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Expert Witness - Season 5 Episode 3 -A Deadly Dose englishsubtitle fullfilm⚡️ Secret Engagement
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00:01in this program when a married couple are found poisoned to death a toxicologist is asked to
00:09investigate there was no reason why fentanyl should have been present in their bodies and a
00:17forensic footprint analyst helps nail a double killer foot remarks is one of the only evidence
00:22types that you can say for certain that a mark was made by a specific shoe
00:38welcome to expert witness the series where we reveal how science helps solve some of the uk's
00:45toughest criminal investigations
00:55mercy island essex carol and stephen baxter and the two grown-up children moved here from london
01:03to enjoy a more relaxed pace of life daniel reese senior crime and court reporter at the colchester
01:10gazette followed the case closely steven baxter was a successful businessman carol baxter also then
01:20went on to start her own business completely separate from her husband's and they were really
01:25really enjoying life but carol was in poor health she was living with a condition called hashimoto's
01:34disease a chronic autoimmune disorder which she blamed for her increasing levels of fatigue and
01:40forgetfulness carol's health was failing steven was having to start looking after his wife and would
01:50have to keep an eye on his wife in case she ended up doing something like leaving the iron on
01:56or
01:57forgetting that she had turned the hob on or something like that something that could actually lead to
02:02quite a serious incident
02:06on the 9th of april 2023 the couple's daughter elena became concerned when she couldn't make contact with her parents
02:15all her whatsapp messages weren't being replied to
02:20understandably she got really quite nervous and wanted to know what was happening she'd driven past the house
02:28and seeing the curtains were drawn elena went to their home to check on them she knocks on the door
02:36doesn't get an answer she knocks on the windows at the front of the house and
02:45still no one comes to the front door but nothing would prepare her for what she was about to see
02:51through the conservatory slumped in their armchairs were her parents lifeless bodies
03:00family friend luke dewitt who lived nearby came rushing to the scene in this moment of pure panic
03:07he takes over the call with the police so just regards to carol's condition so do you think she
03:15is beyond any help yeah i mean there's some blood from her mouth he thumps over the emergency services
03:21were there in real force the police the ambulance the fire service were there as well because they had
03:28to check if there had been any carbon monoxide and luke dewitt is there to give elena a hug to
03:37give her
03:37brother a hug as one of the first on the scene the wits was questioned by police people just talking
03:43about work and the business carol can't work anymore he's perfectly perfectly calm when he speaks to the
03:52officers while there was no immediate evidence of foul play a major crimes investigation was launched
03:59and the bodies were sent for post-mortem examination it is a cliche but there wasn't a smoking gun at
04:05the
04:05scene there was no weapon there was no evidence of carbon monoxide detectives looked into the couple's
04:14background and discovered carol had been in contact with a dr andrea bowden she claimed to be an
04:20expert on hashimoto's disease the condition carol was struggling with a lot of the advice from this
04:27this dr andrea bowden starts to become very strange she's told not to let certain people into the house
04:36she's told to cut off contact with certain people she's told to drink smoothies that have turmeric in them
04:48she's told to drink smoothies that have been able to drink smoothies that have been doing exactly as
04:50dr bowden prescribed but when police tried to contact the doctor there was no trace of her
04:57then when a simple toxicology test was administered at the post-mortem examination
05:03a sinister turn the toxicology shows that there are levels of fentanyl both in stephen baxter's system
05:11and carol baxter's system there was no medical explanation for why fentanyl an opioid painkiller
05:20many times more potent than morphine was present so detectives asked lead toxicologist and expert
05:28witness fiona perry to investigate further the main request from the police was to determine the
05:35conclusive presence of a drug they were particularly interested in the presence of fentanyl fiona was
05:43provided with blood urine and stomach content samples she prepared a specimen of each for analysis by high
05:51sensitivity equipment that detects the presence of drugs and medications
05:57this is our lcms machines and it's essentially a long specialized tube with a detector at one end
06:07and drugs travel down the tube at different speeds so they reach the detector at different times
06:15and then the detector measures the mass and it breaks the molecule into fragments
06:22these fragments are analyzed to identify exactly which drugs were present in the sample
06:28this will collect all the data and then the data is processed on a computer and then that enables us
06:35to produce the results
06:38and the results were irrefutable
06:42fentanyl was detected in both carol and stephen's blood samples
06:47the presence of fentanyl was a concern because neither mr or mrs baxter were known to be
06:54prescribed fentanyl so there was no reason why fentanyl should have been present in their bodies
07:00the levels were within the range that could be fatal particularly in a person that's unaccustomed to taking the drug
07:10while the family home was searched a suspicious document was discovered in stephen's office
