SAN ANTONIO — Christa Pike is reported to still be alive after Tennessee failed to execute her, administering a lethal drug twice.
John North, a senior investigative journalist with WBIR who witnessed the execution described Pike’s condition afterward.
“At times, it appeared labored. She was snoring at times, but she was still breathing,” North said.
Morgan Seeley, the niece of Colleen Slemmer — the woman Pike was convicted of killing — said the outcome devastated her family.
“The fact that she did not die made my grandma very sad. I talked to her this morning, and she was crying,” Seeley said.
Much of Slemmer’s immediate family now lives in San Antonio. They shared photographs of her with us as they reflected on the loss that has followed their family for decades.
Seeley never had the opportunity to meet Slemmer. In 1995, Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in connection with Slemmer’s killing in Tennessee. Prosecutors said Slemmer, Pike’s classmate at a job training facility, was lured into a wooded area, where she was tortured, beaten, stabbed and killed. A pentagram carved into her body.
Seeley said her family has struggled with the situation since.
“They always talked about the good. They couldn’t talk about the bad much because it was so brutal,” Seeley said.
Seeley said there has been extensive discussion about allegations involving Pike’s difficult childhood and sexual abuse as possible factors in the killing. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute effort Wednesday evening to halt the execution.
“It didn’t make sense, because everyone has some sort of issue, and they don’t go out there and kill people,” Seeley said.
Seeley’s mother, Slemmer’s sister, died while waiting for Pike’s execution. Seeley said one of the final memories Slemmer and her mother shared was a playful disagreement over the last bowl of Fruity Pebbles before Slemmer left for the training facility.
“Colleen bought that with her own money. So it was like, ‘Hey, I was saving that,’ you know? But she loved Fruity Pebbles, and my mom did, too. And I guess she ate the last bowl of it,” Seeley said.
As Pike’s execution remains in limbo, Seeley said her family is holding on to hope that justice will prevail.
Since the failed execution attempt, Tennessee’s governor has paused executions till the end of the year. We reached out to ask whether the state would consider lifting that pause sooner but had not received a response.
An attorney for Pike spoke today about the failed execution, describing it as torture and asking for Pike’s death sentence to be commuted. The attorney said Pike is in critical condition and receiving life-saving care.
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