“IT IS NEVER ABOUT THE VICTIMS” — COLLEEN SLEMMER’S MOTHER SPEAKS OUT AS CHRISTA PIKE EXECUTION NEARS

With just days remaining before Christa Pike is scheduled to be executed in Tennessee, the mother of the woman Pike was convicted of killing is speaking publicly about a pain she has carried for more than three decades.

May Martinez, the mother of Colleen Slemmer, says the attention surrounding the case has too often centered on the woman sentenced to death — while the young woman who lost her life has faded from public view.

For Martinez, that is something she refuses to allow.

“It is never about the victims,” Martinez said in an interview reported by WBIR. “It is like Colleen never existed.”

A JOURNEY THAT BEGAN 31 YEARS AGO

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

She had been attending the Job Corps program when she became involved with Pike, who was 18 at the time, and Pike’s then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17.

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Shipp was also convicted in connection with the killing and received a life sentence because he was under 18 at the time of the crime. He later became eligible for parole.

A third participant, Shadolla Peterson, testified against Pike and Shipp and received probation.

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

MARTINEZ PLANS TO MAKE THE LONG JOURNEY

Pike’s execution is currently scheduled for 10 a.m. CDT on September 30, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

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

For Martinez, being there is deeply important.

She and her husband, Raul, live in Florida and face a journey of roughly 10 to 11 hours each way by car.

The trip means paying for gasoline, accommodation, food and care for their animals while they are away.

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

Yet Martinez says she is determined to make the trip.

The financial pressure is so serious that she said they would even consider missing a mortgage payment for one month if that were what it took to be present for the execution.

For Martinez, the journey is not about celebration.

It is about keeping a promise to her daughter.

“COLLEEN GETS JUSTICE”

More than 30 years after Slemmer’s death, Martinez says the pain has never disappeared.

She has continued speaking about Colleen and advocating for justice in her daughter’s case.

“I just want to see it happen,” Raul said of the execution, according to First Coast News.

May responded that 31 years was long enough to wait.

The couple’s planned trip represents what they hope will be the final chapter of a case that has shaped much of their lives since 1995.

REMEMBERING THE WOMAN BEHIND THE CASE

Martinez has also spoken about who Colleen was before her name became associated with a murder case.

She described her daughter as someone who was active and adventurous.

Colleen enjoyed running marathons and roller skating and was interested in computers. She also loved working with children and babysitting.

For her mother, those memories are central to understanding what was lost.

The case may now be focused on an execution date, legal filings and last-minute appeals, but Martinez continues to insist that the story should also remember the 19-year-old woman whose life ended in 1995.

PIKE’S FINAL DAYS ARE ALSO THE SUBJECT OF LEGAL CHALLENGES

While Martinez prepares to travel to Nashville, Pike’s lawyers continue efforts to stop or delay the execution.

Her legal team has filed a 226-page clemency petition asking Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment without parole.

The petition focuses heavily on Pike’s childhood, including allegations of severe abuse and trauma, as well as arguments concerning her age at the time of the crime and her subsequent incarceration.

Pike’s attorneys have also challenged aspects of Tennessee’s execution procedures.

As of September 26, however, the state’s scheduled execution date remains September 30. The Tennessee Department of Correction has confirmed the planned time and location.

A MOTHER WHO DOES NOT WANT HER DAUGHTER FORGOTTEN

For May Martinez, the approaching execution is not simply the end of a legal process.

It is a moment she has imagined for more than three decades.

But beneath the legal arguments and attention surrounding Pike, Martinez wants people to remember another name.

Colleen Slemmer.

She was 19 when her life was taken.

She was a daughter, a young woman with interests and plans, and someone whose mother has spent 31 years carrying the loss.

Now Martinez is preparing to drive hundreds of miles from Florida to Tennessee so she can be there.

Not because she wants the spotlight.

But because, in her words, she does not want the world to forget that Colleen existed.