Emily Palmer

Experience

Emily Palmer has reported on courts and crime for eight years. She joined PEOPLE as a Senior Crime Writer in 2023. 

Emily’s investigative reporting has taken her from a jail cell at Rikers Island to small mountain pueblos in Durango, México. She has traveled across the U.S. inspecting child welfare laws, exposed environmental damage in the U.S. Virgin Islands and gone inside the Sinaloa Cartel to tell the story of the drug war from across the border. Emily’s rap sheet is long and growing and includes the trials of drug lord El Chapo, R&B singer R. Kelly and fake heiress Anna Delvey.

Emily’s work has frequently appeared in The New York Times. She has also been published in The Boston Globe, where she worked as a Spotlight Fellow in 2017, as well as in Cosmopolitan Magazine and ELLE Magazine. Her reporting has been featured on 20/20, Nightline, PBS NewsHour, Max and Hulu, as well as many Spanish-language outlets, including Telemundo.

Recent & Upcoming Trials from Emily:

Jonathan Majors: Daily Coverage from the Marvel Actor’s Assault Trial

Tupac Shakur: The Story Behind His Death and the Upcoming Murder Trial

Kouri Richins: She Wrote a Book on Grief After Her Husband Died. Did She Kill Him?

Ruby Franke: What We Know About the YouTube Momfluencer Arrested and Charged with Child Abuse

Natalee Holloway: After breaking the details of the murder of the Alabama teenager who went missing in Aruba in 2005, Emily caught up with Natalee’s mother to discuss her 18-year journey to finding answers.