If Sally Wright isn’t the Innocent killer, who is?
Innocent is ITV’s latest crime drama. Returning three years after the first series, Innocent season 2 follows Sally Wright after she is found not guilty of being the murderer of 16-year-old Matthew Taylor. She’s trying to piece her life back together after she returns to Keswick in the Lake District.
Naturally, fans of the new show desperately want to know who murdered Matty Taylor. If you’re trying to figure out who the Innocent killer is, we’ve put together who we think are the most likely candidates below!
HUGE Spoilers ahead for Innocent!
Is Anna Stamp the Innocent killer?
We didn’t learn much more about Anna Stamp in episode three. Her obsession with Matty definitely still makes her a suspect as it was clearly unhealthy, but we did see a little bit of personal growth. Anna found Sally paying her respects to Matty’s grave and apologised to her about the rumours.
Due to her obsession, she did genuinely believe that there was something going on between Sally and Matty, and that’s why she lied to the police about seeing them kissing.
She is obviously deeply upset by Matty’s death as she really wanted to be with him. With her trip to Leeds already confirmed, she wasn’t around the night Matty died, but her obsession definitely still makes her a suspect. However, there are others who are now more likely to be the Innocent killer!
Is Karen the Innocent killer?
Episode three has increased the odds of Karen being the Innocent killer. It seemed a little far-fetched to suggest Karen could have killed Matty Taylor in order to split Sally and Sam up, but now we know she had another connection to the boy: he was bullying her daughter!
Matty’s bullying could have driven Karen to seek revenge after Beth attempted to overdose on her mother’s codeine tablets just two days before Matty’s murder. Karen has already privately admitted to Sam that she sought Matty out and confronted him, and then she lied about this encounter never having taken place during a police interview, so she’s clearly hiding something!
Maybe the rumours Anna Stamp circulated about Sally gave Karen a great opportunity both to steal Sam away and to get rid of her daughter’s bully, with Sally getting all the blame?
Beth: innocent daughter or Innocent Killer?
Since Beth was being routinely bullied by Matty for months, maybe she decided to take matters into her own hands and put a permanent stop to her trouble at school? She’s certainly not been behaving as well at school and was clearly deeply affected by Matty’s cruelty.
DS Suzy Jones interviewed the teacher who filed the original bullying report at St Luke's Academy, and he believes that the bullying must have been ongoing, so perhaps Beth felt she couldn’t take being treated so poorly by Matty any longer and wanted to be rid of him. Maybe she killed him, and Karen is covering for her?
Sam, the ex-husband
If Sam wasn’t already a suspect, he is now! The police found it pretty unbelievable that Sam didn’t take any notice of the rumours about Sally and Matty and it must have been pretty difficult to deal with all the comments about what she was getting from a 16-year-old that she wasn’t getting from him.
Since Karen said she would “always forgive him” in episode one, could she actually have suspected Sam of wrongdoing the whole time? He seems very distraught about the entire case (and what’s happened to Sally over the past five years), but this could just be a cover. Maybe Sam got jealous of the rumours and snapped at Matty one day, and has been keeping quiet about it all this time?
As of episode three, the police have finally confirmed Sam’s whereabouts. His probationer, Aaron Holmes, has told them that he and Sam did indeed have a meeting, confirming his alibi. However, Aaron later rings Sam and leaves him a message saying they need to have “a little chat”. What could Sam be keeping quiet with Aaron? Could Sam be the Innocent killer after all?!
Aaron Holmes
We know precious little about Aaron Holmes so far as we only saw him on screen for the first time towards the end of episode three. He asked DC Dave Green if the police were double-checking everyone, or just Sam Wright, so clearly he knows something about Sam that we don’t.
It seems likely that Aaron Holmes is involved somehow, given that cryptic phone call at the end of the episode. Perhaps the probation meeting that he had with Sam is merely a cover story for one (or both!) of them, and Aaron plans to blackmail Sam somehow?
Did John Taylor kill Matty?
Although John apparently had regular rows with his son, it doesn’t seem that he’s responsible for Matty’s death after all. His violent strike might have reared its ugly head in episode two when he was close to stabbing Gary Walker (Matty’s biological father), but his heartfelt confession about his failings as a father suggests that John would never really hurt his son.
However, he does admit that he bumped into Matty whilst he was drunk in the park just one hour when he is presumed to have been murdered. Since he was drunk and had an argument so close to his time of death, could he actually be more responsible than he is letting on?
Is Gary Walker the killer?
Although we suspected Matty’s biological dad could have been the Innocent killer, that doesn’t seem to be true. His fingerprints match those found on the murder weapon but he sells the same beer bottles in his pub and a brewer in London confirmed that Gary was away at a meeting that day. This gave him a fairly solid alibi and ultimately saw Gary being released from the police station.
The only thing keeping Gary in the frame is that John said Matty had threatened to ruin Gary’s life by telling his wife that he was Gary’s son. He seemed very upset at the suggestion he would lay hands on his son, but maybe Gary felt he needed to get rid of Matty to keep his family together?
Innocent concludes tonight (May 20) on ITV at 9pm. You can catch up with past episodes right now on ITV Hub, plus episodes are now available on streaming service BritBox.
