March 7, 2024 • 39 mins
Christa Pike was 18-years-old when she thought her 19-year-old job corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, was trying to steal her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. Pike spent over 30-minutes beating Colleen Slemmer with her hands and feet, as well as a box cutter and a meat cleaver. Slemmer tried to escape. Shipp,17, caught her so Pike could continue the beating. Pike carved a pentagram into Slemmer's chest, used the box cutter to slice her throat. When she didn't die, Pike picked up a chunk of asphalt and slammed it onto Slemmer's head. The next day Pike brought a piece of Slemmer's skull to breakfast and told classmates what she had done. Convicted of murder and sentenced to death, Christa Pike now wants a judge to vacate her death sentence. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack detail the story that Joe Scott says is the worst case he has ever seen.
Transcript Highlights
00:00:31 Joseph Scott Morgan says he has never seen a crime so vile
00:02:10 Woman on death row in Tennessee
00:05:16 Talk about dynamic between suspects and victim
00:10:09 Description of box cutter and meat cleaver
00:15:03 Discussion of pentagram carved into chest
00:20:56 Description of wounds to victim
00:25:15 Talk about how to occult and satanism factor into case
00:30:40 Description of taking piece of skull as a trophy
00:35:50 Discussion about letting murderer out of prison
00:39:15 Talk about sadistic murder
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. If you ever come
in contact with someone that works in forensics, a specifically
medical legal death investigation and they tell you that they've
(00:29):
seen it all, or that they've seen everything, don't walk
run away from them because they're lying. No one ever
sees everything. There's too many variables. You've got geography, you've
(00:49):
got modes of death, you've got circumstances, but most of all,
you've got individuals, and all of those pieces come into
play and they make each case unique. But there are
those events that mark you as a death investigator, those
of us that I think that some people think that
(01:11):
we're imbued with some kind of supernatural strength because we're
around death all the time. There are those events that
cross our paths over the years that do in fact
mark us that we can't quite seem to escape even
in our dreams. Today, I'm thinking about investigators in Knoxville, Tennessee,
(01:37):
specifically Knox County and a case that occurred back in
nineteen ninety five, and how many of those people might
be retired by now. But I can guarantee you this,
when they close their eyes at night, they can still
see this crime scene and they can still see the
body of Colleen Slimmer. Today, we're going to talk about
(02:03):
one of the most brutal homicides that ever took place
in that part of Tennessee. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan, and
this is Bodybags David. I'd been doing some reading and
came across something the other day that really caught my attention.
(02:27):
You know, you and I spent a lot of time
researching cases. And the reason it's kind of popped onto
my radar, I think was the fact that it involved
the only woman on Tennessee death Row, and that was,
you know significant, She's the only person that his own
(02:48):
death row. She was placed on death row. I think
she was actually convicted when she was nineteen, but the
event happened when she was eighteen. But that's that's not
the only thing that drew me to this case from
a forensic standpoint. When I began to read, because I
had not heard of this case. When I began to
read and I came across these three words, asphalt, box cutter,
(03:11):
and pentagram, I couldn't help myself. I had to read
about this case, and you know, there's certain things that
you wish she had never read, but I felt like
that we needed to tell this tale because this case,
her case, this lady on death row, this case has
come back into the news just recently because she she's
trying to get her case. She's trying to get off
(03:33):
death row, essentially, is what's happening.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
She's trying to have her sentence changed because of her
age at the time the crime was committed.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, I can't. You can't take the measure of what
this poor victim went through. And that's what body bags
is about, Dave. That's what it's about the victims. It's
not about the perpetrators. The perpetrators are means to an
end to tell the stories of the victims. And this
poor young lady, she was purely a victim.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Christa Pike was eighteen. Colleen Slimmer, the victim, was nineteen.
To Darryl's ship, that's another name we need to throw
in here, he was seventeen. Now let me share you
very quickly, the reason we've been talking about this case
is because to Darryl's Ship was boyfriends with Christa Pike.
Christa Pike was eighteen to Darryl's ship seventeen when they
(04:20):
committed this heinous crime together. Colleen Slimmer was nineteen and
they were all part of Job Corp. Krista Pike had
dropped out of high school and floated around joined Job war.
This is an abused girl. I'm not going to justify anything.
I'm just pointing out that Christa Pike had an upbringing
(04:41):
of the worst kind. She was abused in every way
that it's possible, and her mother had her using drugs
before she was a teenager. I only say that as
knowing a little background. She's in job Corps. It's now
nineteen ninety five and Colleen Slimmer signs a two year
deal to be with now in that job Corps in Knoxville,
(05:03):
Christa Pike and to Daryl Ship hooked up. They became
boyfriend girlfriend, and Krista Pike was jealous of Colleen Slimmer.
She thought Colleen was putting the moves on her boyfriend,
and Christa Pike started harassing Colleen Slimmer. It got so
bad that Colleen actually called home and said, Mom, I
got to get out of here. I've got to come
(05:24):
home please, And she said, you can't, Dear, you signed
it to your contract. You've got to do it. So
Christa Pike to Darryls Ship and another person get together
and they invite Colleen Slimmer out, say, hey, we want
to bury the hatchet. We stopped the abuse, stop the harassment.
We're going to let's go over here. We're going to
go out the woods. We're going to smoke some weed
like a peace pipe. That's what we're going to do.
That's how they lured Colleen Slimmer out of the dorm
(05:47):
that January twelfth, nineteen ninety five. They lure her to
an area of the campus Tennessee campus in Knoxville, and
it was a very out of the way area where
they could then beat. This attack took thirty to five
forty minutes, according to Christapike. Now, Joe, you mentioned a
slab of asphalt, a box cutter, pentagram. When Colleen Slimmer
(06:08):
had been lured out there, it was to be attacked
by Krista Pike and to Daryl Ship joined in. The
beating took thirty to forty minutes, and during that time
Slimmer taunted, beat, slashed, and carved with a box cutter
and a meat cleaver. A mini meat cleaver was used
in the attack. They abused Colleen Slimmer at nineteen years old,
(06:28):
to the point where it was so vicious and evil.
They carved a pentagram into her chest. And then when
she wouldn't die, Krista Pike said, the beat won't die,
I want to see her brains flow. So she grabbed
a slab of asphalt and slammed it down onto the
head multiple times on Colleen Slimmer until her brains flowed
(06:54):
out of her head. Then Krysta Pike, as a souven
took a chunk of that skull from Colleen Slimmer and
the three people walked back to the dorm, went back
to bed, and the next morning went to breakfast and
christ the Pike showed off that piece of skull just
(07:18):
people in the job corps and told them what she
had done, told them what it was. Can you imagine
what kind of person could do that?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Well? I think that it's the kind of person that
a defense attorney would argue was not in their right mind.
And of course the jury at the time didn't see
it that way. As a matter of fact, they they
held her fully responsible regardless of what kind of upbringing
she had had, how much trauma she had endured and
(07:55):
the way they were in I'm obviously no attorney, don't
want to be. They had held that there's no delineation
between brain maturity between the ages of seventeen, which makes
you a juvenile, and eighteen, which gives you adult status. Okay,
(08:18):
and look, yeah, that's you know, that's arguable. I suppose, however,
there has to be a delineation somewhere in time in
the state of Tennessee has set that delineation at eighteen.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And the reason this battle has come out is because,
as we said, she CHRISTA. Pike has tried to get
her death sentence removed. Now, by the way, at this taping,
it's been twenty nine years, twenty nine years since the
murder of Colleing Slimmer. The victim was nineteen. It's been
twenty nine years, Joe, and this woman is still on
(08:58):
death row. She's lived, yes, she's still and she's arguing
that she'd the argument as well to Darryl Ship, who
was also there and also did contribute to the beating.
