- Emily Palmer has a decade of experience as a reporter, covering courts and crime.
- She joined PEOPLE in 2023 as a Senior Crime Writer.
- Emily’s work has frequently appeared in The New York Times. She has also been published in The Boston Globe, ProPublica, Cosmopolitan and Elle.
Experience
Emily Palmer has reported on courts and crime for a decade. She joined PEOPLE as a Senior Crime Writer in 2023.
Emily is a storyteller with a passion for narratives that dissect what it means to be human. Her works center on life at the edges, exploring criminal justice issues through evocative on-the-ground investigative reporting, which has taken her from a jail cell at Rikers Island to the courtroom for the cases of El Chapo, Diddy, R. Kelly and Anna Delvey, across the U.S. inspecting child welfare laws, and inside the Sinaloa Cartel to write an intimate portrait of El Chapo’s wife. An authoritative voice on capos and con artists, she has been featured on 20/20, Nightline, People Magazine Investigates, PBS NewsHour, the BBC, and (speaking in Spanish) on Telemundo.
Emily’s work has frequently appeared in The New York Times. She has also been published in Elle and Cosmopolitan magazines. In 2017, she was named a Boston Globe Spotlight fellow, publishing a ground-breaking five-part series in partnership with ProPublica, examining state-by-state child welfare standards and finding that not a single state followed the primary child maltreatment law and that the federal government had faked federal death statistics.
In a nod to her work, she got a shout-out from actor Andre Braugher in his role as Captain Holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Season 4, Episode 9).
Emily's Highlighted Work:
Sean Combs: Diddy's Indictment and Ongoing Legal Trouble, with reporting from inside Manhattan federal court
The Menendez Brothers: After Decades Behind Bars, New Evidence Might Rewrite their Fate (Plus: answers to your most-burning questions.)
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
Noah Presgrove: An Oklahoma Teen’s Mysterious Death: ‘We Need to Find Out What Happened’
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.
About PEOPLE
PEOPLE, a Dotdash Meredith Brand, delivers the most trustworthy celebrity news and captivating human interest stories, connecting you to the pulse of American culture. Since our first issue hit stands in 1974, we have been striving to tell compelling stories about the people behind the issues, as opposed to just the issues themselves. We are your everyday escape, taking you inside the lives of intriguing stars, newsmakers, up-and-comers and ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We serve and delight you by providing ideas about beauty, food and style through the lens of the people influencing the trends. And we are a force for good by telling stories of hope, optimism and kindness that drive conversation and inspire action. Learn more about us and our editorial guidelines.