Timesuck with Dan Cummins - Short Suck 67: The Failed Execution of Christa Pike

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

Just last week, on September 30th, 2026, Tennessee tried to execute convicted murderer Christa Pike—twice—and somehow, she survived. This Short Suck, before deciding whether Pike deserves sympathy for what happened inside that execution chamber, we’re going back to 1995 to examine the extraordinarily brutal murder of nineteen-year-old Colleen Slemmer that put her there.For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to another edition of Time Suck Short Sucks. I'm Dan Cummins, and today I'll be sharing the story of Tennessee death row murderer, Krista Pike's recently failed execution. Earlier today, as I record this on the evening of Sunday, October 4th, the 50-year-old remains in critical condition. She has not regained consciousness since being taken to a Nashville area hospital on September 30th, after receiving what were supposed to be two separate lethal injections. She was intubated, placed on a ventilator, and unconscious, and both her arms were swollen, burned, and blistered from the lethal injection drugs according to an emergency court motion filed on October 2. Her attorney, Stephen Farrell, told various news outlets earlier today that he has not yet been able to see Pike, but Farrell said her condition remains the same, and doctors are still working to clear the drugs from her system after the botched execution.

He added, she's still in the hospital on a ventilator, critically ill. Pike appears to be the very first person known to have survived after execution drugs entered her body, according to the nonprofit death penalty information center. Farrell stated that he has not yet learned from doctors why Pike survived, and Tennessee officials also have not released any information about how the lethal injection could have failed. Pike's attorneys have indicated there was an issue with the insertion of the intravenous line, Randy Spivey, one of Pike's attorneys, said during an online news conference on October 1st, that it took about an hour to establish two lines, and he witnessed at least seven needles used on her left arm alone,

one of which appeared to be bent when it was removed. Jerry Green, Democratic candidate for Tennessee's governorship, has called the death penalty, inhumane, expensive, and biased in the wake of this botched attempt. International rights watchdog, Amnesty International, called in U.S. to abolish the death penalty in the wake of this. this again botched attempt, saying as a death penalty continues to decline around the world, the United States remains increasingly isolated. I have seen, personally, a lot of commentary online, a lot, expressing so much sympathy for Krista Pike, people who focus on the fact that she was only 18 years old when she committed the crime that sent her to death row.

I've read a lot of articles that focus on this. How cruel her botched execution was, how much pain she might have been in, how much she, you know, how she may be brain dead now, how the two other people with her the night she killed, Colleen, Slimmer did not also get to death penalty. These articles conveniently have left out the details of just how horrible the torture and murder of Colleen truly was, how lengthy, merciless, and sadistic. Articles to focus on how bad Christ's childhood was, but leave out the fact that the overwhelming majority of childhood abuse survivors never ever do anything even remotely like what Chris did

did. Articles would also leave out the fact that years later, she tried to kill again, and many years after that got somebody else sent to prison for trying to break her out of it. I do understand that some people are falsely sent to death row, but Krista Pike, not one of those people. I also understand that her failed execution attempt might have caused her a lot of pain, but I promise you not nearly as much pain as she gleefully inflicted on another woman who was also so young back in 1995 and it was gleeful. Krista was so happy about it all that she literally danced the night of Colleen's murder, danced holding a piece of a young woman's skull in her hand. A woman whose story seems to have gotten lost in this death row debate.

So let me tell you what really happened. That fateful night back in 1995, what led up to it who Krista Pike and her victim calling some or were, after hearing it all, will you think what recently happened to Krista makes her a victim as well? Or if justice were to really try and even the scales, should she still have so much more pain coming her way? Words and ideas can change the world. I hated her, but I wanted to love my mother.

I have a dream. I'll plead not guilty right now. Your only chance is to leave with us. On September 30th, 2026, just last week, again as I record this, on October 4th, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. 50-year-old Krista Gale Pike strapped to a gurney inside the prison's execution chamber. An IV had been inserted, poorly, it seems, into her arm. A spiritual advisor stood near her head, and on the other side of an observation window, a small group of witnesses were waiting for her to become the first woman in 206 years to be executed by the state. of Tennessee. Among those witnesses was May Martinez, a woman with shoulder-length, straight,

blonde hair that's gotten so light over the years, it now looks almost white, a woman who appears to be in her late 70s or perhaps her early 80s may have been waiting more than 31 years for this moment because 31 years earlier, Krista Pike had brutally murdered May's 19-year-old daughter calling Slimmer. At 727 p.m., Tennessee prison officials raised the curtain in the observation window and Krista was actually smiling. Her spiritual advisor was speaking to her and the two of them briefly sang together. Then Krista gave what she believed would be the final statement of her life. She said that she was at peace, that she was leaving the world with love. She said, I'm ready to be free. This is a happy day. She told a reporter for the New York Times days earlier, I run through this

execution every day in my heart. Whatever happens on September 30th, this will not be my hell anymore. after what should have been her final statement, the execution began in earnest. Tennessee uses a massive dose of the barbiturate, a pentabarbinol, to execute prisoners. Enough of the drug was supposed to first render Krista unconscious, then stop her breathing, then stop her heart. It was supposed to be gentle. She was given what was supposed to have been a lethal dose. But then minutes passed, and Krista Pike did not die.

Instead, she raised her hand, looked around, and asked one of the prison officials a question. She said her arm hurt. Was it supposed to hurt like this? She wondered. At 7.37 p.m. Pike sighed. She was still waiting for the end. Four minutes later, an object was placed on a ledge inside the chamber, apparently signaling that the lethal drugs had in fact been administered

and a five-minute countdown was begun. More than five minutes later, at 746, the curtain closed and Pike was very much still alive. It hadn't worked. According to Tennessee's execution protocol, if the prisoner is still alive after the first dose of pentobar, Barbital, they administered another. And so they did. They gave her a second dose, and just like the first, it was, of course, supposed to have been fatal. But three minutes later, the curtain opened

again, and Krista Pike was still alive. Soon though, she appeared to begin to lose consciousness. Then a strange sound filled the execution chamber. The sound of Pike snoring. At 7.56, her head rose slightly off the gurney and turned to one side. She was still breathing. At 8.06 p.m., the curtain closed again and from behind it the witnesses witnesses like may martinez they could still hear the rhythmic regular sound of chris de pike breathing they could still hear her snoring minutes passed and no one really knew what the hell was going on 20 minutes then 30 then 40 passed in this confused state of limbo finally pike's attorney demanded that the execution be stopped and that she receive emergency medical care to now keep her alive at 8 53 p.m witnesses were told to leave without being given any real

explanation. Then at approximately 914 ambulances and fire trucks arrived outside a riverbend, Krista Pike had entered the execution chamber expecting, of course, to leave the prison in a hearse, but instead she would leave in an ambulance. The state that was supposed to have killed her was now racing to try to save her life. Pretty weird. The state of Tennessee had just administered two rounds of lethal drugs to a condemned prisoner and somehow fucked up both times. Still alive. Had Krista Pike died that night, she would have become the first woman executed by the state of Tennessee and again more than two centuries. Why? Lots of people go to prison for murder, but very few of them are sent to death row. Why, out of all the female murders, dozens if not hundreds of other women,

you know, did the state of Tennessee deem it necessary to execute Krista when it hadn't executed them? To answer that, we have to go to Knoxville. To January of 1995, meet a 19-year-old girl named Colleen Slemmer. but before that, we also first need to get to know Krista Pike to help understand why so many people think she should not have gone to death row. They think her childhood should have been taken more into account when Krista, you know, having committed her crimes at the age of 18, they think her age should have been taken more into account, you know, was sentenced to death. Krista Gail Pike was born on March 10, 1976 and pretty surreal these past few days for me to think about that. because she looks a lot like somebody I could have grown up with in rural tiny town Idaho,

just her overall look, her hairstyle. I mean, she easily could have been in the grade above me. She's about my age. She would have been in the grade right above mine in school. What a very, very different life she has had than me. Certainly, since she was arrested at the age of 18 in January of 1995, back then I was getting ready to graduate high school, experienced true freedom from childhood parental supervision for the first time.