He was seventeen at the time of the murder and
his sentence was life in prison with the possibility of
parole after twenty five years. Something along those lines were
plus twenty five years. Yeah, okay, sentence to life with
(09:21):
the possibility of parole, whereas Krista Pike was sentenced to death.
And that's the argument. He was seventeen, she was eighteen. Now,
the other person that was with him I mentioned, I
didn't deal with her a lot. Shadola Peterson was nineteen
at the time. She turned state's witness and received probation
in the case. I don't agree with that, but that's
(09:44):
another day for a lawyer to deal with. But she did.
She walked away. I've read through all of Christoph Pike's
statement on what she claims happened, and Joe. Usually when
I read a case and I see the statement by
the suspect, I think it's probably fifty percent accurate, and
it is less than what I would expect. This was
(10:05):
the most difficult thing I've ever read.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, it literally, it literally makes vomit rise up in
your throat as you're that's really forgive me for saying that,
but that's really the only way I could actually describe it,
because you're talking about a fellow human being that is
capable of doing this and gloats over it. Essentially and
fully admits it. She didn't she didn't run from it.
(10:30):
And when you think about the horror that was inflicted
upon this poor victim, Colleen, there was actually one moment
during this attack where this person looks around at the
others that are there and she says, forgive me, but
(10:53):
she says this, this bitch just won't die, you know,
And so she's fully aware of what she is doing.
As matter of fact, going back to you know, the
instruments that were used here, you can argue that that
the that the asphalt was probably there. It's a weapon
(11:16):
of what we referred to as a weapon of opportunity
or a weapon of convenience is a common term that
she used. But do you walk around, Dave with a
meat cleaver in your back pocket? Do you?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
And I guess if you work at a grocery store,
which I did when I was a kid doing stock
I carried a box cutter with me everywhere I went.
Most people don't, you know, but they came with a
box cutter in hand. They're working for job corps. Maybe
they had jobs as stockers. I don't know. They had
access to a box cutter, but they purposed to go
(11:47):
out there with it. And you know, one of the
things that she that Pike had alluded to in here
is that you said, you know, the peace pipe. They
they were going to smoke weed while they were out there.
And this is actually the location on on campus. On
campus is adjacent to the old steam plant at ut
(12:07):
and it is isolated. I saw something quite fascinating in
one of the newsreels from the time back then, which
was kind of interesting to see. Within I think it
was about within twenty four hours of this having been processed.
The scene. The reporter was standing on the very location
(12:28):
it was not locked down, standing on the very location
where Colleen's body had been found, and he walks over Dave,
and this was like kind of this incredible moment. He's
standing there and Dave, there is a pile of fractured asphalt,
and he walks over and he says, this is where
(12:50):
the asphalt came from. And he reaches down, he picks
up a chunk of asphalt and he holds it up
and he said, they crushed your skull with a piece
of asphalts similar to this. It's probably from that same grouping.
You know that it was all busted up. It was
an old road and they just kind of dumped the
stuff back there, but they took her back there with
the specific aim of taking her life and not just
(13:13):
taking her life. It's one thing to take someone's life,
but it's altogether another thing to torture them, and in
Colleen's case, that's what they did. When my memoir came
(13:51):
out a few years ago, Blood Beneath My Feet, my
publisher was kind of an off the beaten path publisher,
what they referred to as a boutique publisher, but he
was well known in Hollywood and famously, you know, published
a lot of stuff that other people would not touch
because of the nature of it. And I had kind
(14:13):
of an uncomfortable moment because he had the publisher had
actually befriended Anton Levey and had re published the Satanic
Bible some years back. I was like, Oh Lord, what
have I gotten myself into? And all I could see
at that moment in time was my book about death
(14:34):
and my life around death being associated with Satanic Bible.
And of course, you know, publishers publish all kinds of things.
You know, it doesn't mean anything but the idea of
a pentagram kind of entering into this and entering into
this particular case, it made me reflective for a moment
the day that I found out some of the other
works that have been published by this company, and I
(14:55):
was thinking, what drives someone to take what has been
you know, declared essentially, I guess, by the Church of
Satan as the symbol of Satanism. What would cause a
young woman, what would give her the thought in her mind?
What would be the motivation for taking a box cutter
(15:17):
which has got roughly if you've never seen a box cutter,
the blade on it at its greatest thing is diagonal
in shape. It's got a very sharp point on it.
But the blade surface itself is only about an inch
and a half in length most of the time, and
there's more of the blades inside of the device. It's
got to handle with. It's actuated by the thumb. You
(15:37):
can kind of press it out and then once one
gets toulen, you kind of, you know, unscrew it and
then re engage with a new blade very sharp initially.
But how do you feel comfortable enough, I think, to
not only carve onto another human beings body, But what
are you trying to say by taking this young woman
(16:00):
and carving a pentagram not only into her forehead but
also onto her chest. David, it's just it's beyond the pail.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
There are several things when you pointed this story out
to me, but back to the pentagram. When I was
telling you about Christa Pike and her upbringing, alluding to
having a rough childhood, it led her down a path
that was not your typical eighteen year old female at
the time, and seventeen year old to Darryl Ship susceptible
(16:28):
to a strong woman who they dabbled in the occult.
They had dabbled in Satanism. They had dabbled in these things.
I say dabbled because that's the only way one can
explain to young people of difficult backgrounds getting together and
you know, doing drugs and looking at things thinking it's
cool to you know, worship Satan or whatever it is
(16:50):
they were trying to do. But there are a couple
things you mentioned. Torture and when you were talking about
the reporter being able to get out there on the
crime scene the next day, they were able to find
that during this torture, during this beating, that two different
times Colleen Slimmer was able to get up and run
(17:10):
from them and was able to get away far enough
that they ripped her shirt off. That's when they carved
the pentagram in. But more than that, it was to
humiliate her.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yea, and absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
There were away from her body, thirty feet from her body,
thirty feet from where her body was found. They found
a blood pool where she had I don't know if
she expired there, and then they drug her body, but
there was so much physical evidence in that area. That's
why I'm shocked to even think that a reporter was
standing in the midst of it. That they had cleared
(17:42):
the crime scene so quickly. But when the body was found,
the yard serviced individuals that he didn't even think it
was a person. He thought it was an animal carcass
until he got closer.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And I've seen and I think you may have too.
I saw the crime scene images here. And as a
matter of fact, when when she's observed, when Colleen is observed,
when you take that, you know there's a couple of
Just so people understand how we do photography at crime scenes,
we do what is referred to as macro views and microviews,
(18:13):
and kind of let me break that down for you.
If you imagine a compass being in the center of
the scene, okay, north, south, east, and west. We start
off very very broadly. That's our macro shots, and we
will take images Initially they're called overall shots from all
four points of the compass okay, to give you orientation
(18:35):
so that when because that moment is only frozen, it's
frozen for that moment. Tom when there because the remains
they're not going to be there forever. They're going to
be removed, and so you have to capture that. It's
part of documenting what we do. And then once you've
gotten those overall shots, you move in about half the
distance between that outer shot that you took those overalls
(18:58):
to about half the distance, and then you were peat
that process again, and then some people even come in
closer and then do the three hundred and sixty degree
thing again. And then you start to take microshots where
you're focusing in on individual pieces of evidence. You know,
you had mentioned the blood, for instance, there may have
been drag marks, there may have been bits of clothing.
