Latest / NO FILTER / Their Helpful Neighbor Made Them _Special_ Teas_ The Disturbing Murders of Carol and Stephen Baxter

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Their Helpful Neighbor Made Them _Special_ Teas_ The Disturbing Murders of Carol and Stephen Baxter · NO FILTER

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Speaker 1: On Easter Sunday twenty twenty three, Stephen and Carol Baxter
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Speaker 1: were tragically found dead in the conservatory of their home
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Speaker 1: on Mercy Island in Essex, England. It was an unusual scene.
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Speaker 1: There were no signs of forced entry and no signs
0:16
Speaker 1: of violence. The Essex Police also found no evidence to
0:22
Speaker 1: suggest that either death had been caused by the couple themselves.
0:26
Speaker 1: Carol and Stephen should have been spending their retirement with family,
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Speaker 1: playing with grandchildren and vacationing abroad. Instead, someone had decided
0:37
Speaker 1: to end both of their lives. Hi everyone, I'm Kevin
0:45
Speaker 1: and welcome to Just Thought Lounge. Today's case has shocked
0:49
Speaker 1: the residence of Mercy Island over the past year. Indeed,
0:52
Speaker 1: it is a bizarre story so disturbing that it has
0:56
Speaker 1: resonated farther across the UK and the world. Let's take
1:01
Speaker 1: a look. Nine miles southeast of Colchester in the County
1:20
Speaker 1: of Essex in England is Mercy Island. The larger of
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Speaker 1: two neighborhoods on the island is West Mercy, with a
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Speaker 1: population of about seven thousand. Mercy has a small but
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Speaker 1: loyal community which has seen generations live in the same
1:36
Speaker 1: area attend the same schools and continue to raise their families.
1:41
Speaker 1: The island's beautiful beaches earned it accolades as one of
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Speaker 1: the best coastal areas to live in the whole of
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Speaker 1: the United Kingdom in twenty twenty three. In that year,
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Speaker 1: local residents Stephen Baxter and his wife Carol were members
1:55
Speaker 1: of the West Mercy Yacht Club. Carroll was the managing
1:58
Speaker 1: director of kazm Splash, a bathroom accessories business. The company
2:03
Speaker 1: is most known for its curved bathmats designed to be
2:06
Speaker 1: placed on floors around shower units. Husband, Steve, whom she
2:11
Speaker 1: married in two thousand, was a fellow owner of the business.
2:15
Speaker 1: He was also the global lead for operational risk and
2:18
Speaker 1: Assurance for real estate firm Jones lang LaSalle. The couple
2:23
Speaker 1: had done well to live in their million pound home
2:26
Speaker 1: in a quiet, usually peaceful street on the island. In
2:33
Speaker 1: recent years, Carrol's health had become more and more of
2:35
Speaker 1: a concern. According to family members, Carrol was suffering with
2:39
Speaker 1: a thyroid condition and had been diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease,
2:43
Speaker 1: which is an autoimmune disorder affecting the thyroid gland. Hashimotos
2:48
Speaker 1: can cause symptoms like fatigue, as well as loss of
2:51
Speaker 1: concentration and memory. Carrol's daughter, Ellie Baxter, found that her
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Speaker 1: mother would often do silly things and so. On Easter Sunday,
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Speaker 1: April ninth, twenty twenty three, Ellie went to her parents
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Speaker 1: home to check in on them. Neither had answered calls
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Speaker 1: for two days, particularly strange given the holiday weekend. Ellie
3:13
Speaker 1: found that the blinds on the windows were still down,
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Speaker 1: nothing had changed since she had last been by the property,
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Speaker 1: something she thought was very wrong. Walking towards the back
3:25
Speaker 1: of the house, Ellie could see her parents inside the conservatory.
3:29
Speaker 1: Both sat in their armchairs, not moving. Ellie then placed
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Speaker 1: two calls, the first to a family friend, Luke de Witt,
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Speaker 1: who only lived a few streets over. He left his
3:43
Speaker 1: house right away and came running. The second call was
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Speaker 1: to nine ninety nine four Emergency Services. When Luke arrived,
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Speaker 1: he took the phone from Ellie.
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Speaker 2: Hi, I'm going to come on the frame.
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Speaker 3: Are you with the patient?
