Christa Gail Pike Is the Youngest Woman Sentenced to Death in America — What Did She Do?

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the first woman executed in the United States was Jane Champion, who died by hanging in 1632. Champion lived in Jamestown, Va., where she would pay the price for breaking several laws. "So she [Jane] was facing double jeopardy," explained Dale Brumfield, field director for Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, to RVA Magazine. "She got pregnant out of wedlock by another man, and she was having an affair, so she was in a no-win situation."

Concealing the birth of a child was a capital offense at the time, but the baby also died, which resulted in a charge of infanticide. It's not known if her lover was also executed. Nearly 400 years later, the state of Tennessee is going to execute the youngest woman ever sentenced to death in the United States. Christa Gail Pike was only 20 when she learned her fate. Here's what we know about her crimes.

Two years after Pike was sentenced to death, Fox Files featured Pike in an episode of their show. They also spoke with one of the jurors who sent her to prison. The juror was chilled by what they saw. "She has an angel's face and a devil's heart," they said. Pike had a difficult childhood marked by neglect from parents who spent much of their time fighting with each other, reports The Straits Times. The only person who seemed to care about Pike was her grandmother.

After graduating high school, Pike ended up at a Job Corps program in Knoxville where she hoped to learn the skills needed to become a nursing assistant. It was there that Pike met 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp. Soon the couple was dabbling in a popular interest during the mid-1990s: The occult. At this same time, Pike grew jealous of a schoolmate she believed had feelings for Shipp. There is no anecdotal evidence to support this claim.

In January 1995, Pike and a friend, Shadolla Peterson, 18, planned out how they were going to get rid of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. On Jan. 12, Pike told Slemmer she wanted to smooth things over and suggested they smoke a joint in the local woods. After luring Slemmer out into the darkness, Pike and Shipp murdered Slemmer while Peterson was the lookout. The damage done to Slemmer's body was horrific.

Dr. Sandra Elkins, the Knox County Medical Examiner, performed the autopsy on Slemmer's body. When she was found, Slemmer was covered in dirt and twigs and was naked from the waist up. Dr. Elkins attempted to catalog the slash wounds in Slemmer's body using letters of the alphabet, but eventually had to give up. There were just too many, including a pentagram carved into Slemmer's chest. The weapons used were a box cutter and a miniature meat cleaver.

There were wounds all over Slemmer's face, neck, back, and arms, which were defensive wounds. Bruising on Slemmer's knees indicated she tried to crawl away. The cause of death was determined to be blunt force injuries to the head. Dr. Elkins deduced that Slemmer was alive the entire time she was being cut. There were extensive skull fractures, with a piece missing that Pike kept as a sort of trophy.

Pike was sentenced to death and is scheduled for execution on Sept. 30, 2026. Shipp received a life sentence with the possibility of parole, for which he is eligible on Dec. 8, 2026, per FOX 8. Peterson was an informant for the state and was sentenced to probation. While in prison, Pike was convicted of attempted first-degree murder after she tried strangling a fellow inmate in August 2001.