Noises in the Night

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Speaker 6 I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 7 Tonight on Dateline.

Speaker 3 I heard this loud noise. It sounded like someone was in the house.
I opened up her door. I thought, I'm hearing things.

Speaker 8 Your instincts were right that something happened in the middle of the night.

Speaker 9 You think your child's safe in your home sleeping.

Speaker 10 I just had to wake up my daughter from school.

Speaker 10 And she is moving.

Speaker 3 I saw a 16-year-old female laying in her bed. There was a bullet hole in the wall.

Speaker 8 So she's been shot?

Speaker 3 Someone had fired a shot from outside the residence.

Speaker 3 She sees a person dressed all in black trying to get in the house, turning the doorknob, beating on the door.

Speaker 9 She was shaking.

Speaker 5 Oh my God.

Speaker 4 This is a real gun.

Speaker 8 You're trying to bring down a murder suspect.

Speaker 5 I just knew it was something that had to be done. Everybody, put their hands out of the vehicle down.

Speaker 2 It all became a lot more real.

Speaker 12 Here's Andrea Canning with Noises in the Night.

Speaker 8 When the autumn chill seeps into this community just north of Knoxville, Tennessee, hundreds of high school students are drawn to the blaze of Friday night lights

Speaker 8 to cheer on their hometown heroes, the Bobcats.

Speaker 8 She was the Friday night light who perhaps shone brightest of them all.

Speaker 8 Emma Walker, a Bobcats cheerleader since her freshman year at Central High.

Speaker 14 She was a really good cheerleader.

Speaker 11 Some cheerleaders would just kind of go through the motions, but Emma would put her own kind of sparkle, I guess, into what she would do.

Speaker 8 Fellow cheerleaders, Kelsey and Lauren, say their friend Emma could be sassy too.

Speaker 11 She would always say, well, I am kind of a big deal.

Speaker 8 And I take it that she said that with a hint of sarcasm.

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 14 They're educational snacks of the president.

Speaker 14 They're going to eat first.

Speaker 15 People who didn't know her are like, oh, she's like the super pretty cheerleader. Like, oh no.
But then they would meet her and be like, she's the nicest person I've ever met.

Speaker 8 Keegan and Nathan were Emma's longtime school friends.

Speaker 17 Once you got to know her, you were like, wow, she's like a down-to-earth person and like really sweet.

Speaker 9 She had a smile that could light up the room. a big beautiful smile.

Speaker 8 Emma's parents, Jill and Mark, say that infectious smile

Speaker 8 was the hallmark of her playful personality.

Speaker 3 She liked to play jokes on me by grabbing my iPhone, taking selfies of herself. I had no idea.

Speaker 8 Emma volunteered at an animal shelter. At school, she was an honor roll student with a clear career goal.

Speaker 15 She wanted to be a neonatal nurse. And when we would talk about like the different professions and we get to the ones about babies and she's like that's what I want to do.

Speaker 8 It's no surprise that Emma got noticed by boys at school and there was one boy she definitely noticed back.

Speaker 17 That's really all she like talked about at first was just like he's super cute.

Speaker 8 He was Riley Gall two years older than Emma popular too. A standout wide receiver on the Bobcats football team.
Did you ever think Riley would make it to the NFL?

Speaker 5 Yeah, if if there was anybody that was going to do it, it definitely would have been Riley.

Speaker 8 Riley's friends from grade school, Alex and Noah, say he wasn't just a high school job. He was active at church and loved Star Wars movies.

Speaker 18 Started out kind of a nerdy guy. That's how we met, obviously.
Obviously.

Speaker 18 And then a little bit later into high school, he got a little bit more into football, but he kept with his nerd roots.

Speaker 14 He was really funny, and I think that's why Emma fell for him in the first place, because they were both super goofy.

Speaker 8 She had a big crush on him.

Speaker 11 She did.

Speaker 8 There was just one problem. Riley already had a girlfriend, but he said he broke up with her to date Emma.
And things got serious pretty quickly between the two of them.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 8 But as the months went by, it became clear Riley, the star football player, was also, well, a player. It turned out his ex wasn't really an ex after all.

Speaker 14 And he had like promised his ex-girlfriend that he would take her to prom that year and take Emma his senior year.

Speaker 15 She was okay with this?

Speaker 11 She wasn't okay with it, but she did let it happen.

Speaker 8 Yeah. She couldn't let go? No.

Speaker 8 That must be hard for a parent when you see a guy who's got two girls on the go.

Speaker 2 That's that's not cool.

Speaker 9 No, it's not cool. And she was young and

Speaker 9 had a mind of her own and didn't want us to voice our opinion about our concerns.

