Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Did high school stalker murder cheerleader as she slept in her own bed?

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Did high school stalker murder cheerleader as she slept in her own bed? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On November a Sunday, Emma
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Speaker 1: went for ice cream with her dad and planned to
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Speaker 1: get up early for school the next morning. I love you,
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Speaker 1: I'm going to bed and during the middle of the night,
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Speaker 1: I heard this loud noise. What kind of noise was that?
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Speaker 1: It sounded like someone was in the house and opened
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Speaker 1: the door and slammed it, and then I heard it again.
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Speaker 1: Mark jumped out of bed to check on Emma and
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Speaker 1: her brother. I opened up her door to her bedroom
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Speaker 1: and I stared at her for probably fifteen twenty seconds,
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Speaker 1: and Jesus lying asleep in her bed, and uh. I
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Speaker 1: shut the door and went to my son's bedroom and
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Speaker 1: he was in the bed at sleep. So I thought,
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Speaker 1: uh on hearing things, So I checked the doors around
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Speaker 1: the house and went back to bed. In the morning,
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Speaker 1: Emma's mom, Jill, woke up early and went in to
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Speaker 1: wake her up, and I couldn't wake her up. What's
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Speaker 1: going through your mind in that moment? I had no
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Speaker 1: idea and I can't recall a lot of it. Um.
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Speaker 1: I just know I checked for a pulse and there
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Speaker 1: was no pulse, no paulse So you know. Emma's younger brother, Evan,
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Speaker 1: also rushed in. Poor Evan, to make sure that's something
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Speaker 1: you wish that I wish he'd never have to experience.
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Speaker 1: It's like a nightmare. A gorgeous young teen cheerleader out
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Speaker 1: of Knox Well found debt in her own bed. Mom
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Speaker 1: comes to wake her up, grabs her foot and shakes
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Speaker 1: her when she doesn't respond, only to find out her
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Speaker 1: daughter is dead in her bed. What happened? I Meancy
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Speaker 1: Graves this described stories. Thank you for with us. I'm
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Speaker 1: talking about a gorgeous young girl on the inside and out,
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Speaker 1: Emma Walker. But how does a star football player enter
4:11
Speaker 1: into the scene? Joining me right now? An all star
4:14
Speaker 1: line up. Wendy Patrick veteran California prosecutor. Dr Brian Russell, lawyer, psychologist,
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Speaker 1: host of i d S hit series Fatal Vows. Karen Smith,
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Speaker 1: renowned forensics expert out on the floor to jurisdiction and
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Speaker 1: joining me right now, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter
4:32
Speaker 1: Pamela for let's start at the beginning, Pamela for what
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Speaker 1: happened that morning when Emma's mom came in and discovered
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Speaker 1: her daughter, her teen girl is dead and she was
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Speaker 1: fine the night before. She was fine the night before. However,
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Speaker 1: her daughter didn't answer her call. So at that point,
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Speaker 1: her mom is then checking for a pulse. She's hitting
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Speaker 1: the body, she's hitting her leg, she's finding that she's
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Speaker 1: not breathing. At that point, she looked at her and
5:01
Speaker 1: called one. She's panicked. When the police arrives, that's when
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Speaker 1: they find a bullet in her head, and they find
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Speaker 1: two bullet holes in the wall of that bedroom coming
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Speaker 1: from outside of the house. Two bullets. Two bullets went
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Speaker 1: through that house. One hit her, another hit the pillow,
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Speaker 1: and at that point they realized obviously that she had
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Speaker 1: been murdered. So to Karen Smith, forensics expert joining us, Karen,
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Speaker 1: there were two bullets that went through the wall. Apparently
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Speaker 1: one lodges in sixteen year old Emma Walker's pillow and
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Speaker 1: one hits her in the head. Wow, that means to me, Karen,
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Speaker 1: that the bullets went through the wall straight to Emma's
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Speaker 1: bedroom from outside. That's very odd, Karen, Yes, very odd. Uh.
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Speaker 1: The fact is is that those bullets went through the wall,
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Speaker 1: through the dry wall. One of them went unfortunately into
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Speaker 1: Emma's head, killing her instantly. So forensic investigators had quite
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Speaker 1: a bit of evidence to work with just starting there. Uh,
6:15
Speaker 1: then they moved forward. Unfortunately, you know, you recovered these bullets.
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Speaker 1: One would have to be recovered at autopsy obviously unless
6:23
Speaker 1: it went through. Uh. The other one they would be
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Speaker 1: using to compare to, you know, any kind of suspected
6:29
Speaker 1: weapon if they could find one, if you find the
6:32
Speaker 1: murder weapon. Now to Dr Brian Russell, lawyer, psychologist, host
6:37
Speaker 1: of I d S Fatal Vowel series. Dr Brian, someone
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Speaker 1: had to stand just outside the window to shoot in
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Speaker 1: to affect these shots with that caliber. It's very hard
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Speaker 1: for me to believe that someone would stand just outside
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Speaker 1: the window shooting in in the direction of Emma's bedroom,
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Speaker 1: be it through some sheet rock, and that be an accident.
