Colleen Slemmer Was Only 19 When Her Life Was Taken — The Tennessee Murder Case That Still Haunts Her Family

CHRISTA PIKE SURVIVED TWO ROUNDS OF LETHAL INJECTION NOW TENNESSEE HAS A PROBLEM NO ONE EXPECTED

Christa Pike was supposed to leave Riverbend Maximum Security Insтιтution in a hearse.

Instead, she left in an ambulance.

On September 30, Tennessee attempted to execute the 50-year-old for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

Officials administered one round of pentobarbital.

Pike kept breathing.

The state’s protocol called for a backup round if the first failed to cause death.

That was administered too.

Pike still did not die.

For more than an hour, witnesses heard breathing and sounds resembling snoring from the execution chamber. Eventually, the witnesses were ordered out. Emergency vehicles arrived, and Pike was transported to a hospital alive.

Now the story has moved far beyond one failed night.

Governor Bill Lee has halted Tennessee’s remaining execution for 2026 and ordered an independent investigation into exactly what happened. The state’s corrections commissioner is stepping down, while lawmakers are already discussing whether Tennessee should reconsider the methods it uses to carry out executions.

But there is an even bigger unanswered question:

What happens to Christa Pike?

Her death sentence has not disappeared.

As of the latest reports, Pike remains hospitalized, and her attorneys say she is unconscious and on a ventilator. Her long-term prognosis remains uncertain. Whether Tennessee could eventually attempt another execution may depend on her recovery, future litigation and what investigators discover about the first attempt.

And behind every new development remains Colleen Slemmer.

She was 19 when Pike murdered her in 1995. Colleen’s mother traveled to Nashville expecting to see a 31-year legal journey finally reach its conclusion.

Instead, she watched Pike survive.

September 30 was supposed to close one of Tennessee’s longest-running death-row cases.

It did the opposite.

One prisoner remains alive.

One death sentence remains unresolved.

An investigation has begun.

And Tennessee must now confront a question its execution protocol never clearly answered:

What do you do when both doses have been administered — and the condemned prisoner is still alive?

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