The Deadly Obsession of Riley Gaul

hey you and welcome my name is mike and in this whole video we're going to talk about star wide receiver william riley gaul you may have heard of him now let's see some of his highlights [Music] [Music] well that's just from high school and he didn't get to the nfl just college division tree he's still good though unfortunately that didn't translate to his personality so in this old one we're going to knoxville hold the johnny tennessee this one is uh less like friday night lights and more like monday night dark this is the story of riley gaul and his girlfriend well ex-girlfriend emma walker she tried to break up with him he wasn't having it and his friends weren't having it either when they recorded him i got you back man let's have a good [Music] we're going back to school in this one guys and gals specifically central high school in knoxville home of the bobcats let's go bobcats am i right emma walker was a sassy playful bobcat cheerleader she volunteered at an animal shelter was an honor roll student with the dream of becoming a neo-natal nurse and so being pretty and popular she started dating elle riley gall riley was two years older than emma wide receiver for the bobcats football team churchgoing star wars lovin regular dude sports smarts games he was well liked in school by emma's parents at the start at least see it seems like he was a player both off the field and on the field when he started dating emma he was actually still with his ill girlfriend it's a flag now emma knew about this but she was just so head over heels that she was determined to make him hers and she eventually did riley and emma dated on and off for two years drama school [ __ ] it was apparently quite toxic at times he would send her snapchats like this [Music] but then the next week he'd be oh everything be hunky-dory however emma's parents would eventually ban him from the house as it just wasn't healthy this went on until riley graduated high school and he went to maryville college about 30 minutes away however when 16 year old emma saw snapchats of 18 year old riley with other chicks well that would be the nail in the coffin of their relationship [Music] it coming to an end at halloween 2016. though halloween 2016 is when the horrors would only begin being dramatic now two weeks after one of riley's teammates on the maryville college football team had to take him to hospital after he overdosed on pills and booze he returned to campus two days later and started counseling which brings us to the 20th of november 2016 couple of days before thanksgiving that day twas a sunday emma went and got ice cream with her elf fella and you know she was getting ready for school the next day apparently you know her family would say the house was a much happier place now that she had broken up with riley the toxicity had evaporated however that night in the middle of it emma's dad was woken up by noises he said it sounded like someone was in the house and had slammed a door not once but twice he got up had to go around what's going on he opened the door to emma's room peeked in to make sure everything was cool she looked fine asleep in bed she wasn't he then left went to check on his son he was falling asleep in bed too and he went back to bed thinking it's not the next morning monday morning the house arose emma didn't her parents went up to her room and found her there they called 911 first responders arrived and word quickly spread that emma was dead riley her ex posted about it on twitter [Music] rumors began to you know spread that she had overdosed maybe she had maybe she'd killed herself due to maybe what happened to riley well friends and classmates remember emma walker at tonight's central high school playoff game a section full of purple stood out at tonight's knoxville central and marshall county game in louisburg emma's funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon her cheer coach and the rest of central's cheer squad will serve as honorary pallbearers however what really happened is more mysterious see the first responders saw a small bit of blood on her pillow like maybe she had vomited blood as if she had you know ingested something however when the detectives had a look they saw a small hole in the wall next to her bed and then examining her body further although there wasn't much blood there was a small entry wound on her head the slamming door her dad heard the night before wasn't a slamming door she had been shot in the head as she slept shot through the wall from the outside of the house in fact there were two bullet holes in two separate walls in her bedroom and shell casings in the garden and so the investigation began to see who was behind this no [ __ ] this is weird right shooting somebody through a wall like how is that even possible right i mean i know it's possible right to shoot somebody true all but it's usually like accidentally you know what i mean on purpose meh but as i'm sure your gears are grinding accident me bollocks [Music] the police wanted to go back and see what happened before what happened the friday before the incident she was at a friend's house celebrating another good old win by the mighty bobcats while there friends told police she received a text from an unknown number very strange as the message was about riley saying he'd been kidnapped she kept getting messages from this unknown number and then got a call in which she could hear riley in the background like he was screaming for help so emma and her friends rushed out of the house only to see riley lying in a ditch right outside her mates gaffe as you can imagine emma was not chuffed about this uh prank though riley was like yeah i was kidnapped absolutely absolutely i was kidnapped the next morning saturday morning this is the saturday before her dad heard the slamming doors on the very early monday morning as she was pulling into her driveway she saw a man dressed all in black with the hood up standing inside her house she was able to get home and this scary looking fella then started trying to get into the house trying the knobs and so forth emma started freaking out as you would and as she was home alone she reached out to the one person she thought could help her big brave riley gull he's a football player come on he'll knock the [ __ ] out of him even though she was you know still uphisted him for the quote prank unquote the night before she texted him i hate you but i need