The Dateline episode “Noises in the Night” investigates the death of high school cheerleader Emma Walker. On November 21, 2016, the 16-year-old was found in her bed unresponsive in her family’s suburban home north of Knoxville, Tennessee. The night before, her father heard sounds as if someone was in the house. When he checked on his daughter Emma, he saw her in bed and assumed she was asleep.
In May 2018, Emma’s football player ex-boyfriend Riley Gaul who was two years older than Emma, was found guilty of her murder. Gaul used his grandfather’s gun to shoot Walker in her bedroom and then returned to his dorm room at Maryville College and fell asleep. They had broken up two weeks prior to Walker’s death. Gaul’s roommate and football teammate Walker Stanley testified at the murder trial. Stanley said that after Emma Walker’s body was discovered, Gaul sent Stanley a text asking him not to talk to police. Stanley said he could tell Gaul “wasn’t in a good place” and added, “he was losing weight” — a strange thing for a college football player, one of many signs that indicated instability to Gaul’s teammates. Some teammates described the relationship between Gaul and Emma as “toxic.” Another teammate, Mac Seagle, testified that Gaul had attempted suicide on campus about two weeks before Walker’s death. Dateline airs Mondays at 10pm on NBC.
