Christa Pike's Mother's Resurfaced Words Follow Failed Execution

More than three decades after Christa Pike was sentenced to death for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, an old interview with her mother is resurfacing following Pike’s failed execution in Tennessee.

In a 1996 interview, shortly after Pike received the death sentence, her mother, Carissa Hansen, spoke publicly about her daughter and pleaded against the punishment. Her words have taken on a striking new significance after Pike survived an attempted lethal injection on September 30, 2026.

Christa Pike's mother begged for her daughter's life

Hansen's comments came after Pike was sentenced to death for Slemmer’s 1995 murder. Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted in the case. Shipp received a life sentence with the possibility of parole, but his first parole was denied last year due to the cold-hearted brutality of the crime.