They Found DNA From Nine Men In Her Body | True Crime Documentary

“Where is your emergency? What’s going on there?”

“I just tried to wake up my daughter for school and she has no pulse.”

“How old is she?”

“She’s 16.”

“You said that she’s non-responsive?”

“The girl… she… uh… she texted me.”

“Which girl?”

“The one that passed away.”

“Okay, what’s her name?”

“Emma.”

“What if I told you someone told us that they saw you with a gun? What would you think about that?”

“I would wonder who said that and where they saw me with a gun.”

“Everybody, put your hands out of the vehicle now!”

“Oh my God!”

“Leave your hands out of the vehicle! Step out of the vehicle!”

Central High School, Knoxville, Tennessee. The football stadium lights up and the energy is high as everyone turns up to support their home team, the Bobcats. The marching band and cheerleaders keep the entertainment going and the energy up for the crowd. Some say the school revolves around football and the community spirit is always strong when the team plays.

In the autumn of 2014, there was a new cheerleader on the team. 14-year-old Emma Walker was the only freshman to make the team that year. Described as passionate, spirited, and fun with an infectious smile, Emma threw herself into cheerleading and took it very seriously. She adored being in that environment. She was kind, caring, and high-achieving, with hopes of one day becoming a neonatal nurse caring for sick or premature newborn babies.

One evening while Emma was cheering, she caught the attention of Central High’s wide receiver, William Riley Gaul, known as Riley. He spotted her from the sidelines and the attraction between the pair was instant. Riley, two years her senior, was also a top-performing and popular student. He was a member of the community church, loved video games, and his friends said he was a bit of a joker and not at all the stereotypical jock type. At the time, Riley was already in a relationship, but he soon broke it off to begin dating Emma. The football star and cheerleader became the quintessential popular high school couple.

Riley clicked with Emma’s family. Her parents said he was like the boy next door: polite, well-mannered, and likable. But their attitude quickly changed when they found out that Riley was keeping his promise to take his ex-girlfriend to the junior year prom, and then he was taking Emma to the senior year prom. This didn’t sit well with Emma’s parents, and they were concerned that his priorities didn’t lie with their daughter. But Emma wasn’t concerned. Her social media account was often flooded with pictures of the young couple.

The pair would upload loving photos and silly selfies. Emma’s friends, however, said they didn’t find it easy to get to know Riley but thought this was down to him being shy and more reserved. But as time passed, friends of Emma said they stopped justifying his behavior and started to find it a bit more concerning. Many of Emma’s friends said it became obvious that Riley didn’t want Emma engaging with anyone that wasn’t him. He became controlling, possessive, and jealous. Emma’s friends voiced their concerns, but Emma brushed it off and told them they didn’t need to worry.

Emma’s parents took away her phone in a bid to stop the toxicity, but Riley gave Emma an iPod Touch, so she was able to secretly text him through the Wi-Fi without her parents suspecting anything. For the next 2 years, Emma and Riley would be on and off numerous times and the relationship was becoming more toxic and tumultuous. Each breakup was more dramatic than the last, and the young pair would frequently get into nasty arguments. Riley would send message after message and call her constantly. He was always bombarding her, waiting outside her work for hours until she finished. He once said to her:

“You’re dead to me. I’ll check the obituary.”

But for every nasty message, it would soon be followed by an apology:

“I’m sorry for however I act. I love you more than words can describe,” he would say.

Emma’s parents, Mark and Jill, said they tried to convince Emma to break off the relationship many times. Jill said he had a way of isolating her and making her think that he was the only one. The more they told Emma to break it off, the more they all butted heads. By the autumn of 2016, to everyone’s unease, Emma and Riley’s relationship was still the same. Riley had graduated and was a freshman at Maryville College, about 30 minutes away, and 16-year-old Emma was in her junior year of high school.

Around Halloween that year, in a desperate bid to help their daughter, Emma’s parents decided to ground her, not allowing her to leave the house unless it was to go to school or cheerleading. They started monitoring everywhere she went and everyone she spoke to. And to their surprise, it seemed to have the positive effect they were hoping for. Mark said she was like her old self again. She would spend time with the family, socializing, and eating dinner with everyone. Emma had even texted her friend Keegan to say that she and Riley were done for good after she had seen pictures of him with other girls at college. Keegan and other friends breathed a sigh of relief.