She was going to a cell. cells are the only place she's been ever since. While I studied and partied in college, she was being told when to eat, what to eat, where to eat it. While I was getting married for the first time, bouncing from job to job, figuring out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, she was already on death row and knew what she was going to be doing with the rest of hers, waiting to be killed.

In the years since, I toured as a stand-up, had two kids, got divorced, worked behind the scenes, and or in front of the camera on a variety of shows down in Los Angeles, met my current wife, Lindsay, moved to I, Idaho to be closer to the kids and make life easier for them as they progress through school. Then I started podcasting here on TimeSuck first before branching out into other shows. I watched both my kids graduate high school, now helping them both through college. Meanwhile, Krista has just spent that entire time in a little cell, waiting, waiting, and waiting.

To have either an appeal go through and be spared from the death penalty, but still like they have to sit in prison for many more years if not the rest of her life or to die. Such very different lives. and they were so very different before she did what she did that sent her to prison. Chris's life was full of tragedy and violence right from the start. There's no real debating that. There's no question that her childhood was beyond fucked up. Exactly how fucked up would become a major point of contention during decades of appeals following her conviction and if it should matter.

I'll talk about whether or not I think it should have mattered, you know, towards the end of this story. Also, a lot of the claims I've, you know, I'll be presenting here, do come from psychological assessments of Krista that some members of her family have disputed over the years. Was her childhood this fucked up? Or was she exaggerating? Was she lying about parts? The truth, you know, probably some other version

of the following events. A fair amount of this info is documented in legal records, though, such as an arrest reports and other legal records. Some is up for grabs. Everybody seems to agree, I will say, that her childhood, again, was pretty fucked up. There's just a disagreement as to how fucked up it was.

Krista was born, premature in the small city of Beckley, West Virginia, into an impoverished family with a long history of extreme interpersonal violence, substance abuse, child abuse, along with a great deal of overall just chaos and frequent, highly disruptive moves from one home to another, often across state lines. Krista's maternal grandfather, Chris Photos, was expelled from school in the 11th grade after he and his brother beat the shit out of one of their teachers.

Then after he beat up his own dad, the age of 16, a dude was really intent on dishing out a lot of beatings that year. He left home and eventually started a meat butchering business. So this guy clearly did not have a problem with gore, not with working with it or with dishing it out and creating it. When Krista, excuse me, when Chris, Chris was 26, he married Zola Privet, who was then only 15, only had a sixth grade education. Zola's father, Henry Privet, was a notoriously violent alcoholic, notorious even for those

times, who reportedly sadistically physically abused all eight of his children to the point that the Ku Klux Klan literally tarred and feathered that son of a bitch and left him for dead. Sweet Jesus. You know you're fucking rotten to the core when even though you're a white dude, the KKK still thinks you're a piece of shit worthy of taring and feathering. Not even those fucking losers wanted anything to do with this guy. He survived his torture, and that was probably not for the best. His poor children would all develop psychological problems from the violence they received his hands,

including Zola. Zola was described by her daughter, Carrie Ross, Christa's maternal aunt, as a very troubled woman, who was a pathological liar and sexually, quote, preoccupied. She'd almost certainly been sexually abused growing up. One of Zola's sisters, Dorothy, married a man, Bill Howell, who served time in prison for raping a little girl. Bill physically abused Dorothy so bad. She was hospitalized, so fucking great guy. Real cream of the crop. Everybody loved Bill. And by everybody, I mean, nobody. yet another dude whose existence makes me appreciate characters

like Frank Castle's the Punisher you know Frank Castle is the Punisher if you're not familiar with the comic strip I'm convinced that piece of absolute dog shit like Bill Howell are the inspiration for people creating vigilante anti-heroes like Frank Castle

the Punisher Another sister, Krista's aunt Norma physically violent, emotionally abusive when she babysat both Krista's aunt Carrie and Chris's mom Carissa Despite knowing that Norman was abusive to children Chrisa still later had Norma babysit her kids

and then she would do weird, torture, shit to them, like give them Alka-Seltzer to drink when they told her they were thirsty or make them sit naked in a bathtub with cold water for several hours at a time. Just enjoyed hurting kids, I guess. His family's fucked. As a preschooler, Krista went to her grandfather's slaughterhouse where she would watch him slaughter animals.

She became attached to some of those animals, of course, even putting a flower on one of their heads, not long before that animal was brutally slaughtered and disemboweled directly in front of her. So that's a pretty fun core memory. Krista's maternal grandmother Zola described by family members as an angry, mean alcoholic

who verbally abused everybody around her, including Krista, often telling her that she would go to hell for being a liar. Krista and her older sister, Alicia, witnessed frequent, and an older half-sister, Alicia witnessed frequent physical violence

between Zola, their aunt Carrie and their mom. This violence often occurred when Zola was drunk, which was most of the time. Zola died. at the age of 55 to the cirrhosis of the liver brought on by her alcoholism doesn't seem like anybody really missed her

once she was gone. Carissa, Krista's mom, graduated from high school and at the age of 17, married a dude named James Ferguson, who was extremely physically abusive to her. For example, he once shot at at Carissa when she was pregnant with her child. Alicia, so that's fun, shooting his

pregnant wife. Just another fucking gem of a human. Another target for the Punisher to make an easy work out of. They divorced 1974 after being married for just a few years, then Carissa became a nurse who would subsequently marry Glenn Pike, Krista's dad, Krista born two months premature, delivered via C-section. She weighed only five pounds, seven ounces. Although Carissa has denied that she was smoking cigarettes or weed or drinking alcohol during her pregnancy with Krista. Her dad, Glenn, has reported that that's not true, that Krista was drinking and smoking during her pregnancy,

drinking about once a week, getting high, about twice a month. Krista went into labor after being physically assaulted by a patient at the psychiatric ward, where she worked as a nurse, and Krista was born with significant health problems. According to testimony presented at her trial, Krista never really formed much of a bond with her mom, and she was largely raised by her paternal grandmother, Delpha Clark Pike. Delpha was Krista's only real reliable source of consistent love and kindness at home. Chris's mom would even admit herself that Delphal much more of a mother to her daughter, Krista, than she was.

A few years into Krista's parents' marriage, her mom found her dad in bed with another woman. They got divorced when Krista was a year old. Then, not long after that, Glenn allegedly lost all of his money gambling, and then he and Chris would remarry, two years later, 1979. Apparently, this remarriage mostly occurred because Glenn visited Chris in the hospital after she had OD'd on some kind of drug, and she took that as a sign that, man, this guy really loves me. Then three years later, 1982, Glenn announced to the family that his

girlfriend was pregnant with his child, and that was how Carissa found out that he was cheating on her once again. For fuck's sake. So now they get divorced again, and this time they stay divorced. In 1983, when Krista was seven, she and her mom moved to North Carolina with

new guy, mom's new boyfriend, Danny Thompson. They'll get married, and he also had been married many times before, and already had two daughters and two sons from previous marriages. Christa's older half-sister Alice will stay behind in West Virginia and live with an aunt. Very next year, Krista, mom, Carissa, and new stepdad Danny moved back to West Virginia without any of Danny's kids who didn't like Carissa, apparently, thought she was a terrible

stepmom, and also will literally never see their dad again for reasons not made clear, but I think if that's true, it is pretty clear he was a real piece of shit. So this is all such a mess. Back in West Virginia, Krista, Mom, Carissa, and stepdad Danny live in a rundown trailer part, described as being infested with rats and snakes, so, you know, pretty high-end, pretty bougie, housing community. The trailer was cold and mildewy, and there was rarely much food to eat in it,

but mom and stepdad always had enough money to get plenty of alcohol to be drunk. So that's pretty cool. Over the next five years, Jenny and Carissa will break up, get back together approximately 10 times due to a combination of alcoholism and domestic violence. Krista rarely made it through one year of school,

