For 30 years, May Martinez has lived with a hole no justice could fill. Now, she’s packing a suitcase to watch the state kill the woman who tortured and murdered her 19-year-old daughter, Colleen. A community stepped in so she wouldn’t face this moment alone. The donations. The fury. The unforgiving words.
When May Martinez takes her seat in Nashville, she will carry three decades of grief into that execution chamber. The journey was made possible by strangers who donated so money would not be the barrier between a mother and the final chapter of her daughter’s case. Their support left May and her husband Raul stunned, overwhelmed by the realization that so many people still remember Colleen.
Yet for May, this isn’t about closure so much as conviction. She has never believed that Christa Pike changed, never accepted the pleas built on mental illness or faith. In her eyes, Pike showed no mercy to Colleen and deserves none in return. On September 30, as the sentence is carried out, May will be there “for Colleen,” determined to witness what she sees as justice finally, irrevocably, done.
