True Crime Vault: Shot in the Dark

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Speaker 3 Welcome to the True Crime Vault, home to 2020's most chilling stories.

Speaker 3 Go to your car with your keys. Go alone.

Speaker 3 I've got someone you love. If you don't comply, I will hurt them.

Speaker 7 Tonight, on 2020, how did the bright lights of high school turn so dark for one of its golden couples?

Speaker 9 This is Oreo Gun. They're bound to vehicle.
Raise your hands up. Hands up all right.
Her, hurry, stop.

Speaker 7 Emma's the sparkling, popular cheerleader. Riley's the possessive football player.

Speaker 10 When things would not go the way he wanted, he would sometimes claim he was going to kill himself.

Speaker 7 Together, they were a bad romance.

Speaker 12 This wasn't a good relationship, so she broke up with him.

Speaker 6 Yes, finally.

Speaker 7 But bizarrely, a mysterious man-in-black starts making things worse, much worse for both of them.

Speaker 13 Dryly, he's like, I've been kidnapped. I don't know what's happening.
Where am I? Holding his head, like he got hit upside the head.

Speaker 14 He basically told me that these people knocked him out, took his car, and threw him in a van.

Speaker 3 Essentially kidnapped.

Speaker 11 She's being stalked by a man caught on video.

Speaker 2 Out of the blue, someone just starts banging on her door. She's home alone.
She's scared.

Speaker 7 So are her friends when someone ends up dead.

Speaker 15 Oh, like some bro, Mio and Juliet story.

Speaker 3 In the middle of the night, you heard a noise.

Speaker 7 Tonight, we're taking you inside the investigation to catch the killer. The case in court.
Just hours ago.

Speaker 3 So you two now offer to help the police in a sting operation.

Speaker 14 The camera was right on the tip of the keyboard.

Speaker 3 I'm gonna set it down, pointing right at the couch.

Speaker 16 I'm trusting you guys,

Speaker 16 like,

Speaker 16 with my life.

Speaker 7 Shot in the dark. Here's Deborah Roberts.

Speaker 3 It's Friday night. The lights, the band,

Speaker 3 and everyone's decked out in red and black rooting for the central high bobcats of Knoxville.

Speaker 3 Knoxville is a rural community.

Speaker 10 There's a lot of mountain folks around here.

Speaker 3 Though deep in the heart of the Bible Belt, here football is religion.

Speaker 15 Fridays, everybody's excited at school to see how well we do.

Speaker 13 It's what our school revolves around, so it's exciting.

Speaker 3 But no one supports the Bobcats quite like the cheerleaders.

Speaker 3 And in the fall of 2014, there was a new girl whose spirit was sparkling, 14-year-old freshman Emma Walker.

Speaker 18 Emma really took cheerleading seriously. She really loved doing it.
You know, it was one of her passions. She loved leading and she loved football games.
She loved just being part of crowd of people.

Speaker 3 Going into high school, being a freshman cheerleader, was that a big deal for her?

Speaker 19 She had done competitive gymnastics as a young child and then competitive dance. When she tried out for cheerleader, she was the only freshman that made it.
So she was very tickled with herself.

Speaker 3 At only five feet four inches, Emma's a petite-sized powerhouse, but also a playful ball of energy, always moving to the beat.

Speaker 12 Emma was very kind and warm-hearted, but she was goofy too at the same time.

Speaker 18 She could do the worm.

Speaker 18 You know, all of her other moves were kind of like, okay, Emma, you should probably stop now.

Speaker 3 That spunky cheerleader soon catches the eye of number eight, Central Central High star player Riley Gaul.

Speaker 3 He's like a speeding bullet on the field. Was he the classic jock in high school?

Speaker 13 No, he's a little nerdy on the side, a little to himself, kind of. From the outside looking in, you would just think he's just a normal guy.

Speaker 3 Friends describe him as a jokester. Raised by his mom and grandparents, Riley, seemingly a contradiction of high school clichés.
The star athlete, also a top student who loves to play video games.

Speaker 3 What did you think right away of this new boy that she was smitten with?

Speaker 19 That boy next door. He came in very polite, very nice

Speaker 19 in the beginning.

Speaker 17 I thought he was a very nice-looking young man, well-mannered.

Speaker 3 What were the rules about dating and going out?

Speaker 17 Never would let them go out on a formal date. He could come over to the house.
They would meet up after football games to eat and things like that.

Speaker 20 They had fun.

Speaker 18 They seemed like they really liked each other. We were happy for her that she found someone that she really liked.

Speaker 3 Her social media splashed with pictures of the perfect pair, paddleboarding, cuddling, silly, and their selfies. Emma writing, look how lucky I am.
Riley Gall and Emma Walker were

Speaker 10 just this sort of quintessential high school couple, you know, the cheerleader and the football player.

Speaker 3 And what was the the relationship like?

Speaker 12 At first, it was just kind of normal, like nothing out of the ordinary. He didn't really talk to us, her friends, a lot, but I was just like, oh, he's shy, like new boyfriend.

