By Jones Gadama
While the world remembers Christa Pike as one of America’s youngest women on death row, many have forgotten the third girl who stood in the dark and watched it all happen — Shadolla Peterson.
According to court records reviewed by the Associated Press and detailed reporting by the Knoxville News Sentinel, Peterson, now known as Shadolla Utsu, was not the one who struck Colleen Slemmer — but she was the reason Slemmer walked into the trap.
As reported by BBC News in its archives on the Christa Pike case, in January 1995 at the Job Corps center in Knoxville, Tennessee, 18-year-old Colleen Slemmer was lured out of her dorm room late at night.
Court testimonies cited by The New York Times and Court TV show Peterson helped Pike and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp sell the lie — that the group was just going to a secluded spot behind campus to smoke.
It was a setup, prosecutors told the court.
Once they reached the isolated area, Pike and Shipp began a prolonged attack on Slemmer.
And where was Shadolla Peterson? According to the prosecution’s case file as quoted by Knox County Criminal Court records, she was on the edge of the circle, acting as the lookout. Her role was to watch for campus security or anyone who might intervene. She did not run for help. She did not call authorities.
Investigators told Associated Press that Peterson’s presence as part of the semi-circle around the victim made it impossible for Slemmer to flee during the 30 to 40-minute ordeal.
When police began questioning students, Peterson flipped in just a day or two, as documented by the FBI case summary and reported by Inside Edition.
She gave a full statement against Pike and Shipp in exchange for a plea deal.
Her punishment? According to sentencing records reported by Knoxville News Sentinel, six years probation. No prison time.
Pike was sentenced to death. Shipp received life with possibility of parole. Peterson walked free.
As BBC noted in its follow-up, Colleen Slemmer’s family was outraged by the plea deal — and decades later, many are still asking how the lookout in a brutal murder got a free pass for talking first.
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