7:03
Speaker 1: You're the shrink. Yeah, I think the chances of that
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Speaker 1: are infinitesimal that it would be an accident, And I
7:11
Speaker 1: think it would be also infinitesimally unlikely that the person
7:17
Speaker 1: who did this would have done it in a random fashion.
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Speaker 1: So I think it's almost certainly the case as usual
7:27
Speaker 1: that the person you know is somebody well known to
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Speaker 1: the victim. Uh and and somebody who knew exactly where
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Speaker 1: to be and where to shoot from. Well, I agree
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Speaker 1: with you, Dr Brian, because yeah, we hear about random
7:43
Speaker 1: shootings all the time where there's a random shooting somewhere
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Speaker 1: and it goes to somebody's window, and it always ends
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Speaker 1: up killing a child. Have you ever noticed it's the
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Speaker 1: most innocent person that could be killed. I remember reading
7:57
Speaker 1: about an investigating one case of a random shoot foting
8:00
Speaker 1: that went through a window and shot a child sitting
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Speaker 1: at the dinner table. I mean, it's just it's overwhelming.
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Speaker 1: But in this particular case, shells were found. Casings were
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Speaker 1: found outside the window, so that says it's not really
8:16
Speaker 1: one of those random shootings from at a distance that
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Speaker 1: happens to come in your window. As a matter of fact,
8:23
Speaker 1: take a listen to our friend Andrew Canning and Dateline
8:27
Speaker 1: speaking with Knox County Major Mike McLean and Major Crimes
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Speaker 1: Detective Alan Merritt. Investigators arrived with just sketchy details from
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Speaker 1: first responders. They thought that originally that it was a suicide,
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Speaker 1: that she had ingested something, um, poison, or whatever. Knox
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Speaker 1: County Major Mike McLean was assigned to investigate the case
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Speaker 1: with Major Crimes. Detective Alan Merritt saw sixteen year old
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Speaker 1: female ng and her bed with a small amount of
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Speaker 1: blood on her pillow, and some people had confused that
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Speaker 1: with that she had gotten sick or you know, had
9:03
Speaker 1: ingested something and caused her to vomit. But when the
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Speaker 1: detective looked closer, he saw something unusual for responders didn't
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Speaker 1: immediately see the hole in the wall. There was a
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Speaker 1: hole in the wall next to Emma's bed, a bullet hole.
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Speaker 1: And while only a little blood was visible on Emma's pillow,
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Speaker 1: when investigators inspected her head, they saw a small entry wound.
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Speaker 1: So she's been shot, yes, ma'am. But all was not
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Speaker 1: as it seems. Take a listen to Andrew Canning. But
9:33
Speaker 1: if the kidnapping was a joke, what happened the next
9:36
Speaker 1: morning was no laughing matter. Emma's friends told police that Saturday,
9:41
Speaker 1: she drove herself home from her friend's house. As she's
9:44
Speaker 1: pulling in the subdivision, approaching her residence, she sees a
9:50
Speaker 1: person dressed all in black, and as she gets closer,
9:53
Speaker 1: you know, he senses the hood up and put some
9:56
Speaker 1: sunglasses on. Emma was texting her friends a by play
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Speaker 1: as she gets into residence. Then this person comes to
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Speaker 1: the front door and starts, you know, trying to get
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Speaker 1: in the house, turning the door, knob, eating on the door.
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Speaker 1: She's in fear. She's in a panic, and so she
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Speaker 1: reaches out to the one person that she thinks can
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Speaker 1: help her, which was Riley go Riley searched the house
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Speaker 1: and neighborhood but saw no signs of anyone. Neither called
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Speaker 1: the police. Emma's ex boyfriend, Riley, was at his college
10:28
Speaker 1: dorm when his phone was flooded with calls and texts.
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Speaker 1: He grieved on social media. You know how much he
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Speaker 1: loved her, how much he's going to miss her, Like
10:36
Speaker 1: she doesn't deserve this. She's in a better place now,
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Speaker 1: you know, tell God about our Bible verse and did
10:43
Speaker 1: their hearts go out to Riley that you know he's lost.
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Speaker 1: A lot of people had commented and I'm so sorry,
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Speaker 1: praying for you. Still no one knew yet how Emma died.
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Speaker 1: What are some of the rumors that are now floating
10:58
Speaker 1: around on social media about what happened to Emma. People
11:02
Speaker 1: had thought she might have overdosed on something. Some people
11:05
Speaker 1: said the biggest fine that upset this and most for
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Speaker 1: people who didn't know her, were like saying that she
11:12
Speaker 1: killed herself. Was there any part of you that was
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Speaker 1: confused in thinking, well, maybe it's possible. What happened to
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Speaker 1: sixteen year old cheerleader Emma Walker? How did she end
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Speaker 1: up being shot in the head and her own bed?
