Colleen Slemmer's Parents React Following Christa Pike's Failed Execution

Colleen Slemmer's Parents React to Christa Pike's Failed Execution

Christa Pike, 50, was scheduled to be executed on September 30, 2026, after spending more than three decades behind bars for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Colleen's mother, May Martinez, and her husband, Raul Martinez, drove 11 hours from Florida to Tennessee to attend the execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee stopped all executions in the state for the rest of 2026 after the execution went wrong. Christa's attorneys stated that she received two doses of pentobarbital but did not lose consciousness.

Speaking to PEOPLE, May Martinez shared that she watched Christa carefully and did not take her eyes off her, wanting Christa to remember Colleen and what was done to her. Christa had previously been accused of luring Colleen Slemmer to a remote area of the University of Tennessee's agricultural campus alongside her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and their friend Shadolla Peterson, where Colleen was killed.