In a chilling turn of events, a British IT professional, who implemented a well-plotted scheme of deceit and manipulation against an unsuspecting elderly couple, was meted a life imprisonment sentence on Friday. The con man, 34-year-old Luke D’Wit, was obligated to remain behind bars for a minimum of 37 years for his heinous crimes.
The sentencing occurred two days post D’Wit’s conviction for the murders of Stephen and Carol Baxter, aged 61 and 64, last spring. The couple breathed their last in their West Mersea home, a quaint town situated roughly 70 miles eastern to England’s capital city, London.
As witnessed during the remarkably exhaustive six-week-long trial at the revered Chelmsford Crown Court, the plot spun by D’Wit was indeed meticulously detailed. The software engineer had created a fake will on his mobile device, a maneuver aimed to secure his position as a director for the victim couple’s shower mat enterprise. This audacious act was committed a mere day after the heartless murder.
Gruesomely, he had also been closely monitoring the couple’s agonizing death – a cascading effect of his well-planned plot to poison them with a fatal dose of fentanyl, an opioid painkiller 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine.
Court proceedings further unveiled a string of deceptive personalities portrayed by D’Wit from the year 2021 to ensnare the Baxters. In one of his attempts, he pretended to be a medical doctor from Florida and deceitfully became a part of a fake support group catering to the autoimmune thyroid condition Hashimoto’s, with which Mrs. Baxter was diagnosed.
Condemning D’Wit’s remorseless cruelty, Justice Nicholas Lavender administered the life sentence, qualifying that parole eligibility will not occur for at least 37 years. Educated speculation pointed at D’Wit’s motive, likely stemming from a psychological desire to control others.
On April 7, D’Wit had concocted a lethal beverage for the Baxters, who trusting him, unknowingly consumed their death potion. With the pair losing consciousness, D’Wit meticulously cleared evidence of his monstrous act. He callously employed an app on his mobile devices to remotely monitor the couple’s diminishing life signs whilst stepping out from the crime scene.
Justice Lavender was further convinced that D’Wit had extracted the fatal dosage of fentanyl from patches initially prescribed to his deceased father in 2021. Despite such damning revelations against him, D’Wit, seated impassively in his wheelchair within the secure dock, displayed no discernible emotional reaction upon receiving his sentence.
The Baxter’s were discovered lifeless by their distraught daughter, two days post their poisoning. D’Wit’s manipulation had stretched over a decade, with him successfully infiltrating their trusting circle. Shattered, Ellie Baxter expressed her deep anguish over her parent’s untimely and tragic deaths, declaring it felt like her internal self was ablaze.
Prosecutor Tracy Ayling summarized the case against Luke D’Wit. He had skilled himself in manipulation and deceit over the years, only to culminate it all in the premeditated and brutal murder of the trusting and unfortunate Baxter couple.
