Emmerdale confirms yet another grim death after Celia in early ITVX murder

Our New Year’s Eve hangovers have barely begun to break and already Emmerdale has thrown not one, but two juicy murders our way. Happy 2026!

Dales fans were left shocked (and let’s face it, a teensy bit satisfied) to see the unspeakably evil Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) finally meet a sticky end soap at the hands of her son Ray Walters (Joe Absolom).

After months of exploiting Emmerdale’s most vulnerable resident by running a modern slavery and drug trafficking operation from Butler’s farm, Ray grew disillusioned with criminality and aspired to turn over a new leaf thanks to his budding romance with the biggest sweetheart in the village, Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy).

This did not go down well with Mummy Dearest, especially when Ray set some serious boundaries with his adoptive mum by refusing to kill April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan), even though the teen was a threat to their whole operation.

Cue a good old fashioned soap slap and some verbal skewering from Celia, who reduced her son to a shivering wreck.

After she tried to walk back her harsh words with the world’s most awkward hug, Ray set some serious boundaries in their relationship… by killing his mother. Maybe his New Year’s Resolution was to be more assertive?

No longer under Celia’s control, Ray was finally free to pursue a better life… just not a very long one. Soap Justice strikes again in Monday’s episode of Emmerdale, where in an opening montage sequence, Ray’s dead body is see being dragged along the grass, peeking out of a body bag.

Soap fans on the socials are known to have better crime solving statistics than the Emmerdale police departments, so let’s do our detective hats and line up the suspects…

First of all, April. Ray groomed her into drug trafficking and sex work, even gaslighting the poor girl into thinking that she’d killed a punter who tried to sexually assault her in self-defence, just to strengthen his hold on her. True, Ray refused to go through with Celia’s hit on April and even gave his former employee a fat wad of cash to run off with. But that doesn’t exactly make them even…

Then there’s April’s boyfriend, Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle). He too was forced into drug-trafficking by Ray and Celia.

In case all that wasn’t enough, the young lad definitely won’t be Ray’s biggest fan since he was the reason April fled the village. Did Dylan kill Ray in a crime of passion?

Let’s not forget Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) and Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry). They were desperate to free April from Ray and Celia’s clutches – desperate enough for Ray to extort them by demanding two thousand pounds a week to stay away from their daughter. Now April’s ran away, losing their little girl for good might just be the push this kind-hearted couple need to commit murder.

As the old saying goes – don’t poke the bear. That’s exactly what Ray did when he coerced and manipulated Emmerdale’s formidable man-mountain Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards) into modern slavery.

Taking advantage of his estrangement from his son Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt), Ray crushed Bear’s spirit with backbreaking labour and unsafe working conditions, even forcing him to bury one of his fellow forced workers who died on the farm. During Ray’s fateful showdown with his mother on New Year’s Day, Celia revealed that she had killed Bear after catching him talking to April. Is it possible Celia was either lying or mistaken? Did Bear finally turn on his captor?

Every race needs a late entry to keep things interesting, so Emmerdale have shaken things up by adding Ross Barton (Michael Parr) to our rogue’s gallery of suspects. During Monday’s episode, April was seen getting into a car with the village bad boy, who cryptically commented that it’s best if they don’t mention “this” to anyone. Where have they been, and what have they done?

Finally, and most heart-breakingly of all, there is Laurel. For weeks, she’s been falling for Ray’s charms and when they spent Christmas Day together and he bought her an expensive bracelet, she genuinely saw a future with him.

That is, Dylan finally told her what kind of man she’s dating. The scales well and truly fell from Laurel’s eyes. So when Ray came to her door insisting that they’re finally free of Celia, Laurel screamed that they’re over and slammed the door in his face. But Ray doesn’t seem like the kind of bloke to take rejection well. And in Monday’s episode, we see a shaken, traumatised Laurel. Did she kill Ray?

With more suspects than the Dingle Family tree, Emmerdale has started 2026 with one heck of a whodunnit… and we’re totally here for it.

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