The Raven Knocks
True Crime/Missing Persons/Cold Cases- I decided to begin a podcast regarding true crime because I feel like some of the victim's story never gets told due to it being to graphic or not admissible in court. I also think that Justice is lost in some of these cases and it's not right. I hope I can be a voice for the ones who lost theirs and perhaps make this world a slightly better place, and have you thinking more cautiously.
The Raven Knocks
The Dangerous Path of Envy and Occult Fascination
Can jealousy drive someone to commit unthinkable acts? Explore the tragic story of Colleen Slimmer, a young woman whose passion for computers and desire for a better future through the Job Corps program led to a fateful encounter with Krista Pike. Unpack the layers of Krista's troubled life, marred by instability and abuse, and her disturbing descent into the occult. Discover how her unchecked rage and envy towards Colleen, whom she perceived as a threat, resulted in a horrific crime. This episode serves as a somber reminder of how powerful emotions can spiral out of control with devastating consequences.
The aftermath of Colleen’s murder unveils a chilling courtroom drama where justice grapples with psychological complexity. Delve into the macabre details of the crime, the investigation that followed, and Krista's alarming confessions. Hear about the psychological evaluations that tried to explain her actions through a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, and the debate over whether the crime was premeditated. As we close this chapter, prepare for a shift into the unsettling world of extreme fetishes with insights from a special guest, highlighting how dangerous obsessions can blur the line between fantasy and reality, sometimes leading to tragic outcomes. Stay safe, and join us next week for more compelling insights.
Today on the Raven's Knock. Jealousy, abuse, rage, torture, attention would be some of the words to describe our next story. Rocks, a meat cleaver, chunks of asphalt would be used to torture and kill an innocent girl. This, my friends, is the story of Colleen Slimmer. Hey guys, welcome to my channel. I'm your host, amy Prince, and this is the Raven Knocks of Colleen Slimmer. I want to take a moment to thank you all for liking and subscribing and sharing my podcast. It really means so much to me. Thank you to my peeps in Australia. The United Kingdom and Canada Love hearing about crimes abroad and, of course, the US has their fair share of sickos. Please note that the content of this recording may contain graphic material, including torture, and explicit language may be used. The opinions are of my own and may be offensive to some listeners. They are my opinions, everyone has them and if you do not agree, then ignore them like an adult and move on. Listener, discretion is strongly advised.
Speaker 1:Colleen Slimmer was born on September 20, 1975, in Bucks County, pennsylvania. She lived with her parents in Florida but dropped out of school in 9th grade due to her grades and worked in fast food. She found out that she could get her GED at Job Corps and they also offered computer training. Colleen had a passion for computers and the Job Corps had just the program she was looking for. Colleen applied and was accepted and she was extremely excited but also very scared. She had never been out on her own before and this was hundreds of miles away. She would be losing her safety net and it was a bit frightful. They had done research and decided that Knoxville didn't have a high crime rate compared to other cities, that Knoxville didn't have a high crime rate compared to other cities. So her parents felt as comfortable as they could be with her moving out. It was there at Job Corps, where she met Krista Pike, who was 18 years old, a year younger than her. She had no idea she had just met the most evil person she would ever know. Going forward, I will refer to the defendants first by their full name, then their last name. Thereafter, except for the victim, I will always use their first name.
Speaker 1:Krista Gale Pike was born on March 10, 1976, in Beckley, virginia, to Carissa Hansen and Glenn Pike. To say the marriage was toxic would be an understatement. They were married for two years when Hansen was caught cheating. They did remarry for a couple of years after Pike tried to commit suicide, but eventually they did finish their divorce. Puck's aunt would testify that Hansen wasn't a good mother. She kept a nasty house and didn't pay any attention to Puck. At one time Puck was found crawling around in dog feces that was all over the house, and another time, when Hansen received news that her daughter was having seizures, she didn't care. She wanted to continue partying and she never left to go check on her daughter.
Speaker 1:Pac had a grandmother with whom she would become very close. This grandmother took care of her a lot of the times and Pac said she was the only person that truly loved her. Sadly, in 1988, when Pac was only 12 years old, she passed and this devastated her. This is when she really spiraled out of control. She also attempted suicide. Even with attempted suicide, she received little support.
