When a sweet older couple were found dead in their own home,
sitting side by side in their armchairs, nothing seemed
suspicious about it at first. There were no signs of violence.
There was no note left behind. This didn't look like a crime
scene, but trust me, this had been a cold blooded murder.
Carol and Stephen Baxter's killer had played the long game.
They had planted seeds of manipulation just waiting for
the right moment. And when that moment finally
came, he set up a secret camera and recorded everything.
Hello and welcome to Outlaw Podcast.
I'm Ellen O'Neill, and in today's episode we're in Essex
in 2023, where Carol and Stephen Baxter had been living out their
later years together peacefully. But unbeknownst to the couple,
someone had been quietly plotting against them, even
taking the steps required to put them into an early grave.
And this manipulation and premeditation didn't just take
place over the few days or weeks before their death.
It had been years in the making. And as investigators began to
unravel what had happened, the list of possible suspects all
turned out to be much closer to home than anyone had expected.
Honestly, gang, researching this case has shaken me to my core.
It's one of those that makes you question like, how am I ever
going to be able to trust another human being ever again?
Because it's more than just what happened to the couple.
It's about how long it all went unnoticed and how few red flags
about the situation there actually were.
Carol and Steven were killed in slow motion.
Their deaths were the result of a series of building
manipulations. They never saw it coming.
And truthfully, I don't think many of us would have either.
And I just think that's what really gets me about this one.
It's something that could actually happen to any one of
us. It's about how easily and
quietly your trust can be used against you and how trusting the
wrong people can actually be fatal.
It's the kind of case that doesn't just disturb you.
Like it completely changes the way that you look at things for
a little while afterwards. And I'm still in that phase.
So now, before we get too far in, I do just want to give my
usual disclaimer that I mean absolutely no harm or disrespect
to anyone that we talk about in today's case.
Our episodes are made with the utmost care to honour those who
lost their lives and to respect the profound grief that they're
loved, loved ones and jaw. Given the nature of today's
episode, we'll be covering some very sensitive topics including
drug misuse, psychological abuse, coercive control, medical
manipulation, cancer and references to suicide.
This episode is created with the hope to raise awareness and
inspire change and further Victim Support, so viewer
discretion is advised. Now, before we dive into this
world of manipulation and deception, let's rewind because
at the sense of this nightmare were two innocent people, a man
and a woman, who simply fell in love and spent their whole lives
by one another's side. Carol and Stephen Baxter were
both born around the early 1960s and for most of their lives they
had no idea who one another were because they actually met kind
of later on in life. But they both still had very
similar upbringings and backgrounds.
They'd both been raised on London council estates with
difficult financial situations in both families and while they
struggled to get by, both of them would have said that they
had a pretty happy childhood. There was nothing disastrous,
but there were also no like bells and whistles, just a
normal upbringing and a loving family around them.
They both lived a few lives before they met one another, if
you get what I mean. Different jobs, different
partners, different locations, different living situations.
Carol even married and had two children with a previous
partner, but eventually she would cross paths with the
lovely Steven and the two of them fell head over heels in
love. They got married and they
decided to have two more children together, Harry and
Ellie. And as the kids grew up, Carol
and Stephen did everything they could to give them a beautiful,
happy upbringing. They instilled important values
into them to work hard and be kind to everyone.
They fueled their creativity and passions.
Stephen taught his son Harry to play the guitar and they would
serenade Carol and Ellie together.
And that was like the sweetest thing I think I've ever heard.
That's core memory kind of stuff, you know?
By now, Stephen was working as an engineer and Carol as a
primary school teacher. He absolutely dotted on her and
she dotted on everyone. Honestly, Carol Baxter sounds
like the sweetest Angel that you could ever meet.
She would do everything she could, big or small, to show the
people around her that she cared and that she was thinking of
them. Think like little handwritten
notes and home cooked meals dropped off to sick relatives or
neighbors. And her children were just her
whole entire life, both her biological ones and the ones
that she taught in the school. But in 2005, tragedy struck the
family. The beloved matriarch Carol, was
in her early 50s when she was diagnosed with Hashimoto's
disease. Now this is a gnarly and
incurable autoimmune condition where the patient's immune
system begins attacking their own thyroid gland.
It can be really, really hard to live with, often leading to
extreme symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, depression, memory
problems, joint and muscle pains, weight gain in hair loss.
It's a lot on so many levels. It can feel surrounding and
quite hopeless. For sufferers though, while it
is an incurable condition, it is treatable.
They can do lifelong hormone replacement therapy in order to
manage the symptoms and try to bring the thyroid back to normal
functioning. And that was offered to Carol
Baxter and it seemed to work for the most part.
I mean, she wasn't well again by any means, but she was managing
better than before as soon as she got onto this hormone
treatment. And it was around this point
that the family decided it might be time to move out of London,
get away from all that hustle and bustle and make a nest for
themselves somewhere where life could be quieter and calmer.
They chose Mersey Island in Essex, which is genuinely a
little island that only just connects to the coast of
England. It is a charming place, known
for sailing and fishing, it's oyster industry especially.
It had those gorgeous like colourful little beach huts and
that classic relaxed, Beachy atmosphere.
A life there promised more space, more peace, and a slower,
softer way of living. So Carol and Steven buy this big
beautiful house out there. 5 bedrooms, a huge garden filled
with fruit trees and vegetables and pumpkins and a greenhouse.
And they lived there happily for a few years before they decided
to renovate the property and make it even more perfect for
their needs. And that was when the couples
stumble across what can only be described as $1,000,000 idea.
They realized as they were decorating the bathroom that
they just couldn't find any bath mats to fit their curved shower.
It seems like the only bath mats on the market were square or
rectangular or even Oval. But none of that was going to
work. They had a curved shower and
they spotted this gap in the market.
If they need the curved shower mat, then surely there were
loads of other people out there needing that exact same thing.
So they made one for themselves and they soon began selling them
to others, starting their own brand called Casplash.
This was around 2013 kind of time and within five years
business was booming, guys. The business originally operated
out of their home, but as demand went up, so did the amount of
stock that they held and soon they had to expand.
They got themselves a warehouse to operate out of and then the
next step after that was hiring staff mainly to help operate the
online side of things. Carolyn Stephen were in their
50s and they hadn't grown up with the Internet and they
actually had no idea where to start when it came to setting up
a website and an e-commerce business.
So they put out an ad for the job and into their lives walked
a computer whiz named Luke DeWitt.
He was in his late 20s. He had experience developing
websites. He even had a computer science
degree, and he really helped the couple to level up their
business. He lived local as well, so it
was really quite ideal. He could pop into the warehouse
and really get to know Carol and Stevens vision for the company.
He'd worked in this capacity for a few local businesses and
charities, and they all all had glowing reviews of this man.
Mind you, Luke DeWitt was a bit of a loser.
I'm sorry, that does sound mean, and I hate to stereotype, but he
was your typical computer geek. He was socially awkward.
