A new Prime Video true crime documentary is set to spark widespread discussion, delving into the tragic murder of Emma Caldwell and the fate of her killer, Iain Packer. Released on Prime Video on Sunday, June 14, the streaming service's latest offering in the genre is titled Did You Kill Emma? It recounts one of the most heartbreaking crimes in the UK during the 2000s.
The synopsis reads: "The brutal murder of 27-year-old Emma Caldwell remained one of Glasgow's most notorious unsolved cases. A decade later, a newspaper named Iain Packer as the suspect. When Packer approaches investigative journalist Samantha Poling to clear his name, she agrees to meet him, and starts digging. Poling finds a shocking story of police failures which left detectives reeling, and allowed Emma's killer to roam free and continue his brutal attacks. Poling's investigation leads to an extraordinary face-to-face encounter as she confronts the man who really killed Emma on camera."
Who Was Emma Caldwell?
Born in 1978, Emma Caldwell developed a keen interest in horses from a young age, later becoming a horse riding teacher in her early 20s. She vanished in April 2005, days after telling her mother about her hopes to overcome a heroin addiction, which began after her sister's death. Initially going missing in Glasgow, where she was working as a sex worker, her body was discovered the following month in Limefield Woods, South Lanarkshire. A pathologist confirmed that she died by compression of the neck.
Where Is Iain Packer Now?
Iain Packer was found guilty in 2024 of killing Emma Caldwell. The verdict came 19 years after he was first identified as a suspect, during which time he sexually assaulted multiple women. The case went cold for many years until the lord advocate ordered police to re-open the investigation in 2015. In 2018, Packer contacted the BBC asking to tell his side of the story in an attempt to clear his name after he was named a 'forgotten suspect' in the murder inquiry by a newspaper. The documentary Who Killed Emma? was broadcast the following year.
One of Packer's former partners said during the murder trial that he was 'white as a sheet' after the second interview aired, going on to contact police hours after it aired to say she was stalked and attacked by him. Packer was arrested and jailed for two years in February 2020 after pleading guilty. He was later jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 36 years behind bars after being convicted of a string of violent offences. He was found guilty of 33 offences, including Emma's murder, 11 rapes, and multiple sexual assaults against other women, following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Police Failures and Public Inquiry
Four Turkish men were initially charged with Emma's murder in 2007 before the case against them collapsed the following year after it emerged that conversations recorded during a covert police surveillance operation had either been taken out of context or translated incorrectly. Following Packer's sentencing, Police Scotland apologised for how the original inquiry was handled by what was then Strathclyde Police. The Scottish government ordered a judge-led public inquiry into the original police investigation in March 2024.
The public inquiry seeks to examine the investigative strategy and decision-making by Strathclyde Police, including the direction given by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). Additionally, it will probe what steps could reasonably have been taken that might have resulted in Packer being apprehended and prosecuted at an earlier stage, and any other factors relevant to the circumstances of the investigation and related prosecution.
After Emma's family met the inquiry chairman Lord Scott in Glasgow back in February, their solicitor Aamer Anwar said in a statement: "They welcomed the meeting and the empathy and compassion with which Lord Scott treated them. That is the very minimum the Caldwell family are entitled to expect. Lord Scott stated that Emma's family will be key participants in the inquiry. Emma was 27 when she was murdered and her 47th birthday was on Saturday. She will never be forgotten. Over the years, many powerful men have made promises to Emma's mother, Margaret, that have repeatedly been betrayed. The test of this inquiry will be whether it follows the evidence." He added: "Margaret has heard much lip service paid to this inquiry, but there must be no attempt by the chief constable, Police Scotland, and Crown Office to shut down the evidence. It is important to Margaret and Packer's many survivors, as well as the honest police officers whose lives were destroyed, for this inquiry to begin as soon as possible."
