Colleen Slemmer’s mother reacts after Tennessee fails to execute Christa Pike, says she would have killed her with a ‘box cutter’

Colleen Slemmer was a 19-year-old student in a Job Corps educational program when she was killed by her 18-year-old classmate, Christa Pike, and her boyfriend. The state of Tennessee tried to execute Pite for the gruesome killing she committed in 1995, but failed even after administering two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday evening, September 30.

Now, the grieving mother, May Martinez, who celebrated her late daughter’s 51st birthday a month back, responded with rage for Pite after witnessing her daughter’s killer exiting the execution chamber alive. In a chilling admission, she said she was about to take the law into her own hands and detailed what she would have done to Pite, who remains in critical condition after the botched execution attempt.

Also Read: Christa Pike execution timeline: What went wrong after state of Tennessee began the lethal injection, from her final words to loud snoring and 2 drug doses


While driving back to Florida from Tennessee, she said in an interview to People, “If I could have gotten in that room, I would have taken the box cutter and cut her up like she did Colleen.”

“Well, you miss a lot. You miss the holidays, you miss the birthdays, you miss Mother’s Days and stuff like that," May told the outlet on explaining how much she remembered 30 years of memories.

May, when asked what she feels about the failed execution, said, "I want to go kill Christa. How’s that?”

Pike had been on death row for the murder of Slemmer in January 1995. She lured Slemmer into an isolated area on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus before torturing and killing her. A year later, she was convicted alongside her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. The case got national attention mostly because of the brutality of the event. Pite kept a part of her skull as a souvenir, and there was a pentagram carved into Slemmer's chest.

Pike was going to become the first woman to be killed by the state in 200 years. In the execution chamber, Pike said, which would be her last words if everything went as planned: “I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life - and that is with love.”