The mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer has revealed her daughter's final words before she was killed by Christa Pike in 1995. The disclosure comes after Pike, a death row inmate, survived two botched lethal injections during her scheduled execution in Nashville.
Failed Execution and Aftermath
Pike was due to be executed for the killing of Colleen Slemmer on Wednesday, September 30, but she survived two doses of pentobarbital. She spent several days unconscious on a ventilator in hospital. Her lawyers said on Tuesday that she is now conscious and able to speak, but it remains unclear what will happen next.
Pike has spent over three decades in prison for the murder of her classmate in 1995 when she was 18. Following the botched execution, the New York Post reported that the mother of Christa Pike's victim said she believes the death row inmate would survive and is losing hope that she'll ever be executed.
Final Phone Call Recalled
Shortly before she was murdered, 19-year-old Colleen called her mum on the phone. But due to poor signal, May had to cut the call short. In an interview with PEOPLE, May recalled: "She just said, 'Mom, I don't feel good, and they're picking on me and everything else.' So I said, 'OK, and I can't talk to you because I didn't have good reception.' I tried to call her back at 10pm and she was already gone."
Colleen Slemmer's mother, May, along with her husband Raul Martinez, drove 11 hours from Florida to attend the execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. May revealed that she spent 12 hours at the prison waiting to witness Christa Pike's execution. She and Raul arrived at 8:30am but did not leave the viewing room until 8pm, following the second unsuccessful attempt to give a lethal injection to Pike.
Murder Details and Family's Grief
On 12 January 1995, Pike and her then-boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, brutally murdered Colleen using a box cutter. After Colleen's death, a pentagram was etched into her chest, and a part of her skull was removed.
In the same interview, May shared that she wants her daughter’s killer to be dead. She shared that Pike has never offered an apology for taking her daughter's life, and is convinced that she has shown no remorse for murdering Colleen, even after 31 years.
State Response to Botched Execution
Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital via at least seven needles, one of which emerged from her arm bent at a 90-degree angle, as per her legal team. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has put a stop to all remaining executions this year and announced on Saturday that the state's prison chief, Frank Strada, would step down. Gov. Lee has also commissioned an independent investigation by former US Attorney Ed Stanton into what led to the botched execution.