He still lived at home with his mom.
He didn't have a partner. He didn't have a romantic life.
He spent practically all of his time either working or playing
video games, but actually someone like that seemed quite
ideal for the role. He was dedicated to the business
since he really didn't have much more going on on his life on
that little island. The Baxters were very impressed
by his work on the website, and they were very grateful to have
found someone with such extensive knowledge.
In the areas where they fell short, they felt really lucky to
have found Luke DeWitt. The couple were becoming
increasingly successful. Their finances were building and
building. They were living a life of
increased luxury. But all this time, remember,
Carol Baxter was very unwell and her health was about to take a
sharp decline. By this point in the late 20
tens, Carol had been dealing with Hashimoto's disease for
over 10 years. And throughout that time her
symptoms had gotten more intense.
Her fatigue was now extreme and it kept her in bed lot.
She was often confused and forgetful, doing unexplainable
things like putting bleach in the kettle or putting pegs on
the plants outside. She even almost burned the house
down one time. It was becoming very concerning
and the Baxters continually tried to stress to doctors that
this was actually very serious for Carol and for those around
her, but not much more could really be done outside of the
hormone replacement therapy that she was already on.
Carolyn, her family actually felt like the healthcare system
in the UK was just continually dismissing her and not helping.
So they tried to go private. They paid to see hormone
specialists, brain specialists. She had scans out the wazoo, but
none of it was helpful whatsoever.
Every conclusion that specialists would come to is
that the hormone replacement therapy was her best and frankly
only option to treat Hashimoto's.
By now, Carole's health had declined so much that she needed
a lot of physical support. The couple's kids, Harry and
Ellie, had grown up and moved out.
They were starting lives and families of their own.
So I mean, as much as they tried and wanted to be around to look
after their mom, they couldn't be around all the time.
And Stephen became a full time carer for Carol.
At this stage, there was a real fear about what was coming.
Carol's condition would only continue to worsen and the
confusion, like I said, was manifesting in more and more
dangerous ways. And there was this real
desperation to halt the decline and get some sort of solution.
But in February 2022, they came into contact with someone who
actually seemed like they might have the answers.
An e-mail had landed in their inbox from a Dr. Andrea Bowden.
She claimed to have experience with patients beating
Hashimoto's disease. Now she started her e-mail with
something along the lines of this isn't just another spam
e-mail. And she went on to say that she
was an endocrinologist based all the way in sunny Florida, but
she had a lot of success with Hashimoto's patients there in
the UK. She asks Carol to document all
of her daily struggles and symptoms so that they can
discuss a treatment plan. Stephen helps as much as he can.
He's emailing back and forth with Doctor Bowden and taking
lots of videos of Carol in her day-to-day struggle.
And Doctor Burden even introduces the couple to a whole
network of people who are also struggling with Hashimoto's.
Because, I mean, it can be a very lonely, very isolating
condition to have. No one quite understands it like
fellow patients. So they'd made this little
WhatsApp group chat where they could discuss symptoms and help
each other with tips and treatment and emotional support.
Carol was added and she just felt this huge wave of relief to
finally feel her and understood Hashimoto's seems to mainly
affect middle-aged women. So not only did Carol finally
feel supported but she could also relate to these women on
way more than just their symptoms.
They all seem to have similar situations and complications.
They could discuss how it was affecting their children or
their marriages and it was just huge for Carol and they were
very grateful to have found Doctor Borden and this support
group. So Carol begins following these
very specific rules and instructions set by Doctor
Burden. It was about changing Carole
lifestyle and she was assured that if she followed the rules
to a tee, she would be well. These rules and instructions
were mainly holistic treatments like nutritional supplements,
herbal remedies, remedies, diet changes, lots of shakes and
smoothies and shots and gut health foods.
You know the vibe. Carol was instructed to take it
easy. That was like the biggest rule
from Doctor Bowden. That meant chill out on the
housework, go out less, do things less, and honestly, like
in general, do anything to avoid spiking the stress hormone
cortisol. That that was really, really
important. That cortisol doesn't go out of
control. Now, spiking this hormone
doesn't just happen under like, severe stress.
It can happen multiple times in an hour.
It can happen when you're running late or when you get
some slightly bad news or if you experience even a slightly tense
conversation. Bowden's advice in general was
to, you know, limit interactions with people as much as you can
to avoid any unexpected cortisol spikes where possible.
This eventually meant that Carol barely left the house and barely
saw or spoke to her friends and family.
She also wasn't allowed to use her phone anymore because that
was bad too. Dr. Andrea Bowden seemingly ran
a tight ship when it came to treating her patients.
I have a snippet from an e-mail that was sent to the Baxter's
here. Bowden said keep away from the
cell. I cannot honestly tell you how
awful these machines are. You will be drawn in.
You will want to look at pictures or older messages if
something is bothering you. Eve, make sure the cell is put
away. We are not out of danger yet.
Enjoy the gym honey. Remember to go light, do not
push. I know how competitive you are.
No phones, absolutely no family. The last bit about no family
isn't an exaggeration either. Carol had been instructed to
only see family members one at a time, and to only do so once a
week again to avoid spiking chemicals that would flood her
adrenal glands, whatever that means.
This was devastating for Carol, as it would be for so many
people. She loved seeing her family, and
limiting contact felt like too much of a sacrifice.
So she ran to the support group on WhatsApp to vent her
frustrations with this part of the treatment plan.
She said that stopping doing the housework was simply impractical
to a point where she'd had to start picking up certain tasks
again. She was essentially looking for
reassurance from the other women that they were also struggling
to stick to such a strict plan. But reassurance is not what she
got. A lady named Cheryl Haring
essentially had a go at Carroll for not taking the plan
seriously enough, she said. You are completely ignoring the
rules. No washing, no dishwashing.
Don't even bother making excuses for it, another lady named Linda
Edwards wrote. My 1 little treasure of advice
for you is to listen to what Andrea says.
Whatever she says, just do. But despite sticking to the
strict rules as much as she could, Carol's symptoms only
continued to worsen and the main symptoms were really affecting
her brain. Her brain fog and confusion
became so severe that she could barely function on her own.
She wasn't really allowed to be left alone for fears that she
could harm herself or do something dangerous.
Steven would send video after video to Bowden at her request
every time Carol did something odd due to her confusion.
In one of these videos, she had taken out some potato wedges
from the freezer and laid about 5 or 6 of them on top of an iPad
and then just left it on the side.
You know it's unexplainable but harmless.
You know, there were harmless moments like this, but scary
moments too, like leaving the stove on or pouring bleach into
the kettle that all the family drink from.
Carol truly required round the clock care and supervision.
Sadly, it was just really really hard on everyone.
Then a few months into 2022, Carol starts experiencing awful,
debilitating pain in her stomach.
She gets rushed to the hospital for an X-ray and in her colon
they found a 17 millimetre thumbtack pin.
A sharp fucking tack. Like from a cork board.
