After Grieving Her Daughter for More Than 30 Years, Colleen Slemmer’s Mom Made a Heartbreaking Choice Before Christa Pike’s Execution
For more than three decades, May Martinez has lived with a loss that time could never erase.
Her daughter, Colleen Slemmer, was only 19 years old when she was murdered in Tennessee in January 1995.
For Martinez, the years that followed were not simply years of waiting for a court case to end. They were years of learning how to live with the absence of a daughter who would never come home, never celebrate another birthday, never grow older, and never have the opportunity to build the life her family imagined for her.
Then, more than 30 years later, came a date that had been discussed for years: the scheduled execution of Christa Pike, the woman convicted in Slemmer’s killing.
Martinez made a deeply personal choice.
She traveled from Florida to Tennessee with her husband, Raul Martinez, so she could be present for the execution.
It was not an easy journey.
It was not simply a trip to watch the final chapter of a criminal case.
For Martinez, it was an attempt to confront a moment that had been approaching for decades while keeping the memory of her daughter at the center of the story.
But what happened inside Tennessee's execution chamber on September 30, 2026, was not what anyone expected.
Pike survived the lethal-injection attempt.
Two doses of pentobarbital were administered, but she did not die. Witnesses reported that she remained conscious for a prolonged period and complained of pain. She was eventually transported to an outside medical facility in critical condition.
The extraordinary development transformed what had been expected to be the end of a decades-old case into an entirely new chapter.
And for Slemmer’s mother, the experience brought another painful reminder of the loss she has carried for more than 30 years.
A daughter whose life ended far too soon
Colleen Slemmer was 19 years old when she was killed.
She and Pike were fellow students at a Job Corps program in Knoxville.
According to court records and reporting about the case, Pike lured Slemmer to an area near the University of Tennessee campus in January 1995.
Pike was 18 at the time.
The killing became one of Tennessee's most notorious murder cases, attracting intense attention because of its brutality and the involvement of young people.
Pike was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death.
Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Another young person involved in the case received probation after cooperating with authorities.
But for Colleen's family, the legal distinctions never changed the central fact.
Their daughter was gone.
Thirty years of waiting
A death sentence can take decades to reach its conclusion.
Appeals, court proceedings, changes in legal representation, clemency requests and other challenges can keep a case alive for years.
For victims' families, that process can be complicated.
There can be a desire for finality, while each new legal development can reopen memories of the original crime.
For May Martinez, the passage of time did not mean that Colleen disappeared from her thoughts.
In interviews before the scheduled execution, Martinez spoke about the continuing absence of her daughter.
One of the most painful realities of losing a child is that time moves forward for everyone except the person who died.
Colleen remained 19.
Her friends grew older.
Her family grew older.
The world changed.
But she did not.
The choice to travel to Tennessee
Martinez and her husband traveled from Florida to Tennessee for the scheduled execution.
According to reports, an online fundraising campaign helped raise more than $2,500 to assist the couple with travel expenses. Supporters said they wanted Martinez to be able to attend without having to worry about the cost of making the trip.
That detail reveals something important about the moment.
For Martinez, being present mattered.
She wanted to see the legal process reach the moment she had waited decades to witness.
Before the execution, she reportedly told reporters that she wanted her daughter to be at rest and no longer have the continuing reminders surrounding the case.
Her decision was deeply personal.
She wanted Colleen remembered
There is a danger in cases like this.
The person who committed the crime can eventually become more famous than the person who died.
Years of appeals can focus public attention on the convicted prisoner.
Legal arguments can focus on the defendant's childhood, mental health, background and circumstances.
Television programs can revisit the crime.
Journalists can write about the death-row inmate.
But the victim can gradually become little more than a name in a headline.
Martinez has pushed back against that idea.
For her, Colleen was not simply the victim in a notorious murder case.
She was her daughter.
She had interests, a personality, friends and dreams.
She had a future that was taken away.
The daughter behind the headlines
Recent reporting has included memories of Colleen as a young woman who enjoyed computers, retro video games and roller skating.
Those details may sound ordinary.
But that is exactly why they matter.
A person's life is not defined solely by the circumstances of their death.
Before she became part of a criminal case, Colleen was a teenager with interests and relationships.
