The Baxter Murders

On Easter Sunday 2023, retired couple Stephen and Carol Baxter were found dead in the conservatory of their home on Mersea Island, off the Essex coast. Initially their deaths were - until toxicology revealed both had been poisoned with the powerful opioid fentanyl. Suspicion fell on Luke D’Wit, the unassuming IT consultant who had spent a decade quietly embedding himself in the Baxters’ lives as friend, employee and unofficial carer. In this episode, forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes profiles a real-life puppet master — a man who built twenty fake online identities to control his victims, forged a will to inherit their business, and watched on a hidden phone feed as they died. Listen now to The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes.

Key psychological themes

This episode explores: psychopathy and the urge for control • the long con — grooming adults over a decade • catfishing and the use of fake online identities • performative care and the "surrogate son" persona • power, patience and the puppet-master mindset

Contributors featured in this episode

Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.

Ellis Whitehouse — Chief Reporter, Essex Live; covered the case from the day the bodies were discovered.

Hannah Pettifer — ITV News reporter; reported on the investigation and trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Gary Cunningham — Former homicide detective.

Professor Atholl Johnston — Professor of Clinical Pharmacology; expert on fentanyl and overdose.

Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby — Senior investigating officer, Essex Police

What you'll learn in this episode

How Luke D’Wit spent ten years embedding himself in the Baxters’ lives as IT consultant, friend and carer for Carol

Why fentanyl — fifty times stronger than heroin and a hundred times stronger than morphine — was the near-perfect murder weapon

How D’Wit created twenty fake online identities, including a Florida-based doctor and a confidante called "Jenny", to control Carol Baxter’s medical treatment

What a metal tack found inside Carol’s body, more than a year before the murders, revealed about D’Wit’s earlier intentions

Why a hidden phone live-streaming the Baxters’ final hours back to D’Wit’s home was the "silver bullet" piece of evidence

What Kerry Daynes identifies as the true motive — power and control, not money — once D’Wit’s plan to inherit a failing business unravelled

Relevant links and further reading

Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)

Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)

https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/listen-999-call-between-accused-9100011 — Essex Live: the harrowing 999 call from the scene

Essex Police — DI Rob Kirby on convicted killer Luke D’Wit (court-steps statement, available on Essex Police’s YouTube channel)

BBC News and The Guardian — contemporary coverage of the Mersea Island murders and the Chelmsford Crown Court trial

Support for those affected by sudden bereavement, poisoning and coercive control — Cruse Bereavement Support • Victim Support • Hourglass (for older victims of abuse)

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Visit theprofiler.co.uk

For an exclusive filmed interview with Kerry Daynes on the cases behind the series — including untold detail on the Luke D’Wit investigation — visit theprofiler.co.uk. Subscribe to the newsletter for case updates, parole-hearing alerts, and early access to new episodes.

Content note

This episode contains an emergency-services recording made at the scene of two sudden deaths, and descriptions of poisoning, coercive control and the deliberate killing of vulnerable adults. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you have been affected by the issues raised, support is available from Cruse Bereavement Support (0808 808 1677) and Victim Support (0808 168 9111).

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