The only explanation that anyone had for this, it was Carol's
confusion. Maybe she had swallowed a pin
thinking it was a sweet or something, or maybe there just
wasn't any thought behind it. Maybe she had just found it and
swallowed it when she was alone. Carol herself insisted that she
had not swallowed A thumbtack pin, especially not of her own
volition, like she had no memory of doing that.
But sadly, after everything that she had done lately, Bleach in
the kettle, Potatoes on the iPad, no one believed her when
she said that she hadn't done it and she had no memory of it
because it seemed that she did quite a lot of things and didn't
have a memory of it anymore. Now, after this incident,
Carol's condition felt like it had reached a peak.
Her confusion had seemingly led to her seriously damaging her
own body. She was terrified.
And so she took to the WhatsApp group for support and connection
once again. But this is where things start
to get weird. The Baxters decided that it
might be good for Carol to meet up with one of the women from
this Hashimoto support group because they could discuss like
the effects that their condition has had on their lives.
They could connect in their fear and hopefully feel less alone in
doing so. One of the women in this chat
agrees. She says that she lives about 3
hours away in Warwickshire and so they make plans for Steven
and Carol to drive all the way out there so that they can meet
in a luxury hotel to sit and chat over a cup of tea.
They agree on a date and the couple travel all the way there,
but when they arrive, there's no sign of the lady.
Carol and Steven waited and waited for her, but ultimately
she was a no show. They texted and called her
several times, but the radio silence was deafening.
This woman had ghosted poor Carol Baxter.
So Carol and Stephen drive a further 3 hours back home,
defeated, annoyed, and above all, just really deflated.
So much for not spiking Carol's cortisol.
This whole ordeal had been stressful and devastating.
A few days later, Carol receives a message from an unknown
number. It's the husband of of the woman
that she was supposed to meet. He told Carol that his wife was
dead. He said that she had suffered a
stroke due to complications from Hashimoto's disease.
So while it hadn't killed her directly, a woman that Carol now
considered a friend had died as a result of the very same
condition that they both shared. This bid for connection had
actually ended 100 times worse than she could have ever
imagined. She wanted reassurance that they
could handle this awful condition together, but what she
got was quite the opposite. Shortly after receiving this
devastating news, an e-mail from Dr. Andrea Boden landed in the
Baxter's inbox. It was addressing the same
topic, the tragic death of this lady, but the sentiment was much
different. Doctor Boden didn't seem sad or
even shocked. In fact, she seemed pissed.
She said why do some ladies not listen, insinuating that this
woman had died because she just hadn't followed Dr. Borden's
instructions well enough. This was a less than comforting
reaction, and we can only imagine that it led to the
Baxter's knuckling down on the advice harder than ever before,
scaring them into obeying every rule.
Around this time, the couple's daughter Ellie is starting to
think twice about this American specialist doctor.
Not only was there's a really odd reaction to have to a
patient dying, but it was actually the cherry on top of a
few different red flags she'd been noticing.
Bowden had always been over familiar with the Baxters, shall
we say. She would call Carol a whole
range of pet names in emails, which, by the way, would hit
their inbox sometimes upwards of 100 times a day. 100 emails a
day from one woman. Doctor Borden seemed quite
obsessed with Carol and her case, actually, to say that she
was all the way in the US and I don't believe they paid her a
single penny. She spent a lot of time on Carol
for free. Why?
At first the Baxters were nothing but grateful for what
seemed like generous specialist support and advice, but now that
a darker side seemed to be rearing its head, Carol's loved
ones began wondering what Doctor Bodom really gets out of all of
this. Ellie tried to raise her
concerns directly with her mum, but Carol was strong willed and
she wanted to believe that she had found genuine support in a
selfless Dr. overseas. She didn't really want to hear
it. So Ellie brings it up to close
family friend, an employee of her parents, website designer
Luke DeWitt. He hasn't come into the story
much yet, but he has been there the whole entire time, helping
to care for Carol and being someone to lean on through all
of this scary mess over the years.
He worked part time for the couple's business for years and
years at this point, and he'd become so close to them that he
would even come around to see them on his days off.
It was almost like he saw them as his own aging and ailing
parents. He tried to help as often as he
could, and of course the Baxters were open to any and all help
that they could get, even if Carol was having a pretty good
day. Luke might even still come over
just for a cup of tea and to keep her company, since part of
the advice was that she should barely leave the house or do
anything at all. So he'd seen first hand how she
had declined of the years, and he'd seen the introduction of
Doctor Bowden and how involved she had gotten with Carol.
And once Ellie raised her concerns with him, he seemed to
share the same sentiment. Ellie saw Luke do it like a
second older brother. He had been working with her
parents since she was a teenager, so she'd essentially
grown up with him in her life. And he'd done so much not just
for Carol and her parents, but for Ellie as well.
Because she had become a mother at a relatively young age and
she found herself strapped for cash at times, and Luke would
often lend her money and help her out of tricky situations.
Over the years. He had lent us something close
to 7 grand and he was in no rush to get it back.
He wasn't badgering her for it. I mean, that's quite irrelevant
to the matter at hand, but I guess it just gives you an idea
of how close they all were. This man wasn't just an employee
to the family, he was an honorary family member.
Carol and Stephen even referred to Luke as their adoptive son.
He was always round at their house helping out with the
housework. Since Carol was now unable, he
also took on a larger role within the company so that Carol
could take a backseat and Stephen could be her carer.
Luke ended up essentially running the the majority of the
day-to-day of that business, and he'd become a secondary carer to
Carol. He was helping to prepare all
the various shakes and smoothies and health supplements that
Doctor Boden would send over. He would help Carol to put her
slippers on. He would hold her up as she
walked down the stairs. His actions weren't just that of
a carer, but of a loving, caring son.
It actually came to a point where Carol and Stephen were
quite reliant on Luke. Stephen couldn't possibly run
the company and be a full time carer for his wife all on his
own. So Luke was handed over most of
the day-to-day runnings of the business and somehow he still
managed to be a part time carer for Carol.
Alongside all of that, he would work through the day and then
pop over for hours in the evening.
All in all, the Baxters were just so grateful for Luke in
their lives. Ellie had become very close with
him. They were like brother and
sister. She would confide all of her
worries in him and he had supported her, you know, through
her pregnancy. But then tragedy struck.
Luke one day in 2021, gathered Carol, Stephen and Ellie round
at the house, telling them that he had devastating news.
He had just been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.
They'd caught it early, but he would need to have regular chemo
appointments and it would be a tough recovery journey ahead.
But All in all, he was just really glad to have the support
of his chosen family around him. Luke's own home life hadn't been
the easiest. He'd lost his father very
recently actually, to a long battle with cancer, which only
made him all the more terrified when he got his own diagnosis.
The Baxters helped him to grieve and process the loss of his
father, just like any chosen family would.
They felt like they owed Luke a lot for the way that he gave up
so much of his free time to help Carol, so they did the same for
him when he needed it. They'd have him round and they
would cook dinner for him often, and they'd take him out for his
birthday, and actually, he would treat them in very similar ways.
