Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan: Jealousy, Murder, Death Sentence - The Conviction of Christa Pike

Transcript

Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan: Jealousy, Murder, Death Sentence - The Conviction of Christa Pike · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. If you ever come
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in contact with someone that works in forensics, a specifically
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: medical legal death investigation and they tell you that they've
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: seen it all, or that they've seen everything, don't walk
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: run away from them because they're lying. No one ever
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: sees everything. There's too many variables. You've got geography, you've
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: got modes of death, you've got circumstances, but most of all,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you've got individuals, and all of those pieces come into
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: play and they make each case unique. But there are
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: those events that mark you as a death investigator, those
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of us that I think that some people think that
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: we're imbued with some kind of supernatural strength because we're
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: around death all the time. There are those events that
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: cross our paths over the years that do in fact
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: mark us that we can't quite seem to escape even
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: in our dreams. Today, I'm thinking about investigators in Knoxville, Tennessee,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: specifically Knox County and a case that occurred back in
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, and how many of those people might
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: be retired by now. But I can guarantee you this,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: when they close their eyes at night, they can still
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: see this crime scene and they can still see the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: body of Colleen Slimmer. Today, we're going to talk about
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: one of the most brutal homicides that ever took place
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: in that part of Tennessee. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan, and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: this is Body Bags David. I had been doing some
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: reading and came across something the other day that really
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: caught my attention. You know, you and I spent a
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: lot of time researching cases. And the reason it's kind
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: of popped onto my radar, I think was the fact
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: that it involved the only woman on Timnessee death row,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and that was, you know significant, She's the only person
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that his own death row. She was placed on death row.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I think she was actually convicted when she was nineteen,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: but the event happened when she was eighteen. But that's
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: that's not the only thing that drew me to this
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: case from a forensic standpoint. And I began to read
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: because I had not heard of this case. When I
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: began to read and I came across these three words, asphalt,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: box cutter, and pentagram, I couldn't help myself. I had
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to read about this case, and you know, there's certain
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: things that you wish she had never read, but I
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: felt like that we needed to tell this tale because
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: this case, her case, this lady on death row, this
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: case has come back into the news just recently because
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: she she's trying to get her case. She's trying to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: get off death row, essentially, is what's happening.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: She's trying to have her sentence changed because of her
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: age at the time the crime was committed.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't. You can't take the measure of what
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: this poor victim went through. And that's what body bags
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: is about, Dave. That's what it's about the victims. It's
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: not about the perpetrators. The perpetrators are means to an
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: end to tell the stories of the victims. And this
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: poor young lady, she was purely a victim.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Christa Pike was eighteen. Colleen Slimmer, the victim, was nineteen.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: To Darryl's ship, that's another name we need to throw
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: in here, he was seventeen. Now let me share you
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: very quickly, the reason we've been talking about this case
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: is because to Darryl's Ship was boyfriends with Christa Pike.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Christa Pike was eighteen to Darryl's ship seventeen when they
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: committed this heinous crime together. Colleen Slimmer was nineteen and
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: they were all part of Job Corp. Krista Pike had
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: dropped out of high school and floated around joined Job war.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: This is an abused girl. I'm not going to justify anything.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: I'm just pointing out that Christa Pike had an upbringing
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: of the worst kind. She was abused in every way
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: that it's possible, and her mother had her using drugs
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: before she was a teenager. I only say that as
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: knowing a little background. She's in Job Corps. It's now
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five and Colleen Slimmer signs a two year
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: deal to be with Job Corps. Now in that Job
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Corp in Knoxville, Christa Pike and to Daryl Ship hooked up.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: They became boyfriend girlfriend, and Krista Pike was jealous of
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Colleen Slimmer. She thought Colleen was putting the moves on
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: her boyfriend, and Christa Pike started harassing Colleen Slimmer. It
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: got so bad that Colleen actually called home and said, Mom,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: I got to get out of here. I've got to
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: come home please, And she said, you can't hear you
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: signed it to your contract you've.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Got to do it.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: So Christa Pike to Darryls Ship and another person get
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: together and they invite Colleen Slimmer out, say hey, we
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: want to bury the hatchet. We stopped the abuse, stop
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the harassment. We're going to let's go over here. We're
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: going to go out in the woods. We're going to