Speaker 8 Emma's determination to be with Riley caused a lot of tension between her and her parents. How does it work when you're trying to be good parents and your daughter has that strong personality?

Speaker 8 It's difficult.

Speaker 3 Very difficult.

Speaker 9 I mean, she just was very stubborn and thought her way was the right way. She wanted to learn for herself.

Speaker 8 Emma and Riley dated on and off in high school for two years. When Riley graduated and went off to college, just a half an hour away, they tried to keep the relationship going.

Speaker 8 But just before Thanksgiving, in Riley's freshman year, Emma said she saw Snapchats of Riley with other girls on campus and she broke up with him for good.

Speaker 8 Emma's parents say the tension at home evaporated. It must have felt so good to be the happy family again.

Speaker 9 It did. The whole household was different.

Speaker 8 The household wasn't calm for very long. On November 20th, 2016, a Sunday, Emma went for ice cream with her dad and planned to get up early for school the next morning.

Speaker 3 I told her, good night, love you, I'm going to bed. And during the middle of the night,

Speaker 3 I heard this loud noise.

Speaker 8 What kind of noise was it?

Speaker 3 It sounded like someone was in the house and opened a door and slammed it. And then I heard it again.

Speaker 8 Mark jumped out of bed to check on Emma and her brother.

Speaker 3 I opened up her door to her bedroom and I stared at her for probably 15, 20 seconds. And she was just lying asleep in her bed.

Speaker 3 And I shut the door and went to my son's bedroom, and he was in the bed asleep.

Speaker 2 So I thought,

Speaker 2 well,

Speaker 3 I'm hearing things. So I checked the doors around the house and went back to bed.

Speaker 8 In the morning, Emma's mom, Jill, woke up early.

Speaker 9 And went into wake her up, and I couldn't wake her up.

Speaker 8 What's going through your mind in that moment?

Speaker 9 I had no idea. And I can't recall a lot of it.

Speaker 14 I just know I checked for a pulse.

Speaker 8 And there was no pulse.

Speaker 9 No pulse.

Speaker 9 So, you know.

Speaker 8 Emma's younger brother, Evan, also rushed in. Poor Evan, too.
I'm sure that's something you wish that.

Speaker 9 I wish he'd never have to experience.

Speaker 9 It's like a nightmare.

Speaker 8 Jill called 911.

Speaker 8 I just had to wake up my daughter for school.

Speaker 8 It's you, New Pulse.

Speaker 19 You said that she's non-responsive. Yeah.

Speaker 8 Stay on the line up. What had happened to Emma Walker?

Speaker 6 When we come back, the investigation begins.

Speaker 3 I saw a 16-year-old female laying in her bed with a small amount of blood on her pillow.

Speaker 11 People had thought she might have overdosed on something.

Speaker 3 They thought that she had ingested the poison or whatever.

Speaker 8 This is a mystery right now.

Speaker 3 It's all a mystery.

Speaker 8 Monday, November 21st, 2016 was supposed to be a regular school morning. Instead, first responders were arriving at the Walker family home.

Speaker 8 And word that something horrible had happened to Emma was tearing through town. Friends calling friends.

Speaker 11 She was just bawling. And I was like, okay, you need to breathe.
You need to calm down. What's wrong? And she said, Emma is dead.
And I said, what are you talking about?

Speaker 11 Because it really didn't register in my mind. Like,

Speaker 11 not our Emma. No.

Speaker 8 It didn't seem real at first to Nathan either.

Speaker 17 And I was like, yeah, that's my best friend. But no, she didn't pass away.
It just hit me. Like, I started bawling.

Speaker 8 Emma's ex-boyfriend Riley was at his college dorm when his phone was flooded with calls and texts. He grieved on social media.

Speaker 11 You know, how much he loved her, how much he's going to miss her, like, she doesn't deserve this.

Speaker 14 She's in a better place now. You know, tell God about our Bible verse.

Speaker 8 Did their hearts go out to Riley? The, you know, he's lost.

Speaker 14 A lot of people had commented, I'm so sorry. Prayers for you.

Speaker 8 Still, no one knew yet how Emma died. What are some of the rumors that are now floating around on social media about what happened to Emma?

Speaker 11 People had thought she might have overdosed on something.

Speaker 14 Some people said brain bleed.

Speaker 15 The biggest one that upset us the most were people who didn't know her were like

Speaker 14 saying that she killed herself.

Speaker 8 Was there any part of you that was confused and thinking, well, maybe it's possible?

Speaker 3 No.

Speaker 17 Like no part of me thought. that Emma would ever take her life.

