A man who poisoned a couple with fentanyl having spent years creating a series of fake personas to manipulate them has been given a life sentence with a minimum term of 37 years for their murders. Luke D’Wit killed Stephen and Carol Baxter with the synthetic opioid at their home in West Mersea, Essex on 9 April 2023. He then amended their will the next day to make himself a director of the company they ran. “I have never known an emotional pain to physically hurt so much,” the couple’s daughter, Ellie Baxter, told Chelmsford crown court as she delivered her victim impact statement on Friday. Referring to the moment she found her parents’ bodies, she said: “It was like my insides were on fire. I screamed and I screamed.” D’Wit had befriended the couple over the course of several years. He began creating a series of fake online personas to manipulate them in 2021. These included a doctor from Florida he called Andrea Bowden and several members of a fictitious support group for the …