you right now riley rocked up looked around and couldn't find this mysterious person so the police investigating what happened to emma learning of all of this then looked true neighborhood cctv and saw this footage of a guy dressed in black that saturday morning however they couldn't make out who it was and so the police decided to speak with riley now when he did speak to them he decided to continue that the kidnapping story was real for some reason why it was traumatizing i didn't know what to make of it my stepdad's house and i pulled in the driveway and this van pulled over across the semicircle and these two guys were like walking across the street i know one of them grabs my back the other one's around the corner and they just like put their hands over my face and just took me to their van or whatever i do that to you i genuinely have no idea they did ask me they're like um like who would you want to talk to for the last time and so i started freaking out and i said emma and they made me call emma and i was just crying screaming she thought it was a joke she thought i was playing a prank on it so okay so what about this mysterious man in black he thought it could be the same people who kidnapped him okay that's when she facetime called me she was crying freaking out so i said okay give me a minute i'll come down there and check it out 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 he also told the police he'd spoken with her sunday night hours before she was shot he at the time was on the campus in maryville ball in his eyes out however his roommate said he didn't see riley until almost 5 a.m that morning i just told her how much i loved her and uh that i'm sorry that she didn't want what we have anymore she didn't care about the relationship anymore she said she cared about me she loved me she didn't care to be with me anymore i sat in the parking lot just looking at uh pictures of us next thing riley knew he woke up monday morning and people were trying to get a hold of him to let him know what had happened to emma so i was like what are you talking about did you not hear what happened i said what are you talking about now riley gall was the heartbroken ex who could never get back with the woman of his dreams and that was definitely true when the police spoke with emma's friends who told them riley was jealous obsessive over emma always had to be with her none stopped texting he had to have her now he sounds like a bit of a wreck the head and sirens basically just start going off in the investigators noggins over their toxic relationship and it seems that you know to riley's friends after he got the boot from emma well and a neighbor of emma's who was around that saturday morning and had seen the man in black told the police oh jesus the man of black yeah i seen him i thought it was riley said i owe you riley she was like yeah by just his body his build the way he walked thought it was him waved at him he waved back so was he just trying to drive emma insane so she would get back with him this is just the dentist system now the first step to any erotic conquest is to d demonstrate your value engage physically nurturing dependence you're going to want to nurture that dependence that she's feeling on you now guys neglect emotionally stop taking her phone calls cancel all your plans maybe that fictional angry neighbor that you've simulated comes back and this time you're not around to cool them off she'll start questioning her self-worth start questioning her self-esteem inspire hope i s separate entirely another really weird thing is that when riley spoke to police in that interview he referred to the love of his life emma walker as the girl he couldn't even say her name the girl she uh she texted me which group the one that passed away okay what's your name emma i hope to god i'm not a suspect in her death did i say i hope you don't think it because i wouldn't hurt that girl for yeah i would hurt myself and that's what i've done did you shoot into themselves no sir [Music] another flag in the play offense being [ __ ] weird so riley was obviously suspect number one but you know they they needed more evidence and you know what would be really helpful right we were real helpful if they had the weapon that was used to shoot into the walker home then you know the police just happened to learn that riley gaul's granddad happened to report the day before emma was killed that his gun had been stolen it was the same caliber as the bullets shot into her home and didn't riley live with his granddad [Music] around this time since the death of the woman he loved riley was leaning on two close friends for support noah and alex at one point he asked them you know um hey lads you wouldn't uh you wouldn't by any chance having to know how to get rid of fingerprints from a gun you know asking for a friend for a friend it's weird i know he then said he didn't hurt emma had nothing to do with her shooting but he did have his grandpappy's gun and he needed their help to get rid of it you know because he'd be in the [ __ ] for they initially turned him down and then called the cops see he told them he was going to throw the gun in the river the tennessee river so noah and alex speaking with the cops well an undercover operation was hatched they were to go to the tennessee river and when he pulled out the gun signaled the police texting them a secret word who would then march over and take the gun from him the police even set the boys up with a recording device to capture the whole event so riley came over to noah and alex's unaware he was being recorded i can't i really i want to be so upset and i can't because i'm not worried about getting arrested and putting away from murder that i didn't commit never in my life would i kill someone that i love that much i love you bro it sucks you gotta deal with all this man listen you guys like with my life because i mean this is 70 years in jail if i get convicted of something i didn't do you just give me a gun just it just needs to be gone for whatever reason just it just needs to be honest you guys don't have to come with me if you don't want to i mean i'm not your bad man it's in the tennessee river they will never find it they don't know anything because they did out of being in jail right now after everybody that is friends with her that doesn't like me because or whatever they've said she killed herself like she shot herself because of me or that i'll tell her