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Speaker 1: Very odd? Pamela fur with me Crime online dot Com
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Speaker 1: investigative reporter that the night before the one night of
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Speaker 1: all nights my children have never asked me this, she
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Speaker 1: asked her mom to turn on the alarm system. She
11:44
Speaker 1: asked her mom to turn on the alarm system. And
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Speaker 1: I found that very very unusual. As a matter of fact,
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Speaker 1: a lot of unusual things had been happening pam for
11:56
Speaker 1: take a listen. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving Day.
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Speaker 1: Night Emma and her group were celebrating a football win
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Speaker 1: at a friend's house. Her friend's act was at the
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Speaker 1: party when Emma received a text message from an unknown number.
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Speaker 1: The message said something about Riley. He'd been taken for
12:13
Speaker 1: text messages saying like someone else Riley like, yeah, someone's
12:18
Speaker 1: like kidnapton Riley kidnapped. The strange messages kept coming. Then
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Speaker 1: Emma's phone rang Riley was on the line. Kim screaming
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Speaker 1: in the background like help me, help me. Emma like
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Speaker 1: I need your help. You can hear Riley on the
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Speaker 1: call calling for help. Yes, Emma and her friends rushed
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Speaker 1: out of the house and there was Riley and he
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Speaker 1: had his hands on his head. He just looked confused.
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Speaker 1: I could see her like yelling at him, like what's
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Speaker 1: going on? And she was really angry. Emma was furious
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Speaker 1: with Riley. She and her friends thought the whole thing
12:52
Speaker 1: was some kind of prank. We all kind of, as
12:54
Speaker 1: I said, like, it's very far fetched for him to
12:57
Speaker 1: early the kidnapped, went in think elice about it, So
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Speaker 1: all the friends thought it was just a joke. Pamela
13:04
Speaker 1: for crimal Line dot Com investigative reporter. There's that incident
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Speaker 1: leading up to Emma's death in her own bed where
13:13
Speaker 1: he clearly stages a stunt that he's been kidnapped. Then
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Speaker 1: there's a guy dressed in ninja black skulking around her
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Speaker 1: neighborhood that actually beams on her door that scares her
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Speaker 1: half to death. As she calls on the boyfriend Riley
13:28
Speaker 1: to come over. She's she's worried, she's afraid. Who wouldn't be.
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Speaker 1: So there are a lot of mysterious events, this prank
13:36
Speaker 1: and other things leading up to her death. What do
13:39
Speaker 1: we know about that, Pamela, Well, what we know is
13:42
Speaker 1: that she actually, as you said, she was afraid. So
13:46
Speaker 1: she texted Riley and said I hate you, but I
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Speaker 1: need you, and that's when he rushed over to the house.
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Speaker 1: At that point, there must have been some sort of argument.
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Speaker 1: That's when I believe the stepfather said he heard a
14:01
Speaker 1: door slam of something in the house. She was been asleep.
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Speaker 1: He left. He started texting her in the middle of
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Speaker 1: the night, fifty sixty text messages at a time that
14:13
Speaker 1: she did not respond to, and then hours later she
14:17
Speaker 1: was dead. You know, I was looking at all the
14:20
Speaker 1: texts and it looked like there were sixty four texts
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Speaker 1: in just a thirty minute time period, and then just
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Speaker 1: hours later she's dead. Dr Brian Russell with me, lawyer,
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Speaker 1: psychologist and hosts of Discovery i DS Fatal Vow series.
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Speaker 1: Dr Brian, I want you to take a listen to this.
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Speaker 1: He started to get very kind of controlling of her,
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Speaker 1: like where she was, what she did, Like if she
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Speaker 1: wanted to hang out with our friends, he was like,
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Speaker 1: you're not going. He didn't want her to hang out
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Speaker 1: with people, like it was just him and her, and
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Speaker 1: if Emma went somewhere without him, he would text her
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Speaker 1: forty two d toms, just blowing her phone up. Emma, Emma, Emma,
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Speaker 1: talk to me, talk to me, text me back, call me.
15:06
Speaker 1: Just Emma's parents thought the relationship was toxic. They had
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Speaker 1: seen their daughter change this new personality with Riley, and
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Speaker 1: the picture was not one that you recognized. Yeah, not
15:20
Speaker 1: with Emma, her parents said. Riley seemed intent on driving
15:25
Speaker 1: a wedge between Emma and her family. He would tell
15:28
Speaker 1: her she really didn't have parents, that she really barely
15:30
Speaker 1: had a brother, and I think he just wanted her
15:34
Speaker 1: to think that that was he was all she had.