(19:20):
You know, they had talked about ripping her clothing off,
but when you see her, Dave, you can tell. I
think the only way you could really describe her remains
is that she was pummeled. It looked as though she
had been beaten into the ground, and she was lying,
And anybody in medicine kind of knows what I'm going
(19:42):
to say. She was in what's referred to as as
a left recumbent position, so that means that the left
side of her body was actually contacting the ground. Her
right leg is over her left, She's still wearing her jeans,
and her arms like almost like a final cry, are
(20:04):
extended up above her head, almost as if you know,
she's pleading for no more. And the evidence itself that
when you begin to examine these injuries to her body,
they belie a sense of horror that generally cannot be
expressed to most people when you see it. Somebody had
(20:27):
talked at I think that was the news people. They
had said that she had sustained Initially they said multiple
stab wounds. Well, these are not stab wounds. These are
what we refer to as incized injuries. So when you
begin to see the difference between the way we define
a stab wound versus an incized woe, a stab wound
(20:49):
is narrow and deep. Okay, So if you imagine a
knife being plunged into a body. An incized woon is
what many people refer to as a cut. It's a slice. Okay,
She's got multiple slices all of her body, and these
are not even part of the pentagram. Are slices, obviously,
but Dave, her throat was cut multiple times, and you've
(21:12):
got what are referred to as superficial in sized areas
that just go into what's referred to as the subcutaneous
layer of the skin.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
But they refer to the gaping maw of her neck.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
There is and here's the troubling thing about it. Let
me just so that I am just absolutely accurate with this,
and I'm looking at the images as we speak right now.
From what I can see, I'm counting in this one view.
In addition to this, you use the term in right,
you are gaping maw. I'm seeing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
(21:48):
eight eight superficial. This is on her neck alone, though
I'm seeing eight superficial incized ones there. You know what
that means to me? That means that at not only
were they trying to cut her throat, but they were
torturing her. Because this is a superficial event. If you
wanted to kill her, you could take that box cutter
(22:10):
and drive it into her throat and end her life
pretty quickly. That's not what happened, because she's got these
marks in addition to her neck, she's got them all
over her chest, she's got them all over her back,
in addition to these strikes that she sustained with the
meat cleaver that's there, which are chopping injuries. Those are
completely different in appearance than say, for instance, and then
(22:31):
sized injury. And when you see her body overall, remember
I was referring to the recumbent position, she almost Dave
looks as though she's blended into the ground. She's covered
in blood. It doesn't look human. So that her body
doesn't look human upon first glance. I can understand why
(22:54):
this person Dave that discovered her thought that this isn't
this is this can't be real. This can't be real
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Can you imagine when he actually described I went and
read what he said, and he talked about He said
it in such a way that you could understand he
was talking about it in the nicest way he could.
He said he didn't realize what he was looking until
he saw her breasts, and that's when he knew it
was a female, a young woman, and then he was horrified.
(23:22):
Until then he didn't have enough information to go on
to be mortified. You know what he is saying. But Joe,
take it the next step. Because you mentioned I didn't
realize how many cuts arond the neck. I looked at
the pictures too.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I wish you hadn't. I tell you the truth that
it's one of those things I hate. I feel guilty
because I've subjected you to it. You know, this is
the stuff that I've had to look at my whole life.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Here's the side of me that comes into this when
I read. The first thing I did is I read
the report on christ Pike asking for reconsideration of the
death penalty. Yeah, and I looked at that and I thought, well,
let's you know, when I was eighteen, I did some
stupid stuff too. But this isn't a stupid stuff. This
isn't a flight of fancy. This isn't I'm mad because
(24:06):
this girl upset me and trying to steal my boyfriend,
and I'm gonna hurt her. I'm gonna you know that
this is a planned, not even a chaotic even joke.
This was a planned murder. There was never any plan
for Colleens Slimmer to make it back to the dorm alive.
And I'm I'm sadden, to be honest with you that
(24:27):
that the witness who turned on him, Shadola, how they
gave her a free ride when they had all the information.
They didn't need Shadola Peterson to turn state's witness. They
already had this. You're talking about Christoph Pike. The very
next morning, Okay, the next morning, Joe, she's sitting at
the christ at the breakfast table with her other dorm
(24:47):
mates talking about this piece of skull is from Colleen's head.
I killed her last night.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
And there she is displaying it as if it's some
kind of trophy. Well, upon further consideration, Dave, I have
to say, I don't know that this is so much
a case of someone dabbling in Satanism or the occult
as much as it is satanism, because this is one
(25:18):
of the most sadistic homicides I've every born witness to.
(25:43):
I get all kinds of interesting phone calls, Dave, that
you can imagine I'll have people that will reach out
to me because they I don't know, they have a
case they want me to look into, or I'll have
just the most bizarre questions that people might have regarding death.
And it's okay, you know, to get those questions because
(26:03):
people are curious. But I think probably the first time
I ever got this question asked of me, and it
was not It had nothing to do with a phone call.
It had to do I was at a party and
I had someone walk up to me and say, say, hey,
Jos's wondering I'd read somewhere that you can donate your
(26:24):
body to the Body Farm at UT you know, like
a anatomical donation. I was like, yeah, I think you can.
Actually do you know what that involves? You know, I'm
asking right quizzically. Oh yeah, yeah, we know that they
do the decay studies on bodies and this sort of thing.
(26:45):
And what's fascinating about this case that we're talking about today,
Colleen's case, is that, you know, it's it's not Stone's Throw,
but it's very close to actually the location of the
Body Farm at ut And you know, so, did you
know that the body farm actually plays a role in
this particular case, because arguably one of the best forensic
(27:10):
anthropologists anywhere in the world. I'd put him up against
anybody in the world actually was involved in this case,
and it had to do with that bit of skull
that Pike brought to the breakfast table with her that day.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I couldn't imagine what kind of person would think it
was a good thing.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
The arrest on this case took thirty six hours because
of Pike. And so that's why I have such a
problem with Sadela Peterson being let go by turning state's witness.
But how did that piece of skull that Christa Pike
was showing off as a trophy, How did that play
into what took place at trial?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Well, it's significant because you know what you do. What
you do have here is you're displaying an anatomical uh,
an anatomical feature that's easily easily traced back to this
(28:12):
young woman's skull. And just imagine it's kind of like, ah,
let me see, how can I put this?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Could they have traced it back to her at that time?
And could it? Could it? Is there a part of
bone that would actually be untraceable that you could say
I found this on the road.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Well, yeah, I was actually gonna be much more simplistic.
I'm not going to be I'm not going to talk
about anything as sophisticated as DNA here. But what what
I'm what I was going to say is uh uh
it's it is truly like a jigsaw puzzle. And when
you have uh, this fracturing of the skull, and if
(28:48):
you can imagine, uh, Colleen skull looked like uh, it
looked like a fractured egg essentially with bits of the
shell missing. That's that's the easiest way that I can
kind of describe that to a layman. And what happened
(29:09):
was was that a gentleman. And I urge anybody hearing
this please take a look at this guy. He's fascinating
Doctor Murray Marx. He's a forensic anthropologist. I don't know
if he's still at you t or not, but he was.