On April 8th, 2023, it was around the time of Ellie's
birthday, and Luke told her he wanted to treat her.
He wanted to well not only treat her, but her partner and her
young son as well. He wanted to take them all out
for a birthday dinner for Ellie. He would pay for everything.
They just had to turn up and enjoy themselves.
Carol and Stephen wouldn't be in attendance because Carol really
wasn't doing well at this stage and Stephen had to hang back and
care for her. But Ellie was so, so grateful
for Luke wanting to do something nice, not just for her, but for
her little family. So that night they all went to
Frankie and Benny's for dinner. They were having a great time
until halfway through the meal, Ellie gets a call from her
grandmother saying that she can't get a hold of Carol or
Stephen. Ellie said that she actually
hadn't been to see them that day, but when she had spoken
with them earlier on in the week, they told her that they
just wanted a quiet one this upcoming weekend.
So actually, she wasn't shocked or really concerned that they
hadn't answered their phone since they told people to
essentially leave them alone for the weekend.
But when she came off the phone, she told her partner and she
told Luke about, you know, her grandma not being able to
contact her parents. And they all seemed a bit
concerned. So Luke suggested that maybe
they should go and check in on them on their way home from
dinner, but Ellie said no. She thought it was best to just
not disturb them today if they did want a quiet one and instead
they could pop by tomorrow. They agreed on a middle ground.
They would drive past Carolyn Stevens house on the way home
just to check if everything seemed OK from the outside.
And it did actually, the curtains were drawn, probably by
Steven, before he'd headed off to bed.
So everyone just went home. They called it a night, but
little did they know behind those drawn curtains an utter
tragedy was unfolding. Now before we get into the most
difficult part of this case, I want to take a moment to talk
about a UK based charity called Hourglass who are dedicated to
ending the abuse, harm and exploitation of older people.
With more than 25 years of experience, Hourglass works to
listen to, advise and support older adults and their families,
especially when vulnerability, dependency or control are
involved. You will soon see how how this
case demonstrates just how easily trust can be manipulated
behind closed doors, and how exploitation doesn't always look
violent or obvious. Hourglass exists to protect
older people, to raise awareness, and to make sure
concerns are taken seriously before tragedy strikes.
The charity's helpline is available 24/7 for anyone
concerned about an older person, and they have a free text number
as well. The link to their website is in
the description below where you can access their services.
Or if you're able, please consider donating to such a
crucial cause. Elder abuse is often overlooked
or it doesn't even pop into the minds of younger generations.
But trust me, it is very prevalent and so many of us
could become victims of such a thing one day.
You can find the link to Hourglass as as well as our link
tree that we keep in the description of every single
episode, where you can find a list of several important
organizations, helplines, charities, should you need any
level of help. You can count on that link tree
being there every time. Now, back to the case.
The day after Ellie's birthday meal was April 9th, 2023.
She gets another call from her grandma who says she still can't
get a hold of Carolyn Steven and she's worried and Ellie is as
well now. So she hopped in the car with
her husband and her young son and they drove to her parents
house as quickly as they could. Immediately as they pulled up,
Ellie got an awful gut feeling. The curtains were drawn exactly
how they had been the night before.
They hadn't been touched or moved and it was coming up on
the middle of the day now and it was unlike them to keep the
curtains drawn when the sun was out.
So Ellie gets out of the car and she knocks on the front door.
But there was no answer. She knocks and she knocks.
She's calling for them through the door, but they don't come.
She called Luke DeWitt to see if he had seen or heard from them
at all, but he didn't pick up the call.
He was busy. So now Ellie is really panicking
and she's dealing with this situation essentially all on her
own. As time goes by, there are less
and less reasonable explanations for her parents.
Radio silence. And like I said, she had that
gut feeling. She just knew that something was
seriously wrong. And so she ran around the side
of the the house to try and get a view through a different
window, but nothing. So she keeps running around to
the back of the house where her parents have this big
Conservatory. It's all glass windows.
And there she sees them. Carol and Stephen Baxter are
sitting in their armchairs, side by side, motionless, completely
motionless, and not in a peaceful sleeping way.
They are Grey mouths a gap. Ellie let's out a harrowing,
guttural scream and it alerts her husband, who sprints around
the back of the house to find her.
She sees him and between Wales, she's screaming.
They're dead. They're dead.
In pure disbelief and trying to comfort his wife, Ellie's
husband says that they're probably just sleeping, but she
knows that they're not actually look at them, she yells to him.
She knows that they're gone, but she's still in desperate panic
mode. She needs to get into the house
to them, so she rushes to the lock box where they keep a spare
set of keys. She fumbles to unlock it, and
when she gets it open, the key is gone.
She can't make sense of what's happening.
There are so many obstacles. She's confused, she's
heartbroken, she's terrified this whole time.
It feels like a sudden physical pain.
She is literally immediately hurting.
The desperation was so strong that she just had to try
anything to get in there to her mom and dad.
She ran into the garden and picked up the outdoor table and
just hurled it towards the Conservatory windows trying to
break the glass and it failed to do any damage.
So she begged for her husband to try the same thing.
They just needed to get in there no matter what it took.
This entire scene happens over the course of just a couple of
minutes, and in that time, Ellie gets out her phone and calls 999
between screams and sobs. She says that they just found
her mom and dad motionless, locked inside of their house.
The operator asks if they're breathing, and Ellie responds.
They don't look like it. They're blue.
I, I can't get to them, I can't open the door.
Meanwhile, the commotion of these last few minutes had
alerted A neighbor, who rushed around to them with a hammer in
hand. Ellie's husband smashes their
way into the Conservatory with it, and she runs straight over
to her parents. They're cold and stiff.
They've been dead for some time. By now, practically the whole
street of neighbors had gathered around the house, aware that
something awful had happened at the Baxter's residence.
Among them was Luke de Witt. He only lived a couple of
streets away, and once he realized which house all of this
commotion was coming from, he snapped into action.
Coming to help his chosen family, he grabs the phone off
of Ellie, who was hysterical and struggling to speak properly
with the operator. So Luke takes over the call and
Oh my God, in the background you can hear Ellie screaming out in
anguish the whole entire time. And guys, I listened to the
whole thing while I was researching this case, and it's
not often that I do this, but I actually can't put you through
hearing the whole thing. I've never heard anything so
harrowing and just soul crushing in all of my time covering true
crime cases. It physically hurt me to hear
Ellie in that much pain, so I can't even begin to imagine how
much physical pain she must have been in.
With this realization. I am going to play you a short
clip, but just know that the way that she sounds in the
background of this little snippet continued on for at
least two whole minutes, unrelenting.
Hi. I'm I'm Luke, I'm I'm afraid
they're describing. I don't like.
Are you with the patient now? They are there right?
