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Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Married couple Stephen and Carol Baxter lived on Mersey Island along England's east coast.
Both were aged in their 60s and Carol suffered from an autoimmune disease that was slowly stripping away her ability to fully function. As a result, the couple's loved ones regularly checked in on them via calls, messages, and emails. When the Baxter's didn't respond to any of their incoming communications throughout Saturday April 8 2023 and the morning of Sunday April 9, concerns for their welfare grew.
When there was still no word from them by midday, the couple's 22-year-old daughter, Ellie Baxter, went over to pay them a visit. Ellie, who was four months pregnant, arrived at her parents' two-story house in West Mersey with her partner, Marcus. The pair immediately sensed something was wrong. The first thing Stephen Baxter did every morning was open his window blinds, but the blinds were still closed until the lights were on inside.
Ellie knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. She headed around to the other side of the house to try the back door. Peering through the windows of the conservatory, Ellie saw her parents sitting bolt upright in their favorite recliner chairs. They were unresponsive, their hands had turned blue, and liquid was trickling out of Carol's mouth. A spare key wasn't in its usual place, so Ellie and Marcus desperately tried to break in.
A neighbor overheard the couple violently banging against the conservatory's door while Ellie frantically yelled, "They're not moving." Eighteen years earlier, in 2005, Carol Baxter was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease. The autoimmune disorder affects the thyroid gland at the base of the neck, which is responsible for regulating many functions in the body.
For individuals with the condition, their immune system cells wrongly attack the thyroid's hormone-producing cells, resulting in a decline in hormone production. The disease progresses slowly over years, resulting in varied symptoms from brittle nails, hair loss and swelling, to fatigue, muscle pain, and a decline in cognitive function.
In 2021, a close family friend who had observed Carol's ongoing health struggles began researching ways to help her. They eventually found a renowned endocrinologist named Dr. Andrea Bowden who specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of hormone-related diseases and conditions. Although Dr. Bowden was based overseas in the US state of Florida, she was able to communicate with Carol online.
Carol sent her videos and emails explaining her illness and was given medical advice in return. Dr. Bowden soon introduced Carol to another patient of hers named Cheryl Haring, believing the two women would benefit from sharing their experiences. Over email, Carol and Cheryl relayed their health fears, aired their grievances, and helped ease one another's anxieties.
A close friendship was quickly established, with the pair bonding over more than just their shared medical condition. Cheryl had a sister named Jenny Trencher who was a theatre producer in London. This was a big deal to Carol as her daughter Ellie was an aspiring singer. She put Ellie in touch with Jenny who encouraged her to send through some vocal samples in case she could help her get a contract or professional lessons. In a message to Ellie, Jenny wrote:
Ellie appreciated the opportunity and recorded herself singing a song requested by Jenny, I'd Do Anything, from the musical Oliver.
In time, Carol Baxter was introduced to two other patients of Dr Andrea Bowden who had Hashimoto's disease: Linda Edwards and Marnie Pantry. Along with Carol and Cheryl, the four women formed a small support group on instant messaging application WhatsApp. Dr Bowden had a series of strict rules for how the women should treat and manage their conditions.
She favoured herbal remedies and nutritional supplements over modern medicine, recommending her patients drink natural tonics like lemon in boiling water and smoothies with kale and flaxseed. She also advised them to avoid anything that could be overexerting. While Cheryl, Linda and Marnie were sticklers for the rules, Carol divulged to the group that she was doing housework against Dr Bowden's advice. Cheryl responded:
You are completely ignoring the rules. No washing, no dish washing. Don't even bother making excuses for it. I had you down for a smart lady, I really did. Carol, get a grip please. Play by the rules and stop trying to do things. You are seriously ill.
At one stage, Carol also confided in her support group that Dr Andrea Bowden's more holistic approach to treating her thyroid condition clashed with the advice given by her general practitioner. In contrast to Dr Bowden's recommendations, Carol's GP prescribed her pharmaceutical drugs that substituted her missing thyroid hormones and had her blood tested annually to keep track of things.
When Carol told her GP about the herbs, vitamins, remedies and routines advised by Dr. Bowden, he was incredulous. He had never come across that type of treatment for Hashimoto's disease and felt it was a load of rubbish. He was surprised that an expert in endocrinology would offer health advice that had no scientific merit.
When Carol told her support group this, they called GPs fuckwits and stood firmly behind the care provided by Dr. Andrea Bowden. In a message to Carol, Marnie Pantry wrote: "Honestly Carol, I have my life back. Listen to Andrea. Stop fighting it. I do not know what you are going through, only that we are very similar and you were stuck in the same phase I was eight months ago.
I was ill and one day, I finally listened. Use my experience and whatever Andrea says. Stick to the rules, Carol." Carol valued the input of those in her position and found herself drifting away from her GP and relying more on Dr Andrea Bowden. Over time, Carol opened up to Dr Bowden about her life at home, including her family and work.
Her husband and daughter also emailed the doctor with occasional updates about how Carol was coping. As Dr. Bowden learnt more about the Baxters, she was able to provide more personalized advice on how to minimize stress in the household by addressing specific problems they had with each other and the people around them. She told Carol that seeing family members, quote, "released too many chemicals in the adrenal gland" and advised,
Keep contact less regular. Why not take your family out weekly, one at a time? You can't avoid seeing your family, but you have a serious illness and you need to be sensible. Moderate seeing family. It's that simple. Do not do anything that produces too much cortisol, which is one way to the grave. It's that simple.
