A chilling police interview from Christa Gail Pike after she committed the crime which landed her the death penalty has resurfaced.
Three decades after the horrific murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, Pike, now 49, has been sentenced to death by the US state of Tennessee.
As many as 27 US states still offer the death penalty, with the state of Utah said to be seeking it for the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, but Pike is set to become the first woman in over 200 years to receive the punishment in Tennessee, and just the 19th woman in history.
Pike was found guilty of the January 1995 murder of 19-year-old Slemmer who she allegedly believed was trying to steal her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp.
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She was just 18 when she committed the murder, and 20 when she was convicted, although what on the surface appeared to be a crime of passion had some incredibly troubling undertones.
Slemmer was savagely beaten, stabbed, and bludgeoned by Pike, before the teenager carved a pentagram into her chest. When her body was eventually discovered, it was first thought to be an animal corpse, while Pike reportedly showed off a piece of her victim's skull to other students at school.
Pike was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1996, making her the youngest person on death row at the age of 20.
She's been on death row in Tennessee ever since but her 30-year prison stint will soon be over. Pike's lawyers suggest that she would not have received the same sentence today, due to her childhood issues, age and mental health problems, which are perhaps reflected in the chilling audio said to be from her initial police interview.
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In it, she says: "I wasn't even thinking, I just like blacked out because she made me so mad. And I just kept hitting her and hitting her and hitting her, and she was going 'please stop, please stop.'"
Although Pike has claimed that she has changed 'drastically since she was a teenager', another 25 years were added onto her sentence when she was found guilty of the attempted murder of a fellow inmate in 2003.
In a letter to a local publication, she wrote: "Think back to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager. Well, mine happened to be huge, unforgettable and ruined countless lives. I was a mentally ill 18 year old kid. It took me numerous years to even realise the gravity of what I'd done.
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"Even more to accept how many lives I effected. I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime."
However, Pike's remorse seemingly wasn't enough to convince the US state that she should be released and her execution has been scheduled for September 2026.
Topics: True Crime, Crime
James Moorhouse