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Emma Walker's murder remains one of the most disturbing cases in the history of Knoxville, Tennessee. Walker's ex-boyfriend, Riley Gaul, murdered her soon after she ended their relationship. There had been several warning signs in the relationship, including Riley's controlling nature, but no one saw it until it was too late for 16-year-old Emma.
This case is the subject of the upcoming episode of People Magazine Presents: Crimes Of The 2010s, which will air at 8 pm EST on August 27, 2024. The synopsis for the episode reads:
"In November 2016, a 16-year-old girl receives terrifying text messages from an unknown number; two days later, her mother finds her dead from a gunshot wound; now, police must send two young teens undercover to try and trap her killer."
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As the case remains just as intriguing as it was at the time it happened, let us go over some of the chilling details that make this case stand out.
5 key details about Emma Walker's murder
1) Riley Gaul and Emma Walker's relationship was problematic from the very start
Initially, 16-year-old cheerleader Emma Walker's friends and family believed things were going well with her 18-year-old boyfriend Riley Gaul, a high school football player. However, they soon began to see cracks in the relationship due to Riley's controlling nature, which Emma detested.
This was also the reason behind their multiple break-ups over their two-year-long relationship. By that point, Emma's parents had also begun to despise Riley and his behavior and urged their daughter to end things with Riley.
2) Riley Gaul did not deal with the breakup well and started doing some alarming things
Riley was not okay with Emma breaking up with him and did some audacious things to attract her attention. One of the most alarming things he did was fake his own kidnapping.
Just two days before she was murdered, Emma started receiving messages from an unknown number, with one of them claiming Gaul had been kidnapped. Emma was at a party at the time and when she went out, she saw Riley standing there. Though Riley claimed he had been kidnapped, Emma did not believe him and asked him to leave her alone.
3) Emma saw a mysterious figure the day before she died
On the next morning of the party, Emma Walker spotted a mysterious figure clad in all black near her house. He was seemingly trying to get in through the front door of her house. Scared, she called Riley, who came immediately and searched for the figure but did not find anything.
She was found dead the next day. While it is unclear who the figure was, there were clues to suggest that it was Riley Gaul himself.
4) Emma's death was initially thought to be suicide
When Emma's mother went to wake her up, she found the teen unresponsive and was confused about what had happened. Authorities were leaning towards suicide till they spotted a bullet hole in her bedroom wall. There was another bullet hole and two shell casings outside her room.
It turned out that someone had fired two shots from outside Emma Walker's bedroom and one of them hit her behind the ear, killing her in the process.
5) Riley Gaul's friends turned against him and helped the police apprehend him
While it was already quite clear to the investigators that Riley was behind the murders, it was only after his friends stepped up to do the right thing that he was punished.
His friend Alex McCarty admitted that Riley had told him about stealing his grandfather's gun. Another friend, Walton, also admitted that Riley had discussed removing fingerprints from a gun with him. The duo also revealed that Riley had told them he wanted to dispose of the gun.
They later wore wires and helped the police gain crucial evidence against Riley, who was then arrested and charged. He was eventually sentenced to life for the murder of Emma Walker.
The upcoming episode of People Magazine Presents: Crimes Of The 2010s will cover the case in more detail.
