Everyone is talking about the woman facing execution. But almost no one is talking about the 19-year-old whose life was taken.
Her name was Colleen Slemmer.
She loved computers, could take them apart and put them back together, and dreamed of learning more through a Job Corps program in Tennessee. Her family described her as sweet, helpful and full of promise.
On January 12, 1995, Colleen went to a wooded area in Knoxville. She never came home.
That evening, she had spoken to her mother, May, on the phone. Colleen told her that three students were bothering her. It was the last time they ever spoke.
For more than 30 years, her family has lived with the loss.
“I think about Colleen every day, every minute, every year,” her mother said. “She’s always on my mind.”
Now, as the case reaches its final chapter, Colleen deserves to be remembered first — not the person who took her life.
She was a daughter, a granddaughter, a friend and a 19-year-old with her whole life ahead of her.
Her name was Colleen Slemmer. Please remember hers.