Speaker 8 This is a mystery right now as to what happened. Emma's there and you know that she has not survived whatever has happened, but you don't know what.

Speaker 3 It's all a mystery.

Speaker 8 Investigators arrived with just sketchy details from first responders.

Speaker 3 They thought that originally that it was a suicide, that she had ingested something,

Speaker 3 poison or whatever.

Speaker 8 Knox County Major Mike McClain was assigned to investigate the case with Major Crimes Detective Alan Merritt.

Speaker 3 Saw a 16-year-old female laying in her bed with a small amount of blood on her pillow. And some people had confused with

Speaker 3 that she had gotten sick or, you know, had ingested something and caused her to vomit.

Speaker 8 But when the detective looked closer, he saw something unusual.

Speaker 20 First responders didn't immediately see the hole in the wall.

Speaker 8 There was a hole in the wall next to Emma's bed, a bullet hole. And while only a little blood was visible on Emma's pillow, when investigators inspected her head, they saw a small entry wound.

Speaker 8 So she's been shot?

Speaker 3 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 8 Shot in her own bed.

Speaker 3 The bullet struck her

Speaker 3 just left and above the ear. Basically, it was a fatal wound.

Speaker 8 She had to have been shot then through the wall?

Speaker 3 Yes, it's kind of obvious that someone had fired a shot from outside the residence into the residence,

Speaker 3 striking her in the head.

Speaker 8 This is not the kind of neighborhood that has drive-by shootings, right?

Speaker 3 Yes, ma'am, that's correct. It's actually a fairly low crime rate area.

Speaker 8 As the detectives processed what was now a crime scene, they found more clues as to what might have happened.

Speaker 3 We go outside the residence

Speaker 3 and that's where we also determined that there was a second shot that had been fired through the end wall of the house.

Speaker 8 So, bullet holes in two separate walls and there in the Walker's yard?

Speaker 3 We find a shell casing, a spent casing that had been fired. And then as we again work around to the end wall of the residence, we find a spent casing and a live round.

Speaker 8 When Emma's parents learned what had happened they were barely able to take it in.

Speaker 9 They had told us that she had been shot.

Speaker 8 It's unthinkable.

Speaker 8 Emma's father Mark recalled with horror those noises he'd heard during the night.

Speaker 3 Knowing that those noises that I heard were gunshots and they sounded nothing like gunshots.

Speaker 8 But your instincts were right that

Speaker 8 something

Speaker 8 happened in the middle of the night.

Speaker 9 Now you think your child's safe in your home sleeping.

Speaker 8 But who would want to kill this sweet, popular girl whose goal in life was to care for newborn babies?

Speaker 8 It turned out the last few days of Emma Walker's life had been anything but normal and might be the key to unraveling the mystery.

Speaker 6 Coming up.

Speaker 3 She sees a person dressed all in black, a mysterious figure at Emma's door. This person starts turning the doorknob, beating on the door.
She's in fear. She's in a panic.

Speaker 8 I have to say, I would have been absolutely terrified.

Speaker 17 Definitely.

Speaker 6 When dateline continues.

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Speaker 8 Emma Walker was shot dead in her own bed. At 16 years old, she had her whole life ahead of her.

Speaker 3 Yeah, all the great things that she would have done. Yeah.

Speaker 9 I mean proms and graduations and things that we'd never get to see. You know,

Speaker 9 getting married, having kids.

Speaker 8 As Emma's family began to imagine life without her, police were focused on finding her killer. They were talking to her family and friends about the days right before the shooting.

Speaker 20 That's a lot of activity in a period of two days that's unexplained.

Speaker 8 It was the weekend before Thanksgiving. Friday night, Emma and her group were celebrating a football win at a friend's house.

Speaker 8 Her friend Zach was at the party when Emma received a text message from an unknown number.

Speaker 8 The message said something about Riley. He'd been taken.

Speaker 17 Or text messages saying that like someone has Riley, like

Speaker 10 someone has Riley.

Speaker 17 Yeah. Someone's like kidnapped him.

Speaker 8 Riley kidnapped? The strange messages kept coming. Then Emma's phone rang.
Riley was on the line.

Speaker 17 Kim screaming in the background, like, help me, help me, Emma. Like, I need your help.

Speaker 8 You can hear Riley on the call calling for help. Yes.
Emma and her friends rushed out of the house and there was Riley. And he had his hands on his head.

Speaker 11 He just looked confused.

Speaker 15 I could see her like yelling at him, like, what's going on? And she was really angry.

Speaker 8 Emma was furious with Riley. She and her friends thought the whole thing was some kind of prank.

