Tracey Wigginton

Wigginton grew up in the northern Australian coastal city of Rockhampton and lived through a dreadful childhood. She was adopted at the age of three by her wealthy maternal grandparents, George and Avril Wigginton. They were controlling and abusive both to her and an older adopted step-sister.[2]

Wigginton, who allegedly killed and drank the blood of animals, had been planning for some time to escalate to murdering a man so that she could "feed" on him.[3] On the night of the murder, Wigginton (then aged 24), Lisa Ptaschinski (aged 24) and two other women, Kim Jervis (aged 23) and Tracy Waugh (aged 23), had been out drinking then drove around in Wiggington’s Holden Commodore in search of a victim.

Edward Baldock (47), a council worker and father of four, was waiting for a taxi after drinking heavily and playing darts with friends.[2] Jervis, acting as a prostitute, persuaded him into their car, and they drove him to a park on the banks of the Brisbane River. There, he undressed while Wigginton returned to the car (to retrieve a knife).[2] She then stabbed him 27 times, nearly severing his head before drinking his blood.[4]

When police arrived at the scene, they located Wiggington’s bank card in one of Baldock’s shoes among his neatly folded pile of clothes.[2] The four women were then quickly arrested. A few days after the murder, Wigginton told police that she ‘felt nothing’ while stabbing Baldock and that she sat down to smoke a cigarette while she watched him die.[5]

Wigginton was the only one of the four co-accused who pleaded guilty to the charge of murder. Therefore, there was no trial for her and few details were disclosed to the court as to why this incident occurred by Wigginton; Ptaschinski, Jervis, and Waugh stated that Wigginton had claimed to have vampiric tendencies. They said that the reason for the murder was to enable the drinking of the man's blood.[6]

In 1991, a jury convicted Wigginton of murder and she was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Queensland with a minimum of 13 years. Ptaschinski was also convicted of murder, and Jervis of manslaughter. Waugh was cleared.

In 2006, Wigginton assaulted a fellow inmate and a prison guard.[7] She also made four unsuccessful parole applications until 2011 when the parole board granted her application.[8] Wigginton was released from prison on 11 January 2012.[9]

The case still commands strong media interest and public reaction. In April 2008, it was reported that Ptaschinski, one of the other killers, would be released from prison after nearly 22 years. Under the resettlement leave program, Ptaschinski would be given a maximum of 12 hours leave every two months for six months.[10] However, it was later reported that the earlier reports of possible release were false.[11]