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Speaker 2: Now? They are there? Right? Okay, you're saying there just
4:06
Speaker 2: to confirm how many people are hurt. Sorry, I don't
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Speaker 2: mean you. Well, many people require helps to concern so
4:16
Speaker 2: so I need to come out, red daughter. You can hear. Yeah,
4:20
Speaker 2: that's at fun because I'm all going hel you now,
4:22
Speaker 2: just down the phone me so just tell me exactly
4:25
Speaker 2: what happened from what you know, please, just so we
4:26
Speaker 2: can all go to the best day. Well, we just
4:29
Speaker 2: turned up to the house. Then they hadn't been many
4:31
Speaker 2: past many walk about a day and a half. So
4:34
Speaker 2: we came round and they've also got here, fir. And
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Speaker 2: then they got around to the back s through their
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Speaker 2: conservatory that they were sitting in their own chase, not moving,
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Speaker 2: and we can actually we don't get in there more.
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Speaker 2: Everything else to you now, and just stay on the phone,
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Speaker 2: thank you, thank you, any time to g w rap
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Speaker 2: out soon I need to be with I will get
4:56
Speaker 2: you know. I'm trying to be as quick as I
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Speaker 2: post we can, so just so I can make sure
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Speaker 2: we've got hubble I've expected sometimes.
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Speaker 1: Stephen and Carol Baxter were found sitting together in their conservatory,
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Speaker 1: both cold to the touch. There were no signs of violence.
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Speaker 1: The house showed no signs of forced entry, that is,
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Speaker 1: any signs prior to Ellie breaking a window to reach
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Speaker 1: her parents inside, suspecting that there had been a carbon
5:28
Speaker 1: monoxide leak. The doors and windows were thrown open to
5:32
Speaker 1: air out the house. When police arrived, they spoke with
5:35
Speaker 1: Luke DeWitt to gain an understanding of what responders may
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Speaker 1: be dealing with. Luke, a thirty three year old computer
5:42
Speaker 1: science graduate, was a friend of the Baxters. Luke had
5:46
Speaker 1: grown up on Mercy Island and still lived with his
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Speaker 1: mother only a few streets over. Almost ten years earlier,
5:53
Speaker 1: he began helping Stephen and Carroll with the back back
5:56
Speaker 1: business by designing a new website. Since that time, he
6:01
Speaker 1: had grown quite close to the couple, checking in on
6:03
Speaker 1: them regularly for a cup of tea, sorting their medications,
6:07
Speaker 1: and encouraging Carol to take care of herself in the
6:10
Speaker 1: midst of her health of struggles. By the request of paramedics,
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Speaker 1: Luke gathered together the couple's prescriptions from inside the house.
6:20
Speaker 4: And you say you last saw them on Friday. Friday,
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Speaker 4: I got home for eight, so that's what I have.
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Speaker 4: And me and Steve were just talking about working the business.
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Speaker 4: Carol can't working laws. Yeah she's not the absce. Okay
6:36
Speaker 4: witch is sending a chat, but he didn't really fill
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Speaker 4: up to it.
6:38
Speaker 3: And just.
6:40
Speaker 4: So I was going to put back tomorrow and and
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Speaker 4: check on the gain to gin and I need to
6:44
Speaker 4: checking on always pop in because they wanted this weekend.
6:47
Speaker 4: Each weekend just left them so so with me I
6:50
Speaker 4: was out with last night. I took them to dinner
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Speaker 4: Freddie's birthday and Steve's malmireing as the leaders stunted.
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Speaker 1: Yeah was right, she was announcwering.
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Speaker 3: He calls either right.
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Speaker 4: Blind to down and the light was on. You thought
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Speaker 4: they haven't they done what they want? They've got their
7:07
Speaker 4: weekend lights around, they just ignore the else's all cool, okay,
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Speaker 4: just give me down. They're in the chairs then the
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Speaker 4: only not blying. So I literally ran from home things
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Speaker 4: here to contract okay, and as I got here, they
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Speaker 4: just muched them window to get to get in.
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Speaker 3: Okay, fair enough. So you lost all them alive on
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Speaker 3: and have you seen them today? Did you go in
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Speaker 3: to see them yourself?