Speaker 17 We all kind of, as I said, like, eh, it's very far-fetched for him to really be kidnapped. We didn't think twice about it.

Speaker 8 But if the kidnapping was a joke, what happened the next morning was no laughing matter. Emma's friends told police that Saturday she drove herself home from her friend's house.

Speaker 3 As she's pulling in the subdivision approaching her residence, she sees

Speaker 3 a person dressed all in black. And as she gets closer, you know, he cinches the hood up and puts some sunglasses on.

Speaker 8 Emma was texting her friends a play-by-play.

Speaker 3 As she gets in the residence, then this person comes to the front door and starts, trying to get in the house, turning the doorknob, beating on the door. She's in fear.
She's in a panic. And so she

Speaker 3 reaches out to the one person that

Speaker 3 she thinks can help her, which was Riley Gall.

Speaker 8 Emma had just broken up with Riley and was angry at him for what she thought was that strange kidnapping stunt the night before. Still, she texted him this.
I hate you, but I need you right now.

Speaker 8 She FaceTime called him and asked him to come over.

Speaker 8 Why do you think she reached out to him given what that they had they had just broken up?

Speaker 11 I think he was a sense of like security to her and that you know she he was a protector

Speaker 11 from other things.

Speaker 8 Riley searched the house and neighborhood but saw no signs of anyone. Neither called the police.
But now detectives were investigating Emma's murder.

Speaker 8 They discovered surveillance footage from a neighbor's house and there he was.

Speaker 8 So this is the mysterious man in black?

Speaker 20 At that point it is.

Speaker 8 Were you able to see a face? No.

Speaker 8 A possible intruder? An attempted kidnapping? What was going on? Police needed to talk to Riley right away.

Speaker 22 I'm Detective Meritis with Detective Hersch.

Speaker 8 They asked him for details about the kidnapping, and he insisted it really happened.

Speaker 22 It was traumatizing. I didn't know what to make of it.
I went up to my stepdad's house, and I pulled in the driveway, and this van pulled over across in the the semicircle

Speaker 22 and these two guys are like walking across the street. Next thing I know, one of them grabs my back and the other one's around the corner and they just like

Speaker 22 put their hands over my face and just took me to their van or whatever. But why would somebody do that to you?

Speaker 22 I genuinely have no idea. They did ask me, they were like,

Speaker 22 um

Speaker 22 they're like, who would you want to talk to for the last time? And so I started freaking out, and I said, Emma.

Speaker 22 And they made me call Emma, and I was just crying and screaming. She thought it was a joke.
She thought I was playing prank on her.

Speaker 8 Emma didn't buy Riley's kidnapping story, but she was genuinely terrified when she called him the next day about the man in black.

Speaker 22 And that's when she FaceTime called me. She was crying and freaking out.
So I said, okay, give me a minute. I'll come down there and check it out.

Speaker 8 That's the only person Riley could think of who would want to harm Emma.

Speaker 22 The only thing that I thought of was whoever the person was at her house Saturday morning. That's the first thing I thought of.

Speaker 8 Riley told police, even though he and Emma were broken up, he still cared for her. In fact, they spoke on the phone Sunday night, in the hours before Emma was shot.

Speaker 22 I just told her

Speaker 22 how much I loved her and

Speaker 22 that I was sorry that she didn't want what we had anymore. She said she didn't care about the relationship anymore.
She said she cared about me.

Speaker 22 She loved me, but she didn't care to be with me anymore.

Speaker 8 Riley said he spent the rest of that night on campus about 25 miles away, crying over the breakup.

Speaker 22 I sat in the parking lot just looking at pictures of us.

Speaker 8 He woke up to people texting and calling with their condolences.

Speaker 22 So I was like, what are you talking about? Did you not hear what happened? I said, no, what are you talking about?

Speaker 8 Riley, the heartbroken ex. And now he'd lost the love of his life for good.

Speaker 8 But this pair of seasoned investigators had their radar up.

Speaker 20 As you start seeing more of his personality, you can see that he had to have her.

Speaker 12 Coming up, a closer look at that mysterious man in black.

Speaker 3 She recognized him by his build, by his gait, the way he walked, the way he carried himself.

Speaker 2 Who was he?

Speaker 8 Emma Walker had been murdered. And all over Twitter, Riley Gall was the grieving ex.

Speaker 8 What did he change the bio to?

Speaker 14 Living every day through Emma Walker.

Speaker 11 Rest easy, my angel. I love you so much.

Speaker 8 And now, Emma's friends were looking back on her romance with Riley.

Speaker 8 And they remembered a high school boyfriend who was jealous, possessive, even obsessed.

