers. Now, not too long after the arrest, the other friend flips on Krista and to Darrell, and she takes a plea deal and she agrees to testify against them. So she only gets sentenced to six years probation. While to Darrell goes to trial, he's found guilty, and he gets sentenced to life in prison.

Krista, on the other hand, she's actually a few months older than to Darrell. So she was legally an adult at the time of the crime, while Tadero was a minor. So her punishment is obviously going to be more severe than his. Keeping that in mind, in 1996, she goes to trial and she gets sentenced to death. It is therefore ordered that you shall be put to death by left the future. God, have mercy. And this death sentence makes her the youngest woman on death row in the United States. However, her story doesn't live.

end here. 30 years pass, and it's now 2026. So she's 50 years old at this point. And she's still in prison and she's still on death row. Here's actually what she looks like these days. And so this year, Krista's execution is finally scheduled. But she has an even bigger problem than dying. So instead of electrocution or something like that, the state actually plans to use lethal injection. And this is a problem for her, because she's long had a blood clotting disorder and unusually small veins, which will make it likely that the injection won't actually kill her. It'll only cause her to suffer. And so Krista's lawyer files motions and he fights against the injection and he asks for alternative methods. But I guess the court just doesn't believe Krista about her

condition because her request is denied. And so now it's September 30th, 26, Christa's last day on earth. And so there she is. She's lying on a table about to be executed, saying her goodbyes, while the prison execution team starts the process. And this is it. This is the moment that the last 30 years have been building towards. And they give her the lethal injection. But Krista doesn't die. The injection actually fails, just like she told them it would. And so the lead physician gives her another dose. And even after the second dose, she's still alive. And at some point, she actually passes out.

And so everyone there is like, what the fuck is going on? And no one knows what to do at this point because there's no procedure to follow because this has never happened before. And so Krista has just become the first and only person ever to survive a lethal injection after being actually injected. twice. Wow. And so from here, they rush her to the nearest hospital, and ironically, they're now trying to save her life, and she's given medical treatment, and she's put on a ventilator. And a few days go by. And at this point, it looks like she might end up being brain dead. And the doctors

decide that they're going to take her off life support the next day. But then, the next morning, to the shock of the entire medical staff there and everyone else, something unbelievable happens, something the world has never seen before. Krista wakes up, and she starts talking, and soon she's even able to walk. And what comes after this is completely unknown. Like, will she continue to get better?

Will the state try and execute her again? We don't actually know. I will say this, though, if they do, it's likely gonna be a really long legal battle. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.