“IT’S LIKE COLLEEN WAS NEVER THERE” — MOTHER PREPARES TO TRAVEL TO TENNESSEE AS CHRISTA PIKE EXECUTION NEARS

For 31 years, May Martinez has carried the memory of her daughter, Colleen Slemmer.

Now, as the September 30 execution date for Christa Pike approaches, Martinez is preparing to make the long journey from Florida to Tennessee — hoping that the final chapter of the case will bring some peace, while making sure her daughter is not forgotten.

Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps program.

If the execution proceeds as scheduled, Pike would become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.

But for Martinez, the story has never really been about Pike.

It has always been about Colleen.

“IT’S LIKE COLLEEN WAS NEVER THERE”

In recent interviews, Martinez has expressed frustration that so much attention surrounding the upcoming execution has focused on Pike, her legal challenges and the controversy surrounding Tennessee’s execution protocol.

Meanwhile, Martinez worries that the young woman at the center of the case is disappearing from the public memory.

“It’s like Colleen was never there,” Martinez said.

For Martinez, remembering Colleen means remembering who she was before the crime — a daughter, student and young woman with her own interests, personality and dreams.

She wants people to see Colleen as more than a name attached to a death-penalty case.

WHO COLLEEN SLEMMER WAS

Colleen was just 19 years old when she was killed in January 1995.

Her mother remembers her as an active young woman who loved helping other people.

According to Martinez, Colleen volunteered with Special Olympics, helped children with disabilities at school and enjoyed working with computers.

She was also passionate about roller skating and other activities.

“She did a lot of stuff for the school system,” Martinez recalled.

Colleen had a particular fascination with computers and enjoyed building and taking them apart with her stepfather.

One of her favorite T-shirts reportedly carried the words “computer geek.”

Her family eventually turned that shirt into a teddy bear — something Martinez continues to keep as a reminder of her daughter.

A PHONE CALL THAT BECAME HER LAST

Colleen had traveled from Florida to Tennessee to attend the Job Corps program in Knoxville.

On the evening of January 12, 1995, she attempted to call her mother.

The call was brief and was interrupted by a poor connection.

Martinez tried to call her daughter back around 10 or 10:15 p.m.

But Colleen was already gone.

“I couldn’t get back with her,” Martinez recalled.

That brief phone call has remained one of the memories Martinez carries with her more than three decades later.

PIKE WAS CONVICTED AND SENTENCED TO DEATH

Pike was 18 when Colleen was killed.

She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1996.

Her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was also convicted and received a life sentence. Another young woman involved in the case, Shadolla Peterson, testified for the prosecution and avoided prison time.

Pike has never claimed that she was innocent of Colleen’s killing.

Her more recent legal efforts have instead focused on her death sentence, the circumstances of her childhood and challenges to Tennessee’s execution procedures.

Her attorneys have also argued that her history of severe childhood abuse and other circumstances should be considered in determining whether her execution should proceed.

THE EXECUTION HAS BECOME A MAJOR LEGAL BATTLE

Pike’s scheduled execution has generated extensive litigation over Tennessee’s lethal-injection protocol and alternative methods of execution.

Her lawyers argued that medical and psychological circumstances could expose her to severe suffering during lethal injection.

The case also raised questions about Pike’s Buddhist beliefs and whether she could be required to participate in choosing an alternative method of execution.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has nevertheless kept the execution date in place.

Pike is currently scheduled to be executed on September 30, 2026.

“I’M HER VOICE”

As the date approaches, Martinez says she has spent more than three decades fighting to keep her daughter’s memory alive.

She has repeatedly spoken publicly about Colleen, not because she wants the world to remember the details of the crime, but because she wants people to remember the young woman Colleen was.

“I’m her voice,” Martinez has said.

She remembers Colleen’s kindness, her work with children, her love of computers and roller skating, and the little things that made her daughter who she was.

Those memories, she says, are what remain after 31 years.

A MOTHER’S LONG JOURNEY TO TENNESSEE

Martinez is now preparing to travel from Florida to Tennessee for the September 30 execution.

The trip comes at considerable emotional and financial cost.

A Jacksonville-based victims’ advocacy organization has been helping raise money to cover her travel expenses so she can be present in Tennessee.

For Martinez, being there is about more than witnessing a legal sentence.

She has described it as keeping a promise to her daughter and trying to close a chapter that has remained open for more than three decades.

But even if the execution takes place, Martinez knows it will not bring Colleen back.

“THE SWEET LITTLE GIRL THAT SHE WAS”

What Martinez ultimately wants is for Colleen to be remembered for the life she had — rather than only for the way it ended.

After decades of court proceedings, parole hearings, media coverage and renewed attention surrounding Pike, Martinez fears that the person behind the case has been lost.

Her hope is simpler.

That people remember Colleen Slemmer as a daughter, a friend and the “sweet little girl” her mother remembers — not merely as the victim in a notorious death-penalty case.

As September 30 approaches, May Martinez is preparing once again to face the place where her daughter’s story ended.

And after 31 years, she is still trying to make sure the world remembe