Despite her illness, Carol maintained a zest for life and persevered as best as she could by taking regular walks and visiting the gym. She continued to drink the health tonics recommended by Dr. Bowden, even when they tasted foul. Still, her overall wellness continued to deteriorate. She lost weight, struggled with fatigue, and her memory started getting foggy.
On Tuesday February 8 2022, Carol was hospitalized after complaining of abdominal pain. To everyone's horror, x-rays revealed a 17mm metal nail was lodged in her colon. Carol had no idea how it got there. By 2023, Carol's confusion had worsened and she became wracked with tremors.
Her symptoms were extreme for Hashimoto's disease and more in line with a dementia patient or someone who had suffered a stroke. Carol was referred to several specialists, but her unusual symptoms left them puzzled. It was hard for Carol's loved ones to see her suffer. One day, her daughter Ellie found her ironing a shirt on the kitchen cooktop while foam spilled out from the overloaded dishwasher nearby. Carol had no idea what she was doing.
Ellie had never seen her mother in such a state and it brought her to tears. Stephen Baxter did the best he could to help his wife, but he too felt helpless. Her decline was taking its toll on him too. Carol made plans to meet with Cheryl Harring from her support group in person for the first time. Stephen drove her over three hours away to a luxury hotel in the village of Warwickshire for the meeting. But Cheryl wasn't there.
Stephen texted his daughter Ellie with an update, saying: "No sign of that Cheryl, not even answering mum's texts." Ellie replied: "What is it with these women? Hopefully Cheryl is okay and turns up." Stephen wrote back: "Not bothered, messing Carol about too much. Complete radio silence is poor. I will update you tomorrow."
Much to Carol's disappointment, Cheryl never turned up, explaining later that she had a medical emergency. Despite continuing to follow Dr. Bowden's instructions, Carol's condition continued to worsen. Before she could seriously question whether the holistic approach was right for her, Dr. Bowden put Carol in contact with another doctor named Alan Mandel.
Dr Mandel supported Dr Bowden's professional opinion and offered Carroll his own guidance. He provided the recipe of a health drink he asserted would cleanse Carroll's liver. He suggested that Stephen Baxter drink it too for his own benefit, but warned that the drink wouldn't taste nice and would cause drowsiness.
On Wednesday April 5 2023, Dr Andrea Bowden emailed Stephen Baxter to express her concern about Carol's deteriorating condition. She wrote: "Carol has to accept I am worried something may happen. Not just to her. Any of you. Marnie's husband nearly got stabbed because she left knives out.
If anything happens to anyone, it would be on you, her nearest. It would be: "Why have you let her, Steve? Sorry Steve, but I fear the worst now. You need protecting from what can happen unless you destroy this illness once and for all. Please let me help. Read this email out to her. Carol cannot rationalize."
It was four days later, on Sunday April 9, that Ellie Baxter arrived at her parents' home to find them both unresponsive in their separate reclining chairs. A neighbor who overheard the commotion rushed over with a claw hammer that Ellie's partner Marcus used to smash their way inside. Carol and Steven were both cold to the touch. Ellie began stroking her mother's hair, pleading with her to wake up. An ambulance rushed to the scene, but it was too late.
Both Stephen and Carol were dead. Neither Carol nor Stephen had sustained any visible injuries and there was no obvious cause of death or weapons found nearby. Their house was immaculate and nothing appeared to be missing. This raised the obvious question of how two people could have died peacefully in their chairs at the same time. For Ellie Baxter, the first thing that came to her mind was that her parents could have suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning.
"Carbon monoxide is a gas that can be produced by faulty household appliances that is odorless, tasteless, and colorless. Therefore, when it leaks, it often goes undetected. When there is too much carbon monoxide in the air, it replaces oxygen in the body's red blood cells. Symptoms appear flu-like and escalate into movement problems, memory loss, and personality changes.
Those severely poisoned can lose consciousness and die, and it's the most common cause of accidental poisoning in the UK. When Ellie had discovered her parents' bodies, she threw open a set of exterior bi-fold doors to wear out the house. On her call to emergency services, she said: "We need an ambulance right now. My mum's been poisoned. She's not very well. They're poisoned. They're dead."
However, careful examination of the Baxter home failed to uncover any carbon monoxide leaks. Carol Baxter wore a pacemaker, a small device that was implanted to her chest to regulate her heartbeat. Analysis of the pacemaker revealed that her heart had stopped between 11am and 2pm on Saturday April 8, the day before her and Stephen's bodies were discovered.
This narrowed down the time of death but provided no further explanation as to what had happened to the couple. All it did was rule out the possibility that Carol had died of a coronary issue, as the device would have recorded an abnormal heart rhythm. An autopsy failed to uncover any suspicious injuries, signs of abuse, or defensive wounds. The couple's medical histories didn't contain any clear answers either.
Stephen had recently undergone knee replacement surgery and Carol had her thyroid condition, but neither of these explained their sudden deaths. The Baxter's case was ruled "unexplained but not suspicious" and an inquest was scheduled for a later date. In the meantime, the police and coroner continued their search for answers.