Speaker 12 It just seemed normal. But then after a while, it was when we got kind of concerned.

Speaker 3 What concerned you?

Speaker 12 That he didn't really have any

Speaker 12 interest

Speaker 12 in getting to know her friends and he kind of became controlling over her, what she did, her activities.

Speaker 18 He got more possessive and more clingy towards her and you know wouldn't let her do certain things.

Speaker 3 Riley and Emma quickly become that other classic high school couple, the one that's always breaking up and getting back together again.

Speaker 3 And when they had fights, were they big fights?

Speaker 12 They were really dramatic, I would say, just because

Speaker 12 it was usually just like yelling at each other or just like harmful words towards each other.

Speaker 10 The relationship did not seem healthy at all. They argued fiercely and then they sort of made up fiercely.
But it was always drama, always drama with those two.

Speaker 3 He would comment on what she wore and tell her what not to wear.

Speaker 2 Yes. And what would you say to that?

Speaker 19 We're the decision makers in that. Not your boyfriend.

Speaker 18 When it got things got really intense and bad, he would wait outside her work for her to get off and he would just wait outside for hours.

Speaker 3 Just wait. Did you all relate this to Emma? Did you feel concerned for her? Did she seem to feel concerned?

Speaker 12 I told her, and some of the other friends told her, just like, you could do better. Like, we don't like him, but like, she just kind of brushed it off.
She did her own thing.

Speaker 3 Emma's friends say the football star becomes aggressive. Take a look at some of his Snapchats to his girlfriend.

Speaker 15 I hate you. I hate everything about you.
You're the biggest bitch I've ever come into contact with. Riley didn't speak to her the way that a guy should talk to a girl.
He was just disrespectful.

Speaker 3 One message in particular alarms her mom, Jill.

Speaker 19 We on one occasion saw one, I'll see your name in the obituary.

Speaker 3 He wrote that to you. He wrote that to her.

Speaker 19 And we questioned him about it. He said I was just angry.
That's when it started to get many more red flags.

Speaker 3 Emma's parents ban Riley from the house and take away her cell phone, hoping to stop the obsessed teens from communicating. It doesn't work.

Speaker 3 Riley gave Emma an iPod touch, and she texted him through the Waffle. For every nasty gram he sends, there is a quick apology.

Speaker 15 Emma, I'm sorry for however I act to you. I love you more than words can describe.

Speaker 3 Did you attempt to break them up or advise her to break up?

Speaker 19 Yes, several times. But as you do that with a teenager, The more you butt heads, the more she is going to think he's in the right.

Speaker 19 Because because he had a way of isolating her and making her think that he was the only one.

Speaker 3 Next, a mysterious and frightening third person enters the picture.

Speaker 2 Out of the blue, someone just starts banging on her door.

Speaker 13 I'm getting these really weird text messages saying that Riley's been kidnapped.

Speaker 3 Stay with us.

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Speaker 3 It's Halloween 2016, and it's not the decorations that have Mark and Jill Walker feeling spooked.

Speaker 3 It's their high school daughter Emma's two-year tumultuous relationship with boyfriend Riley Gall, now an 18-year-old college football player who's cast a spell over her.

Speaker 3 At some point, you ground her. She's not allowed to see Riley.

Speaker 3 And does that work?

Speaker 19 No, they would always find their way somehow to see each other. It became sneaky at that point.

Speaker 3 So Jill brings down the hammer, confining her daughter to the house, only letting her out for school and cheerleading. Shockingly, it appears to work.

Speaker 11 She did become like her old self again.

Speaker 17 She would come out out of her room, eat dinner with us,

Speaker 11 socialize with us.

Speaker 3 So you were seeing your daughter re-emerge?

Speaker 17 Yes.

Speaker 3 As for Emma's relationship with Riley, it's over. See her text message to her friends.

Speaker 5 Well, we are done for good.

Speaker 12 She just came to the realization that she deserved better, like this wasn't a good relationship, so she broke up with him.

Speaker 3 And then we're all like, yes, finally like it's happening like what we've been waiting for but her boyfriend isn't taking the breakup well over in his nearby college dorm he takes vicodin pills and washes them down with alcohol an attempt to kill himself one of the things that riley god was known for is when things would not go the way he wanted he would sometimes claim he was going to kill himself if they didn't you know reunite how did you hear that he might have been suicidal he would just like be like off to the side like moping, saying things like, I just feel so depressed, like I want to hurt myself, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 15 It was just things that he would just like say a lot. It's just like a cry for help, I guess, in a way.

Speaker 3 It's Friday night.

Speaker 3 And the Bobcats have won a big playoff game. Emma's allowed to join in a celebration at a friend's house.

Speaker 3 Then, around 11.30, something strange begins to happen. Zach Green is with Emma that night.

Speaker 13 I walk in, and Emma's like coming out of the bathroom. And she's like, Zach, I'm getting these really weird text messages.
Come outside alone if you don't want to see a loved one get hurt.