He famously ran the body Farm after doctor Bass who
founded it doctor Bill Bass, Murray Marx took it over
(29:33):
and managed the body Farm. I don't know if Murray
is still there or not, but anyway, he became involved
in this case. And the key here is that they
wanted they the prosecution wanted to be able to demonstrate
I think, not just the physical assemblage that they would have,
(29:53):
you know, because it's very common for a forensic anthropologist
to take a fragment, it's goal or any other fragmented bone,
and they have this unbelievable skill set, David. They have
the patients of a watchmaker. They can take these little
particulate bits and bring them back together. It's amazing to watch.
And they I think that not only did they want
(30:15):
to anatomically place this bit of skull back in there,
but it was through this demonstration I think that they
were able to say, Okay, this is what they did
to calling, this is what they did. Not only did
they crush her skull, she sustained multiple fractures in her skull,
(30:40):
but they took a trophy as well, and we have
to begin to consider, you know, really what that means
in this case, and how does it factor into the
consideration as to whether or not she needs to be
on death row? You know, are there mitigating facts here?
(31:00):
I don't know, because I'm not an attorney and I'm
certainly not a psychologist. What I do know is that
the physical evidence here demonstrates somebody that was very purposed uh,
in accomplishing this task. You've got this poor young girl
that has been sliced all over her body. If if
these these photographs are just absolutely beyond the pale a
(31:23):
matter of fact, I can't believe that they're they're actually
you know, spinning about out there on the internet. The
depth of them, the amount of pain that would have
been associated just with those and yet she's not you
know what what this person said, She's not dying. Yeah,
she's not going to die from these superficial injuries that
(31:45):
you've inflicted. But it's going to cause such an amazing
amount of pain and in the last moments of Colleen's life.
That's why I use the term sadistic earlier. This it
goes to torture. It absolutely goes to.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Torture, actually defined by Christa Pike. You know, I told
you how reading her statement of what took place, and
it's a very long statement. She exp she actually explains
this in living color, like she's reliving it as she
gives her statement to police, telling them what transpired. There
were several times in the beating process that lasted thirty
(32:21):
to forty minutes, and I think it might have lasted
a lot longer, right, But you know this is from
her from Christa Pike's account, where she as soon as
they got to the area, Christa immediately starts pounding on her. Colleen.
She hits her in the head with her knee several times.
She is putting her knee her head on the ground
(32:42):
several times, and Colleen is screaming, why are you doing this?
Why are you doing this? And she's you know, because
of him, and they let her back up. She tried
to run, Colleen, or Christa said, when she tried to
run away. He she didn't name him, but he, her boyfriend,
chased her down, brought her back. She again, she's getting pummeled,
(33:02):
she's getting hit, she's getting her head bashed in, she's
getting kicked. When she's on the ground, she's being kicked.
And she gets up and runs again again she has
caught and drug back. That's when one of the times
when she got up and ran, one of the cuts.
And this is Krista Pike said. The long cut on
her back was the second time she tried to run.
She cut her in the back because she was trying
(33:24):
to kill her then, but she wouldn't die. I look
at this over and over. I've read this and I
can't think what kind of person Joe I mean, she
wants us to believe that she should be taken off
death row because it's been so many years that we're
supposed to forget her description of what she said she
did to this nineteen year old girl who did nothing
(33:44):
but want to be in job corps. She terrorized her
for weeks leading up to it, lured her into an
area where she could beat her. She had two friends
standing by to make sure the girl couldn't get away.
Then she beat her repeatedly about out the head, the body.
She kicked her, She bruised her, and she cut her.
She used a mini meat cleaver, she used a box cutter,
(34:07):
and then when she wouldn't die, she threw us and
she couldn't move. She was laying on the ground, she
could no longer get up. She dropped a piece of
asphalt on her head to crush her skull to make
her brain come out, and then had the temerity to
grab a piece of that head and take it with
her as a trophy.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
You know. And there's a statement that Pike May two
that is kind of a curious statement. She is quoted
as saying that I just felt mean that day? What
what what is that? S What does that entail? You
just feel mean that day? Because I got to tell
(34:49):
you I've I've had I've been mean before in my life,
been mean to people. I think that many people in
our audience can understand that. But this is not This
is not being mean, all right. This is not something
that you slap your hands child for or put them
in the corner and say, don't do that. You're being
mean to your brother or your sister or whatever the
case might be. This is not mean. This is sadism, yes,
(35:15):
because you're you're looking, you're looking to torture someone. And uh,
you know sometimes I scoff at the saying, you know,
and it's it's wrote. People say it all the time.
Hurting people hurt people, you know. I've heard that over
and over and again throughout my entire life. The problem
is is that hurting people hurt people. The hurt the
(35:37):
hurting people that are hurting people are rarely, if ever,
held accountable for their actions.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
And I'd go further with that. If she didn't beg
for her life, if Colleen Slimmer, if Christoph Pike didn't
report how she begged for her life. Christer Pike took
great pains to say that Colleen Slimmer said, look, I
won't tell anybody what you've done. Just let me go
why she's kicking colleing. Christo Pike told Colleen stop talking
to me, shut up, and she said the reason she
(36:04):
told her to shut it's too hard to hurt somebody
when they're talking to you.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah. I think that that's another factor that enters into this,
because you've got an individual that at that point in
time she was incapable of mercy even though it's being
asked of her. And that goes again to this idea. Okay,
well if we if we don't keep you on death row,
because I can only imagine that that date is approaching
(36:29):
quicker and quicker and quicker, you logic would dictate that
it would have to be what are you going to do?
Are you going to turn her out into the general
population of the prison? I wonder how the other prisoners
would feel about that having her there, because you're talking
about somebody that is not capable of displaying mercy, and
certainly in the instance involving Colleen, that's the case.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
You know, even on top of this, Joe, this wasn't
the only time that she tried to kill somebody. She
was successful in killing Colleen Slimmer. But you know, after
she was in prison, she tried to kill a cell
mate with a shoestring. They actually charged her with attempted murder.
Happened in two thousand and one, after she had been
in prison for five years, she strangled Patricia Jones. Now
(37:13):
that woman didn't die, but they charged christ the Pike
with attempted murder and she was convicted of that. So, yeah,
you want to let that person out that has no
compunction about trying to take the life of somebody.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, And I can't imagine that that would make any
sense whatsoever, you know, I it's it's kind of shocking
when you think about the idea that, Okay, you've already
been convicted of arguably one of the most brutal murders
that has taken place, certainly in Knox County, I would imagine,
(37:49):
and that was well reported and this sort of thing.
How's that rehabilitation going. It doesn't sound like it's going
very well, because five years afterwards you've got her still
attempting to murder someone that's in close proximity to her,
So I would be I would be really shocked. And
from what I understand, David correct me if I'm wrong.