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: smoke some weed like a peace pipe. That's what we're
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: going to do. That's how they lured Colleen Slimmer out
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: of the dorm that January twelfth, nineteen ninety five. They
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: lure her to an area of the campus Tennessee campus
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: in Knoxville, and it was a very out of the
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: way area where they could then beat. This attack took
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: thirty to forty minutes, according to Christapike. Now, Joe, you
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: mentioned a slab of asphalt, a box cutter, pentagram. When
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Colleen Slimmer had been lured out there, it was to
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: be attacked by Krista Pike and to Daryl Ship joined in.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: The beating took thirty to forty minutes, and during that
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: time Slimmer taunted, beat, slashed, and carved with a box
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: cutter and a meat cleaver. A mini meat cleaver was
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: used in the attack, they abused Colleen Slimmer at nineteen
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: years old, to the point where it was so vicious
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: and evil. They carved a pentagram into her chest. And
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: then when she wouldn't die, Krista Pike said, the beat
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: won't die, I want to see her brains flow. So
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: she grabbed a slab of asphalt and slammed it down
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: onto the head multiple times on Colleen Slimmer until her
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: brains flowed out of her head. Then Krysta Pike, as
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: a super near, took a chunk of that skull from
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Colleen Slimmer and the three people walked back to the dorm,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: went back to bed, and the next morning went to
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: breakfast and christ the Pike showed off that piece of
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: skull just people in the job corps and told them
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: what she had done, told them what it was. Can
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: you imagine what kind of person could do that?
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Well? I think that it's the kind of person that
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: a defense attorney would argue was not in their right mind.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: And of course the jury at the time didn't see
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: it that way. As a matter of fact, they they
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: held her fully responsible regardless of what kind of upbringing
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: she had had, how much trauma she had endured, and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the way they were in I'm obviously no attorney don't
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: want to be. They had held that there's no delineation
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: between brain maturity between the ages of seventeen, which makes
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: you a juvenile, and eighteen, which gives you adult status. Okay,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and look, yeah, that's you know, that's arguable. I suppose however,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: there has to be a delineation. It somewhere in time
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: in the state of Tennessee has set that delineation at eighteen.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: And the reason this battle has come out is because,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: as we said, she Christa. Pike has tried to get
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: her death sentence removed. Now, by the way, at this taping,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: it's been twenty nine years, twenty nine years since the
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: murder of Colleen Slimmer. The victim was nineteen. It's been
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: twenty nine years, Joe, and this woman is still on
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: death row. She's lived, yes, she's still and she's arguing
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: that she'd the argument as well to Darryl Ship, who
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: was also there and also did contribute to the beating.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: He was seventeen at the time of the murder and
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: his sentence was life in prison with the possibility of
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: parole after twenty five years something along those lines were
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: plus twenty five years. Yeah, okay, sentence to life with
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: the possibility of parole, whereas Krista Pike was sentenced to death,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: and that's the argument. He was seventeen, she was eighteen. Now,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: the other person that was with him I mentioned, I
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: didn't deal with her a lot. Shadola Peterson was nineteen
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: at the time. She turned state's witness and received probation
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: in the case. I don't agree with that, but that's
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: another day for a lawyer to deal with. But she did.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: She walked away. I've read through all of Christoph Pike's
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: statement on what she claims happened, and Joe. Usually when
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: I read a case and I see the statement by
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: the suspect, I think it's probably fifty percent accurate, and
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: it's less than what I would expect. This was the
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: most difficult thing I've ever read.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it literally, it literally makes vomit rise up in
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: your throat as you're that's really forgive me for saying that,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: but that's really the only way I could actually describe it,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: because you're talking about a fellow human being that is
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: capable of doing this and gloats over it essentially and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: fully admits that she didn't she didn't run from it.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: And when you think about the horror that was inflicted
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: upon this poor victim, Colleen, there was actually one moment
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: during this attack where this person looks around at the
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: others that are there and she says, forgive me, but
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: she says this, this bitch just won't die, you know,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: And so she's fully aware of what she is doing.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: As matter of fact, going back to, you know, the
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: instruments that were used here, you can argue that that
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the that the asphalt was probably there. It's a weapon
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: of what we referred to as a weapon of opportunity
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: or a weapon of convenience is a common term that
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: she used. But do you walk around, Dave with a
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: meat cleaver in your back pocket? Do you? I mean?
