Christal Dawn Wiggins was a 29-year-old woman from Stuart, Florida, a mother whose life was remembered by a treasured photograph taken with her children at Disney World just two months before her death. Born on June 8, 1974, Christal was a resident of the quiet coastal city, but her life was tragically cut short in the nearby community of Port Salerno, leaving a void in the lives of those who loved her.
In the spring of 2004, a shadow of fear had fallen over the Port Salerno area as two
women had been found murdered in just a few months. On the night of May 30, Christal was at a party on Driftwood Avenue. According to friends, they left her there with a man named Eugene Wayman McWatters Jr. while they went to get money. When they returned, both Christal and McWatters were gone. Later that night, McWatters reappeared at the party, but he was alone. Christal was never seen alive again. A week later, on June 7, 2004, her body was discovered in a wooded area off Cove Road. She had been strangled.
The discovery of Christal’s body confirmed the community's worst fears: a serial killer was at large. She was the third victim of the man who would come to be known as "The Salerno Strangler." The first victim, 43-year-old Jacqueline Bradley, was found in a canal on March 31. The second, 18-year-old Carrie Caughey, was found near a pond on June 2, just five days before Christal was located not far from the same spot. All three women had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
The Martin County Sheriff's Office investigation quickly focused on Eugene Wayman McWatters Jr., a 26-year-old local man. He had been the last person seen with each of the three women. On June 23, 2004, detectives arrested McWatters on an unrelated sexual battery charge and began to question him about the murders. During the interrogation, McWatters confessed to killing all three women. He told investigators that he had consensual sex with each of them but would "freak out" afterward, and then they were dead.
In September 2006, a jury found Eugene Wayman McWatters Jr. guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of sexual battery. During the trial, Christal’s mother, Karen, sat in the courtroom, shaking and holding the happy Disney World photograph of her daughter and grandchildren. Her aunt, Barbara Lorenz, expressed her relief at the verdict, stating, "He got what he deserved." That December, McWatters was sentenced to death for the murders and given three life sentences for the sexual batteries.
The legal journey, however, was not over. In 2014, a judge granted McWatters a new trial, ruling that his original defense lawyers had been so ineffective that they had failed to provide a meaningful defense. The judge's scathing ruling noted a "seriously deficient performance" by the attorneys. Faced with a new trial, McWatters ultimately pleaded no contest to the three counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.
The pain of Christal's murder has never faded for her family. Two years after her death, a memorial notice expressed their enduring grief: "It's been two years ago since you were taken from us. but it seems like just yesterday. I miss and love you always." While the legal case is closed, the community remembers the terror of the Salerno Strangler and the three innocent lives he stole. Christal Dawn Wiggins is remembered not as a victim, but as a loving mother whose future was stolen in a brutal act of violence.