Speaker 14 He started to get very kind of controlling of her, like where she was, what she did.

Speaker 15 Like if she wanted to hang out with our friends, he was like, you're not going.

Speaker 17 He didn't want her to hang out with people. Like, it was just him and her.

Speaker 8 And if Emma went somewhere without him,

Speaker 14 he would text her 40 to 100 times. He's just blowing her phone up.

Speaker 11 Emma, Emma, Emma, talk to me. Talk to me, text me back, call me.
Yeah.

Speaker 14 Just call her 20, 30 times.

Speaker 8 Emma's parents thought the the relationship was toxic. They had seen their daughter change.
This new personality with Riley in the picture was not one that you recognized.

Speaker 9 No, not with Emma.

Speaker 8 Her parents said Riley seemed intent on driving a wedge between Emma and her family.

Speaker 9 He would tell her she really didn't have parents, that she really barely had a brother. And I think he just wanted...
her to think that that was he was all she had

Speaker 8 jill and mark had always been involved parents, monitoring their kids' social media and cell phones. They even had a tracker on Emma's car.

Speaker 8 So when things got bad with Riley, they tried to limit Emma's contact with him. But he always seemed to find a way around their rules.

Speaker 14 He would show up to our church because they couldn't tell him to leave, or a basketball game, because it's a public event going on, so they can't tell him he shouldn't be there.

Speaker 8 And when Emma finally broke up with him a few weeks before she died, even his close friends said it seemed like he was unraveling. Were you worried about him?

Speaker 18 Yeah, very,

Speaker 10 very.

Speaker 15 I think this is when we started to see, like,

Speaker 15 if he wanted to do something like he could.

Speaker 8 He seemed a little unstable to you.

Speaker 8 And now that Emma was dead, her friends weren't buying his sad messages on social media. What are you thinking when you're reading Riley's posts?

Speaker 14 He's trying to cover up for himself.

Speaker 8 Did you think he did it? Or something else?

Speaker 11 I thought he had something to do with it.

Speaker 8 Police were thinking the same thing as they listened to stories about Emma and Riley.

Speaker 3 Based on my experience as a detective, it was an abusive relationship, not physically, but it was more of a psychological and emotional type of abuse.

Speaker 8 Police were skeptical of everything Riley said. They didn't believe the kidnapping story.
And when they talked to one of Emma's friends in the neighborhood, they were even more suspicious.

Speaker 8 The friend was certain Riley was the mysterious man in black.

Speaker 3 She had actually seen the man in black and believed it to be Riley. And she recognized him by his build, by his gait, the way he walked, the way he carried himself.

Speaker 8 So during that interview, police were closely watching Riley. They noted how he referred to Emma in the strangest way.

Speaker 10 The girl,

Speaker 22 she texted me.

Speaker 22 Which girl?

Speaker 22 The one that passed away. Okay.

Speaker 22 What's her are mine? Emma.

Speaker 3 Now, this is someone he's professed his love to and gone on social media and spoke out about how she's his everything and all that.

Speaker 3 But yet when he goes to talk to me in the interview, he refers to her as the girl.

Speaker 22 How did you get from there?

Speaker 8 As the interview progressed, police tried to nail down Riley's whereabouts the night Emma was shot. He stuck to the same story.

Speaker 8 He was at his college in Maryville, Tennessee, almost a half hour away, crying in his car over the breakup.

Speaker 22 I remember getting back in my dorm at 4.30 and my roommate being awake because he asked me what I was getting in so late.

Speaker 8 As police questioned Riley, there anybody saw you in her car? They became more and more skeptical, and he was picking up on it.

Speaker 22 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 22 Because I wouldn't hurt that girl for

Speaker 22 I would hurt myself if I would hurt her, and that's what I found.

Speaker 3 Did you shoot into Emma's house?

Speaker 22 No, sir.

Speaker 8 Despite his denial, Riley was now the prime suspect.

Speaker 8 But they had to let him go. They didn't have enough evidence.

Speaker 8 And there was a missing piece to the puzzle. Where was the gun that killed Emma? It would take two young men on a dangerous mission to find it.

Speaker 6 Coming up.

Speaker 23 I'm chasing you guys

Speaker 23 like

Speaker 23 with my life.

Speaker 12 Hidden cameras and a secret operation.

Speaker 5 They set up a listening device in the car.

Speaker 8 And the police could hear you, but you couldn't hear them.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 12 Could these two friends find that missing gun and the killer?

Speaker 8 This potentially could be very dangerous.

Speaker 5 Absolutely.

Speaker 12 When Dateline continues.