As everyone expected, Riley did not take the breakup well. Friday, November 18th, 2016, Emma was allowed out to go to a gathering at a friend’s house. At around 11:30 p.m., her friend Zach arrived at the house. He was met by Emma who quickly pulled him inside. She told him she had been receiving strange text messages from a number she didn’t know. One of the messages said:

“Come outside alone if you don’t want to see a loved one get hurt. Go to your car with your keys. If you don’t comply, I will hurt them.”

Emma thought it was one of Riley’s friends playing a strange prank on her. She texted back threatening to call the police. This didn’t deter anything, and the messages got more disturbing. Emma then got a message saying Riley had been dropped outside the house. Emma and Zach ran outside, and sure enough, they saw someone lying face down in a ditch near the house. It was Riley. When the pair reached him, he was holding his head and seemed confused. He said he had been kidnapped and didn’t know how he got there. Emma was crying and told Riley they had broken up and he needed to leave her alone. Dejected, Riley walked off down the streets alone. He then called his friend Noah, telling him he had been kidnapped. Noah didn’t believe a word.

Emma, feeling uneasy, stayed with her friends that night. The following morning, just after 10:00 a.m., she drove home with her friend Haley, who lived close to the Walkers. While driving, they spotted a man dressed all in black walking around on Emma’s street. Emma dropped Haley at her house and drove back home herself. Emma was going to meet her mom, Jill, and started getting ready inside, but the mystery man soon came back and started ringing the doorbell and banging on the door. Emma was frantic and texted her friends. She also messaged the one person she believed would come to her rescue: Riley. She said:

“I hate you, but I need you right now.”

He replied saying he was speeding over to help her. When Riley arrived, the mystery man had disappeared. Emma’s friend Haley knew who the man was. She said there was no doubt it was Riley. This was also confirmed when she saw his…

“This being an intentional act, and it stemmed from his anger at her not wanting to get back together with him. But she was their light, and they’re blessed that they got 16 years with her, and they can look at it that way and live the rest of their lives knowing at least we got that. But they’ll always be muted. You could sense that from them when they took the stand. Each one of them has suffered a loss at the hands of him. This guy—his personal responsibility, his actions, everything that he did—caused them to suffer. Every person in here who she touched in their lives will never be the same again because of him and his selfishness, and his lies, and his possessiveness, and his manipulation, and this obsessiveness of Emma Walker. She’s creating this fictitious, this bogus kidnapping story to upset her. When you think about the fact: at 3:00 in the morning, dressed in black, he’s standing outside a 16-year-old girl’s bedroom. And you think of all the places he could have placed that shot, all the things that he could have done—shoot up into the air, shoot through the window, anywhere. But where are you shot? Shot placement shows you an intent to kill.”

“Mr. Yer, has the jury reached the verdict?”

“Yes, sir, we have.”

“Will you please stand? Mr. D, please stand. Mr. Gilner, in count one, the first defined offense charging the defendant with first-degree murder, did the jury reach a verdict?”

“Yes, we did.”

“What is your verdict?”

“Guilty.”

“And for the lesser included offense of stalking, did the jury reach a verdict?”

“We did.”

“What is your verdict?”

“Guilty.”

The jury found William Riley Gaul guilty of the first-degree murder of Emma Walker as well as stalking, theft, reckless endangerment, and being in possession of a firearm during a dangerous felony.

“I know that nothing I can do will ever bring him back or alleviate the pain that I caused. But what I can do is tell the truth of what happened that night. My intentions were not and never have been to cause Emma any physical harm. At times, I wasn’t her boyfriend; I caused her emotional and psychological pain during the two years that we were together, but I never once even imagined it caused her any physical harm. My intentions that night were never to harm her, let alone take her life. I wanted to scare her, to run to her so bad that she would have no choice but to talk to me again, to confide in me. I would be there to comfort her and win her back.”

In the state of Tennessee, a first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence. Riley was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 51 years before he could even be considered for parole. He will be in his 70s. In May 2021, it was announced that Riley Gaul was seeking an acquittal based on insufficient evidence. If the acquittal was not granted, he was seeking a new trial. A motion hearing was set for June 4th, 2021. However, his request was denied. Riley’s attorney said he plans to appeal the ruling.

Emma should have graduated in May 2018. Her family accepted her diploma for her, and her cap and gown were laid out on the chair she would have been sat in. Since her death, Emma’s family and friends continue to work hard to keep her legacy alive. Her high school has a scholarship in her name. Jill said Emma’s love of animals and her dreams of becoming a neonatal nurse were such big parts of her character. The Walker family has since had a dog park and a neonatal intensive care unit patient room at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital named after her. Jill said that she hopes people remember Emma by channeling her energy and making sure they are always kind to others.