or that there's a whole other category in life where they some people that understood the situation said she killed herself because of me and her parents or she just killed herself because the parents but she didn't kill herself she did nobody knows that but me and youtube and my grandparents they haven't released i think my people just make up [ __ ] because they want me to be so the tree of them left went to riley's stepdad's place where he had hidden the gun and began driving to the river when they arrived reilly pulled out the gun alex and noah signaled the cops and riley was taken away he was charged with the murder of emma walker inside riley's car at the time of the arrest they also found well black clothing [Music] this morning 18 year old riley gaul sits in a tennessee jail charged with killing 16-year-old emma jane walker just weeks after their breakup according to police in the early morning hours monday a shot fired by gaul into walker's bedroom from outside her tennessee home killed her in her sleep police arresting gaul tuesday night on charges of first degree murder holding him on 750 thousand dollars bond after having him under surveillance saying he was preparing to destroy evidence related to the homicide but gaul's mother telling our affiliate w-a-t-e that her son is innocent the pair seemingly a picture-perfect couple the cheerleader and the football player classmates until gaul moved on to play football at a local college this fall i wish like i knew more what was going on so maybe i could have helped her and i'm so sorry and in the wake of walker's death gaul posting this lengthy missive on twitter the day after her death just hours before his arrest to think that every memory we have every happy special moment we shared can't ever be relived i love you emma jane walker if convicted gaul could face life in prison a year and a half after emma's death the trial would begin with riley pleading not guilty to first degree murder sea phone records placed riley near emma's home that night he was saying he was in college at the time they had the gun same one used and the defense couldn't really argue with the facts he was there and he shot into the house so the defense decided to go with something else his mindset at the time now there is no death that you will hear some of the most bizarre reckless conduct of my time you will hear that's what you will hear throughout the context of this but i submit to you at the conclusion of this case standing outside in an emotionally charged relationship after you've been successful in having contact with your girlfriend everyone character outside with them for the last two years community offense of breakfast and painting with the hope of coming to our rescue of being her ego will ask you to find mr gaul guilty of breakfast homicide and i i suspect that makes very little sickness see that would be two to four years instead of life no point arguing casey can't win so just go with the lesser evil so yeah he was there he shot into her house but he was just doing it to scare her he didn't it wasn't like a premeditated murder he just wanted to scare her like he had when he was kidnapped or when he was dressed as the man in black so that she would come running back into his arms to be fair to the defense i mean maybe he didn't actually mean to kill her like just the idea of shooting from outside a house like if that was your plan if it was premeditated like it's like it's one of those things where if you tried to do it you couldn't do it you know what i mean so maybe it just was a plan to scare i mean don't get me wrong it's psychotic and he should go to jail for being so stupid that he taught up that plan however when you look at the scene and where her bed was where she would have been where he knew she would have been and the house and the wall and where the bullets came from there's only like five feet away he fired two shots both at the same point like from separate angles but they arrived at the same point [Music] if he was trying to scare her he probably wouldn't have shot at her bed to the prosecution it seemed obvious he was shooting to kill riley gaul was found by the jury after four errors yes sir we had charging the defendant with first-degree murder in the hearing reaching verdict yes we did what did you hear guilty riley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 51 years my intentions were not and never had been to cause him on any physical harm at times i was terrible caused her emotional and psychological pain during the two years that we were together that i never once even imagined to cause her any physical harm my intentions that night were never to harm her let alone take her life i wanted to scare her to brighten her so bad that she would have no choice but to talk to me again to convince me i would be there to comfort her and win her back i love them there's not a day that goes by that i don't think about her or what i did i know that i can't be forgiven and this will never be forgotten but now that the truth is out i pray that it's enough to show that i never meant to take him his life again i'm sorry this is a story of you know obsession jealousy stalking you know turned deadly unsurprisingly i mean the lesson here is you know if you want to get back with your ex you know probably yes scaring them bullshitting them shooting them it's probably not the way to go who would have thunk it riley gall wanted to be emma's hero you know probably probably exactly like he was on the football field and instead he turned out to be well not going to be too dramatic [Music] thank you so much for watching i really appreciate it i will see you as always real soon in the next video take care

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 1,893,159

Rating: 4.8950281 out of 5

Keywords: that chapter, riley gaul, emma walker, emma walker riley gaul, william riley gaul

Id: iUX095xLc_8

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/tonkerss]

Great video as usual. I’m really enjoying Mikes zero tolerance policy on perpetrators of violent crime, and whilst his videos are jovial, I do feel he has respect for the victims.

[u/WorldUponAString]

This post is old, but I just found it and wanted to contribute. I'm not even joking about this, but Riley was my partner in Spanish class at Maryville College the semester he did this. Not like I have that much of a connection, but it's definitely wild to me.

[u/tedcanbegone67]

Thanks.