TRAGIC DISCOVERY
Horror moment daughter finds mum & dad dead after they were poisoned by man, 34, who watched them die & re-wrote will
Details of D'Wit's horror campaign revealed
THIS is the horror moment a daughter found the bodies of her mum and dad after they were murdered by an evil handyman.
Luke D’Wit, 34, poisoned millionaire couple Stephen and Carol Baxter with deadly fentanyl after what cops believe was at least a two-year campaign to take their money.
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The twisted killer, who was today found guilty of murder, "manipulated" the Essex husband and wife to gain control of their business and re-write their wills.
Stephen and Carol's prolonged death was watched by D'Wit on a phone camera app he set up specifically to see his cold acts carried out.
Two days later, on April 9 last year, the devoted parents were tragically discovered by their daughter.
Ellie Baxter, who lived nearby, was captured on the property's CCTV cameras walking up to the family home and ringing the doorbell.
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Seconds later, she peers through the glass for a few moments.
A horror 999 call was made shortly after by grief-stricken Ellie who could be heard wailing.
D'Wit went to the Baxters' detached house after they were found dead and milked the drama, talking to the 999 operator and later to cops at the scene.
IT worker D’Wit is believed to have dipped fentanyl patches for cancer pain relief - prescribed for his late grandfather - into health drinks he mixed for Carol, 64, and Stephen, 61.
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A four-week trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard how the murders were the culmination of a sinister campaign of manipulation by D’Wit.
Essex Police said Carol was also spiked with pills and near-lethal doses of antihistamines.
Carol, who suffered from a thyroid condition, was taken to hospital in March 2022 with severe abdominal pain.
Evil handyman, 34, poisoned millionaire couple before watching them die & rewriting their will
The weirdo – who shared a bedroom with his mother in their clutter-filled home - also created a string of bizarre false personas to hoodwink Carol and Stephen.
They included a bogus female US doctor who advised Carol to take wacky concoctions for her illness.
D’Wit also created other fake female identities who supposedly also suffered from Hashimoto’s disease and communicated with Carol by email and WhatsApp.
Police found recordings on D’Wit’s computers of voice notes he sent to Carol in which he impersonated female voices of the false personas he created.
He watched them die
Det Supt Rob Kirby
Det Supt Rob Kirby, head of the Essex Police major crime unit, said detectives were left “open-mouthed” as the “scope of his manipulation unfolded.”
He said: “It is unbelievable the lengths he went to, the complex web he created.”
The detective added that as well as hoping to benefit financially, D’Wit “got pleasure from the control he had over Carole and Stephen.”
D’Wit wormed his way into the couple’s lives when they hired him to create a website for their shower mat business in 2013.
But his claims of obtaining a computer sciences degree at the University of East Anglia were later found to be bogus.
Det Supt Kirby said D’Wit “ingratiated himself with the family” and became a close friend.
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He attended their home daily, did household chores and became heavily involved in their business, which specialised in making mats to fit round shower corners.
Following their deaths, and before D’Wit became a suspect, he told cops he was like an “adopted son” to the couple, who had two children together. Carol had two more from a previous relationship.
Carol was described in court as bubbly and outgoing but her health deteriorated as she fell under D’Wit’s spell and her behaviour became “quite erratic”.
'We were all dolls in his dollhouse and victim to his manipulation'
HARRY Baxter, the son of Carol and Stephen Baxter said their lives will "forever be punctured".
He said: "Luke D'Wit took what we all held most sacred and found a way to extract it for himself.
“Our life will forever be punctured by the gravity of his actions. My eldest daughter will forever have lost the wealth of wisdom and experience my parents possessed.
“My mum was the definition of the word ‘love’. I do not refer to April of 2023.
"I refer to the day Luke began his foul games torturing and drugging her. Unbeknownst to me, I had already lost my mother a long time ago.
“I feel great sadness looking back on the videos of her when she was acting strangely and seeing him in the background giggling and smiling knowing he’s the one inflicting this pain as we were all dolls in his dollhouse [and] victim to his manipulation.
“My father on the other hand is the definition of intelligence. A critical thinker and problem solver and a person people could absolutely rely on.
“Most of all thorough to an astounding level of excellence. Revered within his industry, it was almost as if it seemed like he never broke a sweat.
“He sacrificed his life for us to live on and when the days came where he could finally take time and retire and have time to teach me, a young man, naive and keen at the beginning of his adult life, it was stolen away by someone we all trusted the most.
“Luke D’Wit completely destroyed everything we held close to our hearts and every memory and future dream we could have shared.
“All I can do now is focus on my family by loving and protecting my partner and baby and our future members of the family.
"We have the important role of not only mother and father, but also capture the memory of a now sadly lost grandmother and grandfather.”
Det Supt Kirby said: “We now know this was because D’Wit was poisoning her for at least a couple of years.”
The detective said D’Wit was regarded as a popular and upstanding member of the community but had “fooled everyone he knew.”
