News Report -U.K Man gets 37 years for fatally poisoning couple.pdf

News Item (Reading Practice)

1. BREAKING
NEWS
U.K Man gets 37 years for fatally poisoning couple
with fentanyl
GLOBALTV_NEWS

2. GLOBALTV_NEWS
A British man has been sentenced to 37 years in prison after
poisoning a husband and wife with fentanyl and reworking their will to
seize control of their business.

The sentence for Luke D’Wit is “among the most significant
sentences ever secured” after an investigation by Essex Police
Department officers, the department said in a news release.
D’Wit, 34, first met Carol Baxter in 2014, when they were
introduced by a mutual friend. D’Wit then began working as an IT
consultant for the Baxters’ business, which sold specialty curved
bathmats.
Over nearly 10 years, D’Wit created “more than 20 personas”
which he used to communicate with Carol Baxter and her daughter Ellie,
the police news release said. One of those fake personas was as a
doctor who was experienced in dealing with Hashimoto’s disease, an
autoimmune disease that Baxter had been diagnosed with.
Luke D’Wit

3. GLOBALTV_NEWS
Posing as Andrea Bowden, D’Wit made medical suggestions that Carol
Baxter followed. These health directions “led to a continued deterioration in
her health,” the news release said. D’Wit also posed as fictitious patients of
the made-up doctor and even sent voice memos where he affected a female
voice to convince Carol Baxter he was a woman named Jenny. These
interactions “manipulated and controlled Carol Baxter in the two years before
her death” and and allowed D’Wit to exert the “ultimate form of control,”
said Lord Justice Lavender, the presiding judge on the case.
The couple frequently interacted with D’Wit before their deaths. He
visited their home often, the BBC reported. Ellie Baxter told the BBC her
parents were “irritated” by these visits.
D’Wit last visited the couple on April 7, 2023. Ellie Baxter found her
parents dead on April 9 – Easter Sunday. Police found no injuries or obvious
causes of death, and carbon monoxide poisoning was quickly ruled out.
Toxicology reports showed that both Carol and Stephen Baxter had “died as
a result of lethal doses of fentanyl,” the news release said. This spurred
police to launch a murder investigation, which turned up the connection to
D’Wit.
Fentanyl

4. GLOBALTV_NEWS
D’Wit last visited the couple on April 7, 2023. Ellie Baxter found her parents dead on
April 9 –Easter Sunday. Police found no injuries or obvious causes of death, and
carbon monoxide poisoning was quickly ruled out. Toxicology reports showed that both
Carol and Stephen Baxter had “died as a result of lethal doses of fentanyl,” the news
release said. This spurred police to launch a murder investigation, which turned up the
connection to D’Wit.
During the course of the investigation, a search of the Baxter home led to the discovery
of fentanyl patches and a fake will that left the couple’s company to D’Wit. A different
will had been left with the couple’s lawyers. Police also found that a camera had been
set up inside the Baxter home to watch them as they died.
D’Wit was arrested in July and charged with two counts of murder. When he was
arrested, police discovered more fentanyl patches in his home as well as a bag of
metal tacks and pill casings. Police believe those pills were previously given to Carol
Baxter, who had once been admitted to the hospital and found to have tacks in her
stomach.
D’Wit first told the court that he had worked with Stephen Baxter to develop the false
personas, but that story fell apart under cross-examination, police said in the news
release. Each message from a false persona was traced back to devices in D’Wit’s
possession.
An Old Couple

5. GLOBALTV_NEWS
Lavender called the efforts “macabre” and based on a “significant degree
of planning.” Lydia George, the detective inspector who led the investigation
into the murders, called D’Wit’s actions those of a “pathological liar.”
“Today, though, is not about Luke D’Wit. And it’s not about Essex Police.
It’s about Carol and Stephen and it’s about their family,” George said, after the
sentencing was announced. “We know nothing will bring Carol and Stephen
back. We know nothing can give the family back their loving mother, sister and
grandmother or their generous father, brother, son and grandfather. However, I
truly hope this sentence is of some comfort to the family as they move
forward.”
An Old Couple

6. Thank
YOU