(38:10):
The judge denied. They did denied this motion, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yeah, he a Knox County judge rejected the bid to vacate,
which is the death sentence of Krista Pike. So yeah,
she's still on death row. They have not. I was
looking it up to make sure they have not set
a death date yet. That's something that goes through a
different process. But they had to get through this last
part of it, which they said, no, you know, you
(38:33):
were eighteen, you were in an Adulton, Tennessee at the time
when it happened. And their argument, of course, was that
her boyfriend was seventeen at the time and he was
given life without you know, he wasn't given a death
sentence and she was. I can tell you is that
I felt differently when we started this case than when
after I read her a statement, having read a lot
of admitted you know statements where people admit things yes,
(38:56):
and knowing that they're going to discount their own interaction,
gonna you know, make it lick like less bad for
themselves and if that's her less bad version of what happened, Yeah,
I'm horrified. I wouldn't want to even be in the
prison with her now.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah, because the further you read you realize that it
gets darker and darker and darker. And for Colleen, for Colleen,
she met her end at the hands of the sadistic woman.
I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is body Bags.
Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. If you ever come
in contact with someone that works in forensics, a specifically
medical legal death investigation and they tell you that they've
(00:29):
seen it all, or that they've seen everything, don't walk
run away from them because they're lying. No one ever
sees everything. There's too many variables. You've got geography, you've
(00:49):
got modes of death, you've got circumstances, but most of all,
you've got individuals, and all of those pieces come into
play and they make each case unique. But there are
those events that mark you as a death investigator, those
of us that I think that some people think that
(01:11):
we're imbued with some kind of supernatural strength because we're
around death all the time. There are those events that
cross our paths over the years that do in fact
mark us that we can't quite seem to escape even
in our dreams. Today, I'm thinking about investigators in Knoxville, Tennessee,
(01:37):
specifically Knox County and a case that occurred back in
nineteen ninety five, and how many of those people might
be retired by now. But I can guarantee you this,
when they close their eyes at night, they can still
see this crime scene and they can still see the
body of Colleen Slimmer. Today, we're going to talk about
(02:03):
one of the most brutal homicides that ever took place
in that part of Tennessee. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan, and
this is Bodybags David. I'd been doing some reading and
came across something the other day that really caught my attention.
(02:27):
You know, you and I spent a lot of time
researching cases. And the reason it's kind of popped onto
my radar, I think was the fact that it involved
the only woman on Tennessee death Row, and that was,
you know significant, She's the only person that his own
(02:48):
death row. She was placed on death row. I think
she was actually convicted when she was nineteen, but the
event happened when she was eighteen. But that's that's not
the only thing that drew me to this case from
a forensic standpoint. When I began to read, because I
had not heard of this case. When I began to
read and I came across these three words, asphalt, box cutter,
(03:11):
and pentagram, I couldn't help myself. I had to read
about this case, and you know, there's certain things that
you wish she had never read, but I felt like
that we needed to tell this tale because this case,
her case, this lady on death row, this case has
come back into the news just recently because she she's
trying to get her case. She's trying to get off
(03:33):
death row, essentially, is what's happening.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
She's trying to have her sentence changed because of her
age at the time the crime was committed.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, I can't. You can't take the measure of what
this poor victim went through. And that's what body bags
is about, Dave. That's what it's about the victims. It's
not about the perpetrators. The perpetrators are means to an
end to tell the stories of the victims. And this
poor young lady, she was purely a victim.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Christa Pike was eighteen. Colleen Slimmer, the victim, was nineteen.
To Darryl's ship, that's another name we need to throw
in here, he was seventeen. Now let me share you
very quickly, the reason we've been talking about this case
is because to Darryl's Ship was boyfriends with Christa Pike.
Christa Pike was eighteen to Darryl's ship seventeen when they
(04:20):
committed this heinous crime together. Colleen Slimmer was nineteen and
they were all part of Job Corp. Krista Pike had
dropped out of high school and floated around joined Job war.
This is an abused girl. I'm not going to justify anything.
I'm just pointing out that Christa Pike had an upbringing
(04:41):
of the worst kind. She was abused in every way
that it's possible, and her mother had her using drugs
before she was a teenager. I only say that as
knowing a little background. She's in job Corps. It's now
nineteen ninety five and Colleen Slimmer signs a two year
deal to be with now in that job Corps in Knoxville,
(05:03):
Christa Pike and to Daryl Ship hooked up. They became
boyfriend girlfriend, and Krista Pike was jealous of Colleen Slimmer.
She thought Colleen was putting the moves on her boyfriend,
and Christa Pike started harassing Colleen Slimmer. It got so
bad that Colleen actually called home and said, Mom, I
got to get out of here. I've got to come
(05:24):
home please, And she said, you can't, Dear, you signed
it to your contract. You've got to do it. So
Christa Pike to Darryls Ship and another person get together
and they invite Colleen Slimmer out, say, hey, we want
to bury the hatchet. We stopped the abuse, stop the harassment.
We're going to let's go over here. We're going to
go out the woods. We're going to smoke some weed
like a peace pipe. That's what we're going to do.
That's how they lured Colleen Slimmer out of the dorm
(05:47):
that January twelfth, nineteen ninety five. They lure her to
an area of the campus Tennessee campus in Knoxville, and
it was a very out of the way area where
they could then beat. This attack took thirty to five
forty minutes, according to Christapike. Now, Joe, you mentioned a
slab of asphalt, a box cutter, pentagram. When Colleen Slimmer
(06:08):
had been lured out there, it was to be attacked
by Krista Pike and to Daryl Ship joined in. The
beating took thirty to forty minutes, and during that time
Slimmer taunted, beat, slashed, and carved with a box cutter
and a meat cleaver. A mini meat cleaver was used
in the attack. They abused Colleen Slimmer at nineteen years old,
(06:28):
to the point where it was so vicious and evil.
They carved a pentagram into her chest. And then when
she wouldn't die, Krista Pike said, the beat won't die,
I want to see her brains flow. So she grabbed
a slab of asphalt and slammed it down onto the
head multiple times on Colleen Slimmer until her brains flowed
(06:54):
out of her head. Then Krysta Pike, as a souven
took a chunk of that skull from Colleen Slimmer and
the three people walked back to the dorm, went back
to bed, and the next morning went to breakfast and
christ the Pike showed off that piece of skull just
(07:18):
people in the job corps and told them what she
had done, told them what it was. Can you imagine
what kind of person could do that?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Well? I think that it's the kind of person that
a defense attorney would argue was not in their right mind.
And of course the jury at the time didn't see
it that way. As a matter of fact, they they
held her fully responsible regardless of what kind of upbringing
she had had, how much trauma she had endured and
(07:55):
the way they were in I'm obviously no attorney, don't
want to be. They had held that there's no delineation
between brain maturity between the ages of seventeen, which makes
you a juvenile, and eighteen, which gives you adult status. Okay,
(08:18):
and look, yeah, that's you know, that's arguable. I suppose, however,
there has to be a delineation somewhere in time in
the state of Tennessee has set that delineation at eighteen.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And the reason this battle has come out is because,
as we said, she CHRISTA. Pike has tried to get
her death sentence removed. Now, by the way, at this taping,
it's been twenty nine years, twenty nine years since the
murder of Colleing Slimmer. The victim was nineteen. It's been
twenty nine years, Joe, and this woman is still on
(08:58):
death row. She's lived, yes, she's still and she's arguing
that she'd the argument as well to Darryl Ship, who
was also there and also did contribute to the beating.
He was seventeen at the time of the murder and
his sentence was life in prison with the possibility of
parole after twenty five years. Something along those lines were
plus twenty five years. Yeah, okay, sentence to life with
(09:21):
the possibility of parole, whereas Krista Pike was sentenced to death.