Speaker 9 I've got someone you love. If you don't comply, I will hurt them.

Speaker 3 Was she spooked?

Speaker 13 Yeah, she was just feeling really weird about it. I mean, it was a random number.

Speaker 3 Creepy, but Emma thinks it's one of Riley's friends playing a prank. Then the messages become even more menacing.
He's on a ditch beside her house.

Speaker 13 We end up going back outside and we look and we see a body laying face down.

Speaker 13 Like just a dark figure.

Speaker 3 Through the glow of the streetlight, a surprising sight. It's Riley.

Speaker 13 And then we finally get to him and he's holding up his head, kind of has his confused face on. He's like, and it was like, why are you here? He's like, I don't know what happened.

Speaker 13 I don't know how I got here. I've been kidnapped.
Someone dropped me off here. I don't know what's happening.
Where am I? How did I get here? Holding his head like he got hit upside the head kind of.

Speaker 13 It was just very weird.

Speaker 3 They're all left dumbfounded.

Speaker 3 And when you stepped out, where did you see him?

Speaker 13 He was kind of up there near like kind of the shrub, like where those thin trees are, kind of laying down.

Speaker 13 Part in the driveway, maybe.

Speaker 3 Lying down?

Speaker 13 Yeah, like face down like this, kind of.

Speaker 3 And how did Emma react?

Speaker 13 Very uneasy. She was very upset.
She was crying. She didn't really know what to think because I'm just, she's just like, we just broke up.
Like, leave me alone.

Speaker 3 And if that's not bizarre enough, Riley simply walks away and calls his close buddy Noah.

Speaker 14 He sounded like he'd been crying or like he was sounding fatigued, I guess. And he basically told me that these people knocked him out, took his car, and threw him in a van.

Speaker 14 And he didn't know where he was.

Speaker 3 Essentially kidnapped. Yeah.
Did you believe him? Not at all.

Speaker 14 You know, but what am I supposed to do?

Speaker 3 Did anybody offer to call the police?

Speaker 14 We talked about it, but he said no.

Speaker 7 Just like, no, no, no cops.

Speaker 3 The next morning, just hours after that supposed kidnapping, things go from strange to sinister.

Speaker 2 Emma is supposed to go meet her mom, and while she's home, out of the blue, someone just starts banging on her door. All she can see is this person.
She's not opening the door. She's home alone.

Speaker 2 She's scared.

Speaker 3 Emma texting her friends.

Speaker 2 I'm home alone, and somebody in all black walked down my street and came to my door and rang the doorbell over and over again. I thought I was going to die.

Speaker 2 Emma's obviously shook and who do you think she calls? She calls Riley. I'm shaking and crying.
I hate you, but I need you right now.

Speaker 3 I'm coming.

Speaker 15 I'm speeding. Just give me a minute.

Speaker 19 She was supposed to come meet me. She didn't show.
I had an intuition.

Speaker 3 Something's going on.

Speaker 19 So I drove to home and Riley's car was sitting out in front of the house and they were in the driveway.

Speaker 3 What was your first thought?

Speaker 19 I thought, you're you're kidding me. And he knows he's not allowed here and I just said, you know, you're not allowed.
You need to leave. And he did leave.

Speaker 3 Were you worried?

Speaker 19 Yes, I was worried. Yes.
And tried to calm her down and take her mind off of it.

Speaker 3 But she's thinking, what, that some stalker or maybe some burglar is trying to get into the house? I think.

Speaker 3 When we come back, an unimaginable discovery.

Speaker 24 Where is your emergency?

Speaker 3 Had on our phone.

Speaker 3 Inside the Walker home.

Speaker 19 They're wrapping tape around our house.

Speaker 15 Like some Romeo and Juliet story was my thought.

Speaker 3 Stay with us.

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Speaker 3 It's now Sunday and Emma Walker is still on edge after a disturbing weekend.

Speaker 3 Her ex-boyfriend claiming to have been kidnapped and a mysterious man in black who frightened her just 24 hours earlier banging on her door.

Speaker 19 Were you worried? I was worried and we were watching her. I mean, Sunday we followed her to work, followed her back home to make sure she was safe.

Speaker 17 She said, I'm craving ice cream.

Speaker 11 So we drove to Sonic.

Speaker 17 We had a nice cold Sonic blast and I wished her good night. I love you.

Speaker 3 See you tomorrow.

Speaker 17 I went to bed. She stayed up.

Speaker 3 And how did she seem?

Speaker 7 She seemed very happy. Very happy and relaxed.

Speaker 3 More of a...

Speaker 17 like a weight had been lifted off her shoulder.

Speaker 3 You spoke with her on that Sunday.

Speaker 12 We just talked about homework. We procrastinated over the weekend, just getting it done.

Speaker 3 Did she seem nervous, upset?

Speaker 12 Not when she was texting me. At this point, I was like, okay, like, this is it.
Like, they've broke up for good. Like, she's getting back to normal.
Riley's out of the picture.