7:33
Speaker 4: I have been in there, and I went upstairs Japan
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Speaker 4: med dofee to get all cowards medications that she's got
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Speaker 4: a little sometimes she'dn't have various things of years of
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Speaker 4: various operations. So I went upstairs and for anything that
7:46
Speaker 4: I would have thought with tablet habit you are downstairs
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Speaker 4: and put it in a brown box. He was, I
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Speaker 4: don't have any of its valade, but I know Carol.
7:54
Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, they like to know what people take.
7:56
Speaker 3: Be give them an idea. It's to account they start.
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Speaker 4: You don't know what she's actually taken. If the squat
8:00
Speaker 4: of things she might take. She has David Rling vivos thyro,
8:05
Speaker 4: but sometimes she forget it. Said she could take a
8:07
Speaker 4: six sentence I know, creative from She doesn't know.
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Speaker 3: She doesn't know she's taking it loads of times. Yeah, okay,
8:14
Speaker 3: all right.
8:17
Speaker 1: Carol Baxter had deteriorated rapidly in the final two years
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Speaker 1: of her life. She had been acting strangely, demonstrating behaviors
8:25
Speaker 1: that would commonly be attributed to dementia, Parkinson's disease, or
8:29
Speaker 1: even the aftermath of a stroke, though she suffered from
8:32
Speaker 1: none of these conditions. The Baxters had sought the help
8:36
Speaker 1: of multiple doctors for carol symptoms. She was in regular
8:40
Speaker 1: contact with a doctor, Andrea Boden, an endocrinologist in Florida,
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Speaker 1: who had been prescribing a series of herbal remedies to
8:48
Speaker 1: assist with her thyroid condition. Investigators ruled out carbon monoxide
8:53
Speaker 1: poisoning as the cause of the deaths quickly. Then when
8:56
Speaker 1: the toxicology report came back, the results showed that the
8:59
Speaker 1: Bax had consumed lethal doses of fentanyl. Unlike in the
9:05
Speaker 1: United States, where the drug is at the center of
9:07
Speaker 1: the opioid epidemic, fentanyl is not common in the United Kingdom,
9:11
Speaker 1: though it can be prescribed in applicable serious cases. Fentanyl
9:16
Speaker 1: was not the only substance noted in the report. Pathologists
9:20
Speaker 1: found that Carol Baxter had also been poisoned with high
9:23
Speaker 1: doses of promethazine and over the counter medicine often used
9:27
Speaker 1: as a sleep aid. With these results in hand, the
9:31
Speaker 1: Essex Police formally launched a murder investigation. Ellie Baxter recalled
9:38
Speaker 1: that in the two years before her death, her mum
9:41
Speaker 1: became a bit desperate. She got to a point where
9:44
Speaker 1: she would do anything to get better, her daughter said,
9:47
Speaker 1: Carol followed the advice of doctor Bowden. Friend and helper
9:51
Speaker 1: Luke de Witt, would assist Carol by going with her
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Speaker 1: to the gym and making her smoothies that were meant
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Speaker 1: to be rich in health benefits. Because doctor Boden was
10:01
Speaker 1: in Florida, Luke would take videos of Carrol to document
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Speaker 1: her condition and behavior for Boden to view and assess.
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Speaker 1: The couple described him as their mixologist as he made
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Speaker 1: up herbal drinks for Carol based on the doctor's instructions,
10:16
Speaker 1: including something described as energy bombs to perk her up.
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Speaker 1: In one message, Carol reassured the doctor Luke always makes
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Speaker 1: all of your potions. The trust in doctor Boden's plan
10:27
Speaker 1: was so great that the good doctor was amongst the
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Speaker 1: first contacted by Ellie Baxter upon Carrol and Stephen's passing.
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Speaker 1: The doctor, of course, offered condolences. Despite these herbal remedies
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Speaker 1: throughout those two years, Carroll had not been improving. In
10:47
Speaker 1: February twenty twenty two, a seventeen millimeter tack was found
10:51
Speaker 1: inside Carol Baxter's digestive system after she was admitted to
10:55
Speaker 1: hospital with abdominal pain. In the aftermath of the murders,
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Speaker 1: carol treatment plan and the individual administering it to her
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Speaker 1: were scrutinized. The last individual to see the couple alive
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Speaker 1: at seven to fifty five pm on April seventh, Good Friday,
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Speaker 1: was Luke de Witt. Less than an hour before he left,
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Speaker 1: six thousand pounds was transferred into the company account, ostensibly
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Speaker 1: by Stephen Baxter. Then, curiously, inside the Baxter's house their
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Speaker 1: children came across a short, five part will which was
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Speaker 1: not the long held document held by Stephen and Carroll's solicitors.
