As the execution date of September 30, 2026 draws closer, the state’s case against Pike stands in stark contrast to the portrait painted by her attorneys. Prosecutors have long emphasized the unimaginable cruelty of the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer: the luring into the woods, the prolonged torture, the carved pentagram, and the chilling decision to keep a piece of Slemmer’s skull as a trophy. These details cemented Pike in the public imagination as a remorseless teen killer, especially after investigators described her as almost gleeful while recounting the crime.