OK, you're saying there so just to confirm how many people are
hurt? Sorry I can't hear you well as
many people require help just to confirm to right so I need to
come outside their daughter you can hear Yeah, that's absolutely
fun. So I'm organising help for you
now. Just stay on the phone with me.
So just to confirm. So yeah, I'm sorry I couldn't
hear you inside. You can hear they're still
specific this. Poor woman could not process
what she was seeing. She couldn't even begin to
metabolize the pain that she was in.
It's like she dissociated into a state of pure terror and
anguish. And all you want to do, hearing
that in the background of that phone call is just fix it for
her. Is is to help her, is to just
hold her. It must have been so awful for
those around her who loved her to feel simply incapable of
helping or relieving her suffering in any way possible.
It just broke my heart. It broke my heart completely.
Moments later after that phone call, emergency services arrived
and confirmed that Stephen and Carol were deceased.
As far as how they died, nothing at all seemed suspicious.
There were no signs of forced entry or a struggle.
There were no visible injuries on either of them.
I mean, they were both side by side in their armchairs.
It looked like they had just peacefully fallen asleep next to
one another and just never woken up.
The only thing that seemed slightly off was that they had
both died at the very same exact time it seemed, which is
unlikely I think we can all agree, unless it was the exact
same thing that had caused both deaths at once.
And right now the most likely cause was theorized to be carbon
monoxide poisoning. The silent killer.
All it takes is a faulty gas pipe or a broken boiler for a
household to have a carbon monoxide leak.
It's known as the silent killer because it's odorless and it's
very difficult to detect a carbon monoxide leak.
There are very few symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning once
it starts happening to you. It's things like dizziness and
headaches, feeling weak or confused, things that are often
overlooked and missed since they're not loud and obvious
like choking. You could even just put it down
to like being a bit tired or off it in a way.
They hadn't fully confirmed yet whether or not it was carbon
monoxide poisoning, but the police did officially tell the
media that they didn't think that Carolyn Stevens deaths were
down to suspicious circumstances.
At this point police were treating them as accidental.
So now a carbon monoxide inspector was called in to do
readings. The whole entire St. had to be
evacuated just in case there was a very serious leak.
But it was very quickly concluded that everything was in
perfect working shape in that house.
There was no evidence of ACO leak at all and this totally
threw the police off. A carbon monoxide leak was like
the only theory that they had. What else could it be if not the
silent killer? Since Carolyn Stevens bodies had
no visible signs that pointed to any particular cause of death?
There were so many, yet so few possibilities all at once.
It was just so unlikely that the two of them could have died
simultaneously with absolutely no clues left behind.
Police are thinking could this be some sort of suicide pact, A
murder suicide even? But there were no packets of
pills left out of the scene or anything like that.
There was no note, so it seemed unlikely.
And now detectives float the idea of third party involvement.
After all, the Baxter's were quite rich, They had a very
successful business that turned over a lot of profit every year,
and maybe someone wanted a piece of that.
Their deaths being so sudden and simultaneous was rather
suspicious after all, Maybe a double murder could be the
explanation. But all of these theories meant
nothing before they could actually determine A cause of
death, which would have to be done through autopsies and lots
of tests. The family was informed that
carbon monoxide wasn't to blame for the deaths after all, and
detectives asked if they had any idea of anything that could be
the cause. And this is when they learn of
Carol Baxter's severe brain fog and confusion that was gradually
becoming more and more dangerous for her.
They heard that she had poured bleach into her own kettle, that
she almost burnt the house down, that they believe she actually
swallowed a metal tack and it like got into her insides.
She needed help getting it removed in the hospital.
Things were getting really and truly dangerous.
But above all else, they also heard that Carol would
accidentally take her medication multiple times a day, sometimes
because she would forget that she had already taken it.
Luke told them that several times he had found that Carol
had almost overdosed herself on her own meds.
He said that she would get confused and she would take the
wrong ones at the wrong times. She would take the wrong
amounts. And in fact, on the day that
Ellie found her parents deceased, she can be heard on
the police body Cam footage saying she's done something
silly. I know she's done something
silly. I've been trying to help her.
So quickly, a secondary theory started to take shape.
Maybe Carol had accidentally overdose just both herself and I
guess her husband too. Maybe she'd made them one of her
smoothie or shake concoctions and accidentally poisoned them
both. So the police begin their
investigation into these unexplained deaths while Stephen
and Carol's children, Harry and Ellie, along with their quote UN
quote adoptive son Luke, try to process this very sudden double
loss. It was an incredibly heavy
grief, one that Ellie had to power through in order to be a
mother and to plan both of her parents funerals at the very
same time. You can't even imagine, can you?
Like no one would ever expect to lose both parents at the exact
same time. I know that she was an adult by
now, but my God she was orphaned so suddenly.
But everyone was right there by her side supporting her through
it, especially the close family friend Luke DeWitt.
Of course he was equally as involved in their deaths as he
was in their lives. But as they all begin to clear
out the house, claiming family heirlooms and sorting through
Carolyn Stevens belongings, something strange would appear.
Something that threw this whole case into a completely new
light. One day, Ellie was alone at the
house, sifting through all of her parents official documents
so that she could retroactively get their affairs in order.
And as she opens their banking folders, a loose letter falls to
the ground. It's a typed up document,
seemingly a will. It talked about what should
happen in the event of both Carol and Stephen passing away.
It outlined what they wanted to happen to the house, what they
wanted to happen within their business.
And this will seemed rather unofficial.
To put it plainly, there was no handwritten signature on it.
Also bearing in mind it had literally just fallen from some
random folder, aren't Will and Testament type documents to be
kept a bit more secure than that?
I mean, Carol and Stephen did actually have formal official
wills that had been drawn up and stored by solicitor years prior
to this. And those did have handwritten
signatures. They were done with Carolyn
Stephen in the room. But this loose document
discovered by their daughter Ellie was quite different to
what Carolyn Stephen had seemingly put into place years
earlier, It read. Our daughter Ellie Baxter is to
be the 100% shareholder and complete owner of their
business, CAS Splash. 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. It went on to state that Ellie
would one day get 5050 directorship of the company with
Luke once she was of age, which in this document would be 30
years old. At this stage, Ellie was in her
early 20s, so she would have a while to wait before she could
actually have much control over her own family's business.
Mind you, she was a mother and she had a second child on the
way, and what she's not capable enough to be a director of a
business until her 30s? Ellie took this will to the
authorities, but it was quickly determined to have no legal
standing over the formal wills that Carolyn Stephen had signed
off with their solicitors all the way back in September 2021.
Prior to this tragedy in the official will, Carolyn Stephen
had left all of their assets and money to their children, and
they designated all responsibility of the family
business to Carol's sister and her husband, which is quite
different to this piece of paper that Ellie had just found laying
around in the house. The discovery of this makeshift
will had, of course, immediately piqued the interest of
investigating officers. It wasn't legally binding, it
wasn't signed, it had no witness signatures.