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Speaker 1: This new document detailed how the Baxter's dear friend, Luke
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Speaker 1: de Witt, would become the director and person of significant
11:43
Speaker 1: control of Cast Splash, Carrol's successful bathmap business. It seems
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Speaker 1: that Luke would be taking over the company, except, of course,
11:53
Speaker 1: that the will was a forgery. In July twenty twenty three,
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Speaker 1: after three months of an investigation, Essex Police arrested Luke
12:02
Speaker 1: de Witt for the murders of Carol and Stephen Baxter.
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Speaker 5: The reason why he's say, mate, is I'm gonna have
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Speaker 5: to wrest you matter right, And that's on suspicion of murder,
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Speaker 5: all right. As part of the police investigation, you've been
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Speaker 5: identified as being a suspect in relation to the deaths
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Speaker 5: of Caroline and Stephen Baxter. Twenty sevenths are not vitral
12:19
Speaker 5: twenty twenty three or something. Start to say, I think,
12:21
Speaker 5: but my homie defense if you do not mention any questions.
12:23
Speaker 5: Much of my later around in court anything you do,
12:25
Speaker 5: say magians, but we'll be taking up to chump to
12:27
Speaker 5: custody and then they'll be approached from there. Mate, have
12:29
Speaker 5: you been arrested before, never been rested? Dont The process
12:32
Speaker 5: will be explained forout or obviously we're limited information. We've
12:35
Speaker 5: got the moment, but anything further will be explained for investigation,
12:37
Speaker 5: all right, because I've never made you before, and obviously
12:39
Speaker 5: because of the offence of the allegation.
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Speaker 1: The community of West Mercy was rocked by the news
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Speaker 1: of the arrest. Luke de Witt had lived in the
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Speaker 1: area his entire life. He volunteered at a soup kitchen,
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Speaker 1: helped with a town carnival, and presented himself as kind
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Speaker 1: and helpful to the needy. Fellow JIM members remarked that
13:01
Speaker 1: Luke had appeared devoted to Carol when doing their regular
13:05
Speaker 1: workouts together. To his former friends, Luke de Witt was
13:08
Speaker 1: an unremarkable and slightly awed man. One ex friend told
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Speaker 1: a UK newspaper that reading a report stating that Luke
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Speaker 1: de Witt had a girlfriend was more shocking than the
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Speaker 1: fact that he had been arrested for a double murder.
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Speaker 1: It's unclear if Luke was actually dating. At thirty three
13:27
Speaker 1: years old, the computer science grad showed little interest in
13:30
Speaker 1: developing relationships. He played video games and occasionally attended comic con.
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Speaker 1: To many who encountered him, he was simply shy. The Baxters,
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Speaker 1: according to family members, had taken pity on their younger neighbor.
13:47
Speaker 1: They were happy to have him around to help out
13:49
Speaker 1: because they believed that he was lonely and, as they
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Speaker 1: described him, nerdy weird. Their empathy towards the loner grew
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Speaker 1: when in twenty twenty one, Luke lost his father to cancer.
14:02
Speaker 1: At that time, Luke made the decision to improve his health.
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Speaker 1: He began going to the gym with Carrol and lost
14:08
Speaker 1: a considerable amount of weight. Luke's time spent with the
14:12
Speaker 1: Baxters increased from this point onwards. Their children later remarked
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Speaker 1: that he'd just be sitting around having a cup of
14:20
Speaker 1: tea with them, but he was always there. When Luke
14:28
Speaker 1: Dewitz's house was searched, police found that the thirty three
14:31
Speaker 1: year old shared a bedroom with his mother. There were
14:34
Speaker 1: two single beds, hers with pink sheets and his with blue.
14:39
Speaker 1: In the room was a box of tacks similar to
14:41
Speaker 1: the one found in Carrol Baxter's abdomen a year before.
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Speaker 1: Along with these were medicine capsules which he had carefully opened.
