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

As Tennessee prepares to execute Christa Pike, the mother of the woman Pike was convicted of murdering is speaking out — saying that years of attention surrounding the case have often focused on the person who killed her daughter rather than on the young woman whose life was taken.

May Martinez, the mother of Colleen Slemmer, is preparing to travel more than eight hours from Florida to Nashville to witness Pike’s scheduled execution on September 30.

For Martinez, being there is about remembering Colleen.

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

Colleen Slemmer was 19 when she was murdered in Knoxville in January 1995 while attending a Job Corps training program.

Pike, who was 18 at the time, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. She is now 50 and remains the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.

REMEMBERING COLLEEN

Long before her name became associated with a notorious murder case, Slemmer was remembered by her family as a young woman who wanted to build a future for herself.

Her mother has described her as kind, independent and deeply interested in computers. Slemmer volunteered with the Special Olympics and helped children with disabilities. She eventually left Florida to attend the Job Corps program in Knoxville, hoping to pursue training in computing.

For Martinez, the upcoming execution represents the end of more than three decades of waiting.

She has said that she plans to make the long drive from Florida to Tennessee even if attending comes at a personal financial cost.

“It is never about the victims,” she said, expressing her frustration that Colleen’s life can be overshadowed by coverage of Pike and the circumstances surrounding the death sentence.

PIKE’S EXECUTION REMAINS SCHEDULED

Pike is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on September 30.

If carried out, the execution would make Pike the first woman Tennessee has put to death in more than 200 years. She would also be the first person executed in the state in the modern era for a crime committed at age 18.

Pike’s attorneys have sought clemency, pointing to her age at the time of the crime and a documented history of severe childhood abuse and trauma. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee denied her clemency request on September 28, saying he would not intervene. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently rejected an emergency request to halt the execution.

Martinez, meanwhile, has continued to speak publicly about her daughter.

For her, the story is not only about a death sentence or the woman facing execution.

It is about Colleen Slemmer — a 19-year-old daughter whose life, dreams and future ended in 1995.

And as the execution date approaches, her mother wants people to remember that Colleen existed long before she became a name in a notorious criminal case.