Chaos after botched Christa Pike execution 911 call dismissed as hoax

By MELISSA KOENIG, US REPORTER and ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: 08:45 EDT, 13 October 2026 | Updated: 09:48 EDT, 13 October 2026

Tennessee police were left confused and incredulous after prison officials reported that Christa Pike survived her execution attempt last month – with one dispatcher even believing it was a false report.

Pike, 50, received two doses of pentobarbital on September 30 as Tennessee state officials tried to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer, but was still breathing in the aftermath.

The unusual chain of events left prison officials and first responders scrambling as they tried to figure out if the report was legitimate, according to newly-released police dispatch audio transcripts.

The documents show that the first 911 call came in at 8.40pm, just one hour after the attempted lethal injection got underway.

‘We’ve been carrying out an execution tonight. We’ve administered 10 grams of pentobarbital. The person is not yet deceased,’ the caller said as he asked for an ambulance.

Emergency responders were seen rushing to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution following the botched execution on September 30.

Christa Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses of pentobarbital as the state tried to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

The dispatcher then replied by asking the caller for a verification code for agencies to confirm to one another that a call is not a false report, which the caller did not have.

At that point, the dispatcher called the Tennessee Department of Correction Central Control at 8.59 to verify the call’s authenticity.

‘We are trying to find out if that is an actual thing that is happening and we need to send an ambulance,’ or ‘if this is someone that is basically prank-calling,’ she said.

The dispatcher was then told that nobody from that office had called police about a botched execution, and at 9.03pm the dispatcher concluded, ‘We have been informed it is a false call’ and ‘there is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.’

But at 9.06pm, 26 minutes after the first call, the Department of Correction finally called back with a code.

Still, the news did not reach the gate at the prison as a first responder reported: ‘Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people.’

Finally, at 9.11pm, a police dispatcher called the Tennessee Highway Patrol asking the department to send a trooper to the prison so that emergency vehicles could get through the prison gates.

‘We need to send police hot because there is someone at the gate telling them this is real and they need to enter, but they can’t enter without police because we never got the codes,’ the dispatcher said. ‘Can you send a trooper out there?’

‘And just so you guys are aware, the defense attorney by the name of Kelly Cleason is calling us and asking about an update. So it’s escalating.’

Ambulances and police vehicles were photographed outside the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution minutes later, and records show that Pike was sent to a local hospital at 9.36pm.

She was left on a ventilator for several days and, at one point, her attorneys did not expect her to survive.

She regained consciousness last Tuesday and began talking limitedly and walking with assistance, they said. Pike was discharged from the hospital and returned to the women’s prison where she was housed for 30 years, her lawyers said Saturday.

‘She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances. She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery,’ they said.

The failed execution has put death sentences in the state under a microscope. Governor Bill Lee postponed another execution this year and the state’s prison chief resigned following Pike’s hospitalization.

On Wednesday, a judge ordered the state to preserve all evidence from her failed execution.

Pike was sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of her classmate. She is pictured above receiving her sentence in 1996.

Pike was on Tennessee’s death row for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

Judge I’Ashea Myles said: ‘This case is unique to say the least.’

‘Take special care not to lose, misplace, or accidentally delete any information pertinent to this investigation.’

Assistant Attorney General John Ayers then claimed there is no pending execution order for Pike and insisted that the Department of Correction has already preserved the evidence from Pike’s attempted execution.

He added that log books, observation logs, medical waste and products, and electrocardiogram readouts have been saved.

‘It’s my understanding that the IV lines were cut, and so there may be portions of those IV lines that could have been still attached to Ms Pike when she was transported to the hospital,’ Ayers said.

Medical and lethal injection experts have also focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream.

Pike (pictured in 2007) has been discharged from the hospital and is back in prison.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat and killed 19-year-old Slemmer at a job training camp.

Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area, cut her with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt.

Shipp then carved a pentagram into the victim’s body. He was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.

It’s unclear how state officials will proceed with her case. Pike’s attorneys have argued she has suffered enough and want the governor to commute her sentence.