Speaker 12 They just all seem normal.

Speaker 3 It has been a crazy weekend, but Emma finally feels calm by the time she goes to bed just after midnight. By 6 a.m., it's time for school.

Speaker 19 I went in there and to wake her up, which is usually very easy to wake her up, and said her name, didn't hear anything,

Speaker 19 bumped her leg, didn't hear anything, and then went to her face and realized and checked for her pulse and couldn't find anything.

Speaker 3 I don't remember a whole lot from that moment.

Speaker 19 I mean, I know I called 911.

Speaker 24 Where is your emergency? I don't walk her.

Speaker 3 What's going on there? I just had to wake up my daughter for school and she is new.

Speaker 3 She's 16.

Speaker 3 You said that she's non-responsive. Yeah.

Speaker 26 The call came out as a suicide. It was about 30 minutes before shift was over.

Speaker 3 Officer Nikki Bules is the lead forensic technician on the case.

Speaker 26 When I first got there, I started my photographs on the outside of the residence. I walked in, photographed the interior of the residence, photographed the bedroom.

Speaker 3 A typical teen girl's bedroom, messy with clothes and beauty products strewn about, pictures and cheer trophies on the wall.

Speaker 3 But immediately, Officer Bules notices something unusual.

Speaker 21 There was a hole in the wall. It appeared to be a bullet hole.
At that point, I knew that it probably was not a suicide.

Speaker 11 It's been upgraded from a suicide to a homicide.

Speaker 3 Lead detective Alan Merritt rushes to the Walker home. He takes me back to the scene.

Speaker 11 So, you know, I'm standing outside here. The bullet hole is, you know, just

Speaker 11 about shoulder height there

Speaker 11 in the wall.

Speaker 3 A big hole?

Speaker 28 No, it's just a small bullet hole, about the size of a ballpoint ink pen.

Speaker 11 Roughly about this area here, I locate this spent shell casing, the first spent shell casing.

Speaker 3 On the opposite side of the fence, another big discovery. A second shell casing.

Speaker 11 Yes, ma'am, a second shell casing. so now you know i've got a second shell casing where's why is it here where'd it come from obviously there was a second shot fired so another hole right there

Speaker 3 16 year old emma walker the warm-hearted vibrant cheerleader dead of a gunshot wound to the head

Speaker 3 Two bullets fired into her bedroom, one striking Emma behind her left ear. The second lodged in her pillow.
The shooter must have known she was sleeping behind that wall.

Speaker 19 Once the detective got there, we were asked to leave the residence. They're wrapping tape around our house and walking around outside.
So obviously it had turned into a crime scene at that point.

Speaker 19 But we still had no idea what had happened to her.

Speaker 3 You talked to her parents. Did you ask them if they thought there was somebody who could be out to hurt her?

Speaker 11 We spoke to the family.

Speaker 27 We spoke to her friends. And everybody kept giving us the name Riley Gall because of their relationship, because they had seen the way that Riley had treated her, the way he had talked to her.

Speaker 3 So the Knox County Sheriff's Department pays him a visit.

Speaker 25 He didn't say a whole lot. He was just kind of in a daze a little bit.
He was sad over his girlfriend losing her life.

Speaker 3 Riley takes to social media to publicly mourn his lost love. Rest easy now, sweetheart.
I love you forever and always.

Speaker 2 What stood out to me from these tweets immediately was the repetitive nature of him saying, I love you, I love you, I love you.

Speaker 2 If you just saw that, you would think that this was an ex-boyfriend who just lost his first love.

Speaker 3 Emma's friends are devastated.

Speaker 14 I was confused.

Speaker 15 All I knew is she was dead, and

Speaker 3 there's nothing I could do.

Speaker 20 It didn't register in my mind. No one would expect.

Speaker 18 our Emma to be, you know, dead.

Speaker 3 A town in mourning, honoring Emma with a candlelight vigil.

Speaker 24 Students will be gathering at Central High School tonight to remember the life of a classmate who recently died.

Speaker 3 Her fellow cheerleaders releasing balloons in her memory during the next football game.

Speaker 3 But Riley's circle of friends are now worried about his well-being. They know he's previously attempted suicide.

Speaker 3 Alex McCarty tells detectives about a secret Riley shared with him Saturday, just before Emma died.

Speaker 15 He ended up telling me like that night. He was so fearful for his life that he had stolen his grandfather's gun.
And he showed it to me.

Speaker 3 He showed you his grandfather's gun?

Speaker 15 Yes, and I held it in my hand that night.

Speaker 3 So he's been acting strangely, and then he shows you a gun. How worried were you about him?

Speaker 15 I was very worried. He reassured me over and over again that he was the farthest thing from suicidal.
He's just so scared of these people. I had to get him, how to get Emma.

Speaker 3 Riley insists he needs the gun to protect himself and Emma from those supposed kidnappers and the man in black pounding at Emma's door.

Speaker 3 What did you hear from the friends about what struck them as odd?