staying in the same school. just a near constant moving around due to that. And when Krista's paternal grandmother, the woman who seemed to provide the most stability in her young life whenever she was around, died in 1988. 12-year-old Krista spiraled

and attempted suicide by overdose. And then things got way better. No. Then the shit show continued. Before Chris's divorce from Danny was finalized, another divorce, she started dating a real fucking piece of work named Steve Kha. The two plus Krista would move

to Hillsborough, North Carolina. So back to North Carolina, and 1989 when Krista is now 13, and for the next several years, when at her stepdad's house, Steve will psychologically, physically, and sexually abuse Krista allegedly before Karissa finally left that piece of shit two years later, 1991. Krista wasn't always at her stepdad's house around this time, I should note. She was shuffled back and forth between states, between her mom and her dad's house. Not that life was incredibly stable with dad either. Her father would acknowledge in testimony that he kicked her out of his home twice,

that he had a hell of a time controlling her that before she turned 18 he was so fucking done with her he actually signed papers for somebody else to adopt her. Also, when Krista was 14 at her mom and stepdad's house she was allowed to have a living boyfriend

sleep in the same bed with her when she was 14, if you didn't catch that number. Mom also would smoke weed with her growing up. Krista said she began to regularly smoke weed with mom around the age of 12 after first being exposed to it when she was nine. So that's pretty fucking sick.

Speaking of her mom, when she left Steve the sexual predator in 1991, she started dating another dude in Hillsboro, North Carolina, Gerard Hansen, who was actually somehow a decent guy. Kristen Gerard will marry in 1992 when Krista is 16. And now, even though the abuse at home has stopped, the damage is done. Krista was constantly skipping school, acting out at home, getting in trouble with the law. So much so that this same year she will be sent to the Swannanoa Youth Development Center. in North Carolina, this juvenile correctional facility slash school, yeah, due primarily to, again, again, trouble with the law and mom and stepdad just not being able to control her. Dad, you know, not even fucking wanting to have her as his daughter anymore.

And she will stay there for approximately two years, leaving when she is 17. When Krista returned from Swana Noah, she and mom and stepdad moved to a larger home outside of Hillsborough, or Hillsborough. Chris allowed Krista to have a live-in boyfriend Brian now, who would also sleep in the same bedroom with her. After a little while though, Krista and stepdad Gerard disapprove of Brian because he's too lazy and they make him move out. And Krista moves with him. And for the next several months, the two of them are homeless, living out on the street, bounce from couch to couch, or bench to bench. Also around this time when she is 17, Krista will report having been raped. Later at her murder

trial, experts will diagnose or discuss conditions, including bipolar disorder, PTSD, possible neurological impairment and just the general effects of a lot of severe childhood trauma on Krista and her ability to make judgments and understand the consequences of her actions, you know, be able to decipher right from wrong and that kind of thing. When she was 18, Krista seems to have tried to leave her troubled past behind by going to attend Job Corps in the fall of 1994 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Now, Job Corps is this federal program created to provide vocational training and education to young people who typically come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In Knoxville, Crystal will meet 17-year-old to Daryl's ship, a kid a year of her junior and a future co-defendant. The two will start dating, it seems, mostly because he was the first boy who ever bought her flowers. He was the first guy to really treat Krista with some respect and tenderness, and she became intensely attached to and possessive of him, like very, very possessive of him. And soon she thought that another young young,

young woman in the same job core training program also had eyes on him and was trying to take her man 19 year old calling and slimmer and now before we get to know a bit about calling time for today's first of two mid-show sponsor breaks if you don't want to hear these ads please sign up to be a space lizard on patreon get the catalog ad free get these episodes early and more thanks for listening to those sponsors and now back to calline slimmer let's meet this young woman whose story has gotten very little attention in a lot of recent press. I've read painting Krista Pike is more of a victim, thanks to her botched execution attempts, than as a cold-blooded killer.

Colleen grew up in Orange Park, Florida, a suburb of Jacksonville, with her mom's stepdad and a younger sister, unnamed in sources. And decades later, her mother, Mae Martinez, will remember her as an easy-going girl who loved roller skating and miniature golf, as a caring child, who wanted to help others less fortunate than herself. and to that end she would volunteer with the special Olympics. From an early age, Slemmer had developed an instinct for nurturing nose around her in large part to her mom who ran a daycare for four decades. As Martinez would recall in an interview with WVLT news in October of 2025, Colleen loved doing things.

She babysat. She loved to do anything with kids. And I think it was part of me because I had daycare for 40 years. She also fucking loved computers. May affectionately described her daughter as a quote computer geek. Colleen actually wore a t-shirt that literally said computer geek towards the end of her life. Colleen and her stepdad Raoul would even build computers together, then tear them apart, and then build them again, just for fun. Computers were actually why Colleen ended up hundreds of miles away from home up in Knoxville.

The Job Corps program near Jacksonville did not offer the kind of computer training she wanted, but the Knoxville program did. So on Halloween of 1994, Slammer said goodbye to her family, headed north to the start, the next chapter of her life, which should have been the start of, you know, so many more new chapters. She left for Knoxville, excited for the future, eager to learn some new skills. But almost immediately she hated it in Knoxville. She complained about the facility often, and she told her mom that there were these three other students who, you know, just were bothering her, picking on her. She apparently never gave me their names, only said that three kids were harassing her. and she didn't understand why. Colleen came home for Christmas,

then returned to Knoxville in early January, and on January 12th, shortly after she got back, she called her mom, and the two spoke in what would be the last time May would ever speak to her daughter. The reception was bad,

and the call kept dropping, eventually lost a connection. May tried calling back, but by the time she did, Colleen had already gone out. She'd gone out with a girl who had been bullying her and spreading rumors about her

for weeks, if not months. the woman threatened by her, the one who thought she was after her boyfriend, Krista Pike. And with other two kids who had been picking on her, to Darrell Shipp and another job course student and Krista's friend, 18-year-old Shadala Peterson. Why would Colleen go hang out with the three students who have, you know, it's thought that these were the three students she has been referring to as the three kids making her life hell. Well, apparently she thought they wanted to make amends, right? They were going to agree to a truce of sorts, you know, let's start fresh. let's put all that behind us. And why isn't that what happened?

Well, Krista again believed Colleen was interested in to Darrell. She also would claim that Colling have been spreading rumors about her and her boyfriend. She told the police that Colleen had been, quote, running her mouth, trying to get my boyfriend. She even claimed that on one occasion she had awakened to find Colleen standing over her with a box cutter. Ah, whether that incident happened, as Krista described, it is another question or happened at all. I fucking doubt it. I highly fucking doubt it. Absolutely no one outside of Krista Pike seems to believe that Colleen was even remotely capable of that.

Right or wrong, but almost certainly wrong. Krista clearly viewed Colleen as a romantic rival and some sort of threat. And according to one of Chris' own friends and other witnesses, this was not merely a fight that would spontaneously go too far when these, you know, when Krista attacks her this fateful night. On January 11th, the day before Colleen died, the day before she was murdered, a job course student, Kim Iloilo would later testify that Krista straight up told her she was going to kill Colleen. According to Kim, Krista said she, quote, just felt mean that day.

Kim didn't take the threat seriously, thought it was just hyperbole, you know, just somebody talking shit, somebody worked up, so she blew it off. She'd never seen Krista get into a fight before, did not think she was capable of murder. And then when nothing happened that day, you know, she really didn't worry about it. You know, she just felt, yeah, Krista was just talking shit. But then came January 12th. And this is where this story gets a little weird. A guy named Kip O'Hara, a friend and fellow job course student would later testify about a conversation he supposedly had with Tadero a few days before calling was murdered. According to O'Hara, Tadrill had a Ouija board with him, said that Tadryl told him that he needed to make a human sacrifice.