Speaker 1:Puck's teenage life would continue to be very difficult and unstable. She was shuffled around a lot and at one time lived with her father and his new family. He ended up throwing her out of the house when she was accused of molesting her half-sister. She would go on to say that she had been a victim of several molestations, but no one believed her, as they all thought she was a pathological liar. Her life in these times were also violent. Her life in these times were also violent. She was punched in the face by her mother's boyfriend and at times she was not the victim but the perpetrator. She and one of her friends beat a man in a parking lot with a stick after she claimed he had told her that he was going to rape her. Now I can't really blame her there. I probably would have beat him with other things other than a stick.
Speaker 1:So far we have a child that is growing up in a very unstable, abusive home, craving any attention she could get. She often created that attention by doing something wrong or offensive. Like all kids, they'll get your attention one way or another. But she wasn't like a lot of kids. Her education suffered, even though she was a brought child, due to her constantly changing schools.
Speaker 1:Trouble seemed to follow Pike everywhere she went and in her sophomore year she was sent to juvenile detention for a year. Year she was sent to juvenile detention for a year. It was there she learned about Job Corps, a program geared to low-income kids offering vocational training. In 1994 she entered the program and met a young man a year younger than her, named Tadaryl Shipp. They seemed to share a lot of interest, and this is where their fascination of the occult comes into play. During this time, pike also met a girl by the name of Colleen, and it wasn't long before Pike became extremely jealous of her. In her mind, colleen was trying to steal her boyfriend away from her. But Colleen, as well as her friends, tried to tell Pac that she was not interested in her boyfriend at all. But Pac had it in her mind that she was and there was no convincing her otherwise. Pac had an IQ of 111. Even though she had dropped out of school in the 10th grade. She was later diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder.
Speaker 1:Borderline personality disorder, or BPD, is a mental illness that severely impacts a person's ability to manage their emotions. It can increase impulsivity, affect how they feel about themselves and negatively impact relationships with others. They experience severe mood swings. They can go from being extremely close to someone to extreme dislike. When I think of borderline personality disorder, being extremely close to someone to extreme dislike. When I think of borderline personality disorder, to me everything with them is to the extreme. Whatever emotion they are feeling, it's like to the extreme. They can have dangerous behaviors like unprotected sex, unsafe driving, and they could also be reckless. Unprotected sex, unsafe driving, and they could also be reckless. Now research has shown that genetics can play a part and they may have structural and functional changes in the brain. Many people who suffer from it have had trauma, instability, abuse, abandonment or hardships in their lives.
Speaker 1:The night before Colleen's murder, pike had told another friend, kim Lillio, that she had intended on killing another student. Kim assumed that she was just full of shit and was just talking and just didn't pay her any mind. On January 12, 1995, pike, her boyfriend's ship and another friend, shadala. Peterson and Colleen signed out of a logbook at Job Corps together. Pike had asked Colleen to go with them to the Blockbuster Music Store because she just wanted to make peace. As they were walking, pike shared some weed with Colleen. They lured her into an old, abandoned steam plant not far from the University of Tennessee. Peterson was going to be the lookout person when Pike began her attack on Colleen.
Speaker 1:Pike began by hitting Colleen and banging her head on her knee. After the two had had words, she then threw her on the ground and kicked her repeatedly, then slammed her head into the concrete. Colleen asked her why are you doing this and threatened to report her. Pike never answered and kept kicking her in the face and in the side. Colleen lay on the ground crying as she tried to get up to make a run for it. It didn't work. The other two stopped her and pushed her back to the ground. Pike stated it was then that he she wouldn't say who, but there's only one male here held her down until she stopped struggling, then dragged her to another area where Pike cut her stomach with a box cutter as Colleen screamed.
Speaker 1:Pike recounted how she heard voices telling her that she had to do something to prevent Colleen from telling on her and sending her to prison for attempted murder. At some point Pike was standing over her watching her bleed. Again. Colleen tried to get up and run away, but Pike took a meat cleaver and threw it and cut her back. This was a big, long, nasty cut to her back. Pike stated that Colleen tried to run several times and she bargained for her life, begging her just to talk to her that if she let her go she would walk back to Florida without ever returning to Job Corps.
Speaker 1:Pike then stated she told her to shut up that it was harder to hurt someone when they were talking to you told her to shut up, that it was harder to hurt someone when they were talking to you. The more she talked, the more Pike kicked her in the face. When Colleen asked her what she was going to do with her, pike thought she heard a noise and went to investigate, but it was nothing. When she returned, she took out a box cutter and began to cut Colleen's throat, not once, not twice, but several times. Colleen still tried to talk and tried to get up, despite having her throat cut, but Pike and the others would continue to push her down. In her last attempts, pike threw a chunk of asphalt and hit Colleen in the head. Pike said the other person also hit her in the head with the asphalt. Colleen then falls to the ground and they keep bashing her head with the asphalt.
