Daughter reveals how she begged parents to wake up after she found them fatally poisoned – as killer is jailed for life
THE daughter of a millionaire couple poisoned to death by their handyman has revealed the horror moment she found them dead at home.
Luke D’Wit murdered Stephen and Carol Baxter, who ran bath and shower mat firm Cazsplash, and re-wrote their will.
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The 34-year-old, who worked for the couple at their home in Mersea Island, Essex, targeted them with a “web of deception and manipulation”.
D’Wit crafted 20 alter-egos to control Stephen and Carol – including a theatre producer called Jenny and a doctor from the States.
He then poisoned the couple with powerful opioid painkiller fentanyl and rewrote their will “in order to profit from their deaths”.
D’Wit has now been jailed for life with a minimum of 37 years after being convicted of murder.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Lavender said he “ended the lives of Carol and Stephen Baxter and caused grief and misery to the lives of others”.
The couple’s daughter Ellie described in her harrowing victim impact statement how she found her parents “stiff, stone cold, blue and leaking from their mouths” in their home.
She said she never knew “emotional pain could physically hurt so much”.
Ellie added: “It was like my insides were on fire. I screamed and screamed but nothing I done was helping.
“I pleaded for them to wake up. I begged them. But of course they could not wake. The next time I saw mum and dad they were in body bags.”
Ellie described stroking her mum’s hair and kissing both her parent’s heads after the tragic discovery,
She also told the court how her parents had “so much life left to live and so much to look forward to” as they planned an early retirement.
She added: “All that had been crushed due to one man’s heinous crimes.
“A man my family protected and cared for. A man who lied his way into our lives. A man so manipulative he hacked his way into our lives over a decade ago, schemed and thoroughly planned my parents’ demise.
“Years of pain and trauma were given to us and the chance of countless years and endless memories have been snatched from my family and I.”
Chilling footage showed the killer, who claimed to be like an “adopted son” to the couple, leaving the home after killing Carol and Stephen.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how he had set up a camera using the iHeart home security app to watch the couple die.
Police were able to recover cached images, which showed Stephen, 61, and wife Carol, 64, slumped in their armchairs in a conservatory.
CCTV also showed D’Wit checking his phones as he went round to the couple’s home on the night they died.
The court was told this was to make sure they were “incapacitated” before he went inside to clear up cups that contained the drug.
Their bodies were discovered in a conservatory on April 9 when daughter Ellie popped round.
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In a harrowing 999 call, she can be heard screaming as she tells the operator: “I need an ambulance right now.”
Ellie then yells out “they’re f***ing dead! They’re frozen” as she attempted to smash the conservatory glass.
D’Wit then takes over the call as Ellie weeps in the background and tells the call handler: “I’m a friend.”
He continued: “They are dead. They are both just cold.”
The killer was described as “very calm and plausible” and explained he was the last person to see Carol and Stephen alive.
He tells officers in bodycam footage how he “literally ran from home” to the couple’s house after learning they were dead and “smashed the back doors in”.
Greedy D’Wit also wrote a new will to benefit from the pair’s cash and jewellery.
It included terms that “our dear friend Luke D’Wit is to be the person of significant control” for Cazsplash.
Although there was no obvious cause of death, tests revealed Stephen and Carol had been poisoned by a drug called fentanyl.
When he was arrested, D’Wit was found to have what was left of his grandfather’s fentanyl patches with some packets already opened.
Ellie’s heartbreaking victim impact statement in full
“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. I tried to push her to go to the doctors which she did but she was completely brainwashed by Dr Andrea Bowden. I even suggested completely removing her thyroid because we all believed that was the root of the problem. No thyroid, no more of mum’s life being destroyed.
“Luke D’wit, who was behind the persona Dr Andrea Bowden, thought sending videos of my mum for Andrea to see would be a good idea. But in reality Luke just wanted to see and watch the outcome of his twisted, abominable actions – sometimes even filming my mum himself and laughing.
“My mum was full of life. 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. Even when she was at death’s door, his face would still light her up. At times she wouldn’t be able to speak or properly open her eyes. But she could hear, she knew and her smile shone through.
“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. My dad raised me to be strong and sincere. The first time my dad held my son, his first grandchild, he understood the love mum had for her grandchildren. He said my son just fit 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.