Why? Because again, according to this testimony, the celestial bodies were in alignment. What the fuck? this was an explosive detail back in the mid-90s at the tail end of an era when America had spent years absolutely losing its collective fucking mind over all these alleged satanic cults

out there doing all the supposedly evil supernatural shit, right? The good old satanic panic. Daycare supposedly filled with secret Satanist, molesting, killing children as part of rituals that gave them other worldly powers, heavy metal albums supposedly containing demonic messages that could take your sweet baby boy or baby girl and destroy whatever good was inside of them

and replace it with the hunger for darkness, right? Kids are warned that the definitely not harmless game of Dungeons and Dragons is one of the many ways that Satan will fucking recruit you to be a, you know, lackey for the devil or whatever. Most of you, I assume, probably smirking or rolling your eyes. You know, you get how ridiculous all this shit is. But in the mid-90s, still not a laughing matter to a lot of people.

People that included jurors, investigators, judges, you know, people in the media, did Krista receive the death penalty in part, because it was thought she was, you know, a Satanist sacrificing Colleen. It's what a lot of people have speculated, but I'm not so sure. The legal basis for the death penalty rests on the proven statutory aggravating factors of heinous torture and premeditated cruelty during the murder rather than a formal judicial finding of a, you know, ritual sacrifice. I doubt it helped Christa's cause, though. Investigators would discover that Colleen had a pentagram carved into her chest.

That's not satanic panic. that fucking happened. They learned that Krista and to Daryl both did wear pentagram necklaces and found what court records described as a satanic Bible into Daryl's room. Not that, you know, a satanic Bible and pentagrams should fucking make you eligible for harsher penalties. But, you know, just worth noting because some people think that, you know, the legal system went harder on Krista. And again, that she's a victim because of some satanic panic. And if you listen to the show for any length of time, you know, that I am, you know, so against fucking satanic panic. causing problems in people's life

and most of the time it is just a bunch of bullshit ah in this one though um you know I don't think it negatively affected her and you know there generally was some weird shit you know that went on I mean they did fucking carve a pentagram into Collin's chest Jesus Christ

but that is not established that Colleen Slemur was murdered as part of some organized satanic ritual this could have been likely was you know just damaged young people who thought it was fucking cool for lack of a better term to think that they were harnessing forces of evil and have other people think that they were doing that. Krista's defense team would hire a psychiatric specialist, a psychiatrist, rather, specifically to address the Satanism angle.

And his intended testimony was essentially that this was not a ritualistic killing, that these were kids dabbling in Satanism in the occult, but that that is not what drove them to murder. Krista would deny in her confession that she carved the pentagram, even though she did not deny killing, calling savagely. Other evidence would attribute the carving to Krista and to Darrell together, to Darrell would later acknowledge his involvement in the carving. So there are genuine occult elements here,

but there was also a sensationalized cultural framework waiting to turn a horrifying murder into satanic human sacrifice, which I don't think it was. But I guess at the end of the day, does it fucking matter, you know, if she was sacrificed to the devil or not? If, you know, she dies the same fucking brutal way the punishment should be the same, whether or not it was a quote-unquote sacrifice.

If somebody brutally murders my kid, I don't give a fuck if they did a deal. to appease the Dark Lord or for their own sick amusement, for money, for any other reason. If it's premeditated murder, I want them to be punished the same to the fucking maximum amount. So how was Colleen murdered?

That fact seems to have been lost and a lot of recent media coverage framing Krista as a victim and all this. So let's take a really good look at that. If I am Colleen's mom, I am fucking furious that Krista is ever painted as a victim in regards to this case,

and she is, make no mistake, furious. about this recent media coverage. At approximately 4 o'clock in the afternoon on January 12th, Krista met up with her friend Kim Iloilo-Elo and told her that she needed to find Shadala Peterson. Later that evening, Krista and Shadala were apparently looking for calling together. Another student later testified at Ships' trial that when they asked whether he had seen her,

to Darrell said, when we find her, she's dead. And although this will help establish that three people were involved in calling's killing, not just one, and that it was for sure premeditated. Not some PTSD-type reaction to a fight breaking out with Colleen after she was confronted by Krista about trying to take her man. That witness later acknowledged some uncertainty, though, over whether it had actually been to Darrell or Krista who said that. Whoever said it, around 8 o'clock that evening, Kim, Elo, Elo, saw all four of them leave job court together.

Krista Pike, to Darrell's ship, Shadala Peterson, and the girl they were supposedly picking on, Colleen Slimmer. According to Chris's later confession, she asked Colleen to walk with him to a nearer. by Blockbuster Music Store. Check out some CDs, probably some posters and whatnot. You know, same kind of stuff my 18-year-old daughter Monroe

was doing in college right now. CDs are back for some reason. Along the way, Chris told Colleen that there was some weed. They'd stashed in Tyson Park, so let's go smoke it. Colleen went with them. At some point, they did find it smoked some weed.

Then they continued walking toward the University of Tennessee's agricultural campus, eventually reaching a dark and secluded area near the steam plant. And there, Chris to ambushed Colleen. Surprised her, confronted her

about supposedly spreading rumors about her, talking shit about her, around school, wanting to fuck her man. And I will just read what happened

next from a court document filed in 2018 entitled Appeal for United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kennedy, at Chattanooga

number 16-5854. But I'll do that after today's second of two mid-show sponsor breaks. Thanks for listening those sponsors. Now let's read

about what Krista did to Colleen Slemer from that court document filed in 2018. It is fucking brutal. Upon arriving at the steam plant on the University of Tennessee's agricultural campus, Pike and Slemer exchanged words. Pike then began hitting Slemer and banging Slemer's head on her knee. Pike threw Slemer to the ground and kicked her repeatedly. According to Pike, as she slammed Slemer's head against the concrete, Slemer repeatedly asked,

why are you doing this to me? When Slamer threatened to report Pike, so she would be terminated from the Job Corps program, Pike again repeatedly kicked Slamer in the face and sighed. Slamer lay on the ground and cried for a time and then tried to run away. But another person with Pike caught Slemer and pushed her to the ground. The prosecution will point to this at the trial as Krista's opportunity, one of them, to walk away. If she really just wanted to fight Colleen, as her defense would try and claim, then, you know, she beat her up already

and she should have left her alone, you know, when the violence stopped here. She had time to think to stop attacking Colleen, but she did not. Instead, she attacked with even more aggression. Per again, this court record, Pike and the other person, who Pike referred to as he,

held Slemmer down until she stopped struggling, then dragged her to another area, where Pike cut Slemer's stomach with a box cutter. As Slemer, quote, screamed and screamed. Pike recounted how she began to hear voices telling her that she had to do something to prevent Slamer from telling on her

and sending her to prison for attempted murder. At this point, Pike said she was just looking at Slemer and, quote, just watching her bleed. When Slamer rolled over, stood up and tried to run away again, Pike cut Slamer's back, quote, the big long cut on her back. Pike said Slemer repeatedly tried to get up and run.

Pike recounted how Slemer bargained for her life, begging Pike to talk to her and telling Pike that if she would just let her go, she would walk back to her home in Florida without returning to the Job Corps facility for her belongings. Pike told Slimer to shut up because, quote, it was harder to hurt somebody when they're talking to you.

Pike said the more Slimmer talked, the more she kicked Slimmer in the face. Slimmer asked Pike what she was going to do to her, at which point Pike thought she heard a noise. Pike left the scene to check out the surrounding area to make sure no one was around. This shit went on for so long. And at so many points like this one,

when Krista now walked away for a bit, she could have stopped. Could have let Colleen off with a beating, a bad beating, but could have let her live. But nope, she came back and heard her further. Again, per the report, when she returned, Pike began cutting Slemmer across the throat. When Slemer continued to talk and beg for her life,

Pike cut Slemer's throat several other times. Pike said that Slemer continued to talk and tried to sit up, even though her throat had been cut several times, and that Pike and the other person would push her back on the ground. Right? This is fucking brutal. Slammer attempted then to run away again, and Pike threw a rock, which hit Slemer in the back of the head.

