How Did Christa Pike Become the Youngest Woman Sentenced to Death?

Photo by Efdal YILDIZ from Pexels

Christa Gail Pike was born on March 10, 1976. Twenty years later, her name would make headlines. Headlines like “Christa Gail Pike: Killed for Love and Satan.” She would become the youngest woman sentenced to death in the United States following the Furman period temporarily ending the death sentence.

Apparently, Pike’s mother liked to party and was not a great parent, introducing her to marijuana when she was a teenager. Pike’s father was not part of the picture, and so seemingly she was raised by a grandmother.

Pike dropped out of high school. She joined Job Corps to gain some vocational skills and attended a facility in Knoxville, Tennessee. There, she met a man named Tadaryl Shipp. Together, they developed an interest in the occult.

While Pike was cozying up to Shipp, she grew increasingly suspicious of a 19-year-old named Colleen Slemmer. Pike began to believe that Slemmer was trying to “steal” Shipp for herself. Pike and a friend, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, hatched a disgusting plan in which they would lure Slemmer to an abandoned areas and murder her.

Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer signed out of their dorm on January 12, 1995. They walked out to the woods, apparently on their way to a store. Pike told Slemmer they wanted to give her some pot…