“Leading up to their deaths, dad seemed lonely. Mum was too unwell. She struggled to eat and could not stay awake. Often my partner and I with our son would stay and have dinner with my dad and bring back his joy and spirit too. My mum being drugged for so long and needing such constant help was also, slowly but surely, tearing away every last bit of my dad’s soul. I felt so helpless.
“Dad really loved and respected my partner Marcus. There had been talk about us getting engaged which then led to conversations with me and dad about him being able to walk me down the aisle. He looked so proud even just speaking about it. We had a few drinks and started to slow dance pretending it was our daddy and daughter dance, laughing and getting excited for what the future will hold. I will forever hold onto that memory as any chance of that becoming possible has been stolen from me.
“Mum always had a sixth sense. There were things that she just knew. All throughout my life she just knew things it’s hard to explain. A week before they were murdered, I was just over a week away from finding out the gender of my baby. Mum looked at me, touched my stomach, softly smiled and said that is a girl. Of course, mum was right. I know she is looking down on me and I know she knows but I never got that chance to tell her to her face that she was right. She has never seen nor held my daughter and she never will.
“A year before they passed, my dad had said how he had found his dad passed away in his armchair – stiff and cold to the touch. He swore he would do anything in his power to never let me have that experience, and that moment has always stayed with him. A year went by and I found both my mum and dad stiff, stone cold, blue and leaking from their mouths. I have never known an emotional pain to physically hurt so much. It was like my insides were on fire. I screamed and screamed but nothing I done was helping. I pleaded for them to wake up. I begged them. But of course they could not wake.
“The next time I saw mum and dad they were in body bags. Dad’s nose and ears were leaking and mum’s eye had a puddle of fluid that had run out of her nose. I stroked mum’s hair and cried. They were gone. I kissed both of their heads. I just wish I had known. I wish I had done more and that is something I will forever have to live with. I took peace in knowing that mum’s pain was over until I learnt the reality of the situation – if how my parents and I were manipulated and how someone we had loved, trusted and looked after for many years could do something so nefarious. The stress of this day caused me to have a bleed. I genuinely thought I had lost my daughter as well as my mum and dad.
“Mum and dad looked after Luke. They just decided he was lonely, especially after Luke’s dad died. They took him under their wing and would let him join in. Even in our personal family birthday meals. Luke had his cancer treatment every Thursday and he would say it would take it out of him. Complain of headaches and fatigue. My parents and I would support him through this. But once again that was another lie. Another form of deceit. Another way to emotionally manipulate us all.
“Adjusting to life without my mum and dad so young was and is still very hard. We would see them all the time then suddenly there were just empty days I could not fill. Nothing could fill them. I should have still been with my mum and dad. Many times I have silly questions and look for guidance, and I have no one to turn to now. I have no family left around me that I can trust.
“Mum and dad being murdered has destroyed everything they had spent years nourishing and cherishing. Everything they had built smashed into pieces and now I am alone, still trying to find them pieces to start piecing them together again for the sake of my children. I still text their phones. I still wish them happy birthday and merry Christmas. I messaged to tell them about my beautiful little girl and it still hurts when I don’t get a reply.
“They had so much life left to live and so much to look forward to – all crushed due to one man’s heinous crimes. A man my family protected and cared for. A man who lied his way into our lives. A man so manipulative he hacked his way into our lives over a decade ago, schemed and thoroughly planed my parents’ demise.
“Years of pain and trauma were given to us and the chance of countless years and endless memories have been snatched from my family and I.”
The court was told four empty patches from the same batch were found in the Baxter home.
Officers also discovered some of Carol’s jewellery, as well as her bank card and unopened letters addressed to her.
It was later revealed D’Wit had been controlling the trusting couple using his alter egos.
He had created a fake support group for people suffering from the same thyroid condition as Carol.
D’Wit also used false persona “Dr Andrea Bowen” to give harmful medical advice to the mum.
Police found he had been poisoning Carol for at least two years – giving her near-lethal doses of antihistamines and spiking pills with metal tacks.
D’Wit had wormed his way into the family’s life when he was hired to create a website for their business in 2013.
He “ingratiated himself with the family” and became a close, trusted friend and handyman-type figure to the couple.
D’Wit played with their emotions by claiming he had bone marrow cancer, which was later found to be a lie.
Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said previously: “I have absolutely no doubt in my mind had he not been caught he would have gone on to kill further people.
“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.”
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