07:18this was the will that had
07:22mysteriously and very coincidentally appeared in stephen baxter's office and it wasn't in a folder it was
07:33just placed quite meticulously on his desk according to the will luke de witt was a benefactor in the
07:43event of the baxter's deaths and now he was also a suspect in a murder investigation back at the lab
07:51fiona
07:52perry's analysis had revealed something else in mrs baxter's blood sample as well as fentanyl we also
08:00detected another medication called promethazine this is a common medication found in sleeping tablets
08:12but under what circumstances were these drugs administered we don't normally analyze stomach
08:18contents but in this case we were specifically asked to analyze the stomach contents for fentanyl and
08:26promethazine in order to determine a whether there was a large amount of the drug still present in the
08:34stomach and b whether it was possible to taste to say whether the drug had been taken orally or not
08:41the concentrations of fentanyl and promethazine were significant and they did suggest that the drugs
08:48had been taken orally the toxicology blows open the case there is no way that anyone would have been
08:56able to survive the 11 the level of fentanyl um in their systems armed with the toxicology results
09:05police arrested luke dewitt i'm going to have to arrest you mate all right and that's on suspicion of
09:10murder all right as part of the police investigation you've been identified as being a suspect in relation to
09:14the deaths of caroline and stephen baxter when police investigate luke dewitt
09:21it becomes clear just how heavily involved he had become in their lives how often he was round at
09:27the house how often he was helping to care for carol baxter almost around the clock the police go to
09:35luke dewitt's house in mersey island they go to his room they find a huge number of devices
09:45in total 80 phones laptops and hard drives were seized once the police sees luke dewitt's devices
09:54the details that they can glean are really quite incredible
09:59they found evidence luke dewitt wrote the will himself the day after carol and stephen's bodies were
10:07found that he created false identities including dr andrea bowden and a number of fictitious patients
10:16all supposedly with hashimoto's disease just like carol she's found this little community of other
10:23people who have been in exactly the same position as her and he was behind all of the personas she
10:32was
10:32so desperate to essentially be in good health that she would listen to anyone who had any kind of advice
10:44it's interesting that he was seen as somebody who was fairly quiet and unassuming by other people
10:51somebody who was a bit of a nerd in fact forensic psychologist kerry danes has researched the case
11:01here is the world of fantasy where he can operate where he can create different personas and he can
11:12cause things to happen in the real world that's very intoxicating for somebody who is inadequate
11:21for two years the wits used his fake personas to communicate with carol and stephen and by posing
11:28as a doctor he convinced both of them to drink detox smoothies it meant that he could get her to
11:34drink
11:35these horrendous concoctions which were absolutely disgusting and she hated but he also can give stephen
11:45baxter that drink and he can convince stephen baxter that what he's going to be drinking is going to be
11:50helping
11:52detectives now suspected the wits even prepared these smoothies himself
11:56this is somebody who wants to constantly push the envelope so that they can feel that they are powerful
12:03that they are in control they are the puppet master the devices were not the only damning evidence
12:11the police discovered while searching his home they also found fentanyl his story is that his dad has
12:20been suffering from cancer his dad had been prescribed fentanyl patches as part of his treatment
12:27his dad has sadly died and it just so happens dewitt claims that he was sorting through a load of
12:36the
12:36fentanyl patches that that his dad had been prescribed and he was getting ready to drop them off at the
12:41pharmacy he just hadn't got around to it just yet detectives also discovered promethazine in the wits
12:48house the same drug fiona perry detected in carol's blood sample again dewitt had a ready explanation
12:59the story for the promethazine is that he was using it to help with his eczema and he would
13:03mix it in with skin cream and he would use that to treat his eczema detectives were not convinced
13:11they believed dewitt slowly poisoned carol by lacing her smoothies with promethazine
13:16before murdering both carol and stephen by introducing fentanyl he was charged with their
13:23murder but dewitt argued that the baxters had taken the fentanyl themselves he admitted to
13:29persuading carol to drink detox smoothies but claimed to have done it on stephen's instruction
13:35his argument is that yes okay maybe maybe i did make these accounts maybe they are all connected to me
13:42but this was under stephen baxter's instruction because he was desperate for carol to get better
13:48as well the wits also claimed carol's long decline was caused not by promethazine but by her hashimoto's
13:57disease detectives needed to prove otherwise so they turned to a specialist in the condition
14:03consultant endocrinologist dr navid younis i thought it was unusual for me to comment on
14:10hashimoto's generally it's a condition which is a standard treatment and the condition is just
14:16generally well managed the package that the police provided me was all the medical records from carol
14:21baxter dr younis studied carol's gp and hospital records the treatment she'd been receiving was
14:29standard and her condition should have stabilized she'd been having regular blood tests she'd had a