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: And I guess if you work at a grocery store,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: which I did when I was a kid doing stock
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I carried a box cutter with me everywhere I went.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Most people don't, you know, but they came with a
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: box cutter in hand. They're working for job corps. Maybe
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: they had jobs as stockers. I don't know. They had
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: access to a box cutter, but they purposed to go
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: out there with it. And you know, one of the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: things that she that Pike had alluded to in here
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: is that you said, you know, the peace pipe. They
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: they were going to smoke weed while they were out there.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: And this is actually the location on campus. On campus
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: is adjacent to the old steam plant at ut and
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: it is isolated. I saw something quite fascinating in one
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: of the newsreels from the time back then, which was
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: kind of interesting to see within I think it was
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: about within twenty four hours of this having been processed.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: The scene. The reporter was standing on the very location
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: it was not locked down, standing on the very location
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: where Colleen's body had been found, and he walks over Dave,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and this was like kind of this incredible moment. He's
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: standing there and Dave, there is a pile of fractured asphalt,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and he walks over and he says, this is where
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the asphalt came from. And he reaches down, he picks
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: up a chunk of asphalt and he holds it up
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: and he said, they crushed your skull with a piece
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: of asphalt. Similar to this. It's probably from that same grouping.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: You know that it was all busted up. It was
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: an old road and they just kind of dumped the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: stuff back there, but they took her back there with
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the specific aim of taking her life and not just
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: taking her life. It's one thing to take someone's life,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: but it's altogether another thing to torture them, and in
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Colleen's case, that's what they did. When my memoir came
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: out a few years ago, Blood Beneath My Feet, my
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: publisher was kind of an off the beaten path publisher
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: with the referred to as a boutique publisher, but he
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: was well known in Hollywood and famously, you know, published
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that other people would not touch
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: because of the nature of it. And I had kind
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of an uncomfortable moment because he had the publisher had
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: actually befriended Anton Levey and had re published the Satanic
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Bible some years back. I was like, Oh Lord, what
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: have I gotten myself into? And all I could see
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: at that moment in time was my book about death
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: and my life around death being associated with Satanic Bible.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And of course, you know, publishers publish all kinds of things.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't mean anything, but the idea of
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: a pentagram kind of entering into this and entering into
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: this particular case, it made me reflective for a moment
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: the day that I found out some of the other
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: works that have been published by this company, and I
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: was thinking, what drives someone to take what has been
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: you know, declared essentially, I guess, by the Church of
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Satan as the symbol of Satanism. What would cause a
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: young woman, what would give her the thought in her mind?
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: What would be the motivation for taking a box cutter
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: which has got roughly if you've never seen a box cutter,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the blade on it at its greatest thing is diagonal
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: in shape. It's got a very sharp point on it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: But the blade surface itself is only about an inch
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: and a half in length most of the time, and
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: there's more of the blades inside of the device. It's
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: got to handle with. It's actuated by the thumb. You
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: can kind of press it out and then once one
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: gets toulen, you kind of, you know, unscrew it and
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: then re engage with a new blade very sharp initially.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: But how do you feel comfortable enough, I think, to
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: not only carve onto another human beings body, But what
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: are you trying to say by taking this young woman
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: and carving a pentagram not only into her forehead but
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: also onto her chest. David, it's just it's beyond the pail.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: There are several things when you pointed this story out
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: to me, but back to the pentagram. When I was
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: telling you about Christa Pike and her upbringing, alluding to
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: having a rough childhood, it led her down a path
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: that was not your typical eighteen year old female at
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: the time, and seventeen year old to Darryl Ship susceptible
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: to a strong woman who they dabbled in the occult.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: They had dabbled in Satanism. They had dabbled in these things.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: I say dabbled because that's the only way one can
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: explain to young people of difficult backgrounds getting together and
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: you know, doing drugs and looking at things thinking it's
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: cool to you know, worship Satan or whatever it is
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: they were trying to do. But there are a couple
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: things you mentioned. Torture and when you were talking about
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: the reporter being able to get out there on the
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: crime scene the next day, they were able to find
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: that during this torture, during this beating, that two different
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: times Colleen Slimmer was able to get up and run
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: from them and was able to get away far enough
