A former Knoxville police chief says he's still haunted by the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer — a killing so brutal that the groundskeeper who found her remains initially thought he'd stumbled on an animal carcass. Christa Pike, who was 18 at the time, lured Slemmer to a park with classmates from a vocational school for troubled youths, then tortured her for nearly an hour. They beat her, slashed her with blades, gagged her when she cried, and crushed her head with a chunk of asphalt. Pike kept a fragment of Slemmer's skull as a trophy and showed it off to classmates before her arrest. Her boyfriend carved pentagrams into the victim's chest and face. Pike was scheduled for execution Wednesday by lethal injection, but after two doses, she remained alive. She was hospitalized in critical condition at an undisclosed location receiving lifesaving care. What she faces next remains unclear. Full story here foxnews.com/us/former-knoxvi…

A Tennessee death row inmate is unconscious on a ventilator after surviving the state's failed attempt to execute her — and her attorneys say prison officials ignored months of warnings that the lethal injection could go catastrophically wrong. Christa Pike's legal team filed an emergency motion to preserve evidence from what they call a "botched attempted execution." The filing alleges the execution team used at least seven needles to establish IV access, that Pike's veins blew, and that two lethal doses of pentobarbital were administered — much of it potentially entering her tissue instead of her bloodstream. Pike arrived at the hospital with both arms "swollen, burned, and blistered." Her attorneys say they warned the state for months that Pike's medical conditions made IV complications significantly more likely. Those concerns, the motion states, "were laughed off, scoffed at, and dismissed." Tennessee's Attorney General's Office says the governor has called for an investigation. Pike had been convicted of the 1995 torture killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Full story here foxnews.com/us/death-row-inm…

“IT’S F-----G HIM, DUDE.” Newly unsealed bodycam footage captures the moment officers realize they had Luigi Mangione after finding a gun magazine during his arrest at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s. A later search at the police station uncovered a handgun and suppressor.

Alex Murdaugh's defense team is accusing South Carolina prosecutors of hiding a bombshell witness statement — one that alleges a small-town police chief was seen with the murder weapons shortly after Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed in June 2021. The motion, filed Wednesday, claims witnesses told a state grand jury that Yemassee Police Chief Greg Alexander handled the weapons in the immediate aftermath of the double homicide, and that a second officer is under investigation for allegedly transporting and concealing weapons and clothing. Murdaugh's attorneys say prosecutors never turned over the evidence, which directly contradicts the State's own theory of how the killings unfolded. Alexander, through his attorney, denied the accusations. Murdaugh's retrial is set for April 2027. Full story here foxnews.com/us/murdaugh-lawy…

Tennessee's botched lethal injection of death row inmate Christa Pike may have killed capital punishment in the state entirely, according to the former Knoxville police chief who put her behind bars 30 years ago. Phil Keith, who led Knoxville's police department when Pike was arrested for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, told Fox News Digital he'd be "surprised if there are any executions in Tennessee in the near term, if again, ever." The failed execution Wednesday night, combined with Pike's last-minute appeals and media spectacle, has shifted all attention away from the victim — a shy teenager from a difficult background who was trying to turn her life around through vocational school when Pike lured her to a park, tortured her for up to an hour, and kept a piece of her fractured skull as a trophy. Keith says the focus should be on Slemmer, not Pike. "She was a bright young woman," he said. "She had interest in computers. She was applying herself there. She was clearly a innocent party in this." Full story here foxnews.com/us/christa-pike-…

“This is awful.” Randy Spivey, an attorney for Tennessee killer Christa Spike, said “she was aching” for Colleen Slemmer’s family when asked by Fox News Digital about the murder victim’s loved ones. Spike was scheduled to be executed Wednesday for murdering Slemmer in 1995. Spike survived two botched lethal injection attempts, though, and is in critical condition, Spivey told reporters. "I cannot imagine what this was like for the family of Ms. Slemmer or anyone who loves that family or is close to that family or anyone who loves Christa or is close to Christa," Spivey said. "This kind of thing should never happen again." Full story here foxnews.com/us/christa-pike-…

FALLEN 'IDOL': Disgraced reality contestant ordered to register as a violent offender after a jury convicted him of murdering his wife and staging the crime scene to look like a home invasion. Full story here foxnews.com/us/verdict-reach…

Christa Pike is in critical condition after two botched lethal injection attempts in Tennessee left her hospitalized and receiving lifesaving care, her attorneys say. Pike, 50, was convicted in the 1995 torture murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She received two injections Wednesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a last-minute stay of execution. Her attorneys say the needle either became dislodged or pierced all the way through her veins. Pike remained awake during the procedure, at one point raising her head to ask prison officials whether her arm was supposed to feel that way. Witnesses reported she was still breathing after the second dose. Prior to the failed execution, Pike had requested alternate methods of capital punishment, fearing the injection could go wrong. Her requests were denied. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has now halted the state's remaining scheduled execution this year and ordered a third-party review. Full story here foxnews.com/us/christa-pike-…

LIVE NOW: Caleb Flynn's case returns to court over enrollment as violent offender after murder conviction x.lingyaoai.com/i/broadcasts/1NGarovmN…

LIVE NOW: Attorneys speak about Christa Pike's failed Tennessee execution x.lingyaoai.com/i/broadcasts/1AxRnZWNV…

📰 Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, is pushing back on claims that he changed strategies in court Tuesday when he raised doubts over whether prosecutors proved his client killed her three children, insisting he has attacked the strength of the Commonwealth’s case from the beginning. Reddington, speaking with Fox News contributor @hotmicsbilly on his "Hot Mics" podcast, called the investigation into his client "horrific" and "atrocious" after arguing in court that prosecutors hadn't presented enough evidence in their case to prove his client guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. "That’s exactly what I was saying," Reddington said in the interview — right after Clancy's return to court for the first time since her mistrial. "I’ve been arguing that from the very beginning. I argued it in a closing argument to the jury. I argued in our motions." Bush, recounting the conversation in an interview with @FoxTrueCrime, says the lack of answers after Tuesday's court hearing for Clancy was disappointing. She's due back in court on Nov. 2, and there's been no date scheduled for a potential retrial.

📰 Pictured below is Colleen Slemmer, who was 19 years old in 1995 when she was lured out to a park in Knoxville and brutally killed by three teenage classmates, one of whom was due to be executed yesterday. The details of Slemmer's murder, according to court records, were horrific: She tried to run, and they held her down. She begged for her life, and they slashed her with a box cutter. She cried, and they gagged her with a hair tie. Finally, they crushed her skull with a rock against the pavement. One of her attackers kept a bone fragment and showed it off in school the next day. Another carved pentagrams into her chest and face. The ringleader in the attack was Christa Pike, who was 18 at the time. Now she's 50. After two botched attempts at lethal injection yesterday, she is in a Tennessee hospital.