And that's the argument. He was seventeen, she was eighteen. Now,
the other person that was with him I mentioned, I
didn't deal with her a lot. Shadola Peterson was nineteen
at the time. She turned state's witness and received probation
in the case. I don't agree with that, but that's
(09:44):
another day for a lawyer to deal with. But she did.
She walked away. I've read through all of Christoph Pike's
statement on what she claims happened, and Joe. Usually when
I read a case and I see the statement by
the suspect, I think it's probably fifty percent accurate, and
it is less than what I would expect. This was
(10:05):
the most difficult thing I've ever read.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, it literally, it literally makes vomit rise up in
your throat as you're that's really forgive me for saying that,
but that's really the only way I could actually describe it,
because you're talking about a fellow human being that is
capable of doing this and gloats over it. Essentially and
fully admits it. She didn't she didn't run from it.
(10:30):
And when you think about the horror that was inflicted
upon this poor victim, Colleen, there was actually one moment
during this attack where this person looks around at the
others that are there and she says, forgive me, but
(10:53):
she says this, this bitch just won't die, you know,
And so she's fully aware of what she is doing.
As matter of fact, going back to you know, the
instruments that were used here, you can argue that that
the that the asphalt was probably there. It's a weapon
(11:16):
of what we referred to as a weapon of opportunity
or a weapon of convenience is a common term that
she used. But do you walk around, Dave with a
meat cleaver in your back pocket? Do you?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
And I guess if you work at a grocery store,
which I did when I was a kid doing stock
I carried a box cutter with me everywhere I went.
Most people don't, you know, but they came with a
box cutter in hand. They're working for job corps. Maybe
they had jobs as stockers. I don't know. They had
access to a box cutter, but they purposed to go
(11:47):
out there with it. And you know, one of the
things that she that Pike had alluded to in here
is that you said, you know, the peace pipe. They
they were going to smoke weed while they were out there.
And this is actually the location on on campus. On
campus is adjacent to the old steam plant at ut
(12:07):
and it is isolated. I saw something quite fascinating in
one of the newsreels from the time back then, which
was kind of interesting to see. Within I think it
was about within twenty four hours of this having been processed.
The scene. The reporter was standing on the very location
(12:28):
it was not locked down, standing on the very location
where Colleen's body had been found, and he walks over Dave,
and this was like kind of this incredible moment. He's
standing there and Dave, there is a pile of fractured asphalt,
and he walks over and he says, this is where
(12:50):
the asphalt came from. And he reaches down, he picks
up a chunk of asphalt and he holds it up
and he said, they crushed your skull with a piece
of asphalts similar to this. It's probably from that same grouping.
You know that it was all busted up. It was
an old road and they just kind of dumped the
stuff back there, but they took her back there with
the specific aim of taking her life and not just
(13:13):
taking her life. It's one thing to take someone's life,
but it's altogether another thing to torture them, and in
Colleen's case, that's what they did. When my memoir came
(13:51):
out a few years ago, Blood Beneath My Feet, my
publisher was kind of an off the beaten path publisher,
what they referred to as a boutique publisher, but he
was well known in Hollywood and famously, you know, published
a lot of stuff that other people would not touch
because of the nature of it. And I had kind
(14:13):
of an uncomfortable moment because he had the publisher had
actually befriended Anton Levey and had re published the Satanic
Bible some years back. I was like, Oh Lord, what
have I gotten myself into? And all I could see
at that moment in time was my book about death
(14:34):
and my life around death being associated with Satanic Bible.
And of course, you know, publishers publish all kinds of things.
You know, it doesn't mean anything but the idea of
a pentagram kind of entering into this and entering into
this particular case, it made me reflective for a moment
the day that I found out some of the other
works that have been published by this company, and I
(14:55):
was thinking, what drives someone to take what has been
you know, declared essentially, I guess, by the Church of
Satan as the symbol of Satanism. What would cause a
young woman, what would give her the thought in her mind?
What would be the motivation for taking a box cutter
(15:17):
which has got roughly if you've never seen a box cutter,
the blade on it at its greatest thing is diagonal
in shape. It's got a very sharp point on it.
But the blade surface itself is only about an inch
and a half in length most of the time, and
there's more of the blades inside of the device. It's
got to handle with. It's actuated by the thumb. You
(15:37):
can kind of press it out and then once one
gets toulen, you kind of, you know, unscrew it and
then re engage with a new blade very sharp initially.
But how do you feel comfortable enough, I think, to
not only carve onto another human beings body, But what
are you trying to say by taking this young woman
(16:00):
and carving a pentagram not only into her forehead but
also onto her chest. David, it's just it's beyond the pail.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
There are several things when you pointed this story out
to me, but back to the pentagram. When I was
telling you about Christa Pike and her upbringing, alluding to
having a rough childhood, it led her down a path
that was not your typical eighteen year old female at
the time, and seventeen year old to Darryl Ship susceptible
(16:28):
to a strong woman who they dabbled in the occult.
They had dabbled in Satanism. They had dabbled in these things.
I say dabbled because that's the only way one can
explain to young people of difficult backgrounds getting together and
you know, doing drugs and looking at things thinking it's
cool to you know, worship Satan or whatever it is
(16:50):
they were trying to do. But there are a couple
things you mentioned. Torture and when you were talking about
the reporter being able to get out there on the
crime scene the next day, they were able to find
that during this torture, during this beating, that two different
times Colleen Slimmer was able to get up and run
(17:10):
from them and was able to get away far enough
that they ripped her shirt off. That's when they carved
the pentagram in. But more than that, it was to
humiliate her.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yea, and absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
There were away from her body, thirty feet from her body,
thirty feet from where her body was found. They found
a blood pool where she had I don't know if
she expired there, and then they drug her body, but
there was so much physical evidence in that area. That's
why I'm shocked to even think that a reporter was
standing in the midst of it. That they had cleared
(17:42):
the crime scene so quickly. But when the body was found,
the yard serviced individuals that he didn't even think it
was a person. He thought it was an animal carcass
until he got closer.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And I've seen and I think you may have too.
I saw the crime scene images here. And as a
matter of fact, when when she's observed, when Colleen is observed,
when you take that, you know there's a couple of
Just so people understand how we do photography at crime scenes,
we do what is referred to as macro views and microviews,
(18:13):
and kind of let me break that down for you.
If you imagine a compass being in the center of
the scene, okay, north, south, east, and west. We start
off very very broadly. That's our macro shots, and we
will take images Initially they're called overall shots from all
four points of the compass okay, to give you orientation
(18:35):
so that when because that moment is only frozen, it's
frozen for that moment. Tom when there because the remains
they're not going to be there forever. They're going to
be removed, and so you have to capture that. It's
part of documenting what we do. And then once you've
gotten those overall shots, you move in about half the
distance between that outer shot that you took those overalls
(18:58):
to about half the distance, and then you were peat
that process again, and then some people even come in
closer and then do the three hundred and sixty degree
thing again. And then you start to take microshots where
you're focusing in on individual pieces of evidence. You know,
you had mentioned the blood, for instance, there may have
been drag marks, there may have been bits of clothing.