15:37
Speaker 1: How does that work? Dr Brian? Because I've seen in
15:41
Speaker 1: so many cases that I've actually prosecuted of domestic violence
15:45
Speaker 1: or domestic homicide, and then having worked at the battered
15:49
Speaker 1: women's center at night for so many years. The woman
15:53
Speaker 1: in the scenario, typically it's the woman, not always, but
15:55
Speaker 1: usually begins to to get totally isolated. I mean, I'm
16:00
Speaker 1: seeing cases that go to the extent where the husband
16:03
Speaker 1: or the partner takes the phone out of the wall
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Speaker 1: and puts it in the trunk when they go to
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Speaker 1: work in the morning. It's just bizarre. Now, this wasn't
16:12
Speaker 1: to that extent, but it wasn't the same vein Dr Brian,
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Speaker 1: how does that work? There's a classic pattern of abusive
16:18
Speaker 1: behavior that starts with somebody showering all kinds of attention
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Speaker 1: uh and and seeming to be so over the top
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Speaker 1: caring and concerned that it actually feels good to the
16:34
Speaker 1: to the person who's eventually going to become the victim,
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Speaker 1: it feels like, oh my gosh, this person cares so
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Speaker 1: much about me, and they want to be there all
16:43
Speaker 1: the time, and they want to be there to be
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Speaker 1: my everything. And then slowly they start to become more
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Speaker 1: isolated that the person that was was doing all of
16:56
Speaker 1: the hovering and and hanging around starts to progressively isolate
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Speaker 1: the victim from family and friends and and want to
17:07
Speaker 1: be uh. Even more sort of uh, have it be
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Speaker 1: just the two of them against the world, so to speak.
17:15
Speaker 1: And and by the time the person realizes that, Okay,
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Speaker 1: this is not love, this is something dangerous, a lot
17:27
Speaker 1: of times it's too late. And unfortunately, young people are
17:31
Speaker 1: some of the most susceptible to this because they haven't
17:33
Speaker 1: had enough life experience and enough dating experience to realize
17:38
Speaker 1: that that level of controlling behavior is a giant red
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Speaker 1: flag and and it is. It is highly indicative of
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Speaker 1: a person who is on the path to physical violence,
17:51
Speaker 1: if not murder, you know, Wendy Patrick California, prosecute or
17:55
Speaker 1: joining me. Jumping off from what Dr Brian Russell just said.
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Speaker 1: I know I may be acting, but these kids are
18:01
Speaker 1: just in high school. There. This is happening in high school.
18:06
Speaker 1: Now I'm projecting because in high school I dated a
18:10
Speaker 1: football star. The football star, same scenario, and controlling would
18:17
Speaker 1: do all sorts of shenanigans to get attention to suck
18:22
Speaker 1: you back in. Would there be this crisis and that
18:25
Speaker 1: crisis and an amount I'm gonna have to go back
18:27
Speaker 1: to Dr Brian, When people stage crises to suck everybody
18:33
Speaker 1: back into their lives, the drama but in this case, Wendy,
18:37
Speaker 1: he was apparently staging stunts and shenanigans and pranks, serious ones,
18:44
Speaker 1: because I mean, we all know that it's got to
18:46
Speaker 1: be him in the black Ninja outfit, bamming on doors
18:48
Speaker 1: and skulking around the neighborhood before the shooting takes place,
18:52
Speaker 1: and the controlling behavior. It's it's freaky to see its
18:57
Speaker 1: starting in high school, Wendy, when we know it turns
19:00
Speaker 1: into full on abuse and Nancy that that's that's the
19:02
Speaker 1: kind of thing that we see though nowadays, and you know,
19:05
Speaker 1: Dr Brian and so many other guests that we've been
19:07
Speaker 1: on with have corroborated that this drama, this intensity of
19:11
Speaker 1: focus becoming fixation in terms of a high school crush.
19:15
Speaker 1: You know, we think back and it seems so innocent
19:17
Speaker 1: sometimes in retrospect, but when you really drill down on
19:20
Speaker 1: some of these relationships, they are as dysfunctional as one
19:23
Speaker 1: can imagine. As you say, where you have, you have
19:26
Speaker 1: staged kidnappings, you have attempted suicide, carrying around a relative's gun,
19:31
Speaker 1: so many different things that you look at, and it
19:34
Speaker 1: really does this bizarre behavior, obsession. This is something that
19:39
Speaker 1: was so toxic that this young lady's own parents forbid
19:43
Speaker 1: her from seeing this man, and it is taken seriously.
19:47
Speaker 1: Just because these are young people doesn't mean that this
19:49
Speaker 1: sort of young romance can't turn deadly as it did here.
19:53
Speaker 1: You know, on the outside, Riley gall the boyfriend, seemed
19:59
Speaker 1: perfect listen, two years older than Emma, popular too, a
20:04
Speaker 1: standout wide receiver on the Bobcats football team. Did you
20:07
Speaker 1: ever think Riley would make it to the NFL? And Yeah,
20:09
Speaker 1: if there was anybody who was going to do it,
20:10
Speaker 1: definite would have been Riley. Riley's friends from grade school,
20:13
Speaker 1: Alex and Noah. So he wasn't just a high school job.
20:17
Speaker 1: He was active at church and loved Star Wars movies.
