When May Martinez’s daughter, Colleen Slemmer, left Orange Park, Florida, for Knoxville, Tennessee, on October 31, 1994, no one could have imagined the horror that awaited her. Colleen, just 19 years old, had enrolled in Computer Job Corps training with dreams for her future. Less than three months later, on January 13, 1995, she was brutally murdered in one of Tennessee’s most notorious crimes.
Three students lured Colleen under the pretense of renting movies, took her to the University of Tennessee campus, and murdered her in an attack so vicious it shocked the nation. Her killers carved a five-point pentagram into her chest and kept a piece of her skull as a grisly souvenir, claiming it was for a human sacrifice. The ringleader, Christa Gail Pike, later displayed a fragment of Colleen’s skull to other students at breakfast.
In the aftermath, May Martinez was left to navigate the legal system across state lines, with little guidance or compassion. “I didn’t know how to handle the process, and I was completely alone,” she recalls. That changed when she met Ted Hires in 1995, shortly after he founded the Justice Coalition and launched the Victims’ Advocate newspaper.
“Ted helped me understand what would happen and guided me through legal matters, even though my case was in Tennessee,” Martinez said. “This newspaper has always been essential for victims. It gives people information, direction, and emotional support. It allows victims to tell their stories, so they’re not forgotten.”
For nearly three decades, Martinez has endured the painful realities of the justice system. Evidence from Colleen’s case was withheld for years. After 18 years, Martinez was handed her daughter’s skull in a box at the airport, where she and Ann Dugger of the Justice Coalition had to count each piece alongside a judge. Meanwhile, Pike, who remains on death row but now lives in the general prison population, dismissed the proceedings, saying she wanted to return to her cell.
The agony continued when Martinez received body parts in the mail with no explanation and no labeling, just her name on the box. “I opened it, and inside were pieces of my daughter,” she said. She has had to reopen Colleen’s grave in Pennsylvania three times to lay her remains to rest, each time seeking a judge’s order.
Adding to the pain, Pike has been able to profit from prison work and media appearances, publicly speaking about the murder that devastated Martinez’s life. “She talks about what she did to Colleen like it’s entertainment, while we, the victims, get no help,” Martinez said.
Martinez says her experiences drive home why Jacksonville can’t afford to lose the Victims’ Advocate. “Victims need a place to go when the legal system fails them. They need guidance, direction, support, and someone who understands what they’re going through,” she said.
For Martinez, the Justice Coalition remains more than a nonprofit or a publication. It is a lifeline for families facing unthinkable loss. “The Justice Coalition and its newspaper are vital. They give victims hope, direction, and a voice,” she said.
As Jacksonville continues to confront senseless crime and violence, Martinez’s plea is clear: the Victims’ Advocate must remain, so no other family has to walk alone through the darkness of tragedy.
Read the complete September 2025 edition of the Victims’ Advocate (PDF)