(19:20):
You know, they had talked about ripping her clothing off,
but when you see her, Dave, you can tell. I
think the only way you could really describe her remains
is that she was pummeled. It looked as though she
had been beaten into the ground, and she was lying,
And anybody in medicine kind of knows what I'm going
(19:42):
to say. She was in what's referred to as as
a left recumbent position, so that means that the left
side of her body was actually contacting the ground. Her
right leg is over her left, She's still wearing her jeans,
and her arms like almost like a final cry, are
(20:04):
extended up above her head, almost as if you know,
she's pleading for no more. And the evidence itself that
when you begin to examine these injuries to her body,
they belie a sense of horror that generally cannot be
expressed to most people when you see it. Somebody had
(20:27):
talked at I think that was the news people. They
had said that she had sustained Initially they said multiple
stab wounds. Well, these are not stab wounds. These are
what we refer to as incized injuries. So when you
begin to see the difference between the way we define
a stab wound versus an incized woe, a stab wound
(20:49):
is narrow and deep. Okay, So if you imagine a
knife being plunged into a body. An incized woon is
what many people refer to as a cut. It's a slice. Okay,
She's got multiple slices all of her body, and these
are not even part of the pentagram. Are slices, obviously,
but Dave, her throat was cut multiple times, and you've
(21:12):
got what are referred to as superficial in sized areas
that just go into what's referred to as the subcutaneous
layer of the skin.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
But they refer to the gaping maw of her neck.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
There is and here's the troubling thing about it. Let
me just so that I am just absolutely accurate with this,
and I'm looking at the images as we speak right now.
From what I can see, I'm counting in this one view.
In addition to this, you use the term in right,
you are gaping maw. I'm seeing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
(21:48):
eight eight superficial. This is on her neck alone, though
I'm seeing eight superficial incized ones there. You know what
that means to me? That means that at not only
were they trying to cut her throat, but they were
torturing her. Because this is a superficial event. If you
wanted to kill her, you could take that box cutter
(22:10):
and drive it into her throat and end her life
pretty quickly. That's not what happened, because she's got these
marks in addition to her neck, she's got them all
over her chest, she's got them all over her back,
in addition to these strikes that she sustained with the
meat cleaver that's there, which are chopping injuries. Those are
completely different in appearance than say, for instance, and then
(22:31):
sized injury. And when you see her body overall, remember
I was referring to the recumbent position, she almost Dave
looks as though she's blended into the ground. She's covered
in blood. It doesn't look human. So that her body
doesn't look human upon first glance. I can understand why
(22:54):
this person Dave that discovered her thought that this isn't
this is this can't be real. This can't be real
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Can you imagine when he actually described I went and
read what he said, and he talked about He said
it in such a way that you could understand he
was talking about it in the nicest way he could.
He said he didn't realize what he was looking until
he saw her breasts, and that's when he knew it
was a female, a young woman, and then he was horrified.
(23:22):
Until then he didn't have enough information to go on
to be mortified. You know what he is saying. But Joe,
take it the next step. Because you mentioned I didn't
realize how many cuts arond the neck. I looked at
the pictures too.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I wish you hadn't. I tell you the truth that
it's one of those things I hate. I feel guilty
because I've subjected you to it. You know, this is
the stuff that I've had to look at my whole life.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Here's the side of me that comes into this when
I read. The first thing I did is I read
the report on christ Pike asking for reconsideration of the
death penalty. Yeah, and I looked at that and I thought, well,
let's you know, when I was eighteen, I did some
stupid stuff too. But this isn't a stupid stuff. This
isn't a flight of fancy. This isn't I'm mad because
(24:06):
this girl upset me and trying to steal my boyfriend,
and I'm gonna hurt her. I'm gonna you know that
this is a planned, not even a chaotic even joke.
This was a planned murder. There was never any plan
for Colleens Slimmer to make it back to the dorm alive.
And I'm I'm sadden, to be honest with you that
(24:27):
that the witness who turned on him, Shadola, how they
gave her a free ride when they had all the information.
They didn't need Shadola Peterson to turn state's witness. They
already had this. You're talking about Christoph Pike. The very
next morning, Okay, the next morning, Joe, she's sitting at
the christ at the breakfast table with her other dorm
(24:47):
mates talking about this piece of skull is from Colleen's head.
I killed her last night.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
And there she is displaying it as if it's some
kind of trophy. Well, upon further consideration, Dave, I have
to say, I don't know that this is so much
a case of someone dabbling in Satanism or the occult
as much as it is satanism, because this is one
(25:18):
of the most sadistic homicides I've every born witness to.
(25:43):
I get all kinds of interesting phone calls, Dave, that
you can imagine I'll have people that will reach out
to me because they I don't know, they have a
case they want me to look into, or I'll have
just the most bizarre questions that people might have regarding death.
And it's okay, you know, to get those questions because
(26:03):
people are curious. But I think probably the first time
I ever got this question asked of me, and it
was not It had nothing to do with a phone call.
It had to do I was at a party and
I had someone walk up to me and say, say, hey,
Jos's wondering I'd read somewhere that you can donate your
(26:24):
body to the Body Farm at UT you know, like
a anatomical donation. I was like, yeah, I think you can.
Actually do you know what that involves? You know, I'm
asking right quizzically. Oh yeah, yeah, we know that they
do the decay studies on bodies and this sort of thing.
(26:45):
And what's fascinating about this case that we're talking about today,
Colleen's case, is that, you know, it's it's not Stone's Throw,
but it's very close to actually the location of the
Body Farm at ut And you know, so, did you
know that the body farm actually plays a role in
this particular case, because arguably one of the best forensic
(27:10):
anthropologists anywhere in the world. I'd put him up against
anybody in the world actually was involved in this case,
and it had to do with that bit of skull
that Pike brought to the breakfast table with her that day.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I couldn't imagine what kind of person would think it
was a good thing.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
The arrest on this case took thirty six hours because
of Pike. And so that's why I have such a
problem with Sadela Peterson being let go by turning state's witness.
But how did that piece of skull that Christa Pike
was showing off as a trophy, How did that play
into what took place at trial?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Well, it's significant because you know what you do. What
you do have here is you're displaying an anatomical uh,
an anatomical feature that's easily easily traced back to this
(28:12):
young woman's skull. And just imagine it's kind of like, ah,
let me see, how can I put this?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Could they have traced it back to her at that time?
And could it? Could it? Is there a part of
bone that would actually be untraceable that you could say
I found this on the road.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Well, yeah, I was actually gonna be much more simplistic.
I'm not going to be I'm not going to talk
about anything as sophisticated as DNA here. But what what
I'm what I was going to say is uh uh
it's it is truly like a jigsaw puzzle. And when
you have uh, this fracturing of the skull, and if
(28:48):
you can imagine, uh, Colleen skull looked like uh, it
looked like a fractured egg essentially with bits of the
shell missing. That's that's the easiest way that I can
kind of describe that to a layman. And what happened
(29:09):
was was that a gentleman. And I urge anybody hearing
this please take a look at this guy. He's fascinating
Doctor Murray Marx. He's a forensic anthropologist. I don't know
if he's still at you t or not, but he was.
He famously ran the body Farm after doctor Bass who
founded it doctor Bill Bass, Murray Marx took it over
(29:33):
and managed the body Farm. I don't know if Murray
is still there or not, but anyway, he became involved
in this case. And the key here is that they
wanted they the prosecution wanted to be able to demonstrate
I think, not just the physical assemblage that they would have,
(29:53):
you know, because it's very common for a forensic anthropologist
to take a fragment, it's goal or any other fragmented bone,
and they have this unbelievable skill set, David. They have
the patients of a watchmaker. They can take these little
particulate bits and bring them back together. It's amazing to watch.