20:20
Speaker 1: Started out kind of a nerdy guy, that's how that's
20:22
Speaker 1: how we met, obviously, obviously. And then a little bit
20:26
Speaker 1: later in high school he got a little bit more
20:28
Speaker 1: into football, but he kept with his nerd roots. Window
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Speaker 1: Do you worry about your children like I do? I mean,
22:46
Speaker 1: I know it's a little crazy obsessive, but sometimes, especially
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Speaker 1: after reporting on crimes on children, I have to leave
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Speaker 1: the studio, go get in the car and jode by
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Speaker 1: to let them see me do it so they don't
23:00
Speaker 1: know Mommy's crazy, but because I know it can happen,
23:06
Speaker 1: it does happen every single day. As a matter of fact,
23:09
Speaker 1: over four hundred and fifty thousand missing children reports are
23:14
Speaker 1: made every single calendar year. Let me let that soak.
23:18
Speaker 1: In four hundred and fifty thousand missing child reports made
23:22
Speaker 1: every year. One in seven runaways are now believed to
23:26
Speaker 1: be victims of child sex trafficking. I I want spoop
23:29
Speaker 1: poo that whole theory, but it's now been proven to
23:32
Speaker 1: be true and I have to accept that one in
23:35
Speaker 1: seven runaways are believed to be victims of child sex
23:38
Speaker 1: trafficking one in seven. Thirty eight percent of attempted kidnaps
23:43
Speaker 1: occur while a child is walking to or from school.
23:47
Speaker 1: Thirty eight percent. That's about forty of attempted kidnaps happen
23:52
Speaker 1: while a child is walking to or from school. Digest that.
23:58
Speaker 1: What do you do if the unthinkable happens in your life?
24:04
Speaker 1: Learn from people who have dedicated their lives to protecting children.
24:09
Speaker 1: Go to crime stops here dot com and learn about
24:13
Speaker 1: Justice Nation Crime Stops here. Learn safe in your own home,
24:20
Speaker 1: safe out and about with your child, keeping your child
24:23
Speaker 1: safe online, safe at school, and safe at daycare, or
24:29
Speaker 1: with that so called trusted babysitter Nancy Grace dot com.
24:35
Speaker 1: Jill called God, Daughter, my good and you Local. Monday,
24:47
Speaker 1: November twenty one was supposed to be a regular school morning. Instead,
24:52
Speaker 1: first responders were arriving at the Walker family home and
24:55
Speaker 1: word that something horrible had happened to Emma was tearing
24:59
Speaker 1: through town, friends, calling friends. She was just bawling and
25:04
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, you need a breathe and you
25:06
Speaker 1: need to calm down. What's wrong? And she said, Emma
25:08
Speaker 1: is dead And I said, what are you talking about?
25:10
Speaker 1: Because of her really didn't register in my mind. Like
25:13
Speaker 1: on our on our mL you were hearing our friends
25:16
Speaker 1: at Dateline. We were talking about the murder of a
25:21
Speaker 1: teen girl in her own bed, her mother. They put
25:24
Speaker 1: her to bed at night. Last thing the dad said
25:26
Speaker 1: was I love you, honey. Next morning she's dead. I'm
25:29
Speaker 1: just trying to soak that in, and I don't really
25:32
Speaker 1: want to because, you know, like last night, Dr Brian Russell,
25:37
Speaker 1: we all got to bed and I usually fall asleep
25:39
Speaker 1: with them, reading to them or whatever, and then about
25:42
Speaker 1: an hour later, when I know they're asleep, I get
25:44
Speaker 1: up and leave. But last night we had a party.
25:48
Speaker 1: We snuck Hershey Bars and caramel popcorn into bed and
25:51
Speaker 1: watched funny memes and just had a good time and
25:56
Speaker 1: stayed up too late. You know, I checked him during
25:58
Speaker 1: the night. In the morning, I fully expect everything to
26:00
Speaker 1: be just fine. And I'm thinking about Emma's mom and
26:04
Speaker 1: you know, sixteen years that goes by in the flash,
26:08
Speaker 1: it seems like they were born last month. And to
26:10
Speaker 1: go in and find your child dead in her bed,
26:14
Speaker 1: it's overwhelming to me. Dr Brian Well, it's I think
26:18
Speaker 1: anybody listening to this can only imagine how devastating it
26:23
Speaker 1: must have been for that mother. And I think that
26:27
Speaker 1: on top of that, on top of the devastation of
26:32
Speaker 1: just realizing that you've lost your child, in this particular case,
26:37
Speaker 1: there's probably a huge guilt component about the fact that
26:42
Speaker 1: they did have concerns, very well founded concerns apparently about
26:50
Speaker 1: the behavior of the suspect, and you know, telling your
26:56
Speaker 1: team that they can't see somebody anymore, Uh, something to do.
27:02
Speaker 1: But it's certainly we all know history is full of
27:06
Speaker 1: examples of that not working out very well, not being
27:10
Speaker 1: followed by your own child, and not being enough to
27:14
Speaker 1: keep the other person, the problematic person, from trying to
27:18
Speaker 1: still see your kids are So are you saying that
27:21
Speaker 1: maybe a t r OH was in order? What about that,
27:23
Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick. I mean, but at this point it was
27:26
Speaker 1: just a lot of texts and crazy stunts. I don't
27:30
Speaker 1: know that a t r A would have even been
27:32
Speaker 1: granted under that scenario, Wendy. But I agree with Dr
27:35
Speaker 1: Brian just saying okay, you can't see each other anymore.
