Mark Graham Ludbrook, who was serving a 19-year sentence for murdering his friend Autumn Baker, died suddenly in prison while appealing his conviction. Baker, a 40-year-old mother of two from Victoria, was killed in August 2023 after Ludbrook, experiencing a drug-induced mental episode, stabbed himself and then attacked her when she tried to help.

Ludbrook, 54, had been held in a specialist medical unit after becoming wheelchair-bound because of transverse myelitis. A second jury convicted him in February, and he was sentenced in May with a 14-year non-parole period; the circumstances of his death on 13 September have not been disclosed and will be investigated by the coroner. Baker’s friends expressed relief and anger online, while some of Ludbrook’s acquaintances posted tributes; the court heard Baker had shown him compassion before the fatal attack, in which she suffered repeated stab wounds and defensive injuries.