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: that they ripped her shirt off. That's when they carved
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: the pentagram in. But more than that, it was to
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: humiliate her.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and absolutely right.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: There were away from her body, thirty feet from her body,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: thirty feet from where her body was found. They found
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: a blood pool where she had I don't know if
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: she expired there, and then they drug her body. But
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: there was so much physical evidence in that area. That's
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: why I'm shocked to even think that a reporter was
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: standing in the midst of it. That they had cleared
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: the crime scene so quickly. But when the body was found,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: the yard serviced individuals that he didn't even think it
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: was a person. He thought it was an animal carcass
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: until he got closer.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: And I've seen and I think you may have too.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I saw the crime scene images here. And as a
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: matter of fact, when when she's observed, when Colleen is observed,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: when you take that, you know there's a couple of
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Just so people understand how we do photography at crime scenes,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: we do what is referred to as macro views and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: micro views, and kind of let me break that down
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: for you. If you imagine a compass being in the
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: center of the scene okay, north, south, east, and west.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: We start off very very broadly. That's our macro shots,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and we will take images initially they're called overall shots
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: from all four points of the compass okay, to give
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: you orientation so that when because that moment is only frozen,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: it's frozen for that moment. Tom when there, because the
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: remains are not going to be there forever. They're going
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to be removed, and so you have to capture that.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: It's part of documenting what we do. And then once
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: you've gotten those overall shots, you move in about half
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the distance between that outer shot that you took those
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: overalls to about half the distance, and then you were
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: peat that process again, and then some people even come
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: in closer and then do the three hundred and sixty
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: degree thing again. And then you start to take microshots
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: where you're focusing in on individual pieces of evidence. You know,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: you had mentioned the blood, for instance, there may have
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: been drag marks, there may have been bits of clothing.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: You know they had talked about ripping her clothing off,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: but when you see her, Dave, you can tell I
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: think the only way you could really describe her remains
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: is that she was pummeled. It looked as though she
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: had been beaten into the ground, and she was lying,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: And anybody in medicine kind of knows what I'm going
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to say. She was in what's referred to as as
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: a left recumbent position, so that means that the left
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: side of her body was actually contacting the ground. Her
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: right leg is over her left, She's still wearing her jeans,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: and her arms like almost like a final cry, are
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: extended up above her head, almost as if you know,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: she's pleading for no more. And the evidence itself that
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: when you begin to examine these injuries to her body,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: they belie a sense of horror that generally cannot be
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: expressed to most people when you see it. Somebody had
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: talked at I think that was the news people. They
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: had said that she had sustained Initially they said multiple
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: stab wounds. Well, these are not stab wounds. These are
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: what we refer to as incized injuries. So when you
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: begin to see the difference between the way we define
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: a stab wound versus an incized wom a stab wound
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: is narrow and deep. Okay, So if you imagine a
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: knife being plunged into a body. An incized woon is
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: what many people refer to as a cut. It's a slice. Okay,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: She's got multiple slices all of her body, and these
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: are not even part of the pentagram. Are slices, obviously,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: but Dave, her throat was cut multiple times, and you've
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: got what are referred to as superficial in sized areas
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: that just go into what's referred to as the subcutaneous
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: layer of the skin.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: But they refer to the gaping maw of her neck.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: There is and here's the troubling thing about it. Let
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: me just so that I am just absolutely accurate with this,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and I'm looking at the images as we speak right now.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: From what I can see, I'm counting in this one
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: view in addition to this, you use the term and
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: right you are gaping maw. I'm seeing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: eight eight superficial. This is on her neck alone, though
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I'm seeing eight superficial incized ones there. You know what
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: that means to me? That means that not only were
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: they trying to cut her throat, but they were torturing her.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Because this is a superficial event. If you wanted to
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: kill her, you could take that box cutter and drive
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: it into her throat and end her life pretty quickly.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: That's not what happened, because she's got these marks in
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: addition to her neck, she's got them all over her chest,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: she's got them all over her back, in addition to
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: these strikes that she sustained with the meat cleaver that's there,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: which are chopping injuries. Those are completely different in appearance
