- [Narrator] On the Eve
of Friday, the 13th, 1995. Four teenage students took a
walk into the desolate woods near the campus of the
University of Tennessee. Three of them are said to have
belonged to a satanic cult, and the fourth, she was teen from Florida who only tagged along for free weed. But what happened to her
in the woods that night, has sparked a fascination that
has spanned over 20 years. What is up EWU crew? Today, we are going to
cover a horrific crime spurred by jealousy. One that would leave a
young girl mutilated, with a pentagram carved into her torso, and a missing piece of her
skull taken from her body. There is no doubt that
evil showed its face in the Tennessee woods that night in 1995. But did the devil make them do it? Let's get into it. Christa Gail Pike was
born March 10th, 1976, in West Virginia. She was raised by her devout
Christian grandmother, and her playground was the slaughterhouse where her grandfather worked. As a child, Christa was allegedly abused by her grandmother's friend, Ernest. And sadly, it is speculated
that if this abuse occurred, it may have started when
she was still in diapers. At the age of 12, her grandmother died, and following it is believed that Christa attempted
to take her own life for the first time. Stricken with grief, it was later reported that Christa began to self
mutilate in different ways in an attempt to cope. Matters only worsened for her when she had to move in
with her mother Carissa, who at the time was a
licensed registered nurse, and was allegedly an alcoholic. They did not have a great
relationship to say the least. Christa's mother ended up taking
her troubled young daughter to see a shrink. However, most of the
shrinks that Christa visited didn't provide enough aid when
it came to her mental health. Things were only worsened
by the revolving men in her mom's life. In an interview, Christa recalled one of her mom's boyfriends saying, "He made this leather strap
with a wooden handle on it "specifically to beat
the hell out of me with. "And he made this thing and
hung it up on my bedroom wall "like it was decoration." All of these factors undoubtedly were influential
on Christa's psyche, which may have led to her
demonic shift in behavior. Christa when 18 years old, was enrolled in the Jobs Corp program at the Knoxville Campus of
the University of Tennessee. In the nineties, Job
Corps was described as "providing vocational training
for disadvantaged youth," giving them a chance
for a promising career. Christa was there to study nursing, following in her mother's footsteps. It was here that Christa
would meet Colleen Slemmer, who was enrolled in the same program. To say that they were
friends would be inaccurate. Christa suspected Colleen
was attempting to seduce her 17 year old boyfriend. The boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp
was caught in the middle of this love triangle. At one point, Christa had
traveled back home for a holiday, while to Tadaryl stayed
behind in Knoxville. It was only because of Christa's absence that he turned his attention to Colleen. He later admitted that he
and Colleen did hook up during that break. However, he never confirmed
the fling to Christa, leading her to act upon
only her suspicions. In an interview, Tadaryl can
be heard saying about Colleen. "I didn't even know she existed. "She approached me." Friends of Colleen Slemmer
denied that she was attempting to snatch away Tadaryl from Christa, but with obvious tension
between the two young women, Christa attempted to extend
an olive branch to Colleen, by offering her as some of the cannabis she had stashed away in the woods. But that was not Christa's true intention. The bag of weed she claimed was hidden, was only the hook to reel
Colleen to her grim fate. The night before, Christa
admitted to her friend, Kim Iloilo, that she was
planning on killing Colleen, adding, "She just felt mean that day." Enthralled by the occult, it wasn't just Krista that
voiced her sinister interests. Tadaryl, a few days prior to the incident, would tell another student
that, "He had to make "a human sacrifice because
the celestial bodies "were in alignment." At approximately 8:00 PM
on Thursday, January 12th, the four students signed
out of their dorms. Christa Pike, Tadaryl
Shipp, Colleen Slemmer, and another friend
named Shadolla Peterson. Colleen, with the hopes of
getting high with the group, didn't appear to have a
problem walking into the woods. They led Colleen to an
isolated area in Tyson Park, near the University of Tennessee Campus. It was here where the grizzly acts would unfold on that
chilly Tennessee night. The tension grew thick between the group, when Christa confronted Colleen, accusing her of wanting to
steal her boyfriend away. As Colleen again, denied the accusation, she quickly realized that
they weren't in the woods to smoke pot as she had
eagerly anticipated. Christa and Tadaryl were armed
with a small meat cleaver and box cutter. While Shadolla stayed on