14:50
Speaker 1: The search also located fentanyl patches and what they described
14:54
Speaker 1: as a treasure trove of opened pills. The trail of
15:02
Speaker 1: evidence was not only in the bedroom. Upon booking him
15:05
Speaker 1: into custody, the arresting officers searched his bag. In it,
15:10
Speaker 1: they found that he was carrying both used and unused patches.
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Speaker 1: These had been accessible to him since the death of
15:17
Speaker 1: his father. It seems that Vernon de Witt had been
15:20
Speaker 1: prescribed the high strength painkiller to ease the pain from
15:24
Speaker 1: his cancer prior to his death in twenty twenty one.
15:32
Speaker 1: It was possible to extract the leftover drug even from
15:36
Speaker 1: used patches. Luke told the officer that he had them
15:41
Speaker 1: in his bag in order to return them to a pharmacy.
15:44
Speaker 1: He just hadn't gotten around to it. Luke's desire to
15:55
Speaker 1: gain financially may not have been the only thing driving
15:58
Speaker 1: him to poison the Baxters, and his plan to do so,
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Speaker 1: it seems, was far more elaborate than it initially appeared.
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Speaker 1: When investigators from the Essex Police looked through Luke's cell phone,
16:10
Speaker 1: they came upon disturbing images. They found a still shot
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Speaker 1: of the Baxters in their conservatory, slumped in their armchairs
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Speaker 1: in the same manner in which their daughter would find
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Speaker 1: them on Easter Sunday the friday before. On the same
16:24
Speaker 1: day that Luke was shown walking from the house, he
16:27
Speaker 1: activated an application on his phone. The app iHeart Cam
16:33
Speaker 1: is often used to monitor pets. The app works by
16:36
Speaker 1: using a second mobile device as a surveillance camera, which
16:40
Speaker 1: can be placed anywhere. Images recovered from Luke's cell phone
16:44
Speaker 1: showed that he had captured the state of the Baxters
16:48
Speaker 1: as they passed away. Ring camera footage from that day
16:51
Speaker 1: showed Luke returning to the house with his head down
16:55
Speaker 1: staring at his phone. Investigators reached the conclusion that Luke
17:00
Speaker 1: had been at his home only a few streets away,
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Speaker 1: watching the couple die. The cell phone on Luke Dewit's
17:10
Speaker 1: person was not the only electronic device recovered during the
17:13
Speaker 1: course of the investigation. At his home, police found no
17:17
Speaker 1: less than eighty different devices. Each of these they found
17:21
Speaker 1: had been used to correspond with the Baxters at some
17:24
Speaker 1: point in the previous two years. Not as Luke DeWitt
17:28
Speaker 1: the nerdy and helpful friend, but as various fake personas.
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Speaker 1: Each character appeared to be designed to manipulate the Baxters,
17:39
Speaker 1: first Carol and Stephen, but later also their daughter. Chief
17:44
Speaker 1: amongst these fake identities was one of the people whom
17:47
Speaker 1: the Baxters had come to trust and rely on the most,
17:51
Speaker 1: doctor Andrea Boden.
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Speaker 6: He created over twenty personas, and some of these were
18:01
Speaker 6: a doctor in America who used to communicate with Carolyn
18:05
Speaker 6: Stephen about illnesses that they had. Carol's behavior became erratic
18:09
Speaker 6: because we now know that she was being poisoned on
18:12
Speaker 6: a regular basis.
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Speaker 1: Luke DeWitt went to trial in February twenty twenty four
18:19
Speaker 1: at Chelmsford Crown Court. When he did so, he arrived
18:22
Speaker 1: in a wheelchair, which he said was necessary due to
18:25
Speaker 1: a growth on one of his legs. He denied the
18:29
Speaker 1: prosecution access to his medical records and produced no scans
18:33
Speaker 1: or evidence of this growth. The Crown asserted that he
18:36
Speaker 1: was presenting a false illness to elicit sympathy from the jury.
18:41
Speaker 1: The court heard Luke had not been seen in a
18:43
Speaker 1: hospital for years. During his testimony, the jury heard the
18:48
Speaker 1: story of Luke's elaborate deception. There were roughly seven central personas,
18:53
Speaker 1: though law enforcement counted a total of twenty distinct identities.