At the time of their deaths, 64-year-old Carol and 61-year-old Stephen were self-made millionaires. They lived comfortably in a 1 million pound five bedroom home and had been members of the West Mersey Yacht Club for nearly a decade. Stephen was a senior executive with a multi-billion pound international property firm, but in recent years the couple had also established a business of their own.
The idea came to Carol after they did some renovations to their bathroom and she was unable to find the right bath mat to fit their new space. And so, CazSplash was born, a business selling bespoke microfibre mats to fit around curved and corner showers and baths.
While Stephen had the business acumen, Carol did the designs and took on the role as Kaz Splash's managing director, a dramatic but exciting pivot from her previous career in adult education. For all their hard work, the Baxters always put family first. Stephen and Carol's relationship was described by those who knew them as perfect. Stephen was dedicated to his wife, who he referred to as his driving force.
While Carol told others that her husband worked too hard, she was never bitter about it. Stephen was a content, gentle and quiet man whose personal motto was "There are no shortcuts in life." It motivated him to work hard every day to provide for his family. The couple's two adult children, Ellie and Harry, described their parents as loving and generous.
Ellie considered her mother to be her best friend and biggest supporter, and the pair enjoyed mother-daughter days shopping and going to the spa. Carol also doted on her young grandchildren, buying them toys and taking them on walks. At the time of their deaths, the couple's hard work had almost paid off. They'd been discussing downsizing to a bungalow, traveling overseas, and retiring to spend more time with their family.
Carol looked forward to taking art classes, while Stephen was excited to play more golf. News of their deaths came as a complete shock to their small, close-knit community, who viewed Carol and Stephen as friendly and helpful people who were always there for others. By all accounts, the Baxters were kind-hearted and selfless people with a lot to live for and exciting plans for the future together. That made the news of their untimely deaths all the more devastating.
The mystery of how Carol and Stephen Baxter had died persisted until the results of their post-mortem blood tests came in. In a twist no one saw coming, both Stephen and Carol had died of a fentanyl overdose. Fentanyl is a drug that acts on the opioid receptors in the brain creating feelings of euphoria. Pharmaceutical fentanyl is prescribed legally for chronic pain relief as it's 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine.
But it is also illicitly manufactured and sold illegally, usually as a low-cost additive to increase the potency of other illicit drugs like heroin. In excess, fentanyl can reduce and disrupt the user's breathing rate resulting in what is called respiratory depression. Drug-induced respiratory depression is potentially fatal, requiring specific medicines to reverse the drug's effects and restore breathing abilities.
Without them, the user can fall unconscious and die. Fentanyl is so powerful that just 2 milligrams of the drug can cause overdose or death. Neither Stephen nor Carol Baxter had a prescription for fentanyl or a history of taking illicit substances. There were no injection marks on either of their bodies.
Carroll's blood was also found to contain potentially fatal levels of promethazine, a sedating antihistamine used in many over-the-counter medications. It was difficult to imagine a scenario where two individuals who were not prescribed fentanyl could accidentally overdose on the drug. With that in mind, investigations shifted into far more sinister territory.
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Investigators considered whether the Baxter's deaths were the outcome of a suicide pact or a decision led by one onto the unsuspecting other. The couple hadn't left behind notes or anything else to indicate why they would want to prematurely end their lives. An acquaintance of Stephen's described him as being "very happy and jovial" in the week before his death. Yet, Carol's health had taken a sharp decline in recent years and was becoming increasingly harder to manage.
It was also discovered that by April 2023, Stephen and Carol's business, Kaz Splash, was over £60,000 in debt and failing. Kaz Splash also owed a further £18,000 to the owner of the warehouse from which the business operated. The last time the couple were seen alive was on Friday April 7.
A close family friend had dropped in at the Baxter home and left shortly before 8pm, at which time Carol was asleep and Stephen was preparing to make dinner. Carol's pacemaker established that her heart had stopped beating the following day, though it couldn't be ascertained when exactly Stephen had died. No one had heard from the couple in the lead up to their deaths and nothing suspicious was noted in or around their home from any of their neighbours.
A security camera that filmed the front of the Baxter's property confirmed that no one had entered or exited the house on Saturday April 8. The next time the camera recorded a visitor was on Sunday April 9 when Ellie Baxter arrived and found her parents dead. Still, investigators couldn't rule out the possibility that someone had snuck in through the back of the property, bypassing the camera's line of sight.
A cursory examination of the Baxter's house on the day their bodies were discovered failed to uncover anything significant. As the investigation shifted towards foul play, a more thorough search took place. Investigators located a wicker box that contained Carol's prescription medication. Lying flat at the bottom were four empty packets of fentanyl patches. These patches are typically prescribed to patients who have trouble swallowing.
The fentanyl inside the patch is in a gel form. It accumulates in the skin below the patch before gradually entering the user's circulation, providing pain relief for 72 hours. The patches were a curious find given that neither Stephen, Carol, nor anyone else in their immediate circle had a prescription for them. Their bodies didn't feature any markings indicating they'd applied the patches in the lead up to their deaths.