Speaker 27 Person dressed all in black, head to toe, even sunglasses, a hoodie on, face covered, goes to Emma's house, tries to get in, scares her.

Speaker 3 Did you think maybe there was some other suspect out there who had been stalking her? Sure. Now investigators are on the hunt for security cameras, hoping the killer might have been caught on tape.

Speaker 28 We had the exits from this residence.

Speaker 11 We saw cars going by, but couldn't identify them. The cameras didn't have enough resolution.

Speaker 3 But one camera just blocks away does capture an image of a shadowy figure. Could it be the man in black? Is this the killer?

Speaker 3 Stay with us.

Speaker 30 A shot for Knoxville and a Knox County High School.

Speaker 6 A cheerleader shot and killed a Knoxville teen found in her home dead.

Speaker 24 An investigation right now underway this afternoon in the death of a Knox County teen.

Speaker 3 On social media, Riley Gall is a picture-perfect grieving boyfriend, citing Bible verses to his lost love.

Speaker 15 And this is from a gun case from the grandfather.

Speaker 3 But police aren't buying his digital tears. He's now a person of interest in Emma Walker's death.

Speaker 3 Just 16 hours after Emma's body is discovered, the college football standout is running into a different kind kind of defender.

Speaker 31 You have the right to remain silent.

Speaker 3 Detectives with the Knox County Sheriff's Department on the offensive wanting to know about the weekend he spent at his friend Noah's house.

Speaker 31 Who else at Noah's when you get there? It was just me and him and then

Speaker 31 I think it was just me and him all night. I don't remember anybody else showing up.
And you said you spent the night? I'm pretty sure I did, yes. Actually, yes, I'm positive I did.

Speaker 31 I did spend the night. You can't remember if you spent the night at Noah's or stayed at your grandparents?

Speaker 3 Did that strike you as strange, that he couldn't remember if he spent the night here or what time he went there?

Speaker 27 You know, we're talking about, you know, what did you do yesterday and not what you did two years ago? His answers were vague.

Speaker 3 Vague and detached. Throughout the nearly two-hour police interrogation, Riley never utters Emma's name, referring to her as the girl.

Speaker 9 The girl.

Speaker 31 She texted me.

Speaker 31 Which girl?

Speaker 31 The one that passed away. Okay.

Speaker 31 What's her name? Emma. Yeah.

Speaker 25 When I first met him at his grandpa's that he might have been a greeting boyfriend. When we got into the interview room and sat down, I felt like there's a dark side.

Speaker 25 He didn't have a whole lot of passion or concern about...

Speaker 3 Riley tells detectives he'd been trying to speak with Emma all weekend, but she wouldn't engage, even blocking his number.

Speaker 31 But

Speaker 31 she said if I would help her write her paper, she would talk to me. And I use one of my friends' phones on campus to call her.

Speaker 31 Tell me about this phone call you and Emma had. I was crying and I was trying to get her to reason with me on

Speaker 31 being back together with me and she just kept saying no. She said she didn't care about the relationship anymore.
She said you need to stop. You're crazy.
You need to get a life.

Speaker 31 Hung up the phone, block me.

Speaker 3 Then Riley offers police his alibi, saying after hanging up with Emma, he went to his grandparents' house, then drove back to his dorm where he breaks down emotionally.

Speaker 31 I just sat there for about two to three hours and just wept, just looking at pictures of us and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 But where are those tears now?

Speaker 27 In my opinion, he was emotionless. His interview was probably one of the most disconnected.
It almost seemed rehearsed, deliberate.

Speaker 31 You have no idea where grandfather's gun's at?

Speaker 9 No, sir.

Speaker 31 Okay. And you

Speaker 31 do not own a handgun, correct? No, sir.

Speaker 3 And you began to ask him about the gun.

Speaker 27 He did not have the gun, didn't know where the gun was, and basically didn't have anything to do with it.

Speaker 3 No, you had already talked to friends of his who had told you

Speaker 3 that he had this gun.

Speaker 27 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 31 What if I told you someone told us that they saw you with a gun? What would you think about that? I would wonder if he said that anyway, they saw him with the gun.

Speaker 31 Alex McCarty said that you showed him a handgun.

Speaker 31 Where is the gun? I did not know. You understand, though, for us,

Speaker 31 Alex has no reason to lie about something like that. Yeah,

Speaker 31 but I'm telling you, I don't know where it's at. He said that you showed him the gun, you told him that you had it, and you told him that you got it from your granddad.
Don't have the gun.

Speaker 31 I don't know why he would say that.

Speaker 27 I knew immediately within minutes of sitting down to talk to him, Riley Gall wasn't going to confess to anything. He wasn't going to do it.

Speaker 3 So detectives then turn up the heat, pressing Riley about a strange request he made of his buddy Noah.

Speaker 31 Do you ever remember having a conversation with Noah about getting fingerprints off a gun? How do you get fingerprints off a gun? No.

Speaker 14 He asked if I knew how to get fingerprints off a gun.