And they I think that not only did they want
(30:15):
to anatomically place this bit of skull back in there,
but it was through this demonstration I think that they
were able to say, Okay, this is what they did
to calling, this is what they did. Not only did
they crush her skull, she sustained multiple fractures in her skull,
(30:40):
but they took a trophy as well, and we have
to begin to consider, you know, really what that means
in this case, and how does it factor into the
consideration as to whether or not she needs to be
on death row? You know, are there mitigating facts here?
(31:00):
I don't know, because I'm not an attorney and I'm
certainly not a psychologist. What I do know is that
the physical evidence here demonstrates somebody that was very purposed uh,
in accomplishing this task. You've got this poor young girl
that has been sliced all over her body. If if
these these photographs are just absolutely beyond the pale a
(31:23):
matter of fact, I can't believe that they're they're actually
you know, spinning about out there on the internet. The
depth of them, the amount of pain that would have
been associated just with those and yet she's not you
know what what this person said, She's not dying. Yeah,
she's not going to die from these superficial injuries that
(31:45):
you've inflicted. But it's going to cause such an amazing
amount of pain and in the last moments of Colleen's life.
That's why I use the term sadistic earlier. This it
goes to torture. It absolutely goes to.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Torture, actually defined by Christa Pike. You know, I told
you how reading her statement of what took place, and
it's a very long statement. She exp she actually explains
this in living color, like she's reliving it as she
gives her statement to police, telling them what transpired. There
were several times in the beating process that lasted thirty
(32:21):
to forty minutes, and I think it might have lasted
a lot longer, right, But you know this is from
her from Christa Pike's account, where she as soon as
they got to the area, Christa immediately starts pounding on her. Colleen.
She hits her in the head with her knee several times.
She is putting her knee her head on the ground
(32:42):
several times, and Colleen is screaming, why are you doing this?
Why are you doing this? And she's you know, because
of him, and they let her back up. She tried
to run, Colleen, or Christa said, when she tried to
run away. He she didn't name him, but he, her boyfriend,
chased her down, brought her back. She again, she's getting pummeled,
(33:02):
she's getting hit, she's getting her head bashed in, she's
getting kicked. When she's on the ground, she's being kicked.
And she gets up and runs again again she has
caught and drug back. That's when one of the times
when she got up and ran, one of the cuts.
And this is Krista Pike said. The long cut on
her back was the second time she tried to run.
She cut her in the back because she was trying
(33:24):
to kill her then, but she wouldn't die. I look
at this over and over. I've read this and I
can't think what kind of person Joe I mean, she
wants us to believe that she should be taken off
death row because it's been so many years that we're
supposed to forget her description of what she said she
did to this nineteen year old girl who did nothing
(33:44):
but want to be in job corps. She terrorized her
for weeks leading up to it, lured her into an
area where she could beat her. She had two friends
standing by to make sure the girl couldn't get away.
Then she beat her repeatedly about out the head, the body.
She kicked her, She bruised her, and she cut her.
She used a mini meat cleaver, she used a box cutter,
(34:07):
and then when she wouldn't die, she threw us and
she couldn't move. She was laying on the ground, she
could no longer get up. She dropped a piece of
asphalt on her head to crush her skull to make
her brain come out, and then had the temerity to
grab a piece of that head and take it with
her as a trophy.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
You know. And there's a statement that Pike May two
that is kind of a curious statement. She is quoted
as saying that I just felt mean that day? What
what what is that? S What does that entail? You
just feel mean that day? Because I got to tell
(34:49):
you I've I've had I've been mean before in my life,
been mean to people. I think that many people in
our audience can understand that. But this is not This
is not being mean, all right. This is not something
that you slap your hands child for or put them
in the corner and say, don't do that. You're being
mean to your brother or your sister or whatever the
case might be. This is not mean. This is sadism, yes,
(35:15):
because you're you're looking, you're looking to torture someone. And uh,
you know sometimes I scoff at the saying, you know,
and it's it's wrote. People say it all the time.
Hurting people hurt people, you know. I've heard that over
and over and again throughout my entire life. The problem
is is that hurting people hurt people. The hurt the
(35:37):
hurting people that are hurting people are rarely, if ever,
held accountable for their actions.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
And I'd go further with that. If she didn't beg
for her life, if Colleen Slimmer, if Christoph Pike didn't
report how she begged for her life. Christer Pike took
great pains to say that Colleen Slimmer said, look, I
won't tell anybody what you've done. Just let me go
why she's kicking colleing. Christo Pike told Colleen stop talking
to me, shut up, and she said the reason she
(36:04):
told her to shut it's too hard to hurt somebody
when they're talking to you.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah. I think that that's another factor that enters into this,
because you've got an individual that at that point in
time she was incapable of mercy even though it's being
asked of her. And that goes again to this idea. Okay,
well if we if we don't keep you on death row,
because I can only imagine that that date is approaching
(36:29):
quicker and quicker and quicker, you logic would dictate that
it would have to be what are you going to do?
Are you going to turn her out into the general
population of the prison? I wonder how the other prisoners
would feel about that having her there, because you're talking
about somebody that is not capable of displaying mercy, and
certainly in the instance involving Colleen, that's the case.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
You know, even on top of this, Joe, this wasn't
the only time that she tried to kill somebody. She
was successful in killing Colleen Slimmer. But you know, after
she was in prison, she tried to kill a cell
mate with a shoestring. They actually charged her with attempted murder.
Happened in two thousand and one, after she had been
in prison for five years, she strangled Patricia Jones. Now
(37:13):
that woman didn't die, but they charged christ the Pike
with attempted murder and she was convicted of that. So, yeah,
you want to let that person out that has no
compunction about trying to take the life of somebody.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, And I can't imagine that that would make any
sense whatsoever, you know, I it's it's kind of shocking
when you think about the idea that, Okay, you've already
been convicted of arguably one of the most brutal murders
that has taken place, certainly in Knox County, I would imagine,
(37:49):
and that was well reported and this sort of thing.
How's that rehabilitation going. It doesn't sound like it's going
very well, because five years afterwards you've got her still
attempting to murder someone that's in close proximity to her,
So I would be I would be really shocked. And
from what I understand, David correct me if I'm wrong.
(38:10):
The judge denied. They did denied this motion, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yeah, he a Knox County judge rejected the bid to vacate,
which is the death sentence of Krista Pike. So yeah,
she's still on death row. They have not. I was
looking it up to make sure they have not set
a death date yet. That's something that goes through a
different process. But they had to get through this last
part of it, which they said, no, you know, you
(38:33):
were eighteen, you were in an Adulton, Tennessee at the time
when it happened. And their argument, of course, was that
her boyfriend was seventeen at the time and he was
given life without you know, he wasn't given a death
sentence and she was. I can tell you is that
I felt differently when we started this case than when
after I read her a statement, having read a lot
of admitted you know statements where people admit things yes,
(38:56):
and knowing that they're going to discount their own interaction,
gonna you know, make it lick like less bad for
themselves and if that's her less bad version of what happened, Yeah,
I'm horrified. I wouldn't want to even be in the
prison with her now.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah, because the further you read you realize that it
gets darker and darker and darker. And for Colleen, for Colleen,
she met her end at the hands of the sadistic woman.
I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is body Bags.
Host
Joseph Scott Morgan
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