Stranger still, the evidence suggests that the couple had ingested the fatal fentanyl doses orally. It wasn't unusual for fentanyl patches to be misused in this way. People were known to cut them into pieces and suck on them, while others removed the gel and let it dry into a powder that could be consumed in different ways. Given that fentanyl doesn't have a taste or smell, it can be concealed in nasal sprays, eye drops, and small candies.
Another method, colloquially known as fentanyl infusion, involved dissolving the drug in a cup of tea for a longer-lasting effect. It couldn't be ascertained what state the fentanyl was in when the Baxters ingested it, such as powder or liquid. None of the couple's cookware, utensils, or glassware contained traces of the drug, and not even a single cup was out of place.
This raised the question of how the drug had been prepared, served and consumed without any evidence being left behind. The way the patches were positioned in Carol's medication box was also strange. While the rest of the box was neatly arranged, the patches stood out as loose. First responders had inspected the box when they were called to the house to determine if Carol's medication could be linked to the deaths. They didn't see the fentanyl patches at the time.
During a more thorough search of the Baxter's home, an item was found in Carol's home office that hadn't been noticed the first time. It was a printed document that featured uppercase text spread out over multiple dot points. The top of the page read, "In the event of our deaths", followed by the names Stephen and Carol Baxter. It was determined to be a codicil, a legal document that acts as a supplement to a final will and testament.
It allows people to make changes to their will without the time-consuming task of having to rewrite the entire original document. Although codicils are typically more common for handwritten wills, they are still considered useful to make small updates. The Baxter's codicil went on to explain what to do with their house and belongings, as well as their desire to have their wake take place at the West Mersey Yacht Club. The document also addressed the couple's business, explaining...
"CazSplash is to continue trading in whichever way is planned. Our daughter, Ellie Baxter, is to be the 100% shareholder and complete owner. There is no financial gain to this. Our dear friend, Luke DeWitt, is to be the director and person with significant control. All business-making decisions are down to him, apart from an agreed and respected wage. There is no financial gain to this.
When Ellie becomes of the age of 30, the directorship is to be split 50/50 between Ellie and Luke. Ellie is to then become the person of significant control, but cannot remove Luke of his directorship. Business decisions are to be made jointly between the two. Grant of 60,000 pounds from the estate of Stephen and Carol Baxter is to be given to the business to develop new ideas and continue the support of the business.
The document ended with the date of November 22, 2022, almost four and a half months before the Baxters died, along with the line "Agreed by Stephen and Carol." The document was intriguing. At no point did it refer to the Baxter's existing will which had been approved and signed in September 2021,
In that will, they'd left all their money to their children, the two they had together and two more Carol had from a previous relationship. While the original will didn't include specific arrangements for the running of Kaz Splash, it designated Carol's sister and her husband as executors of the business. Furthermore, a codicil has to follow formalities laid out in the Wills Act 1837, yet Stephen and Carol's did not.
In fact, the document fulfilled none of the required criteria. Neither Stephen nor Carol had signed the codicil and it didn't feature the necessary signatures of two individual witnesses. As such, the document purporting to be a codicil was not legally binding and therefore not a codicil at all. In the words of Stephen and Carol's solicitor who had drafted their original will, the codicil had no logic to it. He said:
Aside from Stephen and Carol, the codicil only named two other people, one of whom was Ellie Baxter.
Ellie admitted there had been arguments within her family about her parents' will in recent times and the codicil was along the lines of conversations she had with her parents prior to their deaths. Text messages seemed to confirm this. In one, Carol told Ellie that Kaz Splash would, quote, "be all yours at some point." Yet, in the same messages, Carol expressed frustration at how little interest Ellie had shown towards the business.
Over the past year, Ellie had only worked four days and she often needed to borrow money from others. Carol was concerned about her daughter's ability to manage finances and she sent her a message which read, You don't look after money when you get it. Ellie claimed that she was unaware that Kaz Splash was in debt.
Since her parents' deaths, she had been in contact with a solicitor named Martin Ellison, who confirmed that he'd constructed the codicil and supported its authenticity. The only other person mentioned in the document was a man named Luke DeWitt. Stephen and Carol had met Luke in 2014 after he responded to an ad seeking help setting up a website for their business.
With a Masters in Computer Science and a reputation for being honest and reliable, Luke DeWitt was a worthy hire. Luke was a lifelong resident of Mersey where he lived with his parents, worked for the local carnival, and volunteered at a soup kitchen. Introverted and mild-mannered, he preferred playing simulation video games and attending comic book conventions over socialising with his peers or climbing a corporate ladder.
He showed no outward interest in money or accumulating wealth, instead using his passion for IT to design and manage the websites of several local businesses and charities, including the Lions Club, who helped the less fortunate in the area. Although Luke was the type to sit quietly in the corner during work meetings, colleagues found him considerate and always willing to offer his support.
He was very community orientated, well liked and involved in lots of projects on the island. One colleague said of Luke: "If you need help, he is there. He's the first person to say, 'Right, what can I do?' He lives to be involved where people need help." Luke was introduced to the Baxters through a mutual friend before he was taken on board as KazSplash's IT consultant. He was paid around £15 an hour for two days a week work.