The solicitor in charge of the previous will had never been
told about this one, and it only spoke of two people, Ellie and
Luke. Something was off.
Ellie told police that there had been arguments within her family
about the will in the past. In fact, this new document was
pretty spot on in terms of the most recent conversations that
she had had with her parents, according to her.
But investigators were suspicious.
It just seemed very convenient that a will would pop out of
nowhere, you know? So investigators looked into the
finances of Kaz Splash, the Bath Mac business and they discovered
that it was actually in debt of over over 60,000 lbs.
It was failing and no one had actually been very aware of this
up until Carolyn Stevens deaths. And in text from Carol's phone
she had spoken about how she was hesitant to leave the business
operations to Ellie since she didn't consider her to be
financially responsible. She was always borrowing money
from people, and she didn't have much involvement with the
day-to-day runnings of CAS Splash anywhere.
But now the new will leaves the whole business to just two
people, Ellie Baxter and Luke DeWitt, these two best friends.
If investigators weren't suspicious enough already with
this alone, they were about to receive some news that made it
all even worse. The results of Carolyn Stevens
autopsies were in, and it confirmed these hadn't been
accidental or natural deaths. Both of Ellie's parents had been
murdered. While Carol and Stevens bodies
didn't initially lend any clues to their cause of death, their
blood tests certainly did. Steven Baxter had died from a
lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.
Carol also had a lethal dose of fentanyl and a double fatal dose
of promethazine in her bloodstream.
They had been poisoned. They had been drugged and
overdosed. The original idea that Carol
might have accidentally poisoned them both seemed rather unlikely
now, because this was a huge, huge amount in their systems.
It would have been one hell of an accident from her, and the
idea that it could have been an intentional like suicide pact
also didn't hold much weight. Now, mind you, there was no note
left behind and no indication in the weeks before that this might
happen. Carol and Stephen were such
loving parents that there's no way that they would just leave
without warning or without saying goodbye.
Besides, where would they have gotten a hold of that much
fentanyl, accidentally or not? It's an extremely controlled
Class A drug, at least here in the UK.
It's not just floating around the way that like codeine or
other prescription drugs are. Fentanyl records are tightly
monitored. Pharmacies keep strict logs.
You absolutely need a prescription or you're not going
anywhere near it. And then when it is prescribed,
it'll most commonly come as like a patch that you put on.
It's used for severe cancer, pain or even end of life care,
neither of which were things that Carol or Steven were
experiencing. So now every other possibility
other than third party involvement AKA murder was ruled
out. It was definitely a murder and
now it was just a question of who could have done this to a
sweet older couple. I mean, the why seemed pretty
obvious. Carol and Stephen were
millionaires thanks to their bathmat business.
Yes, the business itself was found to be in recent debt, but
would a killer have known that? Would they have cared as long as
they could get to the couple's personal finances, which were
certainly fine. So police start looking into
potential suspects and two people are sticking out like a
sore thumb. The two people that would stand
to gain from Carolyn Stevens deaths, given this unofficial
will that just fallen from a folder.
Family friend Luke DeWitt and the couple's own daughter,
Ellie. The two of them were very, very
close. Ellie had practically grown up
knowing Luke. He was more than a family
friend. He was family, just not
biological. Police also knew that the two of
them had been hanging out the night before Carol and Stephen
were found dead. They'd been out for Ellie's
birthday meal, remember? It was all starting to paint a
dark, dark picture. What if the two of them had come
together and planned the murder of Carol and Stephen so that
they could take over the couple's finances and the
business together? Police decided to go and arrest
them both immediately at exactly the same time, so if they were
in cahoots, they wouldn't have time to warn the other or
potentially destroy evidence. Police cars lined Ellie St.
It's 7:00 AM and she's there tending to her child.
She's heavily pregnant with her second when police storm into
her house and tell that she is being arrested on suspicion of
the murder of her own parents. She's handcuffed and taken to
the station. Meanwhile, Luke DeWitt was out
and about, and police do the exact same thing with him.
He's cuffed and he's put into a car.
And actually, he doesn't seem all that concerned, not in the
way that Ellie does, anyway. He's actually quite friendly,
curious, almost childlike. With the police officers.
He asks them about the way that he's handcuffed.
His wrists are crossed. And he says, does it always get
put that way around? Because, you know, when you see
it in TV shows, it's usually the other way around.
So they're explaining to him like a kid on an educational
school trip, why he is handcuffed in a certain way.
Mind you, he's accused of a double murder.
Anyway, they get the two of them to the station and they put them
into their own holding cells. Now they're in custody.
Ellie soon overhears Luke's voice as he's speaking with the
police, and now she knows that she's not alone here.
Are they both being suspected right now?
Neither of them knew what police were theorizing, but she did
speak to one of the officers about Luke.
She said be nice to him. He's not this type of person.
You've got to be gentle with him.
She really cared for him. The two of them tried to talk
through the walls of the holding cells because they were
confused. They couldn't make sense of why
they were both there and why they were both being accused.
Quickly, the officers snap at them not to speak to one
another. They're under strict supervision
now. Both of them are in and out of
intense interrogation and questioning sessions that
spanned hours. Let me remind you, Ellie Baxter
is heavily pregnant, just like she had been when she made the
harrowing discovery of both of her parents dead bodies.
This is a lot of stress for a pregnant woman to be under.
She'd even suffered a bleed when she first found her parents
dead. So being accused of the murders
was another layer of dangerous stress for a pregnant woman and
her baby. Both Ellie and Luke's electronic
devices were seized and searched.
Nothing of interest was found on Ellie's phone.
There were no suspicious texts or Google searches.
In fact, everything that they did find on there aligned with
what she had told the police so far.
Luke's phone, however, couldn't be more different.
They access his e-mail app, and they spot that he's not actually
logged into his own account. Instead, it's logged into a new
key character that police hadn't encountered yet.
But we have. The e-mail that Luke was
operating from was andrea.boden@doctor.com and now
everything was about to unravel. In fact, finding this e-mail
account started to make a lot of sense to the investigation team,
because the more they were getting to know Luke, the more
suspicious he became when they'd arrested him.
By now, it was three months after the murders.
He was taken back to the police station where his bag was
searched, and this motherfucker was just carrying around
fentanyl patches. He was in possession of the very
drug that had been used to overdose and poison Carol and
Stephen Baxter. He tried to explain it away.
He tried to tell the police that they were actually his granddads
who had recently died. And of course, granddad wasn't
going to be using these very addictive, strong, controlled
substances anymore. So he claimed that he was taking
it all back to the pharmacy to be properly logged and disposed
of. Of course, police don't believe
a word he's saying. This is the equivalent of
someone being caught for a stabbing and still having the
knife in their bag three months later.
In his further interrogations, they're grilling him now not
only about the case at hand but about how these drugs are in his
possession. One of the officers says to him,
my understanding is that earlier today, upon opening a white
Tesco carrier bag containing medication, you, Luke said that
is my bag, my granddad's stuff. He died a few weeks ago.