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Speaker 8 The day before Emma Walker was killed, Riley Gall's grandfather called police about a handgun he owned.

Speaker 3 He files a report that the gun stolen.

Speaker 8 That missing gun was a problem for Riley, too. He lived with his grandpa, and the gun was the same caliber as the one used to kill Emma.
Police didn't think that was a coincidence.

Speaker 8 Did he express that he knew where the gun was, or did he completely deny?

Speaker 20 Yeah, he completely denied everything relevant to the gun.

Speaker 8 And after his denials to police, Riley reached out to his close friends, Alex and Noah. Since his breakup with Emma, Riley had been leaning on them for support.

Speaker 8 What did he say about how he felt about it?

Speaker 18 He was just torn up. Throughout this whole time, I tried to spend as much time with him as I could,

Speaker 18 just be there for him whenever he needed.

Speaker 8 Riley confided in Alex and Noah again.

Speaker 8 he said he would never hurt emma had nothing to do with the shooting but he did have his grandpa's gun they're gonna find a way to put this on me if they find a gun it's like can you just help me get rid of this the boys were willing to comfort riley but not help get rid of evidence in a murder investigation instead they called lieutenant merritt it's amazing that they called oh absolutely i mean this this is a big piece of the puzzle absolutely absolutely they could have very well just went on living their lives minding their business.

Speaker 8 Riley told his friends he planned to go to the bluffs high above the Tennessee River and toss the gun into the water. Police hatched a plan, a bold and risky sting operation.

Speaker 8 Have Alex and Noah go with Riley and the moment they see the gun, signal detectives who would swoop in and make an arrest. This potentially could be very dangerous.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 3 You're going to have two boys in a car with a guy that's believed to have already killed one person with a a murder weapon. You know, this is a huge dangerous thing.

Speaker 8 Dangerous? For sure.

Speaker 8 And then detectives made it even more complicated. They decided to secretly record the whole thing.

Speaker 5 They set up a listening device in the car itself. My car had a little one inside the coat of my jacket, which sucked because I couldn't take off my jacket the whole time.

Speaker 20 And then you got the key fob that took the video as well.

Speaker 8 And the police could hear you, but you couldn't hear them.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 8 Everything came together with lightning speed. Just hours after calling police, 18-year-olds Alex and Noah were wired up and ready to meet Riley.
What did your parents think about this?

Speaker 8 They're very vulnerable in this position.

Speaker 18 Well, so my parents had just moved to North Carolina. I was living in Tennessee on my own.

Speaker 8 I didn't have time to talk to my you did not tell your parents.

Speaker 10 I didn't.

Speaker 8 The plan hinged on the boys texting a secret word to detectives the moment they see the gun. Without tipping off Riley, the pressure was intense.

Speaker 8 Riley came over to Noah's house. The mission was underway.

Speaker 3 I know that she

Speaker 20 loved and cared about a lot.

Speaker 3 We spent two years together.

Speaker 8 Police were nearby, listening in.

Speaker 8 As instructed, the boys tried to be natural.

Speaker 23 I'm sorry about Emma Doug.

Speaker 23 I can't, I really, I want to be so upset and I can't because I'm no worried about getting arrested and putting away for murder that I didn't commit.

Speaker 23 And never in my life would I kill someone that I love that much.

Speaker 5 Love you, bro.

Speaker 20 It sucks you gotta deal with all this man.

Speaker 8 Riley clearly had no clue about the sting. He had faith in his friends.

Speaker 23 I'm trusting you guys

Speaker 23 like

Speaker 23 with my life because I mean this is 70 years in jail if I get convicted of something I didn't do.

Speaker 23 Why can't you just give him a gun?

Speaker 23 Just.

Speaker 23 It just needs to be gone.

Speaker 23 For whatever reason, it just needs to be gone. You guys don't have to come with me if you don't want to.
I mean, I got your bag, man. If it's in the Tennessee River, they will never find it.

Speaker 8 The boys headed out. First off, Riley's stepfather's house, where he'd hidden the gun.
He came out holding a plastic garbage bag. Detectives were still tracking the boys closely, or trying to.

Speaker 3 It's kind of a crazy part here. We've got detectives watching them.
They leave out from stepdads and at some point we lose them.

Speaker 3 I mean we we lose sight of the vehicle, we've lost the wire.

Speaker 8 Is that a heartbeating moment?

Speaker 3 Yes, obviously we want to track them real time. We want to keep up with them.

Speaker 8 Police did find them again in time to see the boys make an odd detour. On their way to the river, they stop for some drive-through fast food.