the perimeter as a lookout. They were ready for a fight. Suddenly Christa grabbed Coleen's head and slammed her face into her knee. She then threw Colleen into the ground and with an unrelenting fury, kicked and punched her mercilessly. Colleen cried out, "Why
are you doing this to me?" As the forceful blows
continued raining down on her. Laying in the mud and sobbing, Colleen mustered the
strength to stand and attempt to escape. She tried to run away several
times, but to no avail. The first time resulted in
Christa slicing a long cut across her back. Her attempts were also
thwarted by Tadaryl, who intercepted Colleen and
pinned her to the ground. It was here that Christa
unsheathed the box cutter blade, and sliced Colleen once again, this time across her stomach. Colleen begged Christa for her life, telling her that if she would let her go, that she would quote,
"Walk back to Florida "without stopping at Job
Corps to pick up her stuff." Christa told Colleen to shut
up, saying, "It's harder "to hurt someone when
they're talking to you." She later admitted that the
more Colleen tried to talk, the more she kicked her in the face. The unrelenting and brutal
torture paused momentarily, when Christa thought she heard
a noise in the nearby woods. Colleen was left lying
on the cold damp ground while Christa briefly
investigated the sound. It was shortly thereafter
that Krista returned, and proceeded to lacerate
the helpless girl's throat, cutting it several times
with the box cutter. Amazingly, Colleen once
again found the strength to sit up and plead for her life, and even attempt another escape. But as soon as she started to flee, Christa threw a rock,
striking her squarely in the back of the head. Tadaryl then joined in and
hit her with rocks as well. Christa explained how
after regaining control, she remembered the specific sounds of Colleen's labored breathing. A medical examiner later
described how Colleen was drowning in her own blood. After about 30 minutes,
Tadaryl took the box cutter and carved a pentagram
into Colleen's chest as their final mark. The medical examiner
later testified saying, "The area around each wound
was red in appearance, "indicating that the heart
had still been beating "when the wound was inflicted." He added, "None of the
aforementioned wounds "would have rendered
the victim unconscious." With every slash across her skin, Colleen surely felt the agony of all the horrors that
were being done to her. She suffered through nearly an hour before Christa picked up a
large chunk of broken asphalt, and repeatedly struck Colleen in the head. As Coleen's blood collected
on the cold forest floor, her pain and agony finally
came to a chilling end. While Shadolla kept
watch, Tadaryl and Christa dragged Colleen's body to a nearby area, where there was a cluster of trees, and she was placed on top of
a pile of dirt and debris. But before leaving the
site, Christa took a piece of Colleen's fragmented skull, and placed in the pocket
of her jacket as a trophy of what she had just done. Allegedly Satanists believed
that the body must be whole for the soul to be released. And by taking part of Colleen, her soul would be kept captive. Then they removed two of her ID cards and a pair of black gloves
that Colleen had been wearing. Tadaryl and Christa rubbed the mud from the bottom of their
shoes over the bloodstains that covered their pants in an
attempt to hide any evidence. After leaving the isolated part of the University of Tennessee Campus, they walked to a nearby Texaco gas station to dispose of the ID cards and gloves. From there, they returned
to their dorm rooms around 10:00 PM, as if nothing happened. Four people signed out that night, but only three signed back in. Once back at the dorms,
Christa revisited her friend Kim Iloilo. This time, Christa wasn't feeling mean as Kim had described before. Instead, she was dancing
around in circles, smiling and singing. Like an eager child wanting to show off, Christa bragged to Kim of the atrocities she had just committed
earlier in the night. She even showed Kim the
piece of Colleen's skull that she had taken with her. Colleen's butchered remains
were discovered the next morning by a university employee. Initially thinking he stumbled
upon an animal carcass, the man went in closer
for further inspection. In horror, he realized he
was looking at a human body when he noticed the naked torso. At 8:00 AM on Friday, the
13th, Knoxville police arrived, along with the university campus police. One of the first responding officers described Colleen's head saying, "I thought I was looking into her face, "but everything was so badly
mangled I couldn't be sure." Christa was careless in more ways than one following the murder. She returned to the scene
of the crime the next day. Only to be denied entry
to the part of the woods she intended to go. Later on, she left behind her jacket, the same one with a piece Colleen's skull, in an administrator's office on campus. The jacket was turned over to the police where they discovered the piece of skull. All three students, Christa
Pike, Tadaryl Shipp, and Shadolla Peterson,