18:59
Speaker 1: The first this was Cheryl, whom Luke explained with someone
19:02
Speaker 1: that Carol could talk to and air oliver grievances to.
19:06
Speaker 1: The now thirty four year old argued that his many
19:08
Speaker 1: fake identities used to correspond with Carol were not designed
19:12
Speaker 1: for nefarious means. In fact, he argued that Stephen Baxter
19:17
Speaker 1: was in on the plan. Luke took care of the logistics,
19:22
Speaker 1: the phones, WhatsApp, messaging, and email, but it was Stephen,
19:26
Speaker 1: he said, that was dictating the scheme to deceive Carol.
19:30
Speaker 1: This was all designed to ensure Carol felt as though
19:33
Speaker 1: she was receiving help for her physical and mental health.
19:39
Speaker 1: Soon after fake friend Cheryl came Doctor Andrea Boden, the
19:43
Speaker 1: fictitious Florida endocrinologist who would prescribe a set of herbal
19:47
Speaker 1: remedies to help her with her thyroid issues. To help
19:51
Speaker 1: keep Carol compliant with doctor Boden's medication regime, Luke also
19:55
Speaker 1: invented Linda, another patient of the doctors. One message from
19:59
Speaker 1: the Linda to Carroll Baxter read do what andreas says,
20:03
Speaker 1: or you will have other problems. The court heard that
20:07
Speaker 1: Carol came to trust Linda so much that she repeatedly
20:10
Speaker 1: requested to meet her in person. Meetings would be arranged
20:14
Speaker 1: but would never happen. On one occasion, Luke, posing as
20:19
Speaker 1: one of his characters, convinced both Carol and Stephen to
20:22
Speaker 1: make a three hour drive to a hotel for an
20:25
Speaker 1: in person meeting. Instances such as this one, as well
20:31
Speaker 1: as other messages between the fictitious characters in Stephen, showed
20:35
Speaker 1: that there was no realistic way it could be believed
20:38
Speaker 1: that he was part of Luke's elaborate deception. It seemed
20:43
Speaker 1: that at least a few of the characters were intended
20:46
Speaker 1: to isolate Carol from her children, as well as to
20:49
Speaker 1: ignore the medical advice put forward by her real doctor
20:52
Speaker 1: in the UK. Still, other characters built trust by offering connections.
20:59
Speaker 1: Jenny was presented as the sister of a fellow Hashimoto sufferer.
21:03
Speaker 1: Jenny was a theater producer who claimed to be in
21:05
Speaker 1: a position to assist their daughter in her ambitions to
21:08
Speaker 1: be a vocalist. When law enforcement went through Luke's phone,
21:12
Speaker 1: they uncovered voice recordings he had made practicing the voice
21:16
Speaker 1: that he planned to use to communicate as Jenny.
21:21
Speaker 7: Hi, Carol, it's Jenny. It's Jenny. Hi Carol, it's Jenny.
21:27
Speaker 7: It's Cheryl's sister. Yes, so so nice to finally speak
21:31
Speaker 7: to you. Often all these messages we've been doing.
21:35
Speaker 1: When her parents died, Luke sent a text message to
21:38
Speaker 1: Ellie Baxter, pretending to be Jenny, in which he wrote,
21:41
Speaker 1: Oh no, my darling, sweetheart, I'm so sorry. Luke continued
21:47
Speaker 1: the facade with Ellie for months after the murders. He
21:50
Speaker 1: supported her at her parents funeral, pretended to be her
21:53
Speaker 1: closest friend, and reached out to her repeatedly as another
21:58
Speaker 1: fake friend. One of the final personas was ultimately used
22:03
Speaker 1: to convince the Baxters to swallow the poison that would
22:06
Speaker 1: kill them. Beginning in March twenty twenty three, Luke sent
22:10
Speaker 1: emails pretending to be a doctor Alan Mandel. In April
22:14
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, the month the Baxters died, doctor Mendel
22:18
Speaker 1: contacted the couple and convinced them to sign up for
22:21
Speaker 1: a liver detox program. It was in this final recommendation
22:27
Speaker 1: that Luke convinced not just Carol, who had grown accustomed
22:31
Speaker 1: to drinking his concoctions, but also Stephen, who had not
22:35
Speaker 1: to ingest one of his mixtures. Luke warned them that
22:38
Speaker 1: it would not taste nice. It is not known exactly
22:43
Speaker 1: how the Baxters were poisoned, but it is believed that
22:46
Speaker 1: Luke crushed Nurgen or Finagon tablets, which contain promethazine hydrochloride,
22:52
Speaker 1: into a powder, and slipped it into these health drinks.
