Evil handyman who set up secret camera to watch millionaire couple die after he poisoned them & re-wrote will is jailed
A KILLER handyman who set up a secret camera to watch a millionaire couple he poisoned die has been jailed.
Luke D’Wit murdered Stephen and Carol Baxter, who ran bath and shower mat firm Cazsplash, then re-wrote their will.
The 34-year, 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 then 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 and cold” 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 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 parent’s 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 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.
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”.
The following day, greedy D’Wit wrote the new will to benefit from the pair’s cash and jewellery.
It also 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.
'We were all dolls in his dollhouse and victim to his manipulation'
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.”
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.”