In time, he became heavily involved and invested in the business. Stephen and Carol came to feel that KazSplash was in good hands with Luke. He was given access to emails and bank accounts and participated in discussions to take things in a new direction. Carol financed different training courses for Luke so that he could further his skillset, while at one stage Luke loaned KazSplash £15,000 to foster its growth.
When Luke's father passed away in 2021 after a long battle with cancer, he seemed to become incredibly lonely. The Baxters took him under their wing, including him in their family dinners and other special occasions. He paid back their kindness by becoming somewhat of a carer for Carol, a role which alleviated pressures off others and gave Luke purpose. It was a privilege he took seriously.
He was given the security code to the Baxter's front gate as well as the location of a key safe so he could check in on Carol at any time. He began visiting their home daily to help with chores and manage Carol's symptoms. He administered her medication, escorted her on her walks, and took her to the gym. It was Luke who had done the research that led Carol to renowned endocrinologist Dr Andrea Bowden. The Baxters came to rely on Luke immensely.
He told others that he felt like their adopted son. When Luke confided in the couple that he had been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, they rallied around him. He was given the support and flexibility needed to attend all his chemotherapy appointments without fear of losing his job. When he came back from the hospital complaining of headaches and fatigue, the Baxters took care of him.
By April 2023, 34-year-old Luke had been in the Baxters' life for nine years and was considered to be a part of the family. Therefore, Luke's presence in the Cotysul wasn't all that unusual. He had earned Stephen and Carol's trust and was a major part of Kaz Splash's day-to-day workings, more so than anyone else. Ellie Baxter had known Luke DeWitt since she was a teenager and had come to view him like a brother.
If she asked to borrow money from him, he never said no. Over the years, Luke had loaned Ellie over 7,000 pounds. On the day that Ellie had discovered her parents' lifeless bodies, Luke was the first person that Ellie's partner, Marcus, had called. Luke only lived a short distance away and he'd rushed to the Baxter's home to find Ellie on the phone to emergency services frantically screaming, "They're dead! They're dead!"
Ellie had been so distraught that the operator on the other line couldn't understand her. Luke had taken over the call, introducing himself as a friend of Stephen and Carol's, before calmly explaining: "We've just turned up to the house. We hadn't heard anything from anyone for about a day and a half. We came around and their daughter got here first, got to their conservatory and they were sitting in their armchairs not moving. We smashed the window to get in, but they're just cold.
Luke said that Stephen and Carol appeared to be beyond help. He described Ellie as being devastated and was overheard telling the others, "It could be gas or something." When paramedics arrived, Luke gathered all of Carol's medication in a box for them to assess. He also willingly provided a comprehensive statement to police that was recorded on an officer's body-worn camera.
While Luke described himself as Carol's closest friend, he said Stephen mostly kept to himself. Pondering the possible cause of their deaths, Luke told police about the medication Carol took for her thyroid condition, explaining: "Unfortunately with Carol, you don't know what she's taken. Sometimes she forgets and she can take it six or seven times. She doesn't know."
Luke said he'd visited the couple on Friday evening and had left at around 7:55pm. He locked the front door behind him and went straight home to watch television. He didn't visit the Baxter's the next day because they'd wanted time to themselves. Instead, he'd spent the day going to the gym, catching up with a friend, and taking his mother out for ice cream. That night, he went out for dinner with Ellie and Marcus.
Although the lack of communication from the Baxters was making him uneasy, Luke said he didn't return to their house until Sunday when Marcus summoned him there. The Baxter's outdoor security camera confirmed to Luke's account, having recorded him leaving the house at 7:55pm on the Friday. With their time of death determined to be between 11am and 2pm on Saturday April 8, this made him the last person to have seen Stephen and Carol alive.
Luke's whereabouts for the Saturday were checked and verified, prompting investigators to view him as just a witness and not at all suspicious. But when the police spoke to the Baxter's neighbours, they divulged something odd. Luke DeWitt had apparently asked if they had any CCTV footage that captured the Baxter's house. He said he wanted to see it because he was expecting a delivery at their address that hadn't arrived.
This raised immediate suspicions for the police. What if the real reason Luke wanted the footage was because there was something on it that he didn't want anyone else to see? Meanwhile, the pregnant Ellie Baxter felt as though her insides were on fire. The trauma of finding her parents' bodies had caused her to begin bleeding heavily. She feared she was having a miscarriage, but a checkup confirmed her baby was okay.
In the ensuing weeks, as the police continued their investigations into how the deaths occurred, Ellie took extra care to avoid stress to prevent harming her unborn child. She set about organising her parents' funeral with help from Luke DeWitt who joined her as she spoke with the celebrant. He helped pick out the flowers and even looked after Ellie's other young son so she could attend antenatal appointments.
According to Ellie, Luke was a tower of strength during those difficult times. Although she was grateful for his support, Ellie knew that the relationship between Luke and her parents had been fraught. For all the good he did, the Baxters and their loved ones found Luke's overt and controlling presence in their lives to be weird. He made excuses to visit their house daily, sometimes arriving completely unannounced despite being told not to.
They also questioned his work ethic. Despite the Baxters giving Luke the opportunity to grow and develop with Kaz Splash, he didn't seem interested in doing more than the basics. Stephen Baxter had been getting particularly fed up with Luke and how upset he was making his already frail wife. Stephen sought advice from one of the only people who knew the personal ins and outs of their family dynamic, endocrinologist Dr Andrea Bowden.