Speaker 23 Yeah, I need a Cajun chicken with two sides of hush puppies with chili and cheese on it

Speaker 23 and a large doctor pepper. Have you tried the cookout sauce? No.
Huh? No. Oh my god, try it.

Speaker 8 You're in the middle of this critical undercover operation and you decide to go for chili cheese fries?

Speaker 4 Yep. Why?

Speaker 5 Um, it was like almost the whole time we were like saying goodbye to one of our best friends. Like it was like

Speaker 5 almost just like comforting to like kind of have it be like it was before

Speaker 8 they got to the bluffs around 11 o'clock and pulled into an apartment complex parking lot alex knew the security code for the gate he used to make deliveries there and then the big moment the hidden camera didn't catch it but Alex and Noah will never forget it Riley pulled the gun out of the bag

Speaker 5 oh my god

Speaker 8 Noah texted the detectives. They were supposed to pounce.
But 30 seconds passed. Then a minute.
No police.

Speaker 8 Alex saw their SUVs outside the gate. What was the delay? Two minutes.
Still no police. The tension was unbearable.
Then Alex did something audacious. He took the gun out of Riley's hand.

Speaker 23 This is a real gun.

Speaker 8 Alex, why did you take the gun from Riley?

Speaker 4 That was kind of a bold middle.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it really was.

Speaker 18 I mean, let's watch him from the backseat.

Speaker 5 it was just kind of like an instinctual thing, and Riley grabs it back out of my hands.

Speaker 5 That was scary.

Speaker 8 And that was when police got through the gate and made their move.

Speaker 8 Everybody, put their hands out of the vehicle now.

Speaker 8 Riley was cuffed and taken away. The gun was still in the car.

Speaker 23 Just pull that bag enough and let's just to see the serial number.

Speaker 8 The mission was a success. Alex and Noah were safe.

Speaker 8 Riley was charged with the murder of Emma Walker and taken to jail. It was the end of a long, crazy day.
A popular football hero was behind bars. How did it all come to this?

Speaker 14 He was controlling and obsessive, but you'd never thought like a murderer.

Speaker 8 And in a case already full of surprises, the biggest one was still to come.

Speaker 12 Coming up, a sudden change in Riley's story, and it's a stunner. He's hoping that he can come to her rescue.

Speaker 25 What Riley is saying is, I'm not a cold-blooded killer.

Speaker 12 Would the jury believe it?

Speaker 8 Almost a year and a half had passed since Emma Walker was shot and killed through the wall of her bedroom. Emma's ex, Riley Gall, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Speaker 8 Knox County District Attorney General Sharm Allen prepared for a high-profile trial. Why do you think this case has captured so much attention? People can relate to being a teenage couple in love.

Speaker 8 People can relate to breakups. And I think one thing that really

Speaker 8 scared people in our community was that Emma was asleep in her own home, in her own bed. Was it stressful as the trial approached?

Speaker 9 Yes.

Speaker 3 Very.

Speaker 9 Just the worries of what the turnout will be.

Speaker 8 Prosecutors Kevin Allen and Molly Martin would have to prove to a jury that it was Riley who pulled the trigger.

Speaker 8 What was your strategy going into this trial?

Speaker 26 I think the main thing we needed to focus on in the beginning was putting him there that night.

Speaker 26 And so I think the cell phone records and the GPS locations locations were very important up until that moment.

Speaker 8 They placed him around Dema's house.

Speaker 26 He placed himself in Maryville, and the phone records placed him back in Knoxville.

Speaker 8 So he had clearly told a lie about where he was.

Speaker 26 Yes.

Speaker 8 But on the first day of trial, Riley's defense attorney, Wesley Stone, upended the state's case with an unexpected admission. Riley was there, did fire the gun, but it was not murder.

Speaker 25 That was a fairly stunning climb.

Speaker 8 From the gallery, veteran crime reporter Jamie Satterfield saw jaws drop.

Speaker 25 What he said was that Riley

Speaker 25 never intended to kill her and in fact assumed he would not kill her if he shot through a wall.

Speaker 13 We'll ask you to find Mr. Goff guilty of reckless homicide.

Speaker 8 Not premeditated murder.

Speaker 3 Right. In Tennessee, that's two to four years in the penitentiary.

Speaker 8 That would be a huge difference.

Speaker 8 All All of the state's preparation went out the window.

Speaker 3 The case went from a whodunit to a state-of-mind defense.

Speaker 8 The defense said Riley wasn't some crazy killer, just crazy in love with Emma, with a bizarre plan to win her back. When Riley Gall fired that shot in the backyard,

Speaker 12 as crazy as it is and as bizarre as it is,

Speaker 12 he was hoping that he could come to her rescue.