were promptly arrested within the next 36 hours. Christa was the first to be questioned. The talkative teen waived
her rights to remain silent, and admitted she was at
fault for Colleen's death. Her entire confession once typed out, was 42 pages in length. As if that wasn't enough proof, police found Colleen Slemmer's blood soaked into the jeans
Christa had worn that night. A co-operative Christa took police back to the Texaco station where they found Colleen's ID cards, and also accompanied
them back to the woods to describe the events in further detail. In Tadaryl's dorm room,
police ended up finding a satanic bible. The trial took place on March 22nd, 1996. Christa was prosecuted by Bill Crabtree, an assistant Knoxville
County District Attorney. In his opening statement to
jurors, he began explaining that the evidence within this
case is of, "an act so vile, "so heinous, so atrocious, so despicable, "as bad or worse as anything
you've ever seen in a movie, "read in a novel or dreamed
in your worst nightmare." During the trial, Christa
cried continuously in front of the courtroom. The tears didn't have
an effect on the jurors, as it only took a few short
hours for them to deliberate and convict her on both charges. The jurors described the young girl as "Having an angel's face,
but a devil's heart." Christa Pike was found
guilty of first degree murder and given the death penalty
on March 22nd, 1996. Tadaryl Shipp was sentenced
to life in prison, with the possibility of parole. And Shadolla Peterson received probation, Since she agreed to become an informant against the other two. She pled guilty to being an
accessory after the fact. At only 20 years old, Christa became the youngest
woman to be sentenced to death in the United States. Only a few days after finding out that she would be executed, she sent an unsettling note
Tadaryl Shipp, writing, "Please write me! "I miss you so much! "You see what I get for trying
to be nice to the (beep)? "I went ahead and bashed her
brains out so she'd die quickly "instead of letting her bleed
to death and suffer more. "And they (beep) fry me. "Ain't that some (beep)? "Please write me and tell
me what you're feeling! "Also, tell your lawyer if he
wants me to testify for you, "I will! "Love you for the rest of my life." Christa signed off on the
letter as, Lil' devil. As the frenzied spectacle
surrounding the satanic killing died down, Christa Pike would
capture the media's attention once more. On August 24th, 2001, after
five years into her sentence, Christa attempted to kill again. She was almost successful in
strangling Patricia Jones, a fellow inmate, to death. She claimed she didn't
intend to kill Jones, but in a phone call that
she made to her mother, she can be heard saying, "I
betcha if she gets near me, "I'm gonna do it again, "I'm gonna succeed this damn time! "See, now I know the difference
between premeditated murder "and what happened with Colleen. "'Cause see, I premeditated
the hell out of this. "Sure did. "If I'd have had 30
more seconds, I'd, we'd "have a little chalk line
out there in our rec pen, "and that (beep) would be gone somewhere." Again, a trial took place
and another guilty conviction for attempted first degree murder, was tacked onto Christa's already inescapable death sentence. Now at this point, her defense
team extended an appeal to the Federal Court System. They requested that her
fate be life in prison and not execution. They argued that she had mental illness, and that capital punishment
as administered in Tennessee is unconstitutional. But it was the last
ditch effort Christa had to beg for her life to be spared. The legal team representing
Christa's fight, centered their defense on
testimony attesting to the trauma she suffered at an early age. Dr. Jonathan Henry Pincus,
an expert in neurology, testified to the Appeals Court that Pike's brain had
underdeveloped frontal lobes. It is in this part of the brain, where a person's sense of
right and wrong is managed. Pincus said, this was the
result of Pike's mother abusing alcohol while she
was still in the womb. He argued that this, combined
with a turbulent adolescence, is what's to blame for Pike's actions. The Appeals Court upheld
the previous ruling, and sent Christa pike back to death row. And Christa Pike remains
the only woman in Tennessee awaiting execution. Although she has exhausted
all of her appeals, she affirms that she
should not be put to death. Now, 25 years later, Christa Pike remains locked away in her small concrete cell, contemplating all the events that have transpired in her life. Regret, remorse, acceptance. Christa Gail Pike will likely
one day eat her last meal, walk her last steps with shackled
feet down the cell block, and take her final seat
in the electric chair. Colleen Slemmer's family
will then receive peace, knowing justice for their
daughter's heinous death will be finally and fatally served. Although the devil himself
may not have been responsible for Christa Pike's actions
that January night so long ago, it was the demons of
her own torturous past that may have led her
to forego logic reason and all sense of human decency.