In emails to Dr. Bowden, Stephen wrote that Luke overstayed his welcome, took advantage of their hospitality, and played silly mind games with Carol. He was always asking what Carol was doing and where she was going, and sometimes Carol felt Luke was following her. While acknowledging that Carol really loved Luke, Stephen admitted that the two men weren't as close and had a different relationship. Stephen told Dr. Bowden that they needed a break.
Dr. Bowden responded, ''I'm aware of Luke's faults, but he does seem like a lovely lad. I did tell him to avoid you both for a few days to have some time away from him. He has messaged me before to say he stays with Carol sometimes to give you a rest, so he clearly cares for you. He is one reason you still have a wife. He is changing as a person and you have a newfound relationship.''
Prior to their deaths, Stephen and Carol had started distancing themselves from Luke. They asked Ellie to collect all their business passwords that were in Luke's control because they intended to fire him. They feared he'd react poorly and shut down KazSplash's IT network, destroying years of records and data. Even with police suspicion being geared towards Luke DeWitt, investigators were keeping an open mind.
The non-legal codicil had also drawn reasonable suspicion against Ellie Baxter. Police theorised that the two could have been plotting together to get Stephen and Carol out of the picture so they could benefit financially from their deaths. Given that Ellie had been with her partner Marcus at the time the deaths occurred, police also suspected that he could be an accomplice.
In June 2023, two months after the deaths of Stephen and Carol Baxter, police arrived at Ellie's front door and placed her under arrest for the murder of her parents. Her partner Marcus and Luke DeWitt were also arrested. Ellie, who was six months pregnant, was distraught.
She firmly denied having any involvement in her parents' deaths, insisting she didn't even know they'd died as a result of a fentanyl overdose until police told her during her arrest interview. After six hours of questioning, Ellie and Marcus were released from custody. Luke DeWitt, however, remained behind. Unbeknownst to the trio, police had been doing multiple searches and had made some major discoveries.
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Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. At the time of his arrest, Luke DeWitt was in possession of a rucksack that contained multiple opened and unopened fentanyl patches. The patches had been prescribed to his late father during his battle with cancer two years prior. A search of Luke's home turned up even more fentanyl patches.
Luke explained he'd been going through his dad's belongings very, very slowly and had been collecting the patches whenever he found them. He claimed he intended to dispose of them at a pharmacy but hadn't gotten around to it yet. The patches were compared to the ones found in Carol Baxter's medicine box and they all featured the same batch number. Luke's fingerprints were also found on the packets.
In Luke's rucksack, police also found an abundance of Phenergan, an over-the-counter antihistamine that contained promethazine, the drug found in excessive amounts in Carol Baxter's blood. The Phenergan tablets had been crushed into a powder using a makeshift pestle and mortar found amongst Luke's belongings. Luke asserted that he had ground up the Phenergan so he could mix the powder with a cream to treat eczema. Investigators weren't convinced.
Another bag was found at the foot of Luke's bed which contained multiple empty pill capsules. Luke insisted the bag wasn't his. He claimed he'd taken it from the Kaz Splash office, implying it belonged to either Stephen or Carol Baxter.
But with all this evidence coming to light, police believed the most likely explanation was that Luke had placed the crushed Phenergan into the capsules, creating a potent and deadly pill that contained four times the therapeutic dose of promethazine. The bag found in Luke's bedroom also contained dozens of metal nails. They were a match to the one that had inexplicably been found in Carol's colon the year before her death.
It appeared that Luke had secured the nail inside a capsule and somehow fed it to Carol, a move that could have very well killed her. Police uncovered 80 electronic devices belonging to Luke DeWitt, including multiple mobile phones, smartwatches, iPads, laptops, computers, hard drives, and USB sticks. Some of the phones were unregistered and featured SIM cards that enabled the user to buy telephone numbers from over 80 different countries.
These foreign numbers could then be used to make calls and send texts as though they were coming from that country. It took thousands of hours to meticulously analyse the extensive data across all of Luke's digital devices. Investigators were astounded at what they uncovered. It turned out that Luke had created at least 20 online personas that he'd been using to communicate with Stephen, Carol and Ellie Baxter over several years.
It was clear from the long history of interactions on both WhatsApp and in emails that the Baxter family had no idea they were actually messaging Luke DeWitt that entire time. The first and most abhorrent persona Luke had created was renowned endocrinologist Dr Andrea Bowden, who he used to exert complete control over Carol.
Characters such as Cheryl Haring, Linda Edwards, and Marnie Pantry had been created to verify Dr Bowden's credentials and to persuade and pressure Carol to follow her rules. Dr Bowden's instructions started out innocuous enough, like advising Carol not to overexert herself by doing housework, but they gradually became more calculating.
With Luke acting as the puppet master, Dr. Bowden steered Carol away from her GP, family, friends, and support network. When Carol started having doubts about Dr. Bowden's treatment at one point, Luke invented Dr. Alan Mandel to get her back on side. Ellie Baxter had watched as her already fragile mother was severely harmed by Dr. Bowden's influence, explaining,
Ellie had encouraged Carol to go back and see her GP, but she'd refused. In Ellie's words, her mother was completely brainwashed by Dr. Bowden. It didn't stop there.