Speaker 8 The defense told the jury Riley only meant to scare Emma with the gunshots. Then, with Emma needing comfort, he'd swoop in and be her knight in shining armor.

Speaker 8 His attorney argued Riley had no idea that those bullets would pass through the house. Some of us

Speaker 13 who know about firearms may very well know that if you shoot into a house, it'll go through the wall.

Speaker 13 Some of us may not. And I submit to you, Riley Gall did not.

Speaker 8 The defense denied Riley was the man in black, but admitted that the kidnapping story was a ruse, a stunt to get Emma's attention.

Speaker 8 Riley's attorney said it showed how desperate his client was to be with her.

Speaker 13 What Riley was trying to do is get an opportunity to see Emma.

Speaker 25 And that would later become a theme of his defense, that rather than killing Emma, what he intended to do was play her rescuer.

Speaker 8 It almost does sound like he was just trying to scare her when you first hear it.

Speaker 26 I would think the same thing. And then I went out to the scene and looked at the house and looked at where he would be standing.

Speaker 26 And it is, what, five feet away from the house, I think the measurements were. And it's me pointing a gun right at you right now and pulling the trigger.
It's that, it was that close.

Speaker 8 So close, prosecutors said. It was obvious that Riley was shooting to kill.

Speaker 27 Shoot up into the air,

Speaker 12 shoot him through the window, anywhere, but where are you shot?

Speaker 8 The state agreed with the defense on one point. Riley was desperate to be with Emma, but that desperation had become dangerous.
Prosecutors argued, of course, he was the man in black.

Speaker 8 After that and the kidnapping stunt failed, they said Riley gave up on winning her back.

Speaker 8 Instead, he sneaked into Emma's backyard, stood outside her window, and fired into the wall, knowing exactly where she slept on the other side.

Speaker 3 I think this is a case about revenge. I think that he sought to get back at her for the hurt that he perceived that she was purposely putting on him by breaking up with him.

Speaker 8 And after he killed her, the prosecutor said he went to great lengths to cover his tracks.

Speaker 12 And he is going to throw the gun off the bluff. Yes, sir.
Okay.

Speaker 8 They showed the jury the video of that undercover sting and how Riley tried to manipulate his closest friends into covering up his crime.

Speaker 23 I'm trusting you guys,

Speaker 23 like,

Speaker 23 with my life.

Speaker 3 His plan was to get away with this. His plan was never to be caught.

Speaker 8 Which theory would the jury believe? A reckless act or premeditated murder? They went off to deliberate and came back four hours later.

Speaker 27 Account once charging the defendant with first-degree murder. Did the jury reach a verdict? Yes, we did.
We drew verdict. Guilty.

Speaker 8 You hear guilty?

Speaker 8 What's that moment like?

Speaker 3 Relieved? That's a sense of relief.

Speaker 8 Riley was sentenced to life in prison. He'll be in his 70s by the time he's eligible for parole.

Speaker 20 We're incredibly proud of all the investigators and all the work, but we're almost more proud of Noah and Alex.

Speaker 8 I mean, are they the heroes in this?

Speaker 4 I think they really are.

Speaker 8 Yeah, I really do. Lieutenant Merritt, the Walkers, they call you the heroes.
What do you say to that?

Speaker 3 Just did what I had to do.

Speaker 8 It took a lot of guts to do what you did.

Speaker 3 I appreciate that.

Speaker 8 As for Emma, who used to joke that she was kind of a big deal, she's actually become one with tributes to her all over town.

Speaker 8 There's a scholarship in her name at Central High and a dog park dedicated to the young animal lover.

Speaker 9 It's just a good, fun, happy place to come and remember her and for other people to remember her.

Speaker 8 And here at the East Tennessee Children's Hospital, a Nick Yu exam room has been named in her memory. But Emma's parents believe the best way to honor their daughter is to learn from what happened.

Speaker 8 Detective Merritt says it is important to understand when teenage drama turns into dangerous behavior.

Speaker 3 I think we need to educate our young people better about relationships and what a healthy relationship is and what is psychological abuse, emotional abuse.

Speaker 3 And that's what we hope someone gets out of this story:

Speaker 3 awareness.

Speaker 9 And now what's healthy for you?

Speaker 8 Emma may be gone, but for those who loved her, the young girl still sparkles.

Speaker 9 She'd want to be out there, you know, and she'd want us to be laughing and having fun.

Speaker 9 And not sit, you know, you can't cry all day, that you have to, you still have to live life.

Speaker 6 That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 12 Thanks for joining us.

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