Christa Pike was strapped to a gurney inside Tennessee’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on Sept. 30, 2026, expecting to die after more than three decades on death row. The 50-year-old convicted killer had been sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a crime that shocked Tennessee and left Slemmer’s family waiting years for the sentence to be carried out. As witnesses gathered behind the glass, Pike spoke with her spiritual advisor, Rev. Mikey Noechel, and appeared to be preparing for her final moments. Then, before the lethal injection began, she was heard singing a haunting refrain with him: “I love you.” What followed, however, was far from the quiet execution everyone expected.

After hours of legal delays, the execution finally began at about 7:27 p.m. Pike soon complained that the vein in her arm felt as though it might burst, and witnesses watched as her breathing became increasingly strained. Her body moved on the gurney, her feet pushed away the sheet, and she was heard gasping and later snoring as officials struggled with the procedure. The curtain was closed and reopened before finally remaining shut, while two syringes of pentobarbital had reportedly been administered. Nearly two hours later, witnesses were dismissed, but Pike was still alive. Her attorney said she was taken to an off-site medical facility where she was receiving life-saving treatment. For Slemmer’s parents, who witnessed the failed attempt, the experience was devastating and infuriating. Her mother, May Martinez, described the execution simply as “a mess,” while the failed procedure left the state facing difficult questions about what had happened inside the chamber.