Speaker 3 How to get fingerprints off a gun.

Speaker 14 He said he was asking for his roommate. I told him obviously not and not to ever ask me anything like that again.
And he said, I know, I know. It was for my roommate.
I thought it was weird.

Speaker 3 It finally dawns on Riley. He's in serious trouble.

Speaker 14 Am I a suspect in her passing?

Speaker 31 Should you be? I just feel like I'm being magic question. I hope to God I'm not a suspect in her death.
Did I say you were? I hope you don't think it.

Speaker 31 Because I wouldn't hurt that girl. Did you shoot into him this house? No, sir.

Speaker 3 And just like that, the interview is over. Riley's head in his hands.
But when he leaves the station, the star receiver goes on the defensive, texting his pal Alex.

Speaker 15 Why did you tell him about the gun? They think I shot her because of it.

Speaker 15 I told him he had no reason to withhold the weapon if he had nothing to hide, and that if anything, it could prove that he was innocent.

Speaker 3 Alex says he can't take the lying anymore and calls out his calculating friend.

Speaker 15 I asked him just outright, like, what happened to the gun that you showed me? And he said, I returned it to my grandpa. You don't have to worry about it.

Speaker 15 And his mom walks out and begins questioning Riley in front of me me about the whereabouts of the gun.

Speaker 3 So what are you making of this?

Speaker 15 He boldface lied to me just then.

Speaker 3 In texts, Riley insists he didn't lie, asking his friends not to speak to police anymore.

Speaker 15 I didn't f ⁇ ing kill her, and I'm probably going to jail.

Speaker 3 What's his demeanor like?

Speaker 15 He's frantic about getting caught.

Speaker 14 He was on edge and he was like,

Speaker 15 the only thing we can do is I just have to get rid of it. I have to get rid of the gun in order for me not to get pinned for something that I didn't do.

Speaker 15 In order for me not to go to jail for something that I didn't do, I have to get rid of this weapon. That's when I knew he did it.

Speaker 3 Next, Riley has a plan involving Alex and Noah.

Speaker 16 Tell him you're on LSD, you were drunk.

Speaker 3 But what he doesn't know, they have a plan of their own. So you two now offer to help the police in a sting operation.
The trap to catch a killer when 2020 returns.

Speaker 22 Coming to Disney Plus in Hulu.

Speaker 23 Cassidy, get us home. Jonas, brother, you got it.

Speaker 22 It'll be the best Jonas Christmas ever.

Speaker 7 Can't wait to see you guys.

Speaker 4 We love you.

Speaker 22 If they can only make it home.

Speaker 8 What's going on? Our tour plane burned? No. We cannot miss Christmas.

Speaker 3 Nothing can stop us from getting home now.

Speaker 9 Only

Speaker 18 along this trip. You lost all three of your passports?

Speaker 23 It's Christmas. Anything can happen, right?

Speaker 22 A very Jonas Christmas movie, now streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu, maybe TVPGDL.

Speaker 22 An all-new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu.

Speaker 4 Mom Talk started as a sisterhood, and that's gone to flames new secrets and lies are coming out this is gonna be catastrophic we're fighting for our marriages and the girls are just putting us through hell they make everything about themselves i can't hopefully this doesn't end in a bloodbath watch the hulu original the secret lives of mormon wives now streaming on hulu and hulu on disney plus for von subscribers terms apply

Speaker 3 Engineering student Noah Walton and buddy Alex McCarty are convinced their longtime friend Riley Gaul killed his high school sweetheart Emma Walker. He said he wanted to go and throw the gun away.

Speaker 15 Yeah, I just knew that if there was a chance that he could get rid of the murder weapon, you should stop it. I had to stop it.

Speaker 3 The two teens work with police to lay a trap.

Speaker 27 If they could help us get what they believe to be the murder weapon back.

Speaker 7 Huge, huge piece of information.

Speaker 3 That missing gun, the key piece of evidence. Authorities suspect the shell casings found at the scene came from Riley's grandfather's missing 9mm Glock.

Speaker 3 They wire up Alex and Noah with microphones, a transmitter so they can listen in, and a video camera hidden in a key fob like this one.

Speaker 3 So you two now offer to help the police in a sting operation. Were you worried about that?

Speaker 15 I was just fearful that maybe justice couldn't have been done if we made the wrong move.

Speaker 14 The camera was right on the tip of the key fob and we set it down pointing right at the couch.

Speaker 3 It's now Tuesday the day after Emma's death. The guys invite Riley to come over to Noah's house to play video games.

Speaker 16 I don't know who shot Emma.

Speaker 32 I put that on my life. I wouldn't lie to you right here right now.
I don't know who did. I'm believing.
I would never hurt her a day in my life.

Speaker 16 I had that gun because I was scared about what happened. I know you don't believe me.
You probably don't either.

Speaker 9 Whatever. Yeah, I'm saying, like, I think that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 At first, Riley seems unsure whether to trust his friends, yet he has a plan and begins writing a script for them to throw police off his scent.