She had a family who knew her as a daughter rather than a victim.
She had people who expected to watch her grow older.
She should have had decades of ordinary experiences ahead of her.
Birthdays.
Jobs.
Friendships.
Possibly marriage.
Possibly children.
New homes.
New interests.
All the ordinary things that make up a human life.
Those possibilities ended in 1995.
The execution was supposed to bring finality
For years, the possibility of Pike's execution represented a form of legal finality for the Slemmer family.
The justice system had already determined Pike's guilt and imposed a death sentence.
But until an execution occurs, the case can remain active.
There can be another appeal.
Another hearing.
Another request for a stay.
Another legal argument.
Another date.
That uncertainty can be exhausting for families.
The September 30 execution date therefore carried enormous emotional significance.
It was supposed to mark the conclusion of a process that began with Colleen's murder more than three decades earlier.
Instead, the day produced another extraordinary development.
A last-minute legal delay
The execution itself had already been delayed once that day.
A federal appeals court issued a stay roughly an hour before the scheduled execution while it considered a legal issue involving Pike's latest filing. The U.S. Supreme Court later allowed the execution to proceed.
For everyone involved, that meant another period of uncertainty.
The family had traveled to Tennessee expecting the execution to take place.
Then suddenly, it appeared that it might not.
Eventually, the execution went forward.
But the result was unprecedented.
The lethal injection failed
According to reporting from witnesses and officials, prison personnel administered two doses of pentobarbital.
Neither resulted in Pike's death.
Witnesses reported that Pike remained conscious for an extended period.
She reportedly complained of pain and said her arm was hurting during the procedure. Witness accounts described her moving, speaking and remaining alive after the second dose.
Eventually, officials stopped the procedure.
Pike was taken to an outside medical facility.
Her condition was reported as critical.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said that officials followed the state's established execution protocol. The department announced that Pike had been transported to an off-site medical facility.
The state subsequently announced an investigation into what happened.
Martinez witnessed the failed execution
For Martinez, this was not an abstract debate about the death penalty.
She was physically present.
She watched the procedure.
Afterward, she said she believed Colleen had still not received the justice she had spent decades waiting for. AP reported that Martinez witnessed the failed execution and expressed frustration afterward.
That reaction is understandable within the context of her experience.
She had traveled a long distance.
She had waited more than 30 years.
She had prepared herself for an ending.
Instead, she witnessed something nobody expected.
The person convicted of killing her daughter was still alive.
An extraordinary situation
The failed execution immediately became a national story.
Pike's case was already historically significant because she was scheduled to become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Instead, she became the subject of an unprecedented execution failure.
Reports described the event as the first known case in the United States in which a person survived after lethal-injection drugs were administered during an execution attempt.
The event raised questions about Tennessee's execution procedures, the medical issues raised by Pike's lawyers before the execution, and the state's use of pentobarbital.
Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review and suspended further executions in Tennessee for the remainder of 2026.
Pike's lawyers had raised concerns
Before the execution, Pike's lawyers had argued that her medical condition created particular risks with lethal injection.
They pointed to a blood disorder and concerns about access to her veins.
Her legal team had sought alternative methods and asked officials to consider other issues surrounding her case.
Those arguments did not stop the execution.
After the failed attempt, her attorneys renewed their calls for her sentence to be changed to life imprisonment.
The state, meanwhile, said its protocol had been followed.
That disagreement will now be part of the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings.
Two families, two very different perspectives
The story contains an important human complexity.
On one side is a mother who lost her 19-year-old daughter.
On the other is a woman who has spent more than three decades on death row for that killing.
Their experiences are fundamentally different.
May Martinez has lived with the permanent absence of her daughter.
Christa Pike has lived under a death sentence while challenging aspects of her conviction and punishment.
Pike's lawyers have argued that her history of severe abuse, mental-health problems and the fact that she was only 18 when the crime occurred should be considered in deciding whether she should be executed.
Martinez has maintained her support for the execution.
Both perspectives are now part of the public record.
The case also raises broader questions
The failed execution has renewed debate over capital punishment in the United States.
Supporters of the death penalty argue that certain crimes are so severe that the ultimate punishment is justified.