I was meant to return them to the pharmacy.
Did you say that? Luke turns to the officer and
says, no, he did not say that. Mind you, this is a very
officially recorded quote that has just been read to him word
for word from, you know, camera recordings.
But he's now going to try and correct the officer and say that
he never said that. Luke said no, no, no, it's, it's
not his granddad's meds. He said it was actually his
dad's meds, his dad who died two years ago.
The rest of his story says the same, that he was taking them
back to the pharmacy to be disposed of, but now that he had
switched who the meds belonged to, it seemed weird to wait two
whole years to dispose of it. Now at this point, I think he
clocked that he's seeming more and more suspicious because he
starts stumbling over his words. He seems nervous as this
interrogation is happening at the station.
Another team of officers has been sent out to search his home
and there they found mountains of various drugs, syringes,
capsules that had been split in half and emptied out.
They found a pestle and mortar that had remnants of crushed up
drugs in it, and when these remnants were tested it was
fentanyl and promethazine. Next to all of this lay a pile
of metal thumbtacks, pins from a cork board, exactly like the
metal tack that Carol had been believed to have accidentally
swallowed all by herself in her confusion.
Well, now it's seeming like she hadn't just picked up a pin and
swallowed it. Maybe she had been fed it in a
capsule, one that had been split open and emptied so that she
would believe that she was actually just taking her
required medication until the abdominal pain began.
Had Luke actually done that to her?
This man that had cared and helped this couple for years?
Had he been plotting against them this whole entire time?
Poisoning them, slipping them, different drugs and unedible
things? How long had he been trying to
kill them? But the meds weren't the only
suspicious thing found in Luke De Witt's home.
Investigating officers recovered 18 mobile phones.
It was burner phone City in there.
Plus 10 laptops. Like, first of all, who has that
kind of money? Secondly, what one individual
could possibly need 10 laptops? Unless, of course, they were
trying to be way more than just one individual.
Each device was looked into and there was that much to go
through that it actually took the team five whole months.
And it very quickly became clear that there were several more
characters at play in this twisted web of deceit.
Dr. Andrea Boden was, of course, one of these characters.
Now, don't get me wrong, she was actually a real person.
Dr. Andrea Boden does exist. She's a real experienced
endocrinologist from Florida. But the real Andrea had not been
the one in communication with the Baxters.
She was not the one sending these emails and giving all
these bullshit rules and instructions to Carol.
The Baxter family had briefly been in touch with the real
doctor, but they didn't end up working together.
That was until a new e-mail popped up in their inbox
claiming to be Doctor Borden back to help them.
Of course, from that point, it was Luke DeWitt pretending to be
her. He spent so much time and energy
emailing back and forth with the Baxters all day, every day.
Sometimes, like I said, upwards of 100 times in a day.
A lot of thought had gone into this horrific deceit.
He had emailed pretending to be the doctor, saying things like
I've sent Luke the instructions, take a turmeric shot.
I'm sure Luke will help make this up for you.
You have to change the way that you live.
It's that simple. Follow the rules and you will be
well. He was relentless in his
instructions and aggressive too. According to Ellie, Luke was
referred to by their family as the mixologist because he would
prepare Carol's various shots and vitamin waters and shakes
and smoothies and pill pots with all of her medication ready for
her. And it seems that somewhere
along the way he had begun poisoning Carol, giving her
different meds than what she needed, or incorrect doses
getting higher and higher without anyone noticing.
Sometimes he would make up his own pills at home to give to
her. He would crush things up in his
pestle and mortar and fill these empty capsules with whatever
shit he wanted to feed her that day.
And no one ever clocked a thing, because why would they?
This man acted like a loving member of the family.
He gave up so much of his free time and his energy to simply
care for Carol. Or at least that's what it
seemed. No one thought that he had
anything to gain from this. They thought that he was so
selfless, but the whole time he had been getting some sick kick
out of abusing and poisoning this sweet older lady.
Maybe he always knew that it was leading to him killing her.
Or maybe he was just getting satisfaction from doing it
secretly. Simple as.
And what's even more chilling is what the investigation team
heard in voice memos on his seized devices.
Luke was practicing voices, female high pitched voices,
because it wasn't just Dr. Andrea Bowden that he was
pretending to be. It was the whole network that
Carol had been immersed in for the last year of her life.
The whole WhatsApp chat of fellow Hashimoto's patients, the
support group of women just like Carol, that she thought she had
found comfort in all of them. Will Luke do it?
Hi. Carol, it's Jenny.
It's Cheryl's sister, yes. So so nice to finally speak to
you after all these messages we've been doing.
He had. Made several WhatsApp accounts
on his several devices, all with the sole purpose of duping Carol
and making her believe in this whole world that he had created.
Let's not forget he literally killed one of the women off.
Remember Carol got so close to meeting up with one of them and
then she no showed only for her husband, who we now know is
fake, to say that she had died of a stroke due to complications
from her Hashimoto's. It's so twisted on so many
levels. Why did he have Carol drive out
for three hours when he knew that no one would be there to
meet her? It's clearly entertainment for
him, at least in part. Maybe it was to scare Carol into
following his rules as Doctor Bowden more closely.
After all, Bowden did send that very unprofessional e-mail after
the apparent death of the support group woman saying why
do some ladies not listen? Detectives are just astounded by
these discoveries. It's all so sinister and so
bleak. This had been a huge, huge
operation, all to deceive and kill an innocent woman and her
husband. Stephen's death on almost seems
like collateral damage at this point.
It's harrowing on so many levels.
And now that detectives have all of this information about Luke,
they're going back to that unofficial will, which is
absolutely determined to be fake at this point.
And they clock that. It says when Carol and Stephen
pass, Ellie is then to become the person of significant
control in the business but cannot remove Luke of his
directorship. He was trying to find a
foolproof way to keep his claws in this business because it
actually turns out Carol and Steven wanted to get rid of him.
Not long before their deaths, Ellies parents had told her to
go and gather all the passwords and all the information that
they needed for their account and their banks so that they
could change it all and fire Luke DeWitt.
They'd actually had a weird feeling about him, and I'm sure
a lot of you guys did too. As I've been telling this story,
you might be wondering why the hell is he so close to them and
what does he stand to gain from so much free labor?
Well, Carolyn Steven had thought the same thing.
To be honest, Luke was quite clingy and obsessive.
Bear in mind, he wasn't related to them at all, but he was all
over them, more than their own kids even were.
He had very little going on in his life outside of the CAS
Splash business and Carolyn Stephen themselves.
Stephen had actually emailed Doctor Borden on one occasion,
obviously believing that she was a real person, speaking about
how sometimes Luke overstays his welcome and they needed a break
from his constant presence. Of course, that e-mail went
right through to Luke Dewitt's phone and he learned, possibly
for the first time, that Carol and Stephen were getting sick of
him and that they were going to try and distance from him.
Maybe this e-mail shocked Luke into action.
