“WE CAN’T GET JUSTICE FOR MY DAUGHTER” — COLLEEN SLEMMER’S MOTHER STILL WAITS AFTER FAILED EXECUTION

More than 30 years after 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer was killed in Knoxville, her mother May Martinez watched as the execution of the woman convicted in her daughter’s case failed

For May Martinez, September 30, 2026, was supposed to mark the end of a journey that began more than three decades ago.

Instead, it became another painful chapter.

May had traveled from Florida to Tennessee with her husband, Raul, to witness the execution of Christa Pike, the woman convicted of killing her daughter, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, in 1995.

But the execution did not go as planned.

After two rounds of lethal injection, Pike remained alive and was eventually taken from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution to a hospital. She was later reported to be unconscious and in critical condition.

For May, the experience reopened memories of a daughter she has spent more than 30 years trying to keep alive in the public memory.

And once again, she left Tennessee without the closure she had expected.

A 19-YEAR-OLD WITH HER WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF HER

Colleen Slemmer was just 19 years old when her life ended on January 12, 1995.

She was a Job Corps student in Knoxville, Tennessee, studying computer-related subjects and known by her family for her intelligence, humor and personality.

Her mother has described Colleen as compassionate, playful and something of a “good nerd.”

She had dreams and interests that seemed ordinary for a young woman her age.

She loved computers and could reportedly take a computer apart and put it back together.

Her grandfather had suggested the Job Corps program because of her aptitude, and Colleen saw it as an opportunity to learn and build a future.

Instead, she never got the chance.

THE NIGHT COLLEEN NEVER CAME HOME

On the evening of January 12, 1995, May spoke to her daughter by telephone.

According to accounts of the case, Colleen told her mother that several students were bothering her.

It was the last conversation the two would ever have.

Later that night, Colleen was taken to a wooded area near the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus.

Christa Pike, who was 18 at the time, and her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, were subsequently convicted of first-degree murder in connection with Colleen’s death.

The evidence presented at trial described an exceptionally violent killing.

Pike ultimately received a death sentence, while Shipp, who was under 18 at the time of the crime and therefore could not receive the death penalty, was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

THE CASE THAT WOULD FOLLOW MAY FOR DECADES

Pike and Shipp were arrested only days after Colleen’s death.

Pike was eventually convicted and sentenced to death in 1996.

For the next three decades, appeals and legal proceedings repeatedly kept the case in the public eye.

But for May Martinez, the case was never simply about court dates or legal arguments.

It was about her daughter.

Colleen was not a case number.

She was the young woman May had spoken to on the telephone that final evening.

She was the daughter whose future disappeared overnight.

And as the years passed, May continued speaking publicly about who Colleen had been.

MAY TRAVELED 11 HOURS TO SEE THE EXECUTION

When Tennessee scheduled Pike’s execution for September 30, 2026, May and Raul drove approximately 11 hours from Florida to Nashville.

May wanted to be there.

She wanted to witness the final stage of a case that had shaped her life for more than 30 years.

PEOPLE reported that May watched Pike closely during the execution attempt.

“I did not take my eyes off of her,” May said.

For May, it was important that Pike remember the person at the center of the case — Colleen.

But instead of witnessing an execution that proceeded as scheduled, May watched the process fail.

“IT’S A MESS”

The execution began after a series of last-minute legal challenges.

The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately allowed Tennessee to proceed after a lower federal appeals court had temporarily paused the execution.

Pike was administered two doses of pentobarbital.

But she remained alive.

Witnesses reported hearing Pike complain that her arm hurt and later hearing breathing and other sounds after the execution chamber’s curtain had been closed.

Eventually, Pike was taken from the prison by ambulance to a hospital.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said it had followed the state’s established execution protocol.

Governor Bill Lee subsequently ordered an independent review and paused the remaining scheduled executions in Tennessee for 2026.

For May, however, the procedural questions surrounding the execution were secondary to one painful reality.

Her daughter was still gone.

And the person convicted of taking Colleen’s life was still alive.

May later described the situation as a failure to obtain justice for her daughter.

“We can’t get justice for my daughter,” she said.

COLLEEN’S NAME HAS NEVER DISAPPEARED

More than three decades can pass.

People grow older.

News cycles move on.

Court cases disappear from headlines.

But for families who lose a child, time does not erase the person they lost.

May has continued to speak about Colleen and remember the young woman she was before January 12, 1995.

In a recent interview, she said she thinks about Colleen constantly.

That memory has become part of the family’s long journey through the criminal justice system.

A CASE THAT HAS NEVER REALLY ENDED FOR HER

The failed execution has once again placed Christa Pike and the 1995 case in the national spotlight.

Pike remains under a death sentence, while the circumstances surrounding the failed execution are now subject to further scrutiny.

Her attorneys have raised concerns about what happened during the procedure, while Tennessee officials have said established protocol was followed.

Pike’s medical condition and the state’s handling of the failed execution have become separate issues from the original conviction.

But for May Martinez, they are impossible to separate from the loss of her daughter.

Every legal development brings Colleen’s name back into the conversation.

Every court hearing brings memories of 1995 back to the surface.

And every delay means another reminder that the ending May once expected has still not arrived.

COLLEEN WAS MORE THAN THE CASE

It can be easy, after 30 years, for a victim’s name to become attached almost entirely to the person convicted in the case.

But Colleen Slemmer was more than the crime that ended her life.

She was 19 years old.

She loved computers.

She had a family who loved her.

She had plans for a future she never got to see.

And she had a mother who still remembers the sound of her daughter’s voice from their final telephone conversation.

That is the part of Colleen’s story May Martinez has continued to protect.

Not just how she died.

But who she was.

MORE THAN 30 YEARS LATER, MAY IS STILL SPEAKING HER NAME

The failed execution of Christa Pike has created a new wave of headlines.

There are questions about Tennessee’s execution procedures.

There are questions about what happened inside the execution chamber.

There are questions about what happens next for Pike.

But behind all of those questions is another story — one that began in 1995.

A 19-year-old girl named Colleen Slemmer lost her life.

Her mother, May Martinez, lost her daughter.

And more than 30 years later, May is still waiting for the sense of justice she believes her family deserves.

The execution may have failed.

The headlines will eventually fade again.

But May’s memory of Colleen will not.

Because to her mother, Colleen was never just a name in a court case. She was — and always will be — her daughter.