There has been a murder in the village
Angie Quinn Screen Time Reporter
16:02, 01 Jan 2026
Emmerdale’s Bear attacks Ray over Anya’s death
Emmerdale has confirmed the death of Celia Daniels following her reign of terror.
During Thursday’s episode of the ITV soap (January 1), available now on ITVX, Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) murdered his adoptive mum, Celia (Jaye Griffiths), after years of torture and abuse finally surfaced.
Villainous Celia arrived in the Dales last year, and she was exposed as running a drug trafficking operation, with her son, Ray, leading the operations.
The mum-and-son forced Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) and his girlfriend, April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan), into distributing the illegal substances before April was coerced into sexual exploitation.
Celia was also running a modern slavery scheme on her farm with Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards) forced to work for free, and remains completely isolated from his son, Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt).
Emmerdale’s Celia and Ray have been terrosing the village for months READ MORE: Emmerdale Steph Miligan star pictured with newborn for first time and shares sweet nameREAD MORE: Emmerdale’s Bear Wolf actor pays tribute to co-stars as double exit confirmed
However, Celia’s organised crime continued when Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) discovered that her business partner had been forging her signature on dodgy invoices, and the two farmers had a massive falling out.
Moira is yet to discover that Celia’s dead slave, Anya, is buried on her grounds.
Celia and Ray have also been extorting money from Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) in a bid to keep his daughter April safe from drug dealing and prostitution.
Emmerdale’s Celia hugs Ray shortly before he stabbed her in the back (Image: ITV)
In a jaw-dropping twist, it became apparent that Ray is also a victim of Celia after she took him in as a young boy and conditioned him into carrying out awful acts and committing crimes.
Ray recently fell in love with local sweetheart Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy), which sparked a desire for a normal family life, something he hadn’t yet experienced. Celia didn’t approve of Laurel but had failed to break the couple up.
Earlier this week, Celia ordered her son to kill April and Bear before they left town to start a new criminal ring elsewhere.
Ray stands over Celia’s dead body after he killed her in Emmerdale (Image: ITV)
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On Thursday, Ray admitted he hadn’t murdered April, nor did Bear deserve to die, as he cried to his mum.
Celia taunted her emotional son and hit him in the face before launching a barrage of verbal abuse.
The chilling confrontation ended when Celia cuddled Ray, and as he embraced his mum, he stabbed her in the back with a kitchen knife.
Moments later, Ray stood over Celia’s dead body as her reign of terror finally came to an end.
Emmerdale airs weekdays on ITV and ITVX
