Emmerdale has finally revealed who killed Ray Walters – and it was someone we thought was dead and buried! The show’s latest episode featured the shock return of Bear Wolf, who reappeared in the village just in time to save his son Paddy Dingle from a terrible fate.

 

 

Realising that he was now a hated figure in the village as his many crimes had been exposed, Ray turned his fury towards Paddy and Dylan Penders. But just when it looked like it could be the end of Paddy and Dylan, they were rescued by Bear – who dragged Ray into a brutal chokehold and crushed the life out of him!

Bear’s “death” had been announced in the first episode of 2026, when Celia Daniels boasted to Ray about how she’d killed him. Here, we take a look at how Emmerdale tried its best to conceal the twist – and the clues that may have been spotted along the way…

It’s classic Agatha Christie territory for a whodunit culprit to be revealed as the one person who’d been in the “couldn’t possibly have done it!” category.

So this was the technique Emmerdale used when Celia announced Bear’s death in the New Year’s Day episode, effectively ruling him out of any future storylines. Or so we thought…

Usually it’s easy to spot if a soap death is a total fake-out, as there’s a glaring lack of exit interviews from the actor in question.

Emmerdale muddied the waters with Bear’s “death”, though, by releasing some quotes from actor Joshua Richards where he reflected on his storyline seemingly coming to an end. The interview didn’t state outright that Bear would never be back, but it certainly kept everyone guessing.

Emmerdale doubled down a few days after Bear’s fate was announced on screen, by releasing a producer preview which also directly referenced his demise.

Producer Laura Shaw said: “While Paddy is still out searching for his missing father, the bleak truth is that Bear has been killed by the villainous Celia. This emotional search and tragic discovery will bring Paddy’s mental health problems back to the forefront.”

Joshua Richards, who plays Bear, isn’t on social media. The lack of daily updates on where he is/whether he’s on set/what he had for breakfast has made it more difficult for fans to track whether he’s still filming or not.

Digital Spy understands that Joshua has also been playing along in public whenever he’s asked about Bear’s fate, keeping up the pretence that Paddy’s dad was dead!

Emmerdale kept our attention away from Bear’s involvement by not putting him on any suspect lists. (Although some might argue this was a clue in itself – it’s often not any of the named suspects in a soap murder mystery!)

This meant that Bear didn’t get his own dedicated “suspect episode” this week. Unsurprisingly, he also wasn’t in the key village scene where Jai confronted the possible culprits. (You know the one – how many times have we seen Jai say “I have no idea how Ray’s body ended up in my van!” now?)

Beyond the current flashback week, Bear still seems to be missing or away from the village in present-day Emmerdale.

This helped to disguise his involvement in the whodunit, since he was already missing in the first place. Recent scenes showing Paddy and Dylan worried about Bear’s whereabouts can now be viewed in a whole new light, as they’ve been keeping this dark secret for weeks.

Another recent episode showed that the spot where Anya was buried on Moira’s land had been disturbed.

This left fans wondering whether Bear had been buried next to Anya, but it now appears that there was another explanation for the creepy sight…

Emmerdale is fond of a murderous twist, especially in the Christmas and New Year period, so it always seemed unlikely that the producers would have Celia kill Bear without actually showing the climactic scene.

With Bear’s supposed grisly fate taking place off camera, there was always room for manoeuvre to bring him back before long.

Bear’s body featured on screen this week, as Ray mourned his apparent demise.

Careless Ray didn’t bother to check him properly, though, and all viewers saw were a pair of lifeless feet. Hardly cast-iron evidence of a brutal soap exit!

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Paddy has known about Bear’s involvement in modern slavery for longer than we thought – and was pretending to be surprised when the police subsequently told him about it.

This didn’t make much sense unless Paddy had some link to Ray’s murder and needed to keep quiet, so perhaps it’s no surprise that he’s been protecting his dad all along.