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: than say, for instance, and then sized injury. And when
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: you see her body overall, remember I was referring to
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the recumbent position, she almost Dave looks as though she's
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: blended into the ground. She's covered in blood. It doesn't
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: look human. So that her body doesn't look human upon
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: first glance. I can understand why this person Dave that
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: discovered her thought that this isn't this is this can't
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: be real. This can't be real what I'm saying.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Can you imagine when he actually described I went and
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: read what he said, and he talked about He said
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: it in such a way that you could understand he
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: was talking about it in the nicest way he could.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: He said he didn't realize what he was looking until
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: he saw her breasts, and that's when he knew it
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: was a female, a young woman, and then he was horrified.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Until then he didn't have enough information to go on
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: to be mortified. You know what he is saying. But Joe,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: take it the next step. Because you mentioned I didn't
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: realize how many cuts around the neck. I looked at
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: the pictures too.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I wish you hadn't. I tell you the truth that
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: it's one of those things I hate. I feel guilty
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: because I've subjected you to it. You know, this is
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the stuff that I've had to look at my whole life.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Here's the side of me that comes into this when
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: I read. The first thing I did is I read
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the report on christ Pike asking for reconsideration of the
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: death penalty. Yeah, and I looked at that and I thought, well,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: let's you know, when I was eighteen, I did some
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: stupid stuff too. But this isn't a stupid stuff. This
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: isn't a flight of fancy. This isn't I'm mad because
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: this girl upset me and trying to steal my boyfriend,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: and I'm gonna hurt her. I'm gonna you know that
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: this is a planned not even a chaotic even joke.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: This was a planned murder. There was never any plan
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: for Colleen's slimmer to make it back to the dorm alive.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: And I'm I'm sadden, to be honest with you that
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: that the witness who turned on him, Shadola, how they
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: gave her a free ride when they had all the information.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: They didn't need Shadola Peterson to turn state's witness. They
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: already had this. You're talking about Christoph Pike. The very
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: next morning, Okay, the next morning, Joe, she's sitting at
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: the christ at the breakfast table with her other dorm
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: mates talking about this piece of skull is from Colleen's head,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: I killed her last night.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: And there she is displaying it as if it's some
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: kind of trophy. Well, upon further consideration, Dave, I have
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to say, I don't know that this is so much
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: a case of someone dabbling in Satanism or the occult
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: as much as it is Satanism, because this is one
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: of the most sadistic homicides I've every born witness to.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I get all kinds of interesting phone calls, Dave, that
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: you can imagine I'll have people that will reach out
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: to me because they I don't know, they have a
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: case they want me to look into, or I'll have
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: just the most bizarre questions that people might have regarding death.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: And it's okay, you know, to get those questions because
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: people are curious. But I think probably the first time
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I ever got this question asked of me, and it
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: was not It had nothing to do with a phone call.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: It had to do I was at a party and
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I had someone walk up to me and say, say, hey,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Jos's wondering I'd read somewhere that you can donate your
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: body to the Body Farm at ut you know, like
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a anatomical donation. I was like, yeah, I think you can,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: actually do you know what that involves? You know, I'm
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: asking right quizzically. Oh yeah, yeah, we know that they
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: do the decay studies on bodies and this sort of thing.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: And what's fascinating about this case that we're talking about today,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Colleen's case, is that, you know, it's it's not Stone's Throw,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: but it's very close to actually the location of the
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: body Farm at ut And you did you know that
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the body farm actually plays a role in this particular
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: case because arguably one of the best forensic anthropologists anywhere
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: in the world. I'd put him up against anybody in
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: the world actually was involved in this case. And it
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: had to do with that bit of skull that Pike
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: brought to the breakfast table with her that day.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: I couldn't imagine what kind of person would think it
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: was a good thing.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: The arrest on this case took thirty six hours because
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: of Pike, And so that's why I have such a
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: problem with Sadola Peterson being let go by turning state's witness.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: But how did that piece of skull that christ of
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Pike was showing off as a trophy, How did that
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: play into what took place at trial?
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Well, it's significant because you know what you do. What
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: you do have here is you're displaying an anatomical uh,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: an anatomical feature that's easily easily traced back to this
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: young woman's skull. And just imagine it's kind of like, uh,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: let me see, how can I put this?
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Could they have traced it back to her at that time?
