A man working in IT poisoned a married couple with fentanyl to try to take control of their business. He has been found guilty of murder and may receive a life sentence.
Luke D’Wit, 34, added the synthetic opioid to ‘health drinks’ that he gave to Stephen Baxter, 61, and his wife Carol, 64, at their home in West Mersea in Essex last Easter.
The man befriended the couple while working for their shower mat firm Cazsplash and later targeted them in what prosecutors described as ‘a web of deception and manipulation’, resulting in the rewriting of their will.
Jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court heard he invented the persona of a fake Florida doctor who was advising Mrs Baxter on how to treat her thyroid condition Hashimoto’s Thyroditis.
Under the fake name of Dr Andrew Bowden, he encouraged her to ignore the advice of GPs and follow his treatment instead.
During the trial, the court heard D’Wit visited the couple almost every day, taking Mrs Baxter to the gym and ensuring she consumed the so-called Energy Bomb smoothies recommended by the fake Dr Bowden.
The mixtures, containing lemon, iodine and turmeric, would have concealed the taste of other drugs he allegedly added, making Mrs Baxter feel tired and increasingly confused.
D’Wit denied two counts of murder, stating that he had fabricated the characters and sent the messages at the request of Mr Baxter, who believed it would encourage his wife to accept treatment.
However, a jury rejected his story and unanimously found the freelance website designer guilty after a five-week trial.
Tracy Ayling KC said she would be suggesting a whole life sentence or a minimum term of 30 years 'because of the death of two people and other aggravating factors'.
The prosecutor stated in her closing speech that D’Wit killed Mr and Mrs Baxter 'calmly, coolly and in a planned manner, possibly for some time'.
The Baxters’ daughter Ellie mentioned in her testimony that her parents thought D’Wit was ‘strange, but in a nerdy way’.
She said he was initially brought into their shower mat business around 2012 or 2013 to ‘help build the website’ before eventually visiting their house 'every day'.
Ellie and her boyfriend discovered her parents dead when they went to visit on Easter Sunday, April 9.
Jurors heard D’Wit was so trusted by the family that he was the first person she messaged for help and rushed around pretending to assist while she frantically called 999.
Disturbingly, he took the phone from her and calmly explained the situation, and later spoke with a police officer at the scene.
Body camera footage from one of the responding officers captured him trying to cover his tracks by claiming Mrs Baxter was prone to accidentally overdosing on medication, and sometimes took the same pills ‘six or seven times’.
The son of the couple, Harry Baxter, stated that he felt like he had lost his mother a long time before his parents were discovered dead on Easter Sunday last year.
'I'm talking about the day Luke started playing cruel games, tormenting and drugging her,' he said.
'Without my knowledge, I had already lost my mother a long time ago.
'Looking back on the videos of her behaving strangely and seeing him in the background giggling and smiling, knowing that he's the one causing this pain, as we were all under his control, is really sad,' he expressed.
Investigators stated that they thought D’Wit enjoyed controlling people and would have become a serial killer targeting more victims if he hadn't been caught.
Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby mentioned in an interview outside the court that D’Wit was 'undoubtedly one of the most dangerous men I’ve ever encountered in my policing career'.
'I have absolutely no doubt that if he hadn't been caught, he would have gone on to commit more murders.'
Mr Kirby stated that 'justice has been served today' and said that D’Wit 'rightfully belongs behind bars'.
The defendant 'fooled everyone,' he added.
'He made friends, seemed very friendly and helpful, but in reality, he was a cold and calculated killer who spent years planning the deaths of Carol and Stephen Baxter,' he said.
He described D’Wit as a 'recluse' who 'spent a lot of time creating false personalities, all to gain control over the Baxters'.
'The extent of deceitfulness he went to was incredible,' Mr Kirby noted.
When asked about a possible motive, Mr Kirby said it was 'not clear what was going on in D’Wit’s mind'.
'He certainly had something to gain financially from the deaths of the Baxters and we believe that this played a part in his motive,' he said.
He continued: 'D’Wit's downfall was his own arrogance.
'He didn't cover his tracks properly and he believed he could use fentanyl to kill two people without raising suspicion.'
D’Wit was arrested at his workplace and his bag contained fentanyl patches, opened and unopened.
Prosecutors questioned his explanation that he was returning these to a pharmacy following the death of his father in 2021.
D’Wit denied murdering Mr and Mrs Baxter and stated in court that he created fake identities on the instructions of Mr Baxter and to provide Mrs Baxter with 'someone to talk to and share all her problems with'.
The judge, Mr Justice Nicholas Lavender, stated that he would give the sentence to D’Wit on Friday.
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