DRUG 'MURDER'
Moment IT worker ‘flees luxury home of millionaire couple after poisoning them to death & rewriting will’
Jurors hear details of harrowing 999 call after couple found in conservatory at luxury home
THIS is the moment an IT worker flees the home of a millionaire couple after he allegedly poisoned them to death and rewrote their will, a court heard.
Luke D'Wit, 34, had worked as a handyman for Stephen and Carol Baxter, who ran bath and shower mat firm Cazsplash, in Mersea Island, Essex.
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He is accused of poisoning the couple with a powerful opioid painkiller at their home then rewriting their will.
Jurors heard the document was "created" by D'Wit on his phone on April 10 last year - the day after Stephen and Carol were found dead.
It included terms that "our dear friend Luke D'Wit is to be the person of significant control" for Cazsplash, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
Tracy Ayling KC, prosecuting, said: "He had rewritten their will and stolen Carol's jewellery, among many other things, to benefit from their deaths."
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Footage has now been released of the moment D'Wit, who claimed to be like an "adopted son" the couple, left the home after allegedly murdering Carol and Stephen.
In separate video after their bodies were found, D'Wit tells officers he left the couple's home on April 7 at 7.55pm.
He said he and Stephen had been talking about work and the business as "Carol can't work anymore".
They're f***ing dead! They're frozen.
Stephen and Carol's daughter to a 999 operator
D'Wit claimed the dad "didn't really seem up to it" so he left but planned to return the next day to use the gym.
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He continues: "I am used to checking on them and I always pop in but they wanted this weekend to…
"Steve's mum Irene, who lives in London, was worried because he wasn't answering her calls either which again isn't unusual because they want time away.
"But again, because we were concerned we drove past here at 7.30pm last night but because we saw the blinds were down and the lights were on, we thought they are doing what they want. They've got their weekend. The lights are on - all cool."
The horror unfolded on April 9 last year when the couple's daughter Ellie Baxter discovered her parents dead in the conservatory in their individual armchairs.
In a 999 call played to jurors, Ellie can be heard screaming as she tells the operator: "I need an ambulance right now."
She then yells out "they're f***ing dead! They're frozen" as she attempted to smash the conservatory glass.
D'Wit then takes over the call as Ellie weeps in the background and tells the call handler: "I'm a friend".
He continued: "They are dead. They are both just cold.”
'Poisoned to death'
Jurors were told the alleged killer was "very calm and plausible" and explained he was the last person to see Carol and Stephen alive.
He tells officers in the bodycam footage how he "literally ran from home" to the couple's house after learning they were dead and "smashed the back doors in".
The IT worker claims he was asked by a paramedic to "get all of Carol's medications 'because she has got a lot".
He then explained that "sometimes she forgets to take" her medications because she has so many.
Although there was no obvious cause of death, tests revealed Stephen and Carol had been poisoned by a drug called fentanyl, the court heard.
In both cases, their stomach contents were analysed, which "suggested but doesn't conclusively show that the drug was ingested orally".
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The prosecutor said: "It's difficult to imagine any scenario when two individuals who are not prescribed fentanyl could accidentally contaminate their food with this drug."
D'Wit, of Churchfields, West Mersea, denies murder. The trial continues.
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