Thirty-one years after Colleen Slemmer’s torture and murder, the former Knoxville police chief who investigated the case says he cannot forget it. Phil Keith, who led the department from 1988 until 2004, told Fox News Digital that the “satanic” crime scene remains vivid in his memory.
“I’ll remember this case to the day I die,” Keith said. He recalled the moment he shut his eyes and saw the scene again, complete and terrible.
Crime Scene Details
Slemmer was 19 when she died. Three classmates from the Knoxville Job Corps Center lured her to her death, promising to pick up marijuana they claimed to have hidden in a park. The leader of the group was Christa Pike, then 18, now 50.
They tortured Slemmer for nearly an hour, Keith said. They beat her, cut her, and gagged her with a hair tie. When she tried to escape, they held her down. When she begged for her life, they slashed her with blades. When she cried, they gagged her again.
Pike kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull as a trophy and showed it to classmates before her arrest. Her boyfriend at the time, also convicted but spared the death penalty because he was 17, carved pentagrams into her chest and face.
An expert testifying at trial said the attack had “satanic elements” and involved “the phenomenon of collective aggression, in which a group of people become emotionally aroused and ‘the end result is that they engage in some kind of violent, extremely violent activity.'”
Execution Attempt Timeline
Pike was scheduled for execution on Wednesday. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief stay amid a last-minute appeal, but the Supreme Court lifted it. Pike received two doses of lethal injection and survived.
She spent Thursday in an undisclosed hospital in critical condition, receiving “lifesaving care.” On Friday, her attorneys Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen said she was unconscious and on a ventilator.
“She is critically ill, unconscious, intubated and receiving breathing assistance through a ventilator,” they added. “She is being treated for the serious effects of the pentobarbital administered during the execution attempt, including significant injuries to both arms.”
What Keith Regrets
Keith said he wishes the Knoxville Police Department had offered modern post-trauma therapy counseling at the time. The department did not have therapy services or counseling, he said.
“All I have to do is shut my eyes, and I can see everything,” Keith said. “These images will never be erased.”
He spoke of Pike with harsh words. “She represents pure evil,” he said.
The Family Connection
Randy Spivey, one of Pike’s attorneys, revealed during a news briefing Thursday that Slemmer’s mother was on Pike’s mind in the hours before her scheduled execution.
“I cannot imagine what this was like for the family of Ms. Slemmer, or anyone who loves that family or is close to that family — or anyone who loves Christa or is close to Christa,” Spivey said. “This is awful, and this kind of thing should never happen again.”
The two families have now been connected by a crime scene neither of them chose. One family lost a daughter; the other has lived with the case for more than three decades.
Key Facts Box
– Victim: Colleen Slemmer, 19
– Suspect: Christa Pike, 18 at the time, now 50
– Date of murder: More than 30 years ago
– Execution date: Wednesday; attempt failed
– Attorneys: Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen
Timeline of Key Events
| Date | Event |
|——|——-|
| More than 30 years ago | Slemmer murdered |
| 1988–2004 | Keith chief of police in Knoxville |
| Wednesday | Execution attempt; two doses given |
| Thursday | Pike in undisclosed hospital, critical condition |
| Friday | Attorneys report Pike unconscious, on ventilator |
The botched execution has drawn renewed attention to a case that remains in the public mind. Keith’s haunting is not new; it has simply found a fresh context.
Source material: “Former Knoxville police chief says investigators are still haunted by Colleen Slemmer's murder 31 years later,” Fox News.
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