IT worker Luke D’Wit jailed for life after murdering Essex couple with fentanyl

An IT worker has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 37 years for murdering a couple with fentanyl.

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 from Mersea 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 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 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”.

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