Pike stated that the other person also hit Slamer in the head with a rock. When Slemer fell to the ground, Pike continued to hit her. Eventually Pike said she could hear Slemer, quote, breathing blood in and out, and she could see Slimmer jerking, but Pike kept hitting her and hitting her and hitting her and hitting her.

Pike eventually asked Slamer, Colleen, do you know who's doing this to you? Slammer's only response was groaning noises. Around this point, Slamer fell silent, having finally fucking died from her multiple injuries. I did the cursing there, obviously, and Pike said she and the other person each grab one of Slemer's feet and dragged her to an area near some trees,

leaving her body on a pile of dirt and debris. They left Slemer's clothing in the surrounding bushes. Pike said the episode lasted, quote, for about 30 minutes to an hour. hour. 30 minutes to an hour. Pike admitted that she and another person had forced the victim to remove her blouse in broad during the incident to keep Slammer from running away. Pike also admitted that she had removed a rag from her hair and tied it around Slammer's mouth at one point to prevent slimmer from talking. Pike denied carving a pentagram in the victim's chest but said the other person

had cut the victim on her chest. Pretty fucking horrific, right? And it was probably even worse than that description. A lot of that came from Krista's confession, pulling more information from the court document, quote, none of Pike's friends or colleagues reported the crime to the police, but a University of Tennessee grounds department employee nonetheless found Slimmer's body on January 13th at 908 a.m. So just hours later. That employee later, quote, testified that the body was so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal before realizing it was a human female when he saw the victim's clothes and her exposed breast. Couldn't tell from the face because her face was fucking pulverized.

Just hours after the attack, long before decomposition was going to set in, her remains so mutilated, so mangled, they didn't read immediately as even being human. Also quoting out from a different earlier Supreme Court document about this case, later that night, the night of the murder, Pike went to Ilo Iloilo's room and told Ilo Iloilo that she had just killed Slimmer

and that she had brought back a piece of the victim's skull as a souvenir. Pike showed Iloilo the piece of the skull and told her that she had cut the victim's throat six times, beaten her, had thrown asphalt, at sometimes sources will call it asphalt, chunks of asphalt, sometimes it's referred to as rocks, at the victim's head.

Pike told Ilo, Elo, that the victim had begged, quote, them to stop cutting and beating her, but Pike did not stop because the victim continued to talk. Pike told Ilo, Elo, that she had thrown a large piece of asphalt at the victim's head, and when it broke into smaller pieces, she had thrown those of the victim as well. Pike told Elo, Ilo, Elo, that a meat cleaver

have been used to cut the victim's back and a box cutter have been used to cut her throat. Finally, Pike said that a pentagram had been carved onto the victim's forehead and chest. Ilo Ilo said that Pike was dancing in a circle, smiling and singing la la la while she relayed those details about the murder.

When Ilo I saw Pike at breakfast the next morning, she asked Pike what she had done with the piece of the victim's skull, Pike replied that it was in her pocket and then said, and yes, I'm eating breakfast with it. During a class later that morning, Pike made a similar statement to Stephanie Wilson, another job course student.

Pike pointed to brown spots on her shoes and said, that ain't mud on my shoes, that's blood. Pike then pulled a napkin from her pocket and showed Wilson a piece of bone, which Pike said was a piece of Slemmer's skull. Pike also told Wilson that she had slashed Slemmer's throat six times, like she's fucking proud of this, and had beaten Slammer in the head with the rock.

Pike told Wilson that the victim's blood, brains have been pouring out and that she had picked up the piece of skull when she left the scene. Fuck. Krista confessed to being the main perpetrator of violence against Colleen to clearly enjoying it. She was so proud of her work, so happy that Colleen had died in such intense fear and pain that she'd begged for her life for close to an hour. Imagine if that's your fucking kid, somebody you love fucking being victimized like this. Did she promise she wouldn't say anything? Ask why it was, you know, even happening at all.

she was never shown any mercy she was punched kicked pushed sliced bashed fucking you know screamed at longer to her mutilation she was still alive still trying to escape still begging for her life Krista Pike didn't give a single fuck if Krista would have just let her go Colleen said she would have walked all the way home back to Florida she just wanted to get away to live to see your fucking mom again but Krista told her to shut up Chris later explained while Colleen talking uh bother her so much because in Chris's own words right it was harder to hurt somebody

when they're talking to you. The more Colleen talk, the more Krista heard her. And somewhere during this prolonged attack, Krista realized that if Collin survived, uh-oh, she was going to tell somebody what happened. Krista told police,

she began to hear voices, telling her that Colleen would report her to the police, that Krista would go to prison for attempted murder. Voices? Get the fuck out of here. That's basic ass self-preservation thoughts.

So what might have been, you know, what might have started off as, a plan to just beat Colleen's ass. But I doubt that. But if it's, did start off like that, it became something else. At one point, Krista thought she heard somebody nearby, she stopped attacking calling,

she walked away, checked the surrounding area, made sure nobody was coming, and then returned and got fucking more violent. That detail extremely important at her trial, when prosecutors argued that this was, for sure, without a doubt, premeditated murder, even if it hadn't started off as one, which it almost certainly did. You know, Krista walked away. She had a moment to stop to think about what she was doing to leave, but she didn't leave. came back, started cutting Colleen's throat.

And when Collin kept talking, she cut her throat again and again, across an assault that, again, according to Krista herself lasted between 30 minutes and an hour. Think about how fucking long that is. How long 30 minutes minimum is. And an hour, roughly the length of this episode. Right?

Somebody has been beating you, slashing, and bashed on you for about as long as I've been talking now and they're only, you know, halfway or a little over halfway done, right? You're feeling it all. Collin was knocked, knocked unconscious at the beginning of that half. hour, right, then mutilated after death. And we know that not just from Chris's own confession, you know, but from the autopsy. Knox County Medical Examiner, Dr. Sandra Elkins, testified that she began documented

the major sharp force injuries, injuries sustained while she was still alive by assigning each one a letter, A, you know, B, C, and so on. Eventually, she stopped because there was too many for her to fucking, you know, stick with this system. Dr. Elkins testified that if she individually cataloged every wound, she would have to just keep repeating the alphabet over and over and over. over again. You know, unless she wanted to remain in the morgue for three days. She essentially had to give up and write that there were, quote, innumerable additional superficial slash wounds. Colleen had cuts and stab wounds across her back, arms, abdomen, chest, face, right, everywhere.

There was a six-inch gaping wound across the middle of her back, 10 additional slash wounds across her neck and throat, 11 wounds in total around the throat alone. And again, Dr. Elkins could tell from the tissue surrounding those injuries that Colleen was alive when they were inflicted. The areas around the wounds showed a vital reaction. Blood was still circulating, heart was still beating. None of those wounds, according to Dr. Elkins,

would necessarily have rendered Colleen unconscious. Certainly didn't kill her. She was almost certainly aware of what was happening. And we know that as well from how many times she tried to run. She kept trying to run,

even laid into the attack with so much fucking blood all over her. It wasn't until she was hit in the head with numerous chunks of asphalt that Colling could no longer answer questions. When Krista stood over her and asked, Colleen, do you know who's doing this to you? And she could only gurgle and groan.

Couldn't speak anymore, but could she still feel all that pain across her body? Quite possibly. Was she still terrified? Could she still worried that her fucking death was imminent? That after moving to Knoxville to pursue a career in computer, she was now going to die because some fucking sadistic, psychotic classmate thought she wanted to fuck her boyfriend? Dr. Elkins identified at least four major impacts to her head, stated that those final blows were catastrophic. Two to the left side. One over the right eye, one around the nose.

so right to her face. The largest impact fractured so much of her skull that pieces of bone were driven into her brain. Black particles embedded in the bone consistent with the asphalt used to beat her. Those blunt force injuries finally killed her. And then, Kristen, the others, didn't start throwing up over the horrible thing

they had just done. They didn't feel all this intense regret, you know, over what they just participated in or at least just witnessed. No, after all that, somebody or two somebody's carved a fucking pentagram onto Colleen's chest. Then her attackers dragged her remains

over to some trees, discarded some of her clothing in the bushes. Krista and another participant washed blood from their hands and shoes in a mud puddle, the box cutter, and a miniature meat cleaver used during the attack were discarded.

