The Football Star Boyfriend Murdered his Cheerleading Girlfriend
The case of ‘picture-perfect’ couple, Emma Walker and Riley Gaul
[2016 | Knoxville, Tennessee]
BANG
It woke Mark Walker up. It sounded like someone slammed the door shut. Just to be sure, he crept out of his bedroom and checked his house surrounding. He went to his daughter’s room and then his son’s bedroom. In the darkness, it seemed like both of them were sound asleep.
He went back to sleep, thinking perhaps it was just in his mind. He didn’t know that someone had just robbed his daughter’s life from the safety of their family home.
Emma Walker and Riley Gaul
Emma Walker was not just a pretty-faced cheerleader portrayed in every other cliché high school movie. She was intelligent, excelled academically and in her extracurricular activities. She aimed to be a NICU nurse in the future.
Friends described her as a down-to-earth, kind girl with a beautiful smile and with great fondness for animals. She volunteered at animal shelters to care for them.
She was a freshman and the youngest addition to Central High, Tennessee cheerleading team when she met charming Riley Gaul, a senior in her high school. He was a wide receiver in his high school football team, but he was no typical jock.
He was described as the boy next door with a boyish charm and a slight geekiness on him. Emma’s parents did quite like him. Like Emma, he was quite an achiever with good grades.
They both soon became a perfect couple of the school. Emma posted photos after photos with captions that only portrayed how happy and good the relationship was.
Troubles in Paradise
But, the seemingly perfect relationship slowly turned toxic.
At the beginning of the relationship, friends of Emma thought that Riley was too shy to engage in their group conversations.
But, in truth, Riley was growing possessive over Emma. He started controlling who Emma could hang out with, forcefully exerting his opinions on how she dressed and spamming her phone with messages. He would wait for her outside of her workplace for hours for her shift to end, but not in a sweet, worried way, but to keep Emma ‘in check.’
He would blatantly say hurtful things to her. Messages like,
“I hate you I hate everything about you,” “you’re the biggest bitch I’ve ever come in contact with,” and You’re dead to me… I’ll check the obituary… — — you.”
But each of those messages was quickly followed by an apology text like, “Emma, I’m sorry for however I act,” and “I love you more than words can describe.”
The couple fell into a cycle of breakups and patch-ups. Emma’s parents soon realized the emotional abuse that was taking a toll on their daughter. They tried breaking the couple up, but Emma wouldn’t. They then took away Emma’s phone, hoping that they would drift apart.
But, Riley sneakily gave Emma an iPod Touch so that they could communicate through Wi-Fi. When her parents found out about it, they grounded Emma. Emma and Riley’s relationship continued even after Riley graduated from high school and moved to a college 30 minutes away. But, Emma finally ended the relationship when she saw posts of Riley with many different girls.
Emma began to return to her usual happy and confident self, but Riley did not take the breakup well. He ended up overdosing in an attempt to commit suicide.
On November 18, Emma went for a gathering at her friend’s place. There, she received a series of text messages from an unknown number — messages threatening Emma to come out from the house. Else, the unknown number will hurt someone she cares about.
In the beginning, she ignored those messages, thinking it was a prank until the unknown number texted her that there was a body outside the house. With her friends by her side, she decided to check it out.
Surely enough, there was a body lying face down. It was Riley.
He claimed that he was kidnapped and had no idea what had just happened. Neither did Emma nor her friend believe him. Riley then called one of his friends, Noah, telling him the same story, but Riley was adamant about not calling the cops. Noah didn’t believe Riley.
When Emma’s friend dropped her off the next morning, Emma noticed a man dressed in all black roaming her streets. When she was all alone at home, he kept ringing her doorbell, trying her doorknob, and knocking on her door frantically.
Scared, she texted the football player, Riley,
“I hate you, but I need you to come over now.”
Like a good friend, he rushed over. But, by then, the mysterious man in black was gone. Riley waited with Emma in her driveway until her parents returned. While her parents were skeptical about Riley and his timely arrival with the disappearance of the mysterious man, Emma trusted him. That incident terrified Emma to the point she asked her parents to set up a house alarm.
On November 21 at 6:30 AM, Emma’s mother, Jill, went into her daughter’s room to wake her up for school, but her daughter wouldn’t budge. She then realized something was really wrong. Her daughter was pale, and her lips were blue. She called for 911, but her daughter had been dead for hours. There was no indication of any fights or obvious foul play in the room.
Just that Emma vomited on her bed, and there was a slight presence of blood by her ear. Investigators later realized a bullet entry wound by her left ear, and the vomit was Emma’s brain.
Someone shot at Emma’s bed twice from the outside, and one of the shots murdered her in her sleep.
The Investigation
Of course, Riley being Emma’s problematic ex-boyfriend, was brought up by people around Emma. Riley insisted he could never hurt Emma, for he loved her. Riley claimed he was on a call with Emma from his dorm just hours before the shooting, talking about their relationship. However, Riley’s roommate countered this fact by saying he didn’t even see Riley until it was about 5 AM.
The day after Emma’s murder, he posted a tweet saying,
“To think that every memory we have, every happy special moment we shared, can’t ever be relieved. I love you Emma Jane Walker.”
The police were wary of Riley as they suspected Riley being the mysterious man in black, but they didn’t have any concrete evidence to tie him to the murder.
Until… friends of Riley came forth with crucial information. Alex McCarty revealed that Riley had recently stolen Riley’s grandfather’s gun, a 9mm Glock. It matched the same caliber of the two gunshots into Emma’s room. Riley insisted that he had only done so for his safety, still keeping up with the story of him being kidnapped.
But, it became more than a coincidence when Noah Walton revealed that Riley had asked him how to remove fingerprints from a gun.
When Riley was brought in for interrogation, he denied all allegations. He referred Emma as ‘the girl’, creating a sense of detachment and distance from her, whom he supposedly loved.
When he was released, he contacted his two friends, Alex and Noah, asking them not to reveal any more information. Riley was sensitive and defensive on this matter. Even after his friend told him that he didn’t have to and if anything, this would help to clear his name.
The two friends returned to the police, offering their help to seek justice for Emma despite knowing the risk they would be exposed to. Both of them wore a wire and secretly recorded Riley when they invited him over for video games.
In the recording, he threw out a few assumptions, including Emma’s family were planning to pin the murder on him because they disliked him. He then asked for help to get rid of the gun by throwing it into the Tennessee River, fearing that he might go down for something he was innocent of.
Noah and Alex didn’t believe him, but they had to go along with his plan as they needed more concrete evidence of Riley confessing to the murder. Once they had confirmation that the gun was in Riley’s bag, they texted a code word to the police.
In less than two minutes, the police swiftly surrounded and arrested Riley. In Riley’s bag and car, police found the 9mm gun, gloves, and black clothing that pointed to the possibilities of Riley being the mysterious man.
In trial, Riley admitted to shooting into Emma’s room, but he only meant to scare her back to him and never meant it to be a fatal shot. Based on the trajectory of the two shots, it was clear that he was aiming at a specific location, Emma’s bed, at around 3:45 AM.
19-year-old Riley Gaul was charged and found guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated stalking, theft, tampering with evidence, reckless endangerment, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. He was sentenced to life in prison without any possibilities of parole until he is at least 51 years old. His request for a retrial was denied.
In remembrance of their daughter and her love for animals and her dream of being a NICU nurse, the Walker family got a dog park and a NICU patient room at a children’s hospital named after her.
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