He said: “He came across as amenable but all that time in the background he was planning the hideous deaths of Stephen and Carol.”
D’Wit falsely told Carol and Stephen he was receiving treatment for bone marrow cancer to win their sympathy - though no record of it was found.
A doorbell camera captured D’Wit visiting the couple at 10.20am on 7 April last year and again at 4pm that day, when he poisoned them with fentanyl - a drug 100 times more powerful than heroin.
Cached images of the couple slumped unconscious were found on his phone. Det Supt Kirby said: “He watched them die.”
FOUND DEAD BY DAUGHTER
Carol had a pacemaker which suggested she died between 11am and 2pm on April 8.
Unusually, D’Wit did not return to the address for another two days, when their bodies – hands blue and liquid coming from Carol’s mouth - were found by daughter Ellie.
D’Wit was called to the house by Ellie’s boyfriend and took over the 999 call to the operator, calmly saying: “They are dead. They are both just cold.”
He was also captured on police body worn video talking assuredly to an officer as Ellie sobbed in the background.
Det Supt Kirby said: “He would have enjoyed the drama and watching the scene he created.”
Police were initially baffled by the cause of their deaths, especially when carbon monoxide poisoning was ruled out.
A toxicology report found the pair had a potentially lethal amount of opioid painkiller fentanyl in their system.
Carol was also found to have potentially fatal levels of promethazine – an antihistamine used in over-the-counter medication - in her blood.
The report suggested but did not conclusively show that the drugs were ingested orally.
The reality is far more sinister. He is a cold, calculated murderer
Dep Supt Kirby
One source said: “D’Wit used to give them health drinks and the most likely scenario is that he dipped the fentanyl patches into them.”
D’Wit was arrested on July 6 at his work address at the MS UK charity on Colchester University Campus after drawing suspicion by asking neighbours about cameras.
He had also faked a will from the couple - after creating the false persona of a solicitor – which gave control of their company Baxters’ Cazsplash to their “dear friend” D’Wit.
At his home, a Tesco bag for life was found which contained fentanyl patches matching four found at Stephen and Carol’s home.
Jewellery belonging to Carol was discovered along with 80 different phones, iPads, computers and other electrical devices.
One of them was an unregistered “dirty phone” in which D’Wit had created “multiple personalities.”
'They didn't just die. They were taken'
ELLIE Baxter remembered her parents in a heartfelt statement.
“My mum and dad are dead. But they didn’t just die. They were taken from me and my young children.
“My mum lost her freedom, her will, her ability to function two years prior to her murder due to her illness.
"An illness no one could help with or understand because it was contrived by Luke D’Wit.
"Mum felt so alone and lost and there was nothing I could do other then give her my shoulder to cry on and cuddle her.
“My mum was full of life and she always pushed me to be better. We would have girly days out at the spa and plenty of shopping trips. She was my best friend.
"We would laugh together, cry together and support each other.
“Over the coming years we had planned to go travelling as we both wanted to go to Japan and India - a dream of ours that now can never be fulfilled.
“My mum loved my son to bits. She would constantly buy him toys and take him out for walks in his pram.
“My dad was a strong man. ‘There are no short cuts in life’ he would always say.
“He worked every day of his life and provided for mum, my brother and I. There was nothing we ever needed. He loved us all.
“He said my son just fitted perfectly in his arms like my brother and I did. He lit up and he was excited for my new baby.
"A new baby he never got a chance to meet. We used to stay up late talking and watching horror films.
“Dad also loved to play guitar. In the summer we would have bonfires and the guitar would always come out. Watching my dad play and sing so freely is where my love for music began.
"Dad initially got my brother Harry into guitar lessons where they would go together and learn, then serenade mum and I.
“Never again will I be able to have a jam with my dad. Neither will my brother.”
D’Wit attended the trial in a wheelchair though police say they are unaware of any illness he has suffered from since his arrest when he appeared fit and well.
During the trial, D’Wit claimed Stephen had directed the deception of Carol with fake personalities in a bid to make her feel better.
Det Supt Kirby said D’Wit would have gone on to kill again if he had not been caught.
He said: “Carol and Stephen Baxter’s deaths were cold and calculated acts of murder carried out by a dangerous man who clearly planned to get away with it.
“In all my years in policing, Luke D’Wit is one of the most dangerous men I have come across.”
He went on: “I have absolutely no doubt that had he not been caught, he would have gone on to commit further murders.
“He would befriend people and purport to be an upstanding, helpful and kind member of the community.
“The reality is far more sinister. He is a cold, calculated murderer.
“D’Wit went to great lengths to cover up his tracks.
“He deceived everyone who knew him, who welcomed him into their family homes and who relied upon him for help, or at least what they believed was help.
“Those lies, and that deception, continued in the evidence he gave in court.
“Disgracefully, he based his defence on collusion between himself and Stephen Baxter.
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“Stephen is tragically not here to defend himself but from everything we know about him, this could never have been the case.
“Thankfully, today the jury saw through his fantasies and gave guilty verdicts.”
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