They were hidden. They weren't thinking about how horrible what they'd just done was. They were thinking about how they could get away with it all. And then before leaving, Krista Pike took something with her, a piece of Colleen's fucking skull.

Right, around 10-15, that night to Daryl Shipp returned to Job Corps campus. Krista and Shadala, they got back about five minutes later. And then Krista went to go see Kim, uh, I lo, Ilo, said, you know, what I just went over her saying, uh, you know, showed Kim a piece of Colleen's skull, literally danced with glee in a circle, smiling and singing la la, la. Then that morning, as the court transcript mentioned, January 13th,

University of Tennessee grounds employee discovered the body. Police arrived shortly thereafter to find Colleen, lying, lying face down, new from the waist up, completely covered in, you know, mud and blood. Officer John Johnson later testified that her head had been so badly bludgeoned and disfigured that he initially wasn't sure he was looking at a human head. And investigators began expanding the crime scene as they found more blood, footprints, broken foliage, still more blood, clothing. Only after Colling's body was cleaned at the morgue did the pentagram become even visible on her chest.

And then later that same day, Chris DePyke, showed up at the crime scene, started asking questions. She wanted to know whether the police knew who the victim was, if they had any suspects or not. A University of Tennessee police officer later testified that Krista seemed amused. Said she looked fucking amused. She's had plenty time for remorse to kick in, but it hasn't.

That same officer said he witnessed Krista literally giggling as she looked around. So that's cool. Following day, January 14th, police interviewed Krista for the first time. Investigator Randy York sat down with Krista, advised her of her rights. Krista agreed to talk and was very willing to explain what happened as long as she didn't have to name other people involved. She very, very quickly confessed. She told York where to find the bloodstained jeans that she'd been wearing when she fucking bludgeon calling to death, told him where to find Colleen's IDs and gloves where they've been thrown into a trash Canada, Texco station on Cumberland Avenue.

She consented to a search of her room. then Krista got into a vehicle with York, retraced the route she had walked the night of the murder, led police all the way back to the exact spot where Colleen's body been found. And she didn't seem sad during any of this are remorseful. She came across as, you know, pretty proud of her work. Krista gave a tape recorded statement, and when transcribed, it would run a full 46 pages. At her trial, every juror would receive a copy while listing to Krista described the killing through individual headphones. Interestingly, while Krista admitted so much of what she did, she did deny Karate's

carving the pentagram, and she denied taking the skull fragment. That second denial is not going to hold up. It's going to be pretty difficult to believe. I think both are difficult to believe. Krista had accidentally left her black leather jacket behind in an office at Job Corps when she was questioned by police. Four days after the murder, police would find it, search it inside an interior pocket. Criminalistic specialist Arthur Bonahan would find a small piece of bone.

He would bring it to the University of Tennessee, forensic anthropologist, Dr. Murray Marks, who would then reconstruct. Colleen's shattered skull, and then later in court in front of a jury, Dr. Marks would take that bone fragment and fit it into a missing portion of Colleen's skull. Perfect match. Like the last piece of a very grotesque, tragic puzzle. Krista had indeed taken a piece of Colleen home with her. Krista Pike would go to trial in March of 1996 when she is 20, and this was unsurprisingly a sensational fucking case. Local television covered the proceedings, newspapers covered virtually every development. Chris's attorneys, even unsuccessfully tried to restrict television coverage, saw to change venue because of the publicity. The prosecution had an enormous amount of evidence, right? They had Christ's own confession. They had witnesses, numerous witnesses who said she had announced her intent to kill Colleen beforehand.

Witnesses who said she bragged about it afterwards. They had the school fragment found in Krista's possession, Colleen's blood on her fucking clothes, so much crime scene evidence, autopsy evidence, a 46-page confession, the jury could read while also listening to Krista's voice described the attack in great detail. It's a slam dunk case. The defense didn't have much room to argue that Krista was not involved. So instead they attacked the charge of premeditation.

Their argument was essentially that Krista had intended to just fight calling. But the fight spiraled out of control into this, you know, totally different thing. A psychologist Eric Engam would testify that Krista suffered from a severe borderline personality disorder and he believed her fear of losing

to Dada was so overwhelming that she perceived calling as an enormous threat to the relationship. But under cross-examination, even Krista's own expert acknowledged some very damaging facts to her defense team's claims of this not being premeditated. Krista brought weapons. She brought the box cutter. She brought the little meat cleaver with her on the night of the murder. You don't fucking bring that shit. If you're just intending to slap somebody around, get the fuck out of here.

She had multiple opportunities to reconsider what she was doing. She left Colleen lying on the ground to check whether anyone was nearby at one. one point then returned and made the attack so much worse. And Krista herself had explained, had confessed as to why Colleen ultimately could not be allowed to leave because Colleen would tell on her and then she'd go to prison. So now we know a bit about Krista's background. A background many think should have led to her being sentenced to life in prison, perhaps, but not given the death penalty. And we know a little bit about who Colleen's slimmer was and a lot about the gruesome details of her murder. Before moving forward, what about to Daryl's ship and

Shadala Peterson. What exactly did they do? Right? How involved in Colleen's murder were they? How heavily were they punished? And that's important because there's a lot of talk online right now regarding how unfair it was that multiple people killed Colleen, but only poor Krista Pike was given the death penalty. Let's start with to Daryl's ship. Ship was found guilty of committing first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder by Knox County jury for his role in the killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slimmer. The death penalty, not on the table for him, not an option due to him being 17, not 18 at the time of the killing. He was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole. He remains incarcerated right now to Northwest Correctional Complex

in Tiptonville, Tennessee, first considered for parole in October of 2025, but his parole was denied. His next parole review hearing is currently scheduled for October of 2013 when he will be 53. While he did tell Kip O'Hara a few days prior to the murder that he had to make a human sacrifice because, you know, celestial bodies were in alignment, as I went over earlier. He also stated to Daniel Wayland on the day of the murder in the presence of Krista, Gail Pike, and Shadala Peterson, that quote, when we find her, she's dead. Despite all that, it is not believed that he led the charge, more that he followed Krista's lead. He was found guilty because the jury came to believe that he helped lure Slemmer to that remote area near Tyson Park with Pike and Peterson. He also was believed to have pushed and slapped Slamer when she grabbed him early during the confrontation after she was.

she had been, Colleen had been hit by Krista Pike. Then during one of the times she tried to escape, Colleen tried to escape. He tripped her, causing her to hit her head on a rock. He's also believed to have cut Slammer three or four times with the box cutter,

including on the arm. He went to check if anybody was in the area at Pikes request at one point. He also found a rag, which he tied over Slammer's mouth to try and keep her quiet. He brought Slamour back once after she fell in some mud

while attempting to flee. He supposedly got uncomfortable with the assault when Pike began to hit Slammer with rocks and walked away, but then returned to the scene, also is believed to have helped Pike carve the pentagram in Slammer's chest after her murder. Also after her murder, he helped Pike move Slimmer to a, quote, hill of mud, helped conceal Slammer's shirt and jacket in the bushes, washed his hands in a mud puddle with Pike and Peterson before returning to the Job Corps campus before Piking Peterson. And what about Peterson? What did she do? She was the state star witness,

and Shadala Peterson testified as to the involvement of Tadaril's ship versus Krista Pike. that when it came to who did what, Pike did way more than ship. Peterson testified that Pike was the one who planned the attack out of romantic jealousy, that at the scene, Pike was the primary aggressor who repeatedly slashed Slammer with a miniature meat cleaver and box cutter. Peterson said that Pike was also the one who carved the pentagram into Slammer's chest

and who ultimately delivered the fatal blows by repeatedly bashing Slammer's skull in with a large piece of asphalt. Peterson testified that ship helped lure Slemer to an isolated area, and that during the murder ship did pin slimmer to the ground, did hold her down to prevent escape, did participate in beating and kicking her while Pike slashed her. So these other two were both in on it, but again, Krista Pike was the one leading the charge,

did most of the attacking, delivered the final blows, was the only person who took part of Colleen's fucking skull with her like a serial killer's trophy and bragged about it after the fact. In exchange for her cooperation and testimony against Krista Pike into Darrell's ship, Shadala Peterson received a sentence of 460 days, roughly 15 months in jail, six years of probation for being an accessory

after the fact to murder. Essentially, it seems that she acted as a lookout, helped clean up a bit after the fact, but never actively participated in assaulting calling. However, during police interrogation, ship did claim to investigators that Peterson did not merely stand by as a lookout, but actually hit slimmer several times during the attack.