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: And could it? Could it? Is there a part of
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: bone that would actually be untraceable that you could say
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: I found this on the road.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I was actually gonna be much more simplistic.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to be I'm not going to talk
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: about anything as sophisticated as DNA here. But what what
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: I'm what I was going to say is uh uh
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: it's it is truly like a jigsaw puzzle. And when
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: you have uh, this fracturing of the skull, and if
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: you can imagine, uh, Colleen skull looked like uh, it
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: looked like a fractured egg essentially with bits of the
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: shell missing. That's that's the easiest way that I can
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: kind of describe that to a layman. And what happened
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: was was that a gentleman. And I urge anybody hearing
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: this please take a look at this guy. He's fascinating.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Doctor Murray Marx. He's a forensic anthropologist. I don't know
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: if he's still at you t or not, but he was.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: He famously ran the body Farm after doctor Bass who
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: founded it doctor Bill Bass, Murray Marx took it over
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: and managed the body Farm. I don't know if Murray
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: is still there or not, but anyway, he became involved
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: in this case. And the key here is that they
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: wanted they the prosecution wanted to be able to demonstrate
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I think not just the physical assemblage that they would have,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: you know, because it's very common for a forensic anthropologist
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: to take a fragment, it's goal or any other fragmented bone,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: and they have this unbelievable skill set, David. They have
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the patients of a watchmaker. They can take these little
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: particulate bits and bring them back together. It's amazing to watch.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: And they I think that not only did they want
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: to anatomically place this bit of skull back in there,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: but it was through this demonstration I think that they
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: were able to say, Okay, this is what they did
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: to calling, this is what they did. Not only did
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: they crush her skull, she sustained multiple fractures in her skull,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: but they took a trophy as well, And we have
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: to begin to consider, you know, really what that means
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: in this case, and how does it factor into the
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: consideration as to whether or not she needs to be
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: on death row? You know, are there mitigating factors here?
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know, because I'm not an attorney and I'm
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: certainly not a psychologist. What I do know is that
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: the physical evidence here demonstrates somebody that was very purposed
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: uh in accomplishing this task. You've got this poor young
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: girl that has been sliced all over her body. If
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: if these these photographs are just absolutely beyond the pale
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, I can't believe that they're they're
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: actually you know, spinning about out there on the internet.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: The depth of them, the amount of pain that would
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: have been associated just with those and yet she's not
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: you know what what this person said, She's not dying. Yeah,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: she's not going to die from these superficial injuries that
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: you've inflicted. But it's going to cause such an amazing
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: amount of pain and in the last moments of Colleen's life.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: That's why I use the term sadistic earlier. This it
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: goes to torture. It absolutely goes to torture.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: Actually defined by Christa Pike. You know, I told you
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: how reading her statement of what took place, and it's
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: a very long statement. She exp she actually explains this
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: in living color, like she's reliving it as she gives
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: her statement to police, telling them what transpired. There were
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: several times in the beating process that lasted thirty to
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: forty minutes, and I think it might have lasted a
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: lot longer. Right, But you know this is from her
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: from Christa Pike's account, where she as soon as they
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: got to the area, Christa immediately starts pounding on her. Colleen.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: She hits her in the head with her knee several times.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: She is putting her knee her head on the ground
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: several times, and Colleen is screaming, why are you doing this?
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Why are you doing this? And she's you know, because
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: of him, and they let her back up. She tried
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: to run, Colleen, or Christa said when she tried to
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: run away. He she didn't name him, but he, her boyfriend,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: chased her down, brought her back. She again, she's getting pummeled,
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: she's getting hit, she's getting her head bashed in, she's
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: getting kicked. When she's on the ground, she's being kicked.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: And she gets up and runs again. Again she has
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: caught and drug back. That's when one of the times
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: when she got up and ran, one of the cuts.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: And this is Krista Pike said. The long cut on
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: her back was the second time she tried to run.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: She cut her in the back because she was trying
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: to kill her then, but she wouldn't die. I look
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: at this over and over I've read this and I
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: can't think what kind of person Joe I mean, she
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: wants us to believe that she should be taken off
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: death row because it's been so many years that we're
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: supposed to forget her description of what she said she
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: did to this nineteen year old girl who did nothing
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: but want to be in job corps. She terrorized her
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: for weeks leading up to it, lured her into an
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: area where she could beat her. She had two friends
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: standing by to make sure the girl couldn't get away.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: Then she beat her repeatedly out the head, the body.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: She kicked her, she bruised her, and she cut her.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: She used a mini meat cleaver, she used a box cutter,
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: and then when she wouldn't die, she threw us and
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: she couldn't move. She was laying on the ground, she
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: could no longer get up. She dropped a piece of
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: asphalt on her head to crush her skull to make
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: her brain come out, and then had the temerity to
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: grab a piece of that head and take it with
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: her as a trophy.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: You know. And there's a statement that Pike may too
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: that is kind of a curious statement. She is quoted
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: as saying that I just felt mean that day? What what?