Luke had also created friends and family of these fake women to further bolster his con, such as Jenny Trencher, the theatre producer based in London. Luke's online browsing history showed that he'd once searched for instructions on how to change voice on a live call. Audio recordings found on his phone captured him practising a voice for Jenny, seemingly in preparation for having to speak to Carol over the phone while using the Jenny persona.
Ellie Baxter had formed a close friendship with the Jenny Trencher on the misguided belief that she could further her singing career. At one point, the pair exchanged messages daily in which Ellie disclosed the difficulties her family were facing regarding her parents' will
All the while, she was completely oblivious to the fact that she was actually passing on this personal information to Luke DeWitt. When Carol and Stephen died, Ellie informed Jenny, who replied in a message: "Oh no my darling sweetheart, I'm so sorry." Ellie continued to receive communication from the online identities right up until Luke DeWitt's arrest, at which point they stopped abruptly.
When she learned the truth about who was behind the personas, Ellie was beside herself. "Jenny was a trusted person," she said. "I thought she was there to help. I thought she was a real person." For investigators, Luke DeWitt's complex and devious web of lies was, quote, "phenomenal." It went beyond the online personas too. Luke didn't earn a computer science degree from the tertiary institution he claimed.
He'd also told the Baxters that he'd been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. There were no records of this either. The extent of Luke's deceit wasn't just limited to the lies he'd told. A search of his home also turned up items of jewellery belonging to Carol Baxter that Luke had stolen from her. While Luke used his online personas to manipulate Carol, he'd been equally persistent in real life.
He constantly pushed Carol to follow the doctor's rules, particularly when it came to drinking the health tonics they recommended. Over time, he convinced Stephen and Carol to drink whatever concoctions he made them until they no longer questioned it. Carol came to refer to Luke as her mixologist, who made all of her potions. It was this behaviour that led investigators to conclude that Luke had been spiking Carol's health tonics for two years.
This timing coincided with Carol's wellbeing taking a sharp and devastating turn for the worse. It wasn't Hashimoto's disease that was causing Carol's rapid mental and physical decline, but promethazine. When taken in excess, promethazine causes drowsiness, agitation, nervousness, confusion, disorientation, depression, and delirium. A detective who worked on the case said:
Carol's behaviour became erratic because we now know she was being poisoned on a regular basis. On one occasion, Luke inconspicuously fed Carol the capsule that contained the nail that was later uncovered in her colon. What Carol endured was described as nothing short of torture. CCTV footage taken from the Baxter's outdoor security camera confirmed that Luke had arrived at their house at 10:20am on Friday April 7 2023.
Investigators believed this is when he dipped several of his late father's fentanyl patches into a so-called health tonic before serving it to Stephen and Carol. Luke then left but returned to the house at 4pm. He likely used this time to check how the couple's overdose was progressing and to clean up the scene, including whatever he had served the fentanyl in.
Shortly before leaving the premises that night, Luke transferred £6,000 from the Baxter's personal bank account to the business account he handled, which he labelled as "loan". He also used Carol's phone to search for holidays to Disneyland. Later on, he researched how to delete footage from home security cameras. Police believed he was endeavouring to destroy the footage from the Baxter house to cover his tracks.
Police also discovered that Luke had downloaded a home surveillance application on his phone that enabled him to watch a live video feed from the camera of another device. Images were recovered from Luke's phone that showed Stephen and Carol slumped in their armchairs in the conservatory. It appeared that he'd set up a camera in the conservatory and used the home surveillance application to watch the couple die on his phone in real time.
This meant that as he'd gone about his errands and social events on Saturday April 8, he was spying on the Baxters while they were dying. This added a sinister overtone to the dinner he had treated Ellie and Marcus to that night. The trio had socialised happily with nothing about Luke's behaviour indicating that anything was out of the ordinary.
When the bodies of Carol and Stephen were discovered the next day, Luke played the convincing role of a shocked and concerned family friend. Even the police had no reason to doubt him. At one stage, Luke inconspicuously slipped the used fentanyl patches into Carol's medicine box, likely in an attempt to bolster the theory that the Baxter's deaths were the result of a murder-suicide.
But at 6:54am the very next day, records showed he drafted the codicil on his phone, making himself the beneficiary and inheritor of CazSplash. He then left a copy of the document in Carol's home office. The codicil was supposedly crafted by a solicitor named Martin Ellison, but unsurprisingly, he was found to be yet another one of Luke's fake identities.
When Luke DeWitt was arrested, he offered innocent excuses and explanations to the allegations levelled against him. He denied drugging and killing Stephen and Carol Baxter before receiving advice from a solicitor, after which he responded, "No comment to all questions." Luke was ultimately charged with two counts of murder, possession of a Class A drug, and theft in relation to Carol's jewellery.
Luke DeWitt pleaded not guilty before his six-week trial commenced in mid-February 2024. The defence endeavoured to prove that Luke played no part in the Baxters' deaths and alluded to a cover-up. At one stage, they tried to implicate Ellie Baxter, explaining that she too stood to benefit financially from her parents' deaths.
