Man poisoned Essex couple with Fentanyl then changed will to inherit business, court told

An employee who befriended a wealthy couple poisoned them with the opioid Fentanyl in order to benefit from a fake will he wrote after their deaths, a court heard.

Stephen and Carol Baxter were discovered sitting lifeless in their armchairs by their daughter on Easter Sunday, Chelmsford Crown Court was told.

Jurors were played the recording of the 999 call made by their daughter Ellie when she found them at their home in Mersea Island in Essex last year.

Luke D'Wit, 34, is standing trial for their murders in a case which opened on Wednesday.

During the call, the couple's distressed daughter Ellie told the emergency services she could see her parents through the window sitting lifeless in armchairs, apparently with blue hands.

The court heard D’Wit, who worked with the couple and prosecutors said was "like a son" to them, had befriended them over the previous decade.

Prosecutors told the court he had written an alternative will on his phone a day after the couple were found dead.

The will contradicted an earlier document made by Mr Baxter, 61, and Mrs Baxter, 64, in the presence of a solicitor - making D’Wit the director of their bathmat company Cazsplash.

The pair ran the company together, with Mrs Baxter having designed a type of bathmat to go around a curved, corner shower.

Prosecutor Tracy Ayling KC said D’Wit was the “beneficiary of a very odd will”, whose terms included that “our dear friend Luke D’Wit is to be the person of significant control” for Cazsplash.

She said the prosecution case was that D’Wit, “who worked for and had befriended” the couple, was responsible for poisoning them.

“He had rewritten their will and stolen Carol’s jewellery, among many other things, to benefit from their deaths,” said Ms Ayling.

A post-mortem toxicology report found the drug fentanyl in both Mr and Mrs Baxter’s bodies.

In both cases, their stomach contents were analysed and it “suggests but doesn’t conclusively show that the drug was ingested orally”.

Mrs Baxter, who had a thyroid condition and a pacemaker, was also found to have the antihistamine drug promethazine in her system, Ms Ayling said.

She said toxicology suggested but did not conclusively show that the drug, which she said was available in products such as Night Nurse, was ingested orally.

“It’s difficult to imagine any scenario when two individuals who are not prescribed fentanyl could accidentally contaminate their food with this drug,” said Ms Ayling.

Their deaths were initially treated as unexplained but D’Wit was later arrested and a bag containing fentanyl patches was found.

D’Wit claimed the bag contained his grandfather’s belongings after he had recently passed away and said he should have returned the patches.

Police said opened patches from the same manufacturer and batch were later discovered at the Baxters' home, the court heard.

He denies two murder charges. 

The trial, expected to last six weeks, continues.

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