Maybe he felt like if he didn't kill them soon, while they were
on still quite good terms, then he might lose his chance to take
over the family business. So police now have a clear idea
of what must have happened, at least when it comes to Carole
death. Luke was in charge of her meds,
her shakes, her smoothies, her supplements.
He had several opportunities day in day out to poison her.
But but what about Steven? He didn't need any concoctions
or smoothies, so how had Luke managed to administer a lethal
dose of fentanyl to Steven without him noticing?
While searching Luke's digital devices, detectives come across
another e-mail account logged in as Doctor Alan Mandel.
This account was created just one week before the murders and
it reveals e-mail communications in those final few days.
Doctor Mandel emails Carol about a liver cleanse, it read.
Dear Carol, thank you for signing up for my couples liver
recovery program. It's the number one liver
healing clean that you can do. Do it with your partner.
You are both on this journey together.
One thing that we haven't spoken about yet is that even though
Stephen Baxter was relatively fit and healthy, he was having
some problems with his liver. Luke DeWitt would have known
that. He would have known exactly what
pressure point to target in order to bend Stephen to his
whim in order to get him to take some horrid taste in concoction
made by him. Doctor Mandel stresses just how
important it is to follow his strict instructions to a tee.
Do not deviate from the plan. The emails even state if there
are any problems with understanding how to administer
the concoction. Get a friend to help.
And, of course, who's the friend that Stephen and Carol
constantly have around them, who is already used to helping with
the medication already? Luke DeWitt.
The night before Carol and Stephen died.
An e-mail from Doctor Mandel pops up at about 10:51 PM about
the cleanse that they were about to embark on, it reads.
It's hard, but it's for the best.
You may feel lightheaded. Nothing to worry about, he was
preparing them for the symptoms of overdose and near death that
they were about to experience. Maybe he hoped that if he warned
them in an e-mail then this would keep them calm enough to
not call 999 or call for help when they started feeling weird.
And it seemed that it worked. They thought that they were
being cleansed and instead they were being killed.
All of this evidence on Luke's devices was more than enough for
police to officially charge him with the murders of Carol and
Stephen Baxter. And by now they had officially
dropped Ellie as a suspect. Which I just have to take a
second for Ellie now because what a fucking awful, awful
experience. Not only did she discover her
own parents dead at the same time so suddenly she lost her
two closest relatives. She was the one to find, to see
them them like that. But then to be accused,
arrested, suspicion mounting against you, not just with the
police, but with the entire town that you fucking live in.
It began changing people's opinions of her.
All of her relationships were thrown into question while she
was being accused this whole entire time as well.
She is pregnant. My God, that poor woman.
Most of us couldn't even imagine going through such a complex and
intense trauma all at once. I really just hope that she's
doing well now and living as peacefully as she possibly can.
Now the answers and justice are here.
Luke Dewitt's trial began in February 2024 and this fucking
guy was pleading not guilty despite the mountains of
evidence within his devices. I mean, it's almost like DeWitt
is shot for dimwit. And the way that he tried to
defend himself was absolutely wild as well.
The defense claimed that the yes Luke did create get these false
personas. I mean they couldn't really
argue it. They said that the only reason
he did this was because it was all part of the plan made with
Steven Baxter. In fact it was Stevens idea.
He was basically the killer. Luke claimed that Stephen knew
he needed a way to get Carol to be on board with taking
medicated concoctions and this was the plan.
Fake doctors, fake advice, and maybe if it comes from someone
with authority, maybe she'll actually follow the advice.
His defence also argued that there was no direct evidence to
show that Luke actually administered the fatal drugs to
the couple. So they essentially tried to say
that Stephen had poisoned both himself and his wife.
The whole argument was sick and and so easily seen through as
well. Everyone knew Stevens character,
he loved his wife to bits. This would never have been his
idea. But when the prosecution laid
their evidence out it was clear for the jury to see Luke had
deliberately infiltrated Carol and Stevens life and over time
he had isolated them both. The prosecution also presented
something that is so unbelievably chilling even after
all of these horrific details. This one is just next level.
And it happened on the day that he killed them.
On the 7th of April 2023, Luke arrived at Carolyn Stevens house
at about 10:20 AM. He entered possibly carrying the
fentanyl and promethazine that he would soon kill them with.
Or maybe it was already there at the house, we don't know.
He prepared the fatal doses, most likely disguised in a drink
or some sort of health shot. And then before he leaves, he
sets up two cameras, one on the kitchen island and the other
across the room, capturing the couple from different angles.
And from these positions he can leave the house but still watch
them as they slowly die. It's not enough for him to just
kill them, he needed to witness it too.
After consuming the drugs, both Carol and Stephen fell
unconscious. Now they slumped forward in a
very unnatural way, given that the cause of their death was
unnatural. So Luke's watching this through
the cameras and he notices that, well, this is going to look
suspicious. As soon as people find these
bodies and they're slumped over like that, they're not going to
look like they peacefully died in their sleep or something.
So he saw this and actually returned to the house and staged
Carol and Stevens dead bodies to look like they had just been
sleeping peacefully in their chairs.
At 8:00 PM CCTV captures Luke as he leaves the house one final
time. We know from data taken from
Carol's pacemaker, a device that was connected to her heart, that
she died somewhere between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM on the 8th of
April. That will have been almost 24
hours after the lethal dose was given to her.
We can only imagine that Stephen died around the same time, or
possibly even later, since he didn't have the double lethal
dose of Promethazine in his bloodstream like she did.
And now that Luke knew that they were dead, he got straight to
business. He drafted up that fake will
just one day after he killed them.
He also grabbed Carol's iPad and opened up her banking app in
order to transfer £6000 from her account to his own.
As if police were never going to clock that.
And then, Oh my God, as if all of this wasn't bad enough, he
then looks up holidays to Disney World Orlando.
You fucking joking? The day that he killed an
innocent couple and drained their banks, he's already
thinking about how he's going to splash the money that he has
robbed from them. By the end of the trial, there
was hardly any question in it. Luke DeWitt was found guilty of
the double murders and he was sentenced to life in prison with
a minimum of 37 years. Although the initial motivation
was believed to be financial, it was soon theorized that the main
motivation was actually purely just a desire to control others,
and detectives believe that if Luke hadn't been caught, he
would have gone on to kill again.
Luke was someone who had picked on them in their most vulnerable
time and medically abused them until they couldn't escape him
any longer. It's just harrowing.
But I think that's why it's so important to keep discussing
cases like this, spreading awareness in hopes that it can
help others spot the signs if someone is inserting themselves
into others lives in a similar way, especially when it comes to
medication and healthcare. Now, as we come to the end of
this episode, I want to take one last moment to remember Carol
and Stephen Baxter. They seemed like such a
wonderful couple who loved each other and loved everyone around
them so deeply. From all of us here at Outlaw
Podcast, we send our sincere condolences to the loved ones of
Carol and Steven, and that is all we have time for today.
Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Outlaw
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Bye.