{"id":408474,"date":"2026-01-15T09:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/408474\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:30:11","slug":"emmerdale-police-name-ray-walters-killer-tonight-but-are-they-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/408474\/","title":{"rendered":"Emmerdale police name Ray Walters’ killer tonight \u2013 but are they right?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emmerdale spoilers<\/a> follow from Thursday’s episode (15 January)<\/a>, which is available to watch now on ITVX<\/a> and YouTube<\/a> but hasn’t yet aired on ITV1.<\/p>\n

Emmerdale fans see the police share their theory over Ray Walters’ killer<\/a> tonight \u2013 and it may surprise you. There are plenty of dodgy characters currently in the frame for murdering Ray, including Ross Barton and Jai Sharma, but it seems that the local force has someone else in mind\u2026 Laurel Thomas!<\/p>\n

DS Walsh lays out her bombshell suspicions tonight during a tense interview with Laurel’s ex-husband Jai. As Walsh piles on the pressure, she urges Jai to come clean if he’s helped Laurel to cover up a terrible crime.<\/p>\n

Early in the episode, Walsh pays a visit to Mulberry Cottage for an informal chat with Laurel. Her focus seems to be on Jai, as she questions whether the ruthless businessman was jealous of her relationship with Ray.<\/p>\n

Notably, though, Walsh has some difficult questions for Laurel too \u2013 demanding to know whether she felt angry once she realised that she’d welcomed a monster into her home. As Laurel would have naturally regretted letting Ray get close to her children, it’s enough to make her a suspect.<\/p>\n

\"laurel<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Emmerdale airs two huge new Laurel clues in Ray mystery<\/a><\/p>\n

Later, Jai is summoned to the police station, causing a new frenzy of speculation in the village. Caf\u00e9 boss Nicola King even openly questions whether Jai could be guilty, as he seems to be the prime suspect.<\/p>\n

In the police interview room, Walsh informs Jai that Laurel is the current focus of the investigation. Jai is seen as a potential co-conspirator, since he was driving around with Ray’s body in the back of his van in crossover special Corriedale<\/a> recently.<\/p>\n

Fond of a wild theory, Walsh argues: “Maybe you felt a bit protective towards Ms Thomas \u2013 saw a chance to win her back. Or maybe it was a moment of madness on your part \u2013 jealousy? Maybe you worked together. Joint enterprise. You found out what she’d done, helped her cover it up.”<\/p>\n

\"jai<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Emmerdale to reveal Nicola’s surprising role in Ray’s death mystery<\/a><\/p>\n

Doubling down, she adds: “We think Laurel Thomas may have been involved in the murder of Ray Walters. And we’re wondering if you may have been a part of it too. If you were, you can both rest assured that we will find out.”<\/p>\n

Did Laurel kill Ray or are the Emmerdale police on the wrong track?<\/p>\n

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 8pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more Emmerdale spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/a><\/p>\n

For exclusive soap star interviews, gossip, spoilers and theories every week, don’t miss the Soap Scoop podcast<\/a> from Inside Soap magazine. This week’s episode<\/a> features a chat with Coronation Street star Jacob Roberts, who plays Kit Green.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emmerdale spoilers follow from Thursday’s episode (15 January), which is available to watch now on ITVX and YouTube…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[872,196406,874,88,2245,196405,92],"class_list":["post-408474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-2c62ddcd-ef4b-453f-bd0c-05065f74e06b","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-emmerdale-police-name-rays-killer-but-are-they-right","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}