Opponents argue that executions can be irreversible, vulnerable to error and potentially inhumane.
The Pike case has brought those questions into sharp focus because the procedure did not produce the intended result.
Instead, it left the condemned prisoner alive and hospitalized.
Governor Lee's decision to suspend additional Tennessee executions for the rest of 2026 means the consequences of the incident will extend beyond this single case.
But for May, this has always been about Colleen
Political and legal debates can become enormous.
But for a mother, grief can remain intensely personal.
Colleen's absence is not a constitutional question.
It is not a legal argument.
It is a space at the family table.
It is a birthday that comes every year.
It is a photograph.
It is a memory.
It is a life that stopped while everyone else continued.
That is why Martinez's decision to travel to Tennessee carried such emotional weight.
She wanted to be there because her daughter could not.
More than 30 years later, she still speaks her daughter's name
Perhaps the most important part of this story is not what happened to Pike.
It is that Colleen Slemmer continues to be remembered.
Her mother has spent decades making sure that her daughter's name does not disappear behind the notoriety of the person convicted of killing her.
That matters.
When a victim becomes only a name in a court document, something important is lost.
Remembering the victim as a complete human being restores some of what headlines can take away.
Colleen was 19.
She had interests.
She had a family.
She had a future.
She had people who loved her.
And her mother still carries that memory more than 30 years later.
The ending nobody expected
September 30 was supposed to be the end.
Instead, it became another beginning.
Pike survived.
She was taken to a medical facility.
Tennessee halted future executions for the year.
Officials ordered an independent investigation.
Her lawyers began calling for a commutation.
And the Slemmer family was left confronting an outcome they had not expected after decades of waiting.
The legal process is therefore not necessarily over.
The consequences of the failed execution will likely continue through investigations, court proceedings and public debate.
What happens next?
Several questions remain.
Why did the lethal-injection protocol fail?
Were the drugs properly administered?
Did Pike's medical condition contribute?
What did officials know before the execution?
Will another execution date ever be scheduled?
Will Pike's sentence eventually be changed?
And how will the state respond to the independent investigation?
Those questions cannot be answered simply by a social-media headline.
They will require official findings and legal proceedings.
A mother's journey
May Martinez's journey to Tennessee began more than 30 years ago with a tragedy she never chose.
Her daughter was murdered.
Since then, she has spent decades navigating grief, court proceedings, appeals and the repeated reopening of painful memories.
When the execution date finally arrived, she made the choice to travel hundreds of miles so she could witness what she believed would be the conclusion.
Instead, she witnessed history for a very different reason.
The execution failed.
And now the story continues.
Remembering Colleen
In the middle of all the legal arguments and national attention, there is one fact that should never be forgotten:
Colleen Slemmer was a 19-year-old woman whose life was taken in 1995.
She should not be remembered only for the way she died.
She should also be remembered for who she was.
A daughter.
A friend.
A young woman with interests and hopes.
Someone whose family expected to see her grow older.
That is the memory her mother has carried for more than three decades.
Final thoughts
The story of May Martinez and Colleen Slemmer is ultimately a story about grief that does not follow a calendar.
Thirty years can pass.
A mother can travel hundreds of miles.
A court can set an execution date.
A prison can prepare an execution chamber.
And yet, the loss of a daughter remains exactly what it has always been: permanent.
Martinez chose to be present because she wanted to see the legal process reach its expected conclusion and, above all, because she wanted to represent the daughter who could not be there.
But the outcome was completely unexpected.
Christa Pike survived the lethal-injection attempt after two doses, was taken for medical treatment, and remains at the center of a new legal and political controversy. Tennessee has suspended executions for the rest of 2026 while the state investigates what went wrong.
For Martinez, however, no investigation can change the most important fact.
Her daughter is still gone.
The years cannot be returned.
The future Colleen should have had cannot be restored.
And whatever ultimately happens to Pike, Colleen's life deserves to be remembered independently of the woman who was convicted of killing her.
More than 30 years later, her mother is still saying her name.
And perhaps that is the most powerful choice of all.
Colleen Slemmer was more than a case, more than a headline, and more than the victim in a death-penalty proceeding. She was a daughter whose family has spent decades remembering her.
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