Episode Details

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Emma Walker with me today.
In November 2016, 16-year-old Emma Walker, an honor student and cheerleader from Knoxville, Tennessee, was asleep in her bedroom when her ex-boyfriend, 18-year-old William Riley Gaul, fired two shots through the outside wall of her family’s house. One bullet struck Emma behind her left ear and killed her; the other lodged in her pillow.

Emma had ended the relationship after Gaul’s behavior became controlling and aggressive, and friends later testified that she had grown afraid he would kill her. Prosecutors said Gaul stole a gun from his grandfather, stalked her home, and recruited friends to help dispose of the weapon in the Tennessee River after the shooting. In 2018, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, stalking, theft, reckless endangerment, and evidence-tampering charges. He received a life sentence with parole eligibility only after 51 years; later efforts to overturn the conviction were denied.