22:56
Speaker 1: The drug would have made the Baxters very drowsy. The
22:59
Speaker 1: fentanyl extracted from the patches prescribed to his late father
23:03
Speaker 1: was likely placed into their tea. That day, Carroll's iPad
23:08
Speaker 1: was opened to her Internet banking application and the transfer
23:11
Speaker 1: of six thousand pounds was made. It is believed that
23:15
Speaker 1: Luke did that while still in the house and while
23:18
Speaker 1: Carrol and Stephen Baxter were unconscious. The fake will leaving
23:23
Speaker 1: him control of their company was found to have been
23:25
Speaker 1: written on one of his cell phones. Luke de Witt
23:32
Speaker 1: was convicted on two counts of murder.
23:37
Speaker 6: Ax Plice are believed for some time that Luke DeWitt
23:40
Speaker 6: is a cold and calculated murderer. He would befriend people
23:46
Speaker 6: and purport to be an upstanding helpful and kind member
23:50
Speaker 6: of the community. The reality is far more sinister. De
23:56
Speaker 6: Witt went to great limps to cover up his tracks.
24:00
Speaker 6: Received everyone who knew him, who welcomed him into their
24:04
Speaker 6: family homes, and who relied upon him for help, or
24:08
Speaker 6: at least what they believed was help. Those lies, and
24:12
Speaker 6: that deception continued in the evidence he gave in courts. Disgracefully,
24:18
Speaker 6: he based his defense on collusion between himself and Stephen Baxter.
24:24
Speaker 6: Stephen is tragically not here to defend himself, but from
24:28
Speaker 6: everything we knew about him, we know this could never
24:31
Speaker 6: have been the case. Luke DeWitt is one of the
24:34
Speaker 6: most dangerous men I have ever come across. I have
24:39
Speaker 6: absolutely no doubt in my mind had he not been caught,
24:42
Speaker 6: he would have gone on to kill further people.
24:47
Speaker 1: Luke was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum
24:50
Speaker 1: term to be served of thirty seven years. At is sentencing,
24:54
Speaker 1: Justice Lavender remarked that the term sadistic, as used by
24:58
Speaker 1: the Crown, was not quite to describe Luke's horrendous actions.
25:03
Speaker 1: The Justice stated, what you did was cruel and senseless,
25:07
Speaker 1: but I am not sure that it is properly to
25:09
Speaker 1: be described as sadistic. I consider that it is distinctly
25:15
Speaker 1: possible that what really motivated you was a desire to
25:18
Speaker 1: control others, as you had manipulated and controlled Carol Baxter
25:23
Speaker 1: in the two years before her death, and as you
25:26
Speaker 1: continued to manipulate Elena Baxter after her parents' death.
25:32
Speaker 8: I mean, nothing can get the family back their loving mother, sister,
25:36
Speaker 8: their grandmother, or their generous father, brother and grandfather. However,
25:42
Speaker 8: I truly hopeless sentences of some comfort to the.
25:45
Speaker 1: Family, and that was the tragic case of Carol and
25:51
Speaker 1: Stephen Baxter. Thank you all once again for watching. I
25:55
Speaker 1: really do appreciate it, and a special thanks to our
25:58
Speaker 1: newest members Blue Church seventy seven and the Mallory Eskridge.
26:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the channel. This is just thought lounge, and
26:06
Speaker 1: I'll see him the next one.
26:07
Speaker 4: When the scene plays, tell me who the screen saves.
26:09
Speaker 1: I can hear the crimes repeat.
26:11
Speaker 4: Gotta take my time because these crimes get deep, but
26:13
Speaker 4: these stories can't high. Let me find my seat, Kevin.
26:16
Speaker 3: Go ahead and settle in. Gotta be selective, doing all
26:18
Speaker 3: the research, keeping.
26:19
Speaker 1: It objective, always being effective.
26:21
Speaker 4: Can say he got an