Speaker 16 Tell them you're on LSD, you were drunk, and you were high.

Speaker 16 Your mind was altered. Whatever statement you give them wasn't a straightforward answer.

Speaker 14 He basically wanted to nullify all our previous statements by saying we were under the influence or we didn't know what we were talking about.

Speaker 3 What do you say to that?

Speaker 14 I said okay.

Speaker 14 I didn't do it, but I was like, okay, sure, sure bro my bad. I didn't know I was gonna get you in trouble.

Speaker 3 So you're playing him at this point. Yeah.

Speaker 16 But I'm trusting you guys

Speaker 16 like

Speaker 16 with my life because I mean this is 70 years in jail if I get convicted of something I didn't do.

Speaker 9 And

Speaker 16 are you guys are you busy right now? Like are you about to do anything?

Speaker 16 Can we go to the bluffs?

Speaker 16 Because

Speaker 16 I need to get rid of the gun. At the bluff, I'm going to throw it in the water.

Speaker 16 They'll never find it in the river.

Speaker 3 The Bluffs is a wooded area down by the Tennessee River where teens often hang out to drink and get high.

Speaker 32 I want to get rid of it.

Speaker 31 Well, there you guys want to go right now.

Speaker 3 And just like that, the trio jumps in Alex's car.

Speaker 3 The sting is on.

Speaker 16 Hey, Don, we gotta go up to his stepfather.

Speaker 16 Yeah.

Speaker 15 He tells us that he doesn't have the gun on him and we have to go pick it up from his stepfather's house. He said he hid it down in the basement.
Me and Noah wait in the car.

Speaker 14 He didn't want us to come in.

Speaker 15 And he comes back with his trash bag.

Speaker 16 Success.

Speaker 9 It's a bag of trash.

Speaker 16 I just threw it in there. I don't know what's in there.

Speaker 3 This is actual audio of the guys inside the car.

Speaker 16 I just want to throw it and be done.

Speaker 3 Are you anxious, like you want to see it right away? Or do you know that you gotta pace yourself?

Speaker 6 What do you think?

Speaker 14 We tried a little bit. We did try to coax him.
Dang, is it in there? Like, let me see. It's cool.
I don't see guns a lot.

Speaker 3 And he doesn't buy it.

Speaker 15 No, he doesn't.

Speaker 14 He actually is kind of weird about it.

Speaker 3 But Alex and Noah try to keep things as casual as possible, telling jokes, singing along to the radio.

Speaker 3 And going on a run for their favorite fast food.

Speaker 3 But what Riley doesn't know,

Speaker 3 Lieutenant Steve Sanders is in an unmarked SUV tailing the boys. He takes me along the route.

Speaker 3 Early on, you can have, you hear the audio, and then suddenly you lose it.

Speaker 13 What are you all thinking?

Speaker 13 It's kind of a, oh no.

Speaker 9 What do we do now?

Speaker 13 It's a distance thing.

Speaker 3 Fortunately, three undercover vehicles are riding alongside them. They communicate with Noah and Alex via group text.

Speaker 3 With the tension mounting, the guys make their way up to this apartment complex.

Speaker 15 They parked here and

Speaker 15 They sat in the vehicle for

Speaker 15 I'd say probably five ten minutes or so talking. He was like putting on white gloves and waiting everything.
He was very meticulous about how he got everything out.

Speaker 15 And then we just like kept waiting, kept waiting.

Speaker 3 And are you texting at that point?

Speaker 3 The police?

Speaker 14 I told him when we got the bag.

Speaker 14 I told him we didn't see it yet, but he had a bag full of like black clothes. And it was supposedly in there.
And it was about to happen soon. I don't know when.

Speaker 9 Oh my god. What?

Speaker 16 This is a real gun.

Speaker 3 There it is. They finally see the murder weapon.

Speaker 15 Actually, it was a good three or four, maybe up to five minutes of him having the gun out and getting other things out after Noah had already texted the keyword and that the cops finally

Speaker 15 did show up to where he were.

Speaker 15 Everybody, put your hands out of the vehicle now.

Speaker 15 What the f ⁇ ? Oh my god, man.

Speaker 15 What the f ⁇ ? Leave your hands out of the vehicle.

Speaker 3 It actually goes down in less than 90 seconds. Police spring, guns drawn.

Speaker 14 Riley, he's just freaking out. He's swearing left and right.
He says, I can't go to jail. I can't go to jail.

Speaker 3 Outside, detectives say their suspect, Riley, appears broken, finally defeated.

Speaker 15 He was taken into custody, was cooperative, and he didn't say anything.

Speaker 10 We didn't suspect that this would be the person we would be filming at 11 as the suspect.

Speaker 33 Tonight, a Maryville College football player behind bars accused of killing a Knox County teenager.

Speaker 6 His motive, they say, according to the state, he couldn't get over their breakup.

Speaker 33 Investigators believe he was trying to destroy evidence.

Speaker 3 18-year-old Riley Gall in custody, charged with first-degree murder and six other felonies.

