Everything we know about Keanu Taylor’s murder in BBC EastEnders from police arrests to real culprit

Keanu Taylor mysteriously disappeared on Christmas only to be found dead, buried under Bridge Street Café earlier this year and the mystery has haunted several Walford residents.

The EastEnders hunk portrayed by Danny Walters left his loved ones concerned when he seemingly vanished without a trace after his wedding with Sharon Watts descended into chaos, with Phil Mitchell revealing his involvement in Albie Watts’ kidnapping while the lovebirds were at the altar.

BBC One viewers will recall that Keanu conspired with his mother Karen earlier this year in an attempt to keep Albie by his side, making Sharon believe her tot was in danger.

In more recent scenes, Keanu’s sister Bernie organised his funeral, asking an unsettled Linda Carter to allow her to host his wake in the Queen Vic, right where he was, unbeknownst to anybody in the Square, brutally killed.

What happened to Keanu Taylor?

While Albert Square residents were emptying champagne bottles and tucking into their Christmas dinners, Keanu Taylor decided to have it out with Sharon Watts (portrayed by Letitia Dean).

As mentioned, Phil (Steve McFadden) had told his ex-wife that Keanu was involved in Albie Watts’ kidnapping ordeal and that his mother Karen (Lorraine Stanley) had taken the ransom money for herself – which prompted Sharon to drop a bombshell of her own.

Months prior to the wedding showdown, Sharon discovered that, after years of believing Keanu was his biological father, Albie was in fact her ex-husband Phil’s son.

Keanu and Sharon’s whirlwind romance began as an affair in 2018 and when she learned she was pregnant, she’d directly and wrongly assumed that her toyboy lover had fathered her baby.

The paternity revelation was a shock for Keanu and, fuming, he was eager to face Sharon to get the full truth from her. This led him straight into The Vic, where Sharon had taken refuge with her best pal Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) following their ruined nuptials.

Once there, however, Keanu discovered an unconscious Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) lying on the floor, supposedly dead, and was determined to drag Albie out of the pub to protect him from turmoil.

Sharon and Keanu furiously rowed, with the former taunting him with Albie’s true paternity and a heartbroken Keanu couldn’t handle it. But as he wrapped his hands around Sharon’s throat in a blinded rage, Keanu was stabbed in the back before being buried underneath Kathy Beale’s café.

Who was arrested for Keanu Taylor’s murder?

Keanu’s body went unnoticed for several months but was eventually discovered in his resting place in early April, 2024, in shocking scenes.

Bernie (Clair Norris) was horrified to find that the café floor had caved in completely and the room was filled with the smell of death. Things went from bad to worse when she drowned her sorrows due to her money woes and was left in Alfie Moon’s (Shane Richie) care.

She then failed to battled a craving for chips and dragged Alfie straight to the café to snatch her own, only to discover the floor had worsened since their last visit and upon further investigation, Bernie and Alfie found Keanu’s body.

Panic arose in the Square but an arrest was soon made when Sharon encouraged Bernie not to tell Karen the bad news and Felix Baker (Matthew James Morrison) urged her to, instead, show Keanu’s last voice message to the police.

Felix had a hunch that Sharon could have been involved in Keanu’s death and the police were in agreement as they believed to have enough evidence to arrest Sharon for the crime.

But in another twist, and with the help of Johnny Carter (Charlie Suff), Sharon was able to avoid prison when she threatened to reveal who the real killer was.

Another character was soon arrested for Keanu’s murder in the form of Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo), who had been seen arguing with Keanu in the Square, days before his death.

Dean was thrown under the bus by Linda Carter and he was promptly arrested by the police. Little do the authorities know that the real culprit is hiding in plain sight.

Who really killed Keanu Taylor?

Although Walford residents are completely oblivious, Linda Carter is responsible for Keanu’s death but the circumstances of the murder are far more complex than expected.

As mentioned, when Keanu entered the Queen Vic, ready for another showdown with Sharon, he came face to face with an unconscious Nish Panesar along with six of Walford’s leading ladies – Linda, Sharon, Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal), Denise Fox (Diane Parish) and Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth).

The group of women teamed up with one another to help Suki escape her abusive marriage with Nish, who had just discovered she’d fallen in love with Eve Unwin.

Unable to let Suki go and determined to exert control over her, Nish fought back, trying to drag her back home but Linda and Kathy intervened and the altercation escalated when Nish struck Linda.

Denise, who had had enough of the bully, retaliated by striking Nish over the head with a heavy champagne bottle and the villain fell unconscious, only to be pronounced dead by Suki just as Keanu walked into the boozer.

As mentioned, this was enough for Keanu to want to take Albie away from the drama, but Sharon stopped him. While Suki remained in the pub, tending to Nish as she deemed death was too gentle a fate for him, Denise, Stacey, Kathy and Sharon stood in shock when Linda stabbed Keanu in the back in a desperate and uncalculated attempt to save her best friend.

The Six then took action and, with Denise keeping an eye on what was taking place outside The Vic, carried Keanu’s body to Kathy’s café, and buried him.

Keanu’s murder has had severe repercussions on the Six ever since with Linda struggling to cope with her guilt and drowning her sorrows on a near-daily basis. Denise, on the other hand, was horrified when she realised she’d lost her necklace in the café, knowing this could mean that the crime may be pinned on her.

Sinking into a deep psychosis, Denise was on the verge of revealing the truth about Keanu’s murder until Johnny Carter returned to Albert Square to help his mother Linda cope with her alcoholism.

The hunk has since been fighting the Six’s corner and helped frame Dean Wicks after being told what really happened on Christmas by Linda herself. Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) also learned the truth when Denise and Stacey tried to retrieve the former’s necklace from Keanu’s body. But despite their allies, the Six’s secret stills runs the risk of being discovered.

What to expect now

Viewers believe it’s only a matter of time before the truth resurfaces and spoilers for next week have hinted they could be on the right track.

Coming up, a lonely Phil is saddened to spend Father’s Day without his daughter Louise and son Ben, who remains in prison in America. The Walford tough man is even more irked when he is kept at arm’s length from Ben’s video call with Callum Highway (Tony Clay.

Phil is eventually able to spend time with his son Albie after a chat with Sharon and she tries to convince Callum to let Phil take part in Ben’s call.

But when Callum asks her about Dean Wicks and Keanu, Sharon rushes off in a panic while Callum’s suspicions grow. These are again piqued by a comment from Linda, which prompts him to decide to talk to Phil about his recent exchange with Sharon.

Phil later spots a suspicious text from Linda on Sharon’s phone and demands to know the truth. When he lets her know he’s willing to ask Linda instead, she stops him in his tracks.

More scenes will then show a spooked Sharon desperately trying to keep Callum off the scent as he announces that he has been speaking with detectives who have investigated Keanu’s murder.

Sharon, Linda, Johnny and Jack are thrown in a panic as they figure out how to stop Callum from getting to the truth. But with the guilt weighing heavily on Linda’s conscience, could the copper get a confession? Or will the Six strike again?