An IT worker who murdered a couple with fentanyl and played “foul games torturing and drugging” one of his victims has been jailed for at least 37 years.
Luke D’Wit was found guilty of killing Stephen Baxter, 61, and his 64-year-old wife Carol – and rewriting their will to take charge of their shower mat and bathroom company.
The 34-year-old worked for the couple and is said to have described himself as “almost like a son” to them.
The Baxters were discovered at their home by their daughter Ellie on Mersea Island in Essex on Easter Sunday last year.
D’Wit arrived soon after and described himself as their “friend” to a 999 call handler as he gave a false account, while Ellie was heard in distress in the background.
Fentanyl – an extremely strong synthetic opioid about 100 times stronger than morphine – was found in their bodies.
D’Wit, who had denied murder, was convicted by unanimous verdict of the jury at Chelmsford Crown Court after a trial which lasted more than a month.
He had created a gallery of fake personas to manipulate them – posing as a doctor from Florida and members of a fake support group for the thyroid condition Hashimoto’s, which Mrs Baxter suffered from.
Prosecutors said that a total of seven fake personas were created – and D’Wit had been drugging Mrs Baxter for a while, making it appear like she suffered from dementia or a stroke.
Tracy Ayling KC said the pain he had inflicted on her was for his own satisfaction – and D’Wit had previously tried to harm Mrs Baxter by giving her a pill with a tack inside it.
D’Wit denied murder. Pic: Essex Police
Prosecutors said that, a day after the Baxters were found dead, D’Wit created a fake will on his phone that made him a director of their company Cazsplash.
The couple’s daughter had said in evidence that her parents believed D’Wit was “weird, but nerdy weird”.
She said he had initially been brought into their shower mat business in about 2012 or 2013 to “help build the website” before eventually coming round to their house “every day”.
Reading her victim impact statement at Chelmsford Crown Court, Ellie Baxter said D’Wit had “lied his way into our lives”.
She described her parents’ killer as a “man so manipulative he hacked his way into our lives over a decade ago, schemed and thoroughly planned my parents’ demise”.
Ms Baxter added: “They just decided he was lonely, especially after Luke’s dad died.
“They took him under their wing and would let him join in.”
Describing the moment she found her mother and father dead, she said: “I have never known an emotional pain to physically hurt so much.
“It was like my insides were on fire. I screamed and I screamed.”