Speaker 1:Pike then stated that she could hear Colleen breathing blood in and out and she could see her jerking. But she kept on hitting and kicking her. Pac then asked her Do you know who's doing all of this to you? Colleen could do nothing but make groaning noises. Pac and another person grabbed her feet and began to drag her over to a wooded area. There they placed her on some dirt and some debris. They took her clothes and scattered them around some weeds. Pike said it only lasted 30 minutes to an hour. That was all you know not long, but I bet it was an eternity for Colleen.
Speaker 1:Pike stated that she and another person had forced Colleen to remove her shirt and her bra during the attack because she didn't think she would run away topless. She also had removed a rag from her hair and had tied it around Colleen's mouth to try to force her to shut up. When she was found she had had a pentagram carved into her abdomen as well as her forehead. Pac denied doing this part and blamed it on the others. After Colleen was dead they washed her hands in a mud hole, got rid of the box cutter and she returned the meat cleaver that she had borrowed. She wouldn't say whom she borrowed that from and she tried to say that her and Colleen had issues for a long time, and one day she woke up from a dead sleep to find Colleen standing over her with a box cutter in her hand. It was then she decided to do something. I find this highly doubtful.
Speaker 1:She told the cops that Colleen was trying to steal her boyfriend and running her mouth and she wasn't having it. It was Colleen that made her do this. After all, it was all her fault. She said she had no plans of killing her, but just wanted to make colleen leave her alone. But she had those tools with her. I don't understand if you're not. If your intention was to just to scare her, I don't understand why you would have all of those tools. And then then why didn't you stop on her?
Speaker 1:About 10 15, kim noticed that pock, ship and peterson came back to the job corpse and signed back in, but colleen was not with them. Later that night, pock told her that she had just killed someone and had a piece of her skull with her, at which point she pulls out of her pocket to show her. She bragged about slossing Colleen's throat six times and beating her face with a chunk of asphalt and made fun of how Colleen had begged for her life. She said she continued to beat Colleen because she wouldn't shut up. She bragged about using the meat cleaver to make a huge cut to her back and that she had used the box cutter for her throat. She also bragged about the pentagrams found on her abdomen and her forehead. She was dancing and singing la la la. As she was telling her story the next morning, pike couldn't contain herself. She began to brag to another friend named Stephanie. She bragged about the bloodstains on her shoes and how she had killed Colleen and her blood and brains had been pouring out, and that's how she got the piece of skull. She then proceeded to show Stephanie the piece of bone that she pulled from her pocket. Neither girl went to the police. I'll just let you wonder why.
Speaker 1:The next day, on January 13th, around eight in the morning, an employee with the University of Tennessee discovered something. At first he thought it was some sort of animal, but as he went closer he noticed a breast and knew it was a body of a young lady. It was him who called the police. When the police arrived, they began to secure the scene. They found footprints, handprints, knee prints, drag marks and some weeds had been bent over in some places. They also found blood and clothing. The crime scene covered 100 by 60 feet. It was muddy and thanks to the mud it was apparent that a violent struggle had taken place. Approximately 30 foot away from the victim sat a large pool of blood. The victim was found laying face down on a pile of dirt and debris. When they rolled her over they were taken aback by the condition of her head and face. She was unrecognizable. Her throat had been slashed several times, a pentagram was carved in her stomach and her forehead and there was a bloody rag found around her neck.
Speaker 1:Once word got out that a body had been found, people began to talk. They identified the victim by her dental records as 19-year-old Colleen Slimmer. That led them to the job corps where they checked logs. The last notation of her being alive is when she signed out of that logbook. They also noticed that she never signed back in and they took note of the people she signed out with by interviewing other students there. The hunt was on for Pike. Earlier that week Pike had went to the administration's office to obtain a new ID card as she had lost hers. When she got up to leave she left her jacket on the chair. After hearing about what happened, faculty at the Job Corps gave the jacket to police. When the police got the jacket they noticed something was on the inside pocket of the jacket. Come to find out it was part of Colleen's skull. The bone fragment was taken to the UT Forensics Labs and confirmed to fit perfectly in the skull of Colleen after they had put her skull back together. Yeah, her skull was crushed. They had to literally put her skull back together. Yeah, her skull was crushed. They had to literally put her skull back together.
