JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Jacksonville mother is begging for her murdered daughter's skull after a two-decade old murder.
Colleen Slemmer was murdered on Friday, January 13, 1995. According to court documents, she was murdered in a satanic ritual at the University of Tennessee. Documents detail that her murderer believed Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend.
Twenty years later and Slemmer's mother, May Martinez says she cannot properly bury her daughter because she is missing part of her skull, which is being used as evidence.
May Martinez remembers everything about that day. She was rushing to go get groceries and the phone rang. Her daughter was on the other end.
"I said I can't talk to you right now. I'll call you back." Those few seconds on the phone are the ones Martinez replays in her head over and over. Two days later, May's phone rang again.
"I received the phone call on Saturday around 11:15 a.m. He said, "We think your daughter might have been killed. Can you identify some marks she has on her body?'"
Colleen was a student at Job Corps in Knoxville, Tennessee. That's where she met Christa Pike.
"Friday the 13th, they said they were going to have a human sacrifice and Colleen was it," said Slemmer. "They basically cut her over 300 times and carved a pentagram on her chest."
Slemmer was found in the woods the next day. Pike was arrested. She is now sitting on death row waiting for her execution date. Pike is the only woman on death row in the state of Tennessee.
For 20 years, May has been waiting to put daughter to rest. While Pike is on death row, Colleen's skull is still considered evidence.
"Over the years, Tennessee has mailed me body parts in a box not saying what is or anything like that and i just get body parts and four years I came home with her human skull on the airplane," said Martinez.
But, she's still missing a piece of that skull that Pike kept as a trophy in the murder.
"I think it's wrong. I think they should have taken a pictures, they could have made a mold," said Martinez.
First Coast News reached out to Michael Knox, a Forensic specialist with Knox Forensics. He says the evidence could be kept until the hours before her Pike's execution.
"You have a piece of evidence that used as a trophy by the killer and links the killer and the victim. So, that's a key piece of evidence that could come back again in a retrial or it could be used during the course of an appeal," said Knox.
Martinez says she won't bury her daughter until all of her body parts are together.
"I don't think you ever have closure because her friends can't go see her and talk to her, I can't put flowers on a grave. There is nothing there she is just in a box," said Martinez.
This box filled with Colleen's ashes stays in Martinez's living room, where it has been for two decades.
Martinez says her daughter deserves more.
"I can't be numb. I need to fight for Colleen. I am her voice."
