About This Episode
What is this episode about?
The episode "Christa Pike: The Devil On Death Row - Part One" from The Devil Within covers the 1995 murder of nineteen-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a Knoxville Job Corps student who was killed on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus after being subjected to a prolonged attack. Carved into her chest was a pentagram, a symbol tied to the era's widespread fear of Satanic ritual crime.
The episode, titled "The Pentagram," places the killing at the tail end of the Satanic Panic, when claims of secret cults and ritual abuse had already begun collapsing under scrutiny. It describes how Christa Pike and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp were seen wearing pentagram necklaces, how Pike had experimented with occult imagery before the murder, and how a forensic psychiatrist later testified the crime held "satanic elements" that he framed as adolescent dabbling rather than organized cult activity.
The narrative also traces the personal history behind the symbolism: eighteen-year-old Pike's unstable adolescence, her intense attachment to Shipp, and her conviction that Colleen was trying to take him from her. The day before the killing, Pike allegedly told another student she planned to kill Colleen. On January 12, four young people went into the woods together, with Colleen under the impression they were going to smoke marijuana and resolve a disagreement.
The series is cataloged under The Devil On Death, and the case itself is filed as Christa Pike.
Hosts and release
Branden Morgan hosts The Devil Within, a filmic true crime and supernatural podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, supernatural legends and documented crimes. New episodes are released weekly and are available on Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