Prosecutor Joe Helm though stated that the state found no independent proof of physical evidence to connect Peterson to any direct involvement in the execution or beating of Slemmer. Because her defense maintained, she had no idea. A murder was going to take place and never touched the victim. That's why the state moved forward with lesser accessory charged charged based on her role in helping to lure Slammer out there and to act as a lookout. For what it's worth, Colleen Slemer's mom, Mae Martinez has openly expressed her belief that Peterson was more culpable than her plea deal has suggested. While she couldn't definitively prove,

Peterson struck her daughter Martinez publicly has argued that Peterson actively helped orchestrate the trap and should have faced a full first-degree murder trial alongside Pike and ship. To circle back now, decries about how unfair Christa-Pike's sentence of execution has been. After a jury found Christa-Pike guilty of premeditated first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in March of 96, the question of what was an appropriate punishment had to be answered, of course. Life? Life without parole?

death? And this is where Christa's childhood became especially important. The jury did hear mitigation evidence. Her aunt testified about a lack of maternal bonding, being partially raised by her grandma, substance abuse in the family, being shelfed between parents, other abuse. Her mom testified about her own failures. Her father testified. Her mom acknowledged allowing 14-year-old Krista to have a living boyfriend and to smoke weed with her daughter. Her parents described a very chaotic upbringing. But the penalty phase in this, this, this, specific trial was short. The jury did not hear the complete social history. A defense mitigation specialist had assembled. They did not hear the full extent of Chris's later allegations of sexual abuse and rape. They did not hear the later diagnoses or diagnosis, diagnoses and arguments about bipolar disorder, PTSD, neurological impairment, what modern neuroscience might tell us about the brain of an 18-year-old. Chris's attorneys had originally planned to use mitigation specialist, Dr. Diana McCoy, but at essentially the last minute, they did not. Years later, those decisions will become the subject of extensive post-conviction litigation.

Chris's lawyers argued that the jury had been asked to decide whether an 18-year-old should die without ever being shown the full context of how the 18-year-old had been made. The courts ultimately disagreed that those failures required overturning her sentence, though. Why? Because the aggravating evidence was overwhelming. The jury found two statutory aggravating factors in the murder. First, Colleen's murder was especially heinous, atrocious or treacherous? cruel because it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond what was necessary to kill her. Pretty fucking hard to argue with that one.

And second, the murder had been committed to prevent lawful arrest or prosecution. Krista herself had supplied evidence for that finding when she explained that she realized she couldn't let Colleen leave because Colling would tell on her. So it was the combination of those two, you know, factors that led to a death penalty sentence. The jury only deliberated for roughly an hour and 15 minutes and then they did sentence Krista Pike's death, and then she received another 25 years for conspiracy. Her reaction in court was immediate. She began to sob.

She turned towards her family and begged, quote, can I please hug my mom before I go? Please let me hug my mom. Right? She was just 20 years old. But Colleen fucking slammer was just 19 years old when she begged for Krista and for to Daryl, but mostly Krista to stop hurting her, to stop kneeing her in the face, stop punching her, stop kicking her, stop slamming her head into the ground, stop cutting her over and over. and over with the fucking box cutter

with a little meat cleaver slashing her. She begged for up to an hour to be able to go to her home, right, where she could hug her mom. And Krista, not only did she not allow her to ever do that again, she took a piece of her skull back to her room.

Before she got there, literally fucking danced around holding it, you know, laughing about it all in front of some friend. But Krista Pike's now the victim? Fuck Krista Pike. Why hasn't Krista Pike's half-sister, Slice anybody up? Why haven't the siblings of so many of the serious

killer killers out there that we've covered. Many who grew up in even more abusive environments than Christa Pike killed anybody. And Christa Pike isn't a victim because two people helped her kill but didn't get the death penalty alongside her. To Darrell's ship was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy, but he was 17 while Chris was 18. Under Supreme Court precedent, juveniles cannot be executed. Shadala Peterson, also 18 when this happened, wasn't the ringleader, wasn't somebody, you know, physically assisting in this crime. Her main crime was doing nothing to stop what happened. The state needed a... witness to help put Chris DePyke and to Darrell Ship away, and she was that witness.

So she got a plea deal. Happens all the time. After the conviction and sentencing came the appeals. Lots and lots of appeals, as is normally the case with death sentence convictions. Christ's conviction and death sentence were affirmed, first by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, then by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1998, then the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her case in 1999. Then came post-conviction proceedings. And what are those? well, the appellate courts primarily examined the existing trial record for legal, uh,

while, oh my God, I'll start over. The appellate courts primarily examine the existing trial record for legal errors, uh, was the evidence sufficient, were improper photographs admitted, uh, was a jury, were their instructions, you know, proper, was a death sentence legally permissible? Then after her sentencing was reaffirmed over and over again, uh, Pike had this opportunity to essentially say, there are constitutional problems with my conviction or sentence that could not adequately be resolved just by reviewing the original trial record. So this is a post-conviction proceeding, right?

And this allowed her lawyers to introduce new evidence and testimony rather than merely argue about what had happened in the 1996 courtroom. One of Pike's major post-conviction arguments was ineffective assistance of counsel. Under the Sixth Amendment, you're entitled, not merely to have lawyers sit by you at court, but to actually receive constitutionally adequate representation. And Pike argued, amongst other things, that her trial attorneys had failed to, properly investigate and present the enormous amount of mitigating evidence about her childhood abuse, mental health, and a family environment that could have persuaded at least one juror to, you know,

not sentence her to death. That's why the later proceedings contain a lot more information we don't get from the original trial. More people were called to testify about things such as Pike's childhood, the mitigation specialist discussed what she'd uncovered before trial, mental health experts testified her original lawyers had to explain why they had made particularly, you know, particular decisions. The court could then determine whether those decisions were reasonable and crucially, whether doing things differently may have realistically changed Pike's sentence. Ultimately, after all that, Pike still fucking lost.

