“IT IS LIKE COLLEEN NEVER EXISTED”: VICTIM’S MOTHER SPEAKS OUT AS CHRISTA PIKE’S EXECUTION NEARS

MAY MARTINEZ IS PREPARING TO DRIVE MORE THAN EIGHT HOURS TO NASHVILLE TO WITNESS THE EXECUTION OF HER DAUGHTER’S KILLER

With days remaining before Tennessee is scheduled to execute Christa Pike, the mother of Pike’s victim is speaking out about what she says has been lost in the decades-long story surrounding the case.

May Martinez, the mother of Colleen Slemmer, says public attention has increasingly focused on the woman convicted of killing her daughter — while Colleen herself has faded from the center of the story.

Now, Martinez is preparing to make an hours-long journey from Florida to Nashville so she can be present when Pike is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 30.

“It is never about the victims,” Martinez said. “It is like Colleen never existed.”

A JOURNEY FOR COLLEEN

Martinez plans to drive more than eight hours from Florida to Tennessee for the execution.

She has said that being there matters so much to her that she would even consider putting other financial obligations aside temporarily if necessary.

For Martinez, the journey is not simply about witnessing an execution.

It is about making sure her daughter is remembered.

“I’m her voice,” Martinez has said while discussing the decades she has spent carrying Colleen’s memory and seeking recognition for the daughter she lost.

Colleen Slemmer was 19 years old when she was murdered in Knoxville in 1995.

More than three decades later, her mother continues to speak publicly about the young woman behind the case.

THE CASE THAT LED TO A DEATH SENTENCE

Pike was convicted in the 1995 murder of Slemmer, a fellow student at a Job Corps program in Knoxville.

Pike was 18 at the time of the killing.

She was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and other offenses connected to Slemmer’s death.

Pike has remained on Tennessee’s death row for more than 30 years.

She is currently Tennessee’s only woman on death row and is scheduled to become the first woman executed by the state since 1820, according to reporting from WBIR.

EXECUTION DATE REMAINS SET FOR SEPTEMBER 30

The Tennessee Department of Correction has confirmed that Pike’s execution is scheduled for 10 a.m. CDT on Sept. 30, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

The state has also begun preparations for the execution, including selecting official media witnesses and issuing guidelines for journalists covering the event.

Pike’s attorneys have continued pursuing legal challenges as the execution date approaches.

MARTINEZ SAYS HER DAUGHTER DESERVES TO BE REMEMBERED

For Martinez, the approaching execution has reopened memories of a loss that began more than three decades ago.

While the case has generated renewed attention because Pike is a woman facing execution, Martinez wants the public to remember that another young woman was at the center of the case long before the execution date became the focus.

That woman was Colleen.

Martinez has continued to speak about her daughter not simply as a murder victim, but as a person whose life was cut short.

Her message is straightforward: Colleen should not disappear from the story simply because the legal process has lasted for decades.

“I’M HER VOICE”

As Martinez prepares to make the long trip to Tennessee, she says she is carrying more than memories with her.

She is carrying the responsibility she feels to speak for a daughter who can no longer speak for herself.

The execution, if it proceeds as scheduled, will bring the case to another major turning point.

But for Martinez, Sept. 30 is not only about what happens to Christa Pike.

It is about remembering Colleen Slemmer.

A 19-year-old whose life ended in 1995 — and whose mother says she will continue making sure her daughter’s name is not forgotten.