5 shocking details about Emily Murray's murder
Emily Murray's November 2000 disappearance triggered a harrowing investigation which led to the discovery of her decomposing corpse and another missing 20-year-old's human remains on one of her co-workers' property.
The 20-year-old Kenyon College philosophy major went missing after a late-night workshift at Pirate's Cove located closeby to her college campus where she resided in a dorm. She was last seen alive leaving the place of work in the early morning hours and her body was discovered in her co-worker and ex-convict Gregory McKnight's trailer about a month later. Murray was reportedly shot to death.
The ensuing investigation revealed McKnight's dark past and how the 20-year-old became the victim of a tragic murder. Authorities also linked the murderer to a separate killing, leading to the ultimate conviction and a death sentence.
An all-new episode of Murder in the Heartland will further delve into Emily Murray's 2000 killing. The episode, Last Shift at Pirate's Cove, airs on ID this Wednesday, March 29, at 9:00 pm ET, whose synopsis reads as:
"College junior Emily Murray, a popular religious studies major, goes missing late one night after quitting her job at a local bar; a month later, someone finds her body in a remote trailer, leading police to another gruesome discovery."
Emily Murray's murder: Five key details to know about the Kenyon College student's decades-old killing
1) The night she went missing, Emily Murray had completed her last shift at work
A junior at Kenyon College, Murray was majoring in philosophy all the while working part-time as a server at Pirate’s Cove, which was located some 100 yards from her dorm and college campus.
She used to work late night shifts and had just quit her job on November 2, 2000, before her disappearance. Sources stated that she left work in the early morning hours of the following day, but failed to return to her dorm and attend a party that evening.
2) The bartender at Pirate’s Cove had last spotted her searching for car keys
Authorities then learned that many of Emily Murray's friends had stopped by Pirate's Cove that night because it was her last night at work and that the restaurant’s employee time card revealed she finished work at 3:07 am.
Moreover, bartender Nathan Justice, claimed he last saw her searching for the keys sometime before 3:30 am. Her car was also missing from the usual on-campus parking spot.
3) One of Emily Murray's co-workers turned out to be an ex-convict
While investigating her disappearance, authorities started looking into her co-workers when they found out that Gregory McKnight, who left the restaurant shortly before the victim, had once been convicted of shooting someone in Columbus, Ohio, at the age of 15 and served a short sentence at the Circleville Youth Center. He was released from prison in 1997.
4) Investigators found a body, human bones, and other evidence on McKnight's property
According to reports, over a month after Emily Murray went missing, investigators went to Gregory McKnight's trailer for an unrelated indictment, where they found her abandoned car nearby. After this, they conducted a search of his trailer home and found a bloody carpet and a body wrapped in a rug in a room. They also found a number of spent shell casings and a roll of bloodstained duct tape.
Upon searching his property, they found human bones, which matched that of a missing 20-year-old named Gregory Julious from Chillicothe, Ohio. His clothes were also found, which were identified by his girlfriend.
5) Gregory McKnight was sentences to death two years later
McKnight was found guilty of killing 20-year-old Emily Murray and was given the death penalty by lethal injection on October 25, 2002.
According to reports, McKnight received the maximum penalty for each of the counts he was found guilty of, including fifteen years to life in prison for the murder of Gregory Julious, ten years for kidnapping Murray, and ten years for aggravated theft in her case.
He also received two extra sentences of three years each for using a firearm during the aggravated murder of Murray and her kidnapping, to be served concurrently. The killer was sentenced to a total of thirty-eight years to life in prison.
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Abhipsa Choudhury