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: What is that? S What does that entail? You just
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: feel mean that day? Because I got to tell you
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: I've I've had I've been mean before in my life,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: been mean to people. I think that many people in
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: our audience can understand that. But this is not This
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: is not being mean, all right. This is not something
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: that you slap your hands child for or put them
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: in the corner and say, don't do that. You're being
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: mean to your brother or your sister or whatever the
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: case might be. This is not mean. This is sadism, yes,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: because you're you're looking, you're looking to torture someone. And
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: you know, sometimes I scoff at the saying, you know,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: and it's it's wrote. People say it all the time.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Hurting people hurt people, you know. I've heard that over
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: and over and again throughout my entire life. The problem
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: is is that hurting people hurt people. The hurt the
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: hurting people that are hurting people are rarely, if ever,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: held accountable for their actions.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: And I'd go further with that. If she didn't beg
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: for her life, if Colleen Slimmer, if Christoph Pike didn't
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: report how she begged for her life. Christer Pike took
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: great pains to say that. Colleen Slimmer said, look, I
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: won't tell anybody what you've done, just let me go.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Why she's kicking colleing. Krista Pike told Colleen stop talking
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: to me, shut up, and she said the reason she
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: told her to shut it's too hard to hurt somebody
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: when they're talking to you.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that that's another factor that enters into this,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: because you've got an individual that at that point in
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: time she was incapable of mercy even though it's being
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: asked of her. And that goes again to this idea. Okay,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: well if we if we don't keep you on death row,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: because I can only imagine that that date is approaching
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: quicker and quicker and quicker, you logic would dictate that
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: it would have to be what are you going to do?
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Are you going to turn her out into the general
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: population of the prison? I wonder how the other prisoners
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: would feel about that having her there, because you're talking
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: about somebody that is not capable of displaying mercy, and
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: certainly in the instance involving Colleen, that's the case.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: You know, even on top of this, Joe, this was
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: the only time that she tried to kill somebody. She
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: was successful in killing Colleen Slimmer. But you know, after
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: she was in prison, she tried to kill a cell
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: mate with a shoestring. They actually charged her with attempted murder.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Happened in two thousand and one, after she had been
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: in prison for five years, she strangled Patricia Jones. Now
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: that woman didn't die, but they charged christ the Pike
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: with attempted murder and she was convicted of that. So, yeah,
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: you want to let that person out that has no
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: compunction about trying to take the life of somebody.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I can't imagine you're that that would make
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: any sense whatsoever, you know, I it's it's kind of
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: shocking when you think about the idea that, Okay, you've
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: already been convicted of arguably one of the most brutal
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: murders that has taken place, certainly in Knox County, I
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: would imagine, and that was well reported and this sort
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: of thing. How's that rehabilitation going. It doesn't sound like
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: it's going very well, because five years afterwards, you've got
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: her still attempting to murder someone. That's in close proximity
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: to her, so I would be I would be really shocked.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: And from what I understand, David correct me if I'm wrong.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: The judge denied. They did denied this motion, didn't they?
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he a Knox County judge rejected the bid to vacate,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: which is the death sentence of Krista Pike. So yeah,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: she's still on death row. They have not. I was
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: looking it up to make sure they have not set
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: a death date yet. That's something that goes through a
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: different process. But they had to get through this last
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: part of it, which they said, no, you know, you
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: were eighteen, you were in an Adulton, Tennessee at the time
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: when it happened. And their argument, of course, was that
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: her boyfriend was seventeen at the time and he was
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: given life without you know, he wasn't given a death
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: sentence and she was. I can tell you is that
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: I felt differently when we started this case than when
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: after I read her a statement, having read a lot
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: of admitsion, you know, statements where people admit things yes,
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: and knowing that they're going to discount their own interaction,
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: gonna you know, make it lick like less bad for
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: themselves and if that's her less bad version of what happened, Yeah,
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: I'm horrified. I wouldn't want to even be in the
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: prison with her now.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because the further you read you realize that it
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: gets darker and darker and darker. And for Colleen, for Colleen,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: she met her in at the hands of the sadistic woman.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is body Bags.