27:38
Speaker 1: Sometimes that has a reverse effect, Wendy. Yeah, Nancy, it's
27:40
Speaker 1: such a tough mean, so many parents are in the
27:43
Speaker 1: same exact scenario. You can't put your finger on any
27:46
Speaker 1: definitive proof that would predict that violence was going to
27:49
Speaker 1: be the result simply of a matter of obsessive text messages,
27:53
Speaker 1: even stalking behavior. You and I and and no doubt
27:56
Speaker 1: our listeners understand that that is a precursor. But to
27:59
Speaker 1: prove that in or it's a different scenarios. So you're
28:01
Speaker 1: right that it may not have occurred to these parents,
28:04
Speaker 1: that this would have been something that could have been
28:06
Speaker 1: a solution. And who knows whether or not a judge
28:08
Speaker 1: would have found enough evidence at that point. I want
28:11
Speaker 1: you to take a listen to Andrew Canning speaking with
28:15
Speaker 1: Emma's parents. When Emma's parents learned what had happened, they
28:19
Speaker 1: were barely able to take it in. They had told
28:21
Speaker 1: us that she had been shot. It's unthinkable. Emma's father,
28:27
Speaker 1: Mark recalled with horror those noises he'd heard during the night,
28:31
Speaker 1: knowing that those noises that I heard were gun shots,
28:35
Speaker 1: and they sounded nothing like gunshots. But your instincts were
28:39
Speaker 1: right that something happened in the middle of the night.
28:44
Speaker 1: Do you think your child safe in your own The
28:49
Speaker 1: father goes in upon hearing that sound and checks on
28:52
Speaker 1: the children, um, and how many of us have lived
28:55
Speaker 1: that out in the middle of the night, Karen Smith.
28:59
Speaker 1: When I are sounds at night that wake me up,
29:01
Speaker 1: I immediately get up. I check on the shouldren. Then
29:03
Speaker 1: I raced to the other end of the house and
29:05
Speaker 1: look to save my mom's okay, see she's breathing, and uh,
29:11
Speaker 1: it's it's a scary thing. And the father did go
29:13
Speaker 1: in and it looked like Emma was safe in her bed.
29:16
Speaker 1: What what could it have been? It didn't sound like gunshots?
29:18
Speaker 1: What is that main, Karen Smith, you're the forensics expert. Well,
29:21
Speaker 1: it means that they were muffled, Nancy. It means that
29:24
Speaker 1: you know, you could have mistaken it if there was
29:26
Speaker 1: a pause between the gunshots. Did it sound like a
29:28
Speaker 1: door slam? Yet it may have. It could have sound like,
29:32
Speaker 1: you know, and maybe even a car door next door.
29:34
Speaker 1: When you have muffled gunshots, the last thing on your
29:37
Speaker 1: mind is thinking that somebody is shooting outside of your house,
29:41
Speaker 1: So that doesn't even come to the forefront of your
29:43
Speaker 1: of your brain. You're thinking that it's something commonplace, like
29:47
Speaker 1: a door, like a car, uh, you know, the trunk
29:50
Speaker 1: of another car across the street and that's exactly what
29:53
Speaker 1: the father thought. And when he saw Emma in her bed,
29:56
Speaker 1: there were no overt signs of evidence, and basically he
30:00
Speaker 1: just walked away thinking she was okay. Well, just like
30:04
Speaker 1: we all are discussing it right now, when you you
30:07
Speaker 1: know what I always say, don't kick me out of
30:09
Speaker 1: the studio, Jackie Howard, when you don't know a horse.
30:12
Speaker 1: Look at his track record with all the football star boyfriends,
30:16
Speaker 1: crazy stunts and pranks that were actually pretty scary. Of
30:20
Speaker 1: course police took a look at him. Listen, it was traumonizing.
30:24
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to make of it. That's my fate,
30:27
Speaker 1: that's house and I poletely draw away and this van
30:31
Speaker 1: pulled it over across in the semi circle, and these
30:35
Speaker 1: two guys are like walking across the street and hand out.
30:38
Speaker 1: One of them grabs the back and the other ones
30:41
Speaker 1: around the corner, and they just like put their hands
30:46
Speaker 1: on my face and just to me to their van
30:48
Speaker 1: or whatever. What would somebody do that to you? And
30:52
Speaker 1: genuinely have no idea. They did ask me. They're like, um,
30:59
Speaker 1: you know, like who you want to talk to for
31:01
Speaker 1: the last time? And it's also freaking now, And I
31:04
Speaker 1: said and they made me call him a and I
31:08
Speaker 1: was just crying, scream, and she thought it was a joke.
31:10
Speaker 1: She got his crying ground car. Investigators arrived with just
31:14
Speaker 1: sketchy details from first responders. They thought that originally that
31:18
Speaker 1: it was a suicide, that she had ingested something, um,
31:22
Speaker 1: poison or whatever. Knox County Major Mike McClain was assigned
31:26
Speaker 1: to investigate the case with Major Crimes. Detective Alan Merritt
31:30
Speaker 1: saw sixteen year old female ng and her bed with
31:32
Speaker 1: a small amount of blood on her pillow, and some
31:37
Speaker 1: people had confused that with that she had gotten sick
31:40
Speaker 1: or you know, had ingested something and caused her to vomit.
