What crime did christa pike commit

As of 9 October 2026, Christa Pike remains incarcerated at the Tennessee Prison for Women, serving a sentence for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Pike, who was 18 at the time of the crime, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The case gained national notoriety due to the extreme brutality of the act, which involved Pike and an accomplice luring Slemmer to a remote area of the University of Tennessee campus under the guise of a peace offering. Once there, they tortured and killed the victim, with Pike reportedly keeping a piece of the victim's skull as a trophy. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996, making her the youngest woman on death row in the United States at that time. While she has filed numerous appeals over the past three decades, her conviction has been consistently upheld by the courts. Recent legal discussions surrounding her case continue to focus on the constitutionality of her sentence given her age at the time of the offense.