A former classmate of death row prisoner Christa Pike has claimed the convicted killer bragged about eating a piece of her victim's brain for breakfast. Pike was convicted of torturing and murdering her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1995.
She was later found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, becoming one of the youngest women in US history to be sentenced to death. Pike, now 50, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on September 30, but survived after receiving two doses of pentobarbital.
Survival after lethal injection
She was taken to hospital, where she reportedly began walking and talking again, before being returned to the women's prison where she has been for 30 years, according to her legal team. Her lawyers said on Saturday: "She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances. She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery."
Rita Morris, who attended school with Pike, branded the killer "evil" as she recalled a chilling confession. Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, she alleged that Pike had boasted about wanting to eat part of the victim's brain for breakfast.
Classmate recalls chilling confession
"She was bragging about it and stuff," she shared. "It was like a trophy for her. And as well as a piece of skull, she had a piece of her brain. She said she was going to eat it with her eggs in the morning."
Rita said her former classmate "deserves no sympathy", adding that she is "just as evil as she was when I knew her". She also claimed Pike was jealous of Colleen after wrongly believing that the teenager was attracted to her boyfriend at the time.
First survivor of lethal injection
Pike is reportedly the first person to survive after being administered lethal injection drugs during an execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The Tennessee Department of Correction has not publicly explained what went wrong during the attempted execution.
Following the failure, Colleen's mother, May Martinez, called on the state to issue a "big apology". Martinez and her husband reportedly travelled from Florida to Nashville to witness Pike's execution, holding up a photograph of Colleen as they watched from the gallery.
Speaking to the Associated Press, she said: "Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst." Colleen's family marked what would have been her 51st birthday just last month.