They referenced a statement provided by a neighbour of the Baxter's who had reported hearing Carol and Stephen having a heated row with Ellie on the evening of Saturday April 8. However, Carol's pacemaker had registered no activity that night, proving she was already dead at the time this alleged argument occurred. Ellie vehemently denied having any involvement in the murders, telling the court, "'All I'm guilty of is loving my parents,'
Luke DeWitt took the stand in his own defence, where he attempted to frame the deaths as a murder-suicide perpetrated by Stephen Baxter. He asserted that the health drinks he served to Stephen and Carol were harmless and did not contain any drugs or poisons. He also claimed that Dr Andrea Bowden and the other online personas were actually Stephen's idea.
According to Luke, Stephen had instructed him to create the identities as a means of supporting Carol and to give her someone to talk to. The prosecution argued that at no point in the extensive communications Stephen had with the identities did he show any indication that he knew Luke was behind them. They asserted that Luke had murdered the Baxters calmly, coolly, and in a way which had been entirely planned, maybe for some while.
The obvious motive was financial gain. Given that Luke had insider knowledge of Kaz Splash's finances, he knew the business had effectively ceased trading due to debt and had no means of repaying the £15,000 he had loaned to foster its growth. The prosecution argued that Luke also received sadistic satisfaction from the infliction of pain and suffering.
In the words of the prosecution, "Luke fooled everyone he knew by portraying himself as an upstanding and kind member of the community, when in reality he was one of the most dangerous men that police had ever come across." It was clear that Luke sought control, and deciding whether a person lives or dies is its ultimate form. As far as the case detectives were concerned, it was Luke's arrogance that led to his downfall.
He didn't cover his tracks well and was deluded into thinking that fentanyl could be used to kill two people without arousing suspicion. While the defense had called several witnesses to attest to Luke's good nature, the prosecution told the jury: "You may be tempted to be beguiled like others. There are legions of people that have fallen for his manipulation and lies."
After three days of deliberation, the jury unanimously found Luke DeWitt guilty of the murders of Stephen and Carol Baxter. Luke remained straight-faced when the verdict was read. In his sentencing remarks, the presiding judge called Luke's actions "cruel and senseless". Quote: "You ended Carol and Stephen Baxter's lives and you brought grief and misery to the lives of others, especially their children.
Luke DeWitt never offered any explanation as to why he turned against Stephen and Carol Baxter after years of friendship. He wasn't found to have suffered from any behaviour-altering mental illnesses.
Ellie Baxter said she sensed a change in Luke after the death of his father. A case detective concluded, "...ultimately, the only person in this world who knows why he acted this way is Luke DeWitt, and he has proven time and time again to be a manipulator. What we do know is, the significant sentence handed down is entirely fitting for the pathological liar that he is."
Given the way that Luke had been hoarding fentanyl patches, police believed he would have gone on to kill again had he not been caught. They have since been looking into the possibility that Luke could have been involved in the deaths of his father and grandfather. According to Stephen and Carol's son, Harry, his family were simply dolls in Luke DeWitt's dollhouse. Speaking of his mother's heart-wrenching decline, Harry said…
"I feel great sadness looking back on the videos of her when she was acting strangely and seeing Luke in the background giggling and smiling, knowing he's the one inflicting this pain. He completely destroyed everything we held close to our hearts and every memory and future dream we could have shared." In the months after her parents' deaths, Ellie Baxter gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Her parents' absence during this time was particularly painful.
Ellie later told the Daily Mail, "They never got to meet their baby granddaughter. I'm still young and there are so many times when I just want my mum. It's one thing people passing, but for them to be taken like that, there are no words really. My parents had worked hard all their lives and saved up and they were really looking forward to retiring and that got taken away by someone that they cared for and trusted like a son.
Ellie has since reflected on her time with Luke DeWitt and recalls instances during her pregnancy when he offered her energy drinks. Although Ellie only ever took a sip, the drinks gave her an adverse reaction and she became overly drowsy. Her health improved whenever she took a break from seeing Luke, and her issues disappeared entirely once he was arrested.
Ellie has been left with the chilling realisation that Luke might have been poisoning her too. In 2011, a tragedy unfolded along the banks of a quiet suburban creek in Melbourne, Australia.
In the creek was the body of a young adult female, clad in a pink dressing gown. Police were quick to rule out any suspicious circumstances, while others weren't so sure. Louisa was a very, very good swimmer.
We'd gone to the beach, we'd gone to the pools. You cannot just look at a body and say, oh, they drowned or no, they didn't drown. It's based on the circumstances. Her death is a case you've never heard of before, but her life is a story you'll never forget.
I kept on telling my mum, listen mum, be careful going there because one day, you know, he might decide to not want to come back. Awful living conditions and he would just give her food like she was a prisoner. They were big, tough guys though. They looked really mean but they wanted to help her. As a fresh investigation into her death begins, startling revelations come to light. I collected a female from the Melbourne airport. She was upset and crying. I'm looking at her lungs right now and her lungs...
Aha! Never once in my life have I ever rang anyone and offered them drugs. Is that ridiculous? It is like to say that this case is consistent with drowning. This is not love or kindness or respect. We've got you. I'm Julia Robson and this is Troubled Waters, a Casefile Presents production.
