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

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — With just days remaining before Tennessee is scheduled to execute Christa Pike, the mother of the woman Pike was convicted of killing says she fears her daughter has been forgotten.

May Martinez, the mother of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, is preparing to make the long journey from Florida to Nashville to witness the scheduled lethal injection on September 30, 2026.

For Martinez, the trip is not about celebrating an execution.

It is about making sure the world remembers the young woman whose life was taken more than three decades ago.

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

31 YEARS AFTER COLLEEN’S DEATH

Colleen Slemmer was a student at the Knoxville Job Corps program in Tennessee when she was killed in January 1995.

Pike, who was 18 at the time, was later convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Pike’s then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was also convicted in connection with Slemmer’s killing and received a life sentence.

The case drew national attention because of the brutality of the attack and because Pike became the youngest person on Tennessee’s death row at the time.

More than 30 years later, Slemmer’s mother says the passage of time has not erased the loss.

Instead, she has watched a new wave of attention build around Pike as her execution date approaches.

And Martinez says that attention has sometimes left her daughter in the background.

“I’M HER VOICE”

In an interview with WBIR, Martinez described herself as Colleen’s voice.

She said she wants people to remember who her daughter was — not simply the circumstances surrounding her death.

For Martinez, Colleen was not a case file or a name in a courtroom.

She was her daughter.

The family’s loss has remained a constant presence through birthdays, anniversaries and ordinary moments that remind them of the young woman they lost.

Martinez has previously described Colleen as someone who loved being active, running marathons, roller skating and spending time with children.

She has said Colleen also loved computers and had a personality far removed from the violent circumstances in which her life ended.

A LONG JOURNEY TO NASHVILLE

Martinez and her husband, Raul, live in Florida and are preparing to drive to Tennessee for the scheduled execution.

The trip is expected to take roughly 10 to 11 hours each way, with expenses including gasoline, accommodation and meals.

The couple lives on a fixed income, and Raul is a disabled veteran.

In September, Martinez said the financial burden would not stop her from trying to be there.

She said she would even consider missing a mortgage payment for a month if that were what it took to make the trip.

“We said if we had to, we wouldn’t pay the mortgage to let the mortgage not go for the one month,” Martinez said.

The couple has also sought assistance with travel costs through supporters and the Justice Coalition.

But Martinez says being physically present in Tennessee is important to her.

After 31 years of waiting, she wants to witness what she considers the final chapter of the criminal case involving her daughter’s death.

“THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THAT COLLEEN GETS JUSTICE”

Martinez has repeatedly said that her focus remains on Colleen.

“The most important thing is that Colleen gets justice,” she said in an earlier interview.

The scheduled execution has also brought renewed public attention to the broader debate surrounding Pike’s death sentence.

Pike’s attorneys have pursued legal challenges seeking to stop or delay the execution, while supporters have argued that her age at the time of the crime and her history of abuse should be considered.

Those legal arguments have not changed the fact that Tennessee has scheduled the execution for September 30.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has confirmed that the lethal injection is scheduled for 10 a.m. CDT at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has also declined to stay the execution, according to recent reporting.

COLLEEN’S NAME REMAINS AT THE CENTER

As the date approaches, Martinez is determined that the final days should not belong exclusively to Pike.

She wants people to remember the 19-year-old who never had the opportunity to grow older, build a career, experience marriage or have a family of her own.

For Martinez, remembering Colleen is itself part of the justice she has spent decades seeking.

The mother who lost her daughter in 1995 is now preparing to make another journey to Tennessee — this time hoping to finally close a chapter that has remained open for 31 years.

But even as the state prepares for a scheduled execution, Martinez says there is something more important than the person sitting on death row.

It is the young woman whose life ended.

Colleen Slemmer.

And her mother wants the world to remember that she was here.