Tennessee is set to execute Christa Pike on September 30 for the 1995 torture-murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer — a killing that featured a pentagram carved into the victim's chest and a killer who heard voices — and the press would rather discuss anything except the occult elements of the crime.
For decades, the media dismissed parents who raised concerns about satanic influence on children as paranoid hysterics suffering from "moral panic." But Pike's murder of Slemmer involved exactly the kind of ritual violence those parents feared. The Intercept invokes the "Satanic Panic" right in its headline — then buries the pentagram deep in its story and never grapples with what it means that a teenager was engaging in satanic ritual violence. The New York Post mentions "satanic symbols" in a single phrase and moves on. Neither outlet wants to admit the obvious: in this case, the hysterics were right.
The facts of the crime are grisly. Pike, then 18, told a friend she intended to kill Slemmer because she "felt mean that day," according to court documents. She lured Slemmer away under the pretense of going to a Blockbuster. Accompanied by her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and acquaintance Shadolla Peterson, Pike beat Slemmer, slashed her throat with a boxcutter, and carved a pentagram into her chest. Pike told police she heard voices urging her to continue brutalizing Slemmer as the victim screamed. By 10:15 p.m., the group had returned without Slemmer. The next morning, Pike celebrated the killing.
But the institutions that were supposed to protect Pike failed her first — and that's the part of the story the press gets half-right. According to The Intercept, Pike was sexually abused from ages 2 to 5. At 11, she was raped by a 37-year-old neighbor who received a suspended sentence. At 17, she was dragged into the woods and raped by a stranger never identified. Her mother's live-in boyfriend physically and sexually abused her. The state removed her temporarily, then sent her back. A juvenile court sent her to a facility in Swannanoa, North Carolina, where she stayed over a year — not for serious violations, but because, as one social worker testified, "she was not following the rules or she was doing something to sabotage herself." A counselor who knew her at the facility wrote in a clemency letter: "I never saw Christa act aggressively or violently. She was trying to figure out how to heal from her traumas."
After her death sentence, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD. Her 226-page clemency petition argues that no evidence of her abuse history was presented during the penalty phase. Her attorneys write: "Christa was broken, not evil. She was broken by a mental health system, juvenile system, and a criminal justice system that ignored, misdiagnosed, and mistreated her at every turn."
The victim's mother, May Martinez, isn't persuaded. "She didn't consider how my daughter felt — she's just playing the system," Martinez told the Daily Mail. "It's all bullcrap."
Pike is now requesting an all-female execution team, citing her abuse history. If that's not possible, she wants to be hanged instead. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has the power to commute her sentence to life without parole.
The systems that failed Christa Pike also failed Colleen Slemmer. A girl raped from toddlerhood was abandoned by every adult and institution charged with protecting her — and then she carved a pentagram into another young woman's chest while hearing voices. The press calls concern about that "hysteria." The dead tell a different story.