The courts concluded that she had not established the combination of deficient performance and prejudice necessary to overturn her conviction or death sentence. But she still had so many supporters. people who argued she was only 18 when she killed Colleen she was still just a kid in so many ways her brain wasn't fully developed and now she was a different person but has she really changed in August 2001 while incarcerated when Krista was now 25 years old when her brain was way more developed

when she had a lot of time to think and you know in a fucking evolve she attacked fellow prisoner Patricia Jones with a heavy shoelace and choked her unconscious in an attempt to fucking murder a second woman she would subsequently be convicted of attempt attempted first degree murder, first degree murder in this attack, and receive another 25-year sentence. I haven't seen a single mention of that attack in the recent barrage of media clips and articles framing her as a victim in a botched execution attempt and as somebody who should have never been sentenced to death in the first place. Also, I haven't heard much about what happened in 2012 when Pike was now 36. Back then, Pike was not waiting to die so she could be released from the hell of, you know, waiting for execution or having to think about what she did, calling Slammer every day.

like she's also claimed. She was romancing a new boyfriend, who she had perhaps manipulated into busting her out of prison so they could go live a life on the lamb. That year, Pike had made escape plans involving corrections officer Justin Heflin,

as well as Donald Cohut, a personal trainer in his 30s from New Jersey. Donald and her had been writing letters back and forth since the beginning of 2011. By July that year, he was so fucking smitten. CoHut was making an early 1700-mile round trip from Flemington, New Jersey to Nashville, Tennessee,

to visit Pike and, in person once or twice a month. Eventually, Co-Hut had hatched an escape plan to bust Pike out of prison. He enlisted the help of 23-year-old corrections officer Justin Hefflin, who agreed to participate in return for cash and gifts. Early in 2012, prison personnel received info about the escape plot. This led to the attempted prison break being thwarted by a joint investigation involving the Tennessee Department of Corrections, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and the New Jersey

State Police. And in March of 2012, Co-Hut was arrested and charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit escape, Heflin arrested in charge with bribery, official misconduct, conspiracy to commit escape. Pike, not charged in connection with the alleged conspiracy. Investigator said it was unclear whether she was a participant in the conspiracy or merely aware of the scheme. May 31st, 2012, co-hut sentenced to seven years in prison to be served at the Tennessee State Northeast Correctional Complex. Heflin, who cooperated with authorities after his arrest, served no prison time but terminated from his job with the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

After all the appeals, after the attempted murder conviction while in prison, after probably leading on some dude to think he was going to have a nice life with her after busting out of prison, on September 30th, 2025, over 30 years after Krista Pike took lead on the attack, torture and murder of an innocent 19-year-old classmate, brutally taking away her future and making sure her last hour on earth was something straight out of some fucking edited scene, edited out scene of a slasher flick, edited out because the movie would have been rated NC17 instead of R with it in. state of Tennessee set Krista Pike's execution for September 30th, 2026. Governor Bill Lee, after reviewing the same shit I've shared with you, denied her clemency, which I think was the right call. Krista's lawyers would continue fighting, though, and hours before the scheduled execution, a federal appeals court temporarily stopped it at approximately 8.17 a.m. central time, just an hour and 43 minutes before Pikes originally scheduled 10 a.m. execution. But then the U.S. state or United States Supreme Court vacated that stay at

5.50 p.m. central time, roughly nine hours, 33 minutes later, and the execution would proceed. Which now finally brings us back to the beginning, to the River Bend maximum security institution in Nashville. When at 7.27 p.m., the curtain rose and Krista Pike was strapped at the gurney, her

spiritual advisor beside her, the mother of her victim, May Martinez watching on. After two attempts at lethal injection, both failed, and Chris's attorney, Randy Spivey, demanded emergency medical treatment. The witnesses were ordered out at 8.53, then at 914, ambulances arrived.

Krista Pike transported from the prison to some hospital in the Nashville area. And as I mentioned, still there as I record this on October 4th. Maybe she will still be there by the time you hear this. Maybe she will be dead. Maybe she will be awake and lucid and be sent back to death row. Governor Bill Lee has called what happened, quote, deeply disturbing and halted Tennessee's remaining execution for 2026, ordering an independent review.

Krista's attorneys now asking that her death sentence be commuted. Tennessee now faces. a bizarre, legal, and ethical situation. The state sentenced Krista Pike to death. The state attempted to carry out that sentence. It administered its execution drugs twice, but she survived. So what now? Can Tennessee eventually strapped Krista Pike into another gurney and try it again?

And is that what you think they should do? Is that what you think Krista Pike deserves? Yes, Krista was the victim of childhood physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, the victim of rape. She grew up in neglect, immersed in poverty and neglect, domestic violence, drug abuse, and that is fucking terrible. But should that, as many have argued, have made her ineligible for the death penalty? I mean, how many of the serial killers we have covered, how many of them have been the victims of horrific childhoods, often including sexual abuse?

Half, at the very least? Well, it feels like two-thirds, if not three-fourths. I'm not callous to this argument, but I think it's a pretty bad slippery slope. You know, if we decide the people who were abused as kids are not eligible for the death penalty, why even have it at all? and a lot of people arguing that Krista Pike should have never been sent to death throw also have argued that she has served her time now, that she liked to Darrell's ship should now be eligible for parole. Seriously? After the fucking horrors I went over?

Aren't some crimes so fucking awful that there is no hope of redemption for the people who commit them? For some crimes, should we care what the person went through before they committed them, or should we care more about protecting society from somebody capable of horrific actions most of us would never, ever be able to carry out. If a dog is rabid, does it matter how it got rabies? When you're trying to decide if it should be put down or not,

I don't think it does. Should child molesters who are molested themselves as children get lesser sentences than those who weren't? Should serial rapists caught at the age of 19 get lesser sentences and somebody caught at the age of 30? If somebody were to say, rape and then burn a fucking baby to death, should we fight to keep them off a death row or argue that they should someday be eligible for parole because they did that when they were 18 as opposed to 40?

Or should we say that for some shit there's never an excuse that when you commit certain acts you have forever relinquished any right to or hope for forgiveness, pity, redemption, or fucking mercy. Me personally, I don't give a single fuck if that botched execution

hurt Krista Pike at all. I don't care if she was scared and in pain because she didn't care. The calling Slamer was scared and in pain, so much more scared and in so much more pain. And that fear and that pain was not lessened because Krista Pike was 18. The slices to the throat with the box cutter, the meat cleaver to the back, the chunks of asphalt, to the head that came after 30 to nearly 60 minutes of tearful, bloody, agonized, pleading for her life to be spared. None of that was any easier for calling Slimmer to bear. You know, the pain of her murder, not easier for the last

three decades for her mother May Martinez to bear because Krista Pike had had a rough childhood. If the state of Tennessee decides the third time might be the charm, they certainly are not going to get any protests from me. Hopefully they won't have to make that decision. Hopefully Krista Pike has died in the hospital by the time you hear this. After more than 30 years, when interviewed about how she felt after the botched execution, Colleen's mom, May, said her fight has never been about money or revenge. It's been about her daughter. She said she feels no pity for Krista and that she still wants her to die for what she did. She said, all I wanted was justice.

And I hope soon she finally fucking gets it. And that's it. A little more fired up. Edition of Time sucks, short sucks. Man, whenever I read the court cases and get into the real details, it just becomes so much more real to me. If you ever notice any inconsistence, like, why did you get so mad about this victim but not the other? It almost comes down to a length of time immersed in somebody's death. And it's just like, you know, you do get jaded doing this a lot and talking about this stuff a lot.

And sometimes, you know, names and dates kind of blur and they don't feel real. But when you read like court transcript stuff, oh my God. I am so thankful that I'm not so callous and jaded. That doesn't hit so hard still because it does. And it fucking enrages me. If you were enraged or entertained by this story, check out the rest of the bad magic catalog. Befier episodes at Time Suck, Mondays at noon Pacific Time. new episodes of the now long-running paranormal podcast, scared to death, Tuesdays at midnight, two episodes of nightmare fuel, fictional horror thrown into the mix each month, more than that, thrown into the mix this October.

I did the initial research on this one. Story popped up in my feed, the spin I saw on it. Frankly, it just pissed me off. And so I jump right on it, and here we are. I just always really fucking hate it when more care from the media is shown for a killer than for their victim or victims. I will always be pro-victim and therefore will always, I hope, have very little fucking sympathy for crimes as brutal as the murder of young computer lover, Colleen Slemmer. I hope her soul has found a lot less pain in the next cycle or playing or afterlife or whatever awaits us all,

than it found at the end of the life she had here. Thank you to Logan Keith, polishing up the sound of today's episode. Please go to bad magic productions.com for all your bad magic needs. And have a great weekend.