31:44
Speaker 1: But when the detective looked closer, he saw something unusual.
31:48
Speaker 1: First responders didn't immediately see the hole in the wall.
31:52
Speaker 1: There was a hole in the wall next to Emma's bed,
31:55
Speaker 1: a bullet hole. And while only a little blood was
31:57
Speaker 1: visible on Emma's pillow, when I investigators inspected her head,
32:02
Speaker 1: they saw a small entry wound. So she's been shot.
32:06
Speaker 1: Welcome back, I Meancy Grace. This is Crime Stories, and
32:09
Speaker 1: we take an in depth look at the murder of
32:12
Speaker 1: a teen girl cheerleader in her bed with her parents
32:16
Speaker 1: in the next room. They wake up in the night
32:19
Speaker 1: when they hear a sound and check on her. Everything's fine,
32:22
Speaker 1: my mom wakes her. The next morning, she realizes her
32:26
Speaker 1: little girl, Emma Walker, is dead in her bed, her
32:30
Speaker 1: head still on the pillow. She was shot through the head.
32:36
Speaker 1: With me Pamela for Crime online dot Com investigative reporter.
32:40
Speaker 1: While everyone was looking at the boyfriend, the football star
32:43
Speaker 1: and his crazy, erratic and controlling behavior, a gun turns
32:50
Speaker 1: up missing. Who's gun, pam for. That gun was the
32:55
Speaker 1: grandfather's gun of Riley. He called and and the police
32:59
Speaker 1: and my gun has been stolen. They couldn't find it,
33:03
Speaker 1: and at that point people were kind of suspicious as
33:07
Speaker 1: to where that gun might be. As we always say,
33:10
Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, veteran felony prosecutor out of the California jurisdiction,
33:14
Speaker 1: there's no coincidence in criminal law. So she's shot with
33:19
Speaker 1: a gun and his grandfather's gun goes missing. Wow, Okay,
33:25
Speaker 1: and my book two plus two still equals four. Wendy,
33:28
Speaker 1: that's right. We call that circumstantial evidence. And as we're
33:31
Speaker 1: piecing together a crime scene, those are always the types
33:34
Speaker 1: of details that are so important you know, you you
33:37
Speaker 1: bring up that maybe you wouldn't necessarily think a loud
33:40
Speaker 1: noise in the night is a gun shot, but in
33:42
Speaker 1: the day and age we live in, maybe you would.
33:44
Speaker 1: So when you talk about finding the cause of death
33:47
Speaker 1: and then a gun being missing, then you already have
33:50
Speaker 1: pieces to put together of this puzzle that is now
33:53
Speaker 1: finally being able to fall into place. But how do
33:56
Speaker 1: they find the gun? How do you find because you know,
34:00
Speaker 1: when you've got bullets, Karen Smith, forensics expert, you've got bullets,
34:05
Speaker 1: you've got to have the gun to match him up too. Uh.
34:10
Speaker 1: They're like fingerprints, one gun, only one gun. Like one
34:14
Speaker 1: fingerprint leaves a certain mark on a bullet as it
34:18
Speaker 1: hurls down the barrel. Only one gun can leave those
34:23
Speaker 1: striations on a bullet, So you've got to have the
34:26
Speaker 1: weapon to match up to the bullet. That's right. The
34:29
Speaker 1: striations and those imperfections are unique to each firearm and
34:33
Speaker 1: the barrel and what happens when the bullet travels through
34:36
Speaker 1: that barrel, those imperfections are left behind. So now they
34:39
Speaker 1: have two recovered from the scene, and they also have
34:42
Speaker 1: the casings outside, which tell a story on their own.
34:45
Speaker 1: So you have all of this evidence. But until you
34:48
Speaker 1: have a known, until you have that weapon to compare
34:51
Speaker 1: it to, those pieces of evidence are going to sit
34:53
Speaker 1: in the evidence locker. Dr Brian Russell. In high school,
34:57
Speaker 1: your friends, your peer group are your everything. How do
35:02
Speaker 1: police manage to infilterrate Riley galls peer group to get
35:08
Speaker 1: two of his friends to cooperate. Well, that is an
35:11
Speaker 1: excellent question, and it sounds to me like it speaks
35:14
Speaker 1: to some excellent police work. I think, uh, you know, yes,
35:18
Speaker 1: friends are very tighten it and and uh, you know,
35:22
Speaker 1: wanting to back each other up during these years of lifes,
35:28
Speaker 1: you know, adolescent years. But I think also, uh, good
35:32
Speaker 1: kids and I think, thankfully still the majority of kids
35:37
Speaker 1: are who had an instinct that a friend of theirs
35:42
Speaker 1: may have been involved in something as as awful and
35:46
Speaker 1: diabolical as this. Um. You know, I'm not all that
35:50
Speaker 1: surprised that they felt some sense of duty. So Pamela
35:54
Speaker 1: for explained to me what cops wanted Riley Galls to
35:58
Speaker 1: friends to do. Well, they wanted to get some sort
36:02
Speaker 1: of confession out of Riley that he had the gun.
