Christa Pike, who remains on ventilator after her failed execution, was not the only one who was found guilty of the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer . Two accomplices, including her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, were charged, but Pike was the only one who ended up on death row.
Slemmer was a 19-year-old Job Corps participant when she was tortured and murdered behind the agriculture campus steam plant on January 12, 1995, per the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Pike had two accomplices – 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp and 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson .
WVLT reported that Peterson served six years probation. Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy first-degree murder. He is currently incarcerated at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, per ABC10. Peterson is believed to have served as the lookout during the crime. She has maintained a private life since.
Peterson, 18 at the time of the murder, became an informant and was convicted of being an accessory. Because he was 17 years old at the time of Slemmer’s murder, jurors could not consider the death penalty for Shipp.
UTK said that Slemmer endured a “lengthy beating and torture. “Testimony indicated that Pike created the plan because she thought Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend (Shipp),” the university said. The University of Tennessee Knoxville says that she just received parole.
His case is scheduled to be reviewed again in October 2031, per WCNC. She received two doses of the drug in a failed attempt by the state of Tennessee to execute her on Wednesday, September 31. The Death Penalty Information Center states that the last execution of a woman in Tennessee was in 1820. This means Pike would have been the first woman to be executed in the state in more than 200 years.
Pike’s attorneys stated in a court filing that they believed problems with intravenous lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream. Shipp was denied parole in October 2025 “due to the seriousness of the offense.
Pike remains on a ventilator with hospital staff working to save her life and clear the pentobarbital she was administered from her system, her attorneys said, according to The Guardian.