Speaker 1:When police found Pock, she was eager to tell the story. She was so proud of what she had done. She told them the jeans that she was wearing that night was still in her room. When they checked they found them. The mud was on them was to try to cover up all the blood. Pock had said she told them. The victim's black gloves and other evidence could be found at the pilot gas station in a garbage can on Cumberland Avenue. The police were shocked at the ease of details of the horrific event. It came out of P's mouth like word vomit. She gave the officers consent to search. She also took them where they had found Colleen. A TBI agent would later confirm that the blood taken from the shoes and the clothing from Pike and ship was determined to be human blood and matched the profile of Colleen Trigger.
Speaker 1:Warning here, here's the medical examiner's testimony, and if you don't like the gory details, just fast forward. The medical examiner testified that the body was covered with twigs and dirt. She was nude from the waist up. After cleaning the body, dr Elkins had tried to make note of how many slash and stab wounds Colleen had on her torso by assigning them to the letter of the alphabet. But there were so many that she ran through the alphabet and so she just decided to record the most serious and severe ones. She stated the autopsy would have taken days if she had to inventory all the wounds Colleen had to her body. She had purple contusions on her knees, indicating fresh bruising consistent with crawling, and defense wounds on her right arm. She found a six-inch wound across the victim's back and besides that that one, she went on to document another 10 just involving the throat area. She noted slashing cuts to Colleen's face and a pentagram on her forehead as well as her abdomen.
Speaker 1:The medical examiner stated she was alive when this had occurred due to the redness around the wounds. None of those wounds would have caused Colleen to become unconscious either. She had been struck in the head and as she suffered multiple, extensive skull fractures, she was awake. She had been struck in the head at least four times two on the left, one over the right eye and one in the nasal area. The major wound involved most of the left side of the head, while the right side was against a firm surface. The right side of the skull had embedded small portions of the skull into the victim's brain. She found several small divots in the victim's skull containing black particles from the chunk of asphalt. The medical examiner concluded that the victim was alive and conscious during the beating. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. The manner of death was obviously homicide.
Speaker 1:In court the defense would call Dr Eric Ingham, a clinical psychologist, to the stand and he testified that he had interviewed Pike and administered several tests. He described her as bright, but she had severe BPD disorder and was addicted to weed and she also abused inhalants. He also stated that he didn't believe that she premeditated or deliberately killed Colleen. She acted in the behavior that someone with severe BPD would act. I totally disagree with that. I think it was premeditated. He explained the singing and dancing Pac did in her friend's room as she told her about what she had done was because of the emotional release that she no longer had to worry about Colleen taking away her love. When asked about the piece of skull Pot carried around, he stated that was her way of getting recognition, no matter how distorted. He agreed that she had lured her to the park and had done all the horrible things the medical examiner had described and that carrying weapons were a deliberate act. He said there was no question that she committed the murder, but reiterated that once Pike started she lost control. But he did admit and agree that when she thought she had heard a noise she did have time to calm down but chose to continue on her rampage. So she had some time to calm down a minute, but she decided to keep on going. That was a choice. As far as the pentagrams carved in her stomach and forehead, a medical director out of Vanderbilt University stated that even though there were satanic elements to this crime, the pattern was consistent with a teenager dabbling into Satanism. He described the phenomenon of collective aggression in which a group of people gather together and become emotionally aroused and the end result is that they engage in violent behavior. Now the jury found Pott guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Speaker 1:At sentencing, pike's Aunt, carrie, testified that Pike had no maternal bonding because she was basically raised by her grandmother and she had been born premature. She said Pike's family had a history of substance abuse and her maternal grandmother was an alcoholic who verbally abused pike. After the death of her grandmother, pock was shuffled between her mother and father. She said pock's mother's home was very dirty and she set no rules for her. However, on cross-examination she did admit that she had previously described pike as a pathological liar and was afraid to let puck around her children, that she had been out of control since the age of 12 when she lost her grandmother. Pike's father testified he had kicked pike out of the house twice, the last being in 1989.
Speaker 1:Pike's mother, mother Carissa, an LPN yeah, this lady's an LPN, which is a licensed practical nurse. I hope she is a better LPN than a mother. Anyway, before I go down that rat hole, I'll just move on. She testified that Pike had lived with her 95% of the time after she lost her grandmother. She admitted to smoking weed with Pike in order to establish a friendship. Again, like I've said in other cases, it's not your job to be your friends with your children. Your job is to teach them responsibility, morals, manners, to be independent so when they do leave your home they can function on their own and follow the laws with the rest of us. Our job is to teach them to be, hopefully, a little bit respectful and to co-inhabitate with all kinds of different types of people After they become adult, then if you want to become their friend, then more power to you. But until then, your job as a parent is to teach and to train, not to be friends. Then your job as a parent is to teach and train, not to be friends.