Speaker 11 It was a major relief to me

Speaker 15 knowing that

Speaker 9 you know he's

Speaker 17 he's going to

Speaker 3 pay for what he done.

Speaker 3 And investigators believe he's responsible for even more than Emma's murder. Inside the white trash bag, not only the murder weapon, but a treasure trove of evidence.
What was in there with

Speaker 3 the gun? Gloves?

Speaker 15 There was gloves and trash bags and

Speaker 15 tennis shoes, the black tape, some of the black clothing.

Speaker 3 You think those were the shoes that were used?

Speaker 11 Yeah, yeah, I really think that that was the clothes used not only the night of the murder, but I think also that were the clothes that was used the morning of the man in black incident.

Speaker 3 That's right, the last four days all make sense now. Authorities convinced that Riley Gaul is not only a killer, but staged his own kidnapping and is also the mysterious man in black who stalked Emma.

Speaker 3 When we come back, the football star on trial with a surprising defense.

Speaker 28 We looked at each other and said,

Speaker 3 Did you hear? Did he just say that?

Speaker 3 And Emma's parents come face to face with their daughter's accused killer. What are your feelings toward him, Mark?

Speaker 17 I don't know that I can tell you that on camera,

Speaker 28 but I would like to tell him one day.

Speaker 3 Hey, I gotta in.

Speaker 3 The stunning courtroom conclusion next.

Speaker 3 Nearly two years since Emma's death, it's finally judgment day for Riley Gall. His appearance radically transformed.

Speaker 2 This was a very different person that I didn't recognize. You know, every day he dressed in a polo, slacks, didn't look up, didn't talk to anyone.

Speaker 3 More surprising, the defense's first words.

Speaker 32 We'll ask you to find Mr.

Speaker 3 Gall guilty of reckless homicide.

Speaker 3 The defense lawyer Wesley Stone stunning the courtroom, admitting that Riley fired that fatal bullet, but he says not to kill Emma, only to scare her in hopes that she would call him for help and he could emerge as the hero.

Speaker 11 To me, the hero defense was laughable.

Speaker 34 In his mind, oh, I'm just going to scare her by shooting at her through the wall where she's laying her head. And if it was his desperate attempt to get attention from her, then

Speaker 19 it was really, truly a bad idea.

Speaker 3 Prosecutors point to the trajectory of the bullets. Remember, Emma was shot at twice from two different angles.

Speaker 28 The trajectory was a crossing pattern that came where both would have struck her.

Speaker 11 This is an absolute intent to kill.

Speaker 3 Stone insists that Riley Gall was not the mysterious man in black

Speaker 3 pounding on Emma's door. Did Riley Gall murder Emma Walker?

Speaker 15 By the definition of murder, no.

Speaker 25 I do believe it was a reckless homicide.

Speaker 15 You didn't play football?

Speaker 9 Yes, sir.

Speaker 3 After a week of testimony and more than 30 witnesses,

Speaker 28 guilty.

Speaker 3 And when you heard guilty,

Speaker 3 it's a good feeling. I mean, it doesn't bring her back,

Speaker 19 but that's the best we could get. He shouldn't get to live his life either.

Speaker 3 The former football star sentenced to life in prison.

Speaker 15 Take a life, give a life. It's exactly what he deserves, honestly.

Speaker 3 Why do you think he killed Emma?

Speaker 14 If he couldn't have her.

Speaker 12 Then nobody can have you.

Speaker 12 And so

Speaker 12 that's really the only thing I can think of. He claimed he loved her, but it wasn't a healthy love, more of just

Speaker 12 ownership of her, he felt.

Speaker 2 Just this afternoon in court, at his sentencing hearing, Gall breaks his silence, offering a scripted apology.

Speaker 32 I'm sorry I took Emma away from me. My intentions that night were never to harm him, let alone take her love.

Speaker 32 I wanted to scare her.

Speaker 19 Bradley, you are not Emma's hero. You ended her life.
No punishment will ever bring Emma back, but what helps is knowing that you can't do this to anyone else.

Speaker 3 What do you want to see come out of this that might help someone else?

Speaker 19 But if your boyfriend or girlfriend is telling you you can't go there or what to wear or who to hang out with or who to talk to, that it's not okay.

Speaker 19 And I think when they become quiet and withdrawn, it's a big sign too. It's not just bruises.
It's emotional and controlling.

Speaker 26 Love you so much.

Speaker 3 The Walker family now finding comfort in unexpected surprises Emma left behind. And you didn't know she'd put this on.

Speaker 3 That's their thing. Very cute.

Speaker 3 Do you find yourself going back looking through these? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 Their home, a kind of living photo album, locking Emma in their hearts and memories.

Speaker 3 Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes.
See you then.

Speaker 9 911, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 29 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland, Ohio, into a crime scene.

Speaker 28 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 8 The first thing you hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 29 A new series from ABC Audio in 2020: The Hand in the Window.

Speaker 11 Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.