36:07
Speaker 1: And so these friends had already told detectives that they
36:11
Speaker 1: actually saw this gun they were fearful of Gaul anyway.
36:15
Speaker 1: They thought maybe he would try to commit suicide. And
36:18
Speaker 1: at that point, Gall had actually told one of the
36:21
Speaker 1: friends that he had stolen his grandfather's gun because he
36:25
Speaker 1: was faking the whole you know, there's somebody after me.
36:28
Speaker 1: That was somebody after Emma. So I'm fearful somebody's gonna
36:32
Speaker 1: hurt me. So he told friends, I told my grandfather's
36:35
Speaker 1: gun to protect me. At that point, two of the
36:39
Speaker 1: friends were very suspicious and told detectives they saw that gone.
36:45
Speaker 1: That's when detectives said, let's wire you guys up. Uh.
36:49
Speaker 1: Gaull wanted to dispose of the gone. He wanted to
36:53
Speaker 1: throw it in the Tennessee River and wanted to take
36:56
Speaker 1: his friends along with them, and so that's when detectives
36:59
Speaker 1: wired those ends up so they could get him saying that.
37:02
Speaker 1: And on the way to the Tennessee River, that's when
37:05
Speaker 1: detectives found up Wendy Patrick California prosecutors. So they wired
37:08
Speaker 1: the two teen boys, and then the two boys hook
37:12
Speaker 1: up with Riley Gall. Still nobody knows what's going to happen.
37:15
Speaker 1: He could have easily gone Bisark in one of his
37:18
Speaker 1: stunts and shot the two boys. So, Wendy Patrick, in
37:22
Speaker 1: real time, how does that work? You wire the kids
37:25
Speaker 1: up and what the cops are hearing it as it happens. Yes,
37:29
Speaker 1: you really do have a lot of supervision in these
37:32
Speaker 1: types of endeavors in order to protect these young people
37:35
Speaker 1: who are so bravely going to go forth in order
37:38
Speaker 1: to solve a mystery like this, not even so much
37:41
Speaker 1: a mystery anymore, Nancy. It's all falling into place, and
37:44
Speaker 1: the law enforcement was able to figure out this would
37:47
Speaker 1: be the what they would need to do to put
37:49
Speaker 1: those final pieces in the puzzle. And these young men
37:52
Speaker 1: were willing to do that because they too, Now you've
37:55
Speaker 1: got a gun and you've got bullets, and everything is
37:58
Speaker 1: finally falling into place. They wanted to see justice for
38:01
Speaker 1: their for this young lady, just as much as that
38:03
Speaker 1: everybody else in that community. Did it fall into place?
38:07
Speaker 1: Listen Tonight, there is a growing memorial to Emma Walker
38:10
Speaker 1: at the Central High School football field where she cheered
38:14
Speaker 1: this as police investigate her murder. Earlier this week. Walker
38:18
Speaker 1: was found shot to death late Monday night at her
38:21
Speaker 1: parents home in Northdox County. Now is w B I
38:23
Speaker 1: R Tendage reporter Michael Crowe tells us her apparent boyfriend
38:27
Speaker 1: is facing charges in her death. Michael, just hours before
38:31
Speaker 1: police led William Riley Gall into the Knox County jail
38:35
Speaker 1: in handcuffs. Friends and family of cheerleader Emma Walker there
38:38
Speaker 1: at the football field where she used to perform to honor.
38:42
Speaker 1: Tributes from that service remained flowers, candles, and kind words. Mr.
38:48
Speaker 1: Ashley Beats says she knew Emma well. She was nice,
38:52
Speaker 1: she was sweet. It's why she felt compelled to come
38:55
Speaker 1: here bringing balloons. Emma. I just want to bring something today.
38:58
Speaker 1: I love you, Emma. As Emma's family mourns, many questions
39:02
Speaker 1: about her death remain, Sheriff's office investigators believe on Monday,
39:06
Speaker 1: William Riley Gall stood outside the Walker home and shot
39:10
Speaker 1: where her bed was located. Before his arrest, he tweeted,
39:13
Speaker 1: I love you, Emma. I can't be around any of
39:15
Speaker 1: that yet. It's too soon. I know you know I'm
39:18
Speaker 1: dying to be there, but understand I can't. I love you,
39:21
Speaker 1: And immediately after it became public that Emma was dead,
39:26
Speaker 1: he posted the boyfriend, the team boyfriend. That's my sweet Emma.
39:32
Speaker 1: Now she can finally rest in peace. I mean those
39:36
Speaker 1: words must haunt her parents forever. I don't know how
39:41
Speaker 1: parents make a comeback after this. Nancy Grace Crime Stories
39:47
Speaker 1: signing off goodbye friend,