Speaker 1:She stated Pike's behavior had been problematic for years and she had been growing weed since she was nine years old. Sometimes I just can't, like a nine-year-old shouldn't even know what marijuana is. She also had a live-in boyfriend at the age of 14. She stated that pock had also lied to her several times and had stolen from her and had quit high school. Of course, what kid would stay in high school if they didn't have to, especially someone who's has other issues? That's why you are the parent, she said. She stated she really had been out of control since she was eight years old. But before you feel sorry for her, let me just tell you this the day after she was sentenced to death, she wrote a letter to her boyfriend that said you see what I get for trying to be nice to this hoe. I went ahead and bashed her brains out so she would die quickly, instead of letting her bleed to death and suffer more. And they fucking fry me. Ain't that some shit? Yep, so this is what was produced out of all that.
Speaker 1:Pock was sentenced to death by electrocution. At that time she was the youngest female on Tennessee's death row. She got another 25 years for the conspiracy charge Peterson she was the lookout girl only received six years probation. Yep, she was found guilty to accessory after the fact, and she had become an informant, so I'm sure that had affected her sentence. Shipp got life without parole, plus 25 years. He is eligible for parole on December 8, 2026.
Speaker 1:Pike appealed in 2001 and again in 2002. Pike then had her lawyer's request and set an execution date. The judge, mary Beth Lebowitz, granted the request and set the execution date for August 19, 2002. Pike then decided you know what? I'm going to change my mind on that. So on July 8, her lawyers once again filed a motion to allow the appeals process to continue, but this motion was denied. On August 2, 2002, a three-judge appeals court ruled the proceeding should be continued, and the execution was not carried out.
Speaker 1:In December 2008, pike requested a new trial. It too was denied and Pike was sent back to death row. By now, all of her appeals have been exhausted, but on August 8, 2001, with the help from an inmate, pac attempted to strangle a fellow inmate named Patricia Jones with the shoestring and almost killed her. Jones had been serving a life sentence for the murder of 84 yearold Alberta Coker that lived in Knoxville at the time of her attack. Pike was convicted of attempted first-degree murder on August 12, 2004. Even though Cornette, the other inmate, was involved, there was insufficient evidence to charge her with helping Pike. Insufficient evidence to charge her with helping Pike.
Speaker 1:In March of 2012, pike had made plans to escape, and that involved the help of a corrections officer named Justin Helfin and a man from New Jersey named Donald Cohut. Now Cohut began riding to Pike in the beginning of 2011. By July of that same year, cohut was making the 1,700-mile ride to Nashville, tennessee, just to see Pike once or twice a month. Now we don't know exactly the plan and the police never released that evidence, but what we do know is that a prison key would be traced, duplicated and created. Early in 2012, officers were notified of this plan. Now I couldn't find who snitched, but this ended the escape plan In March of 2012, cohut was charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit escape. Helfand was also arrested and charged with bribery, official misconduct and conspiracy to commit escape. Pike was not charged as they couldn't figure out if she was a participant in the conspiracy other than just being aware of it. On May 31, 2012, cohut was sentenced to seven years and Helfin, who cooperated with police after his arrest, served zero prison time, but he was obviously let go.
Speaker 1:On August 27, 2020, the Attorney General requested an execution date, but due to COVID and other factors, pike's attorneys were granted extensions by the court, allowing more time to argue as to why Pike should live and not be executed. The state did not oppose the extensions. On June 7, 2021, pike's attorneys filed yet another motion to oppose the execution date and requested what's basically a pardon, but that motion was also denied. In November 2022, the state supreme court found that the new state law for juveniles automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole is unconstitutional. So on august 20th 2023, once again pikes lawyers got a hold of this and try to use this as an attempt to reopen the case and have her 1996 conviction and sentence thrown out. In october 2023, judge scott green denied her request. Great job, judge Green. As of September 24, 2024, an execution date for Pike has yet to be announced. If Pike is executed, she would be the first woman to be executed in the state of Tennessee in roughly 200 years.
Speaker 1:Coming up next week on the Raven's Knock, know anyone with a fetish? Well, this guy takes his fetishes to the extreme and also takes several innocent lives with him. Also, I will have a special guest on our show, so I hope to see you all there and until next time, y'all be safe. I'm out.