14:36blood test done a month before she had actually uh died and the blood tests were all satisfactory
14:45normal even if she had stopped taking a medication maybe for a number of weeks before her death
14:51i don't think this would have been rapid enough to cause her to develop symptoms of confusion and the
14:56behavior that she had so i overall felt based on all the medical evidence that i had in my hands
15:02and based on the symptoms that there was something else causing the symptoms that she experienced
15:08detectives were now certain carol's declining health was due to her smoothies being slowly
15:13poisoned with promethazine before she and her husband were killed with fatal doses of fentanyl
15:22and there was further extraordinary evidence a hidden camera was discovered in the baxter's home
15:28it was connected to dewitt's phone he can check up on them he can check to see if they have
15:36actually
15:37succumbed to this fentanyl poisoning he watched the baxter's die on camera it was almost as if the case
15:44couldn't get any weirder but it just kept on getting more and more unbelievable
15:52dewitt was tried for double murder he pleaded not guilty but the evidence from fiona perry and dr
15:59naveed younis made for a watertight case on march the 20th 2024 dewitt was found guilty and sentenced
16:07to life with a minimum term of 37 years in all my years of policing luke dewitt is one of
16:15the most
16:16dangerous men i have ever come across i have absolutely no doubt in my mind had he not been
16:23caught he would have gone on to kill further people forensic toxicology is a very satisfying job and
16:29it is nice to know that you are providing some results that um are useful um as the case goes
16:39forward
16:41toxicology was absolutely crucial in this case for establishing a cause of death and that's when the
16:49toxicology starts to link to all of the other separate pieces of evidence it's difficult to imagine
16:56a case that has as many layers as this one when it comes to the extent of the manipulation and
17:07the
17:07lengths to which luke dewitt went to ensure that his victims suffered for a long time before he actually
17:15killed them the founding premise of forensic science is that every contact leaves a trace in our next
17:26case detectives believe that two separate murders may be linked to the same man can a forensic expert
17:33match footprint evidence from both scenes and bring the culprit to justice
17:45beaudly worcestershire january 2012
17:49police are called to a property on the banks of the river seven
17:54inside they discover the body of betty yates
18:04betty yates was a 77 year old retired school teacher who was widowed she lived on her own in an
18:12isolated cottage and although she lived alone she was really well loved by the community
18:18west mercia police began investigating what appeared to be the brutal murder of a vulnerable elderly
18:24grandmother investigations revealed that she had been beaten with her own walking stick
18:30and she'd then been stabbed four times police at the crime scene also found evidence that
18:36suggested betty's killer hadn't left the scene in a hurry after this attack it was as if the
18:42killer tidied up after themselves betty's walking stick had been put back in its holder
18:48and the killer had pulled the blinds down and locked up before they'd left
18:53forensic evidence including swabs taken from the victim's hands and a yoga mat lying near her body
18:59was taken from the scene and sent for examination betty's family appealed for help in finding her
19:06killer to lose your mom is always dreadful but to lose your mom like this when you worry constantly
19:13about how frightened she might have been or what she might have felt during such a vicious attack
19:18it's like a nightmare please if you know anything about this can you come forward
19:26a 10 000 pound reward was offered for information
19:29but as the weeks went by police were no closer to catching betty's killer
19:35with a murderer on the loose there was a very real fear it could happen again
19:43five weeks later and 70 miles away in thornbury near bristol avon and somerset police were called to
19:49a suspicious death at the vicarage of saint mary's church police have launched an investigation after
19:56a vicar was found dead in his home near bristol the reverend john suddards is understood to have suffered
20:01stab wounds he was found by workmen yesterday at the locked vicarage reverend john suddards was the 59
20:09year old vicar of saint mary the virgin church in thornbury and he'd only been the vicar there for
20:16six months and he wanted to be the sort of vicar that people could reach out to he was always
20:21happy to
20:22offer people a cup of tea or a bowl of soup reverend suddards had been stabbed multiple times and the
20:29assailant had apparently staged a scene designed to humiliate his victim there was some pornography
20:35a condom wrapper party poppers underwear an image of jesus christ and a mirror detectives also found
20:43clues that the killer had remained at the scene for a considerable amount of time after the attack the
20:49killer ate some food drank some beer and watched dvds in the vicarage before leaving the following morning
20:56investigators had no idea who could have committed such a brutal crime but the killer had left
21:03something behind a bloody footprint at this point they had no suspect to compare it with
21:09then they got their first break there were cctv cameras outside the vicarage which provided the
21:15police with some really valuable images they shared these images with the public showing a tall man
21:22carrying a backpack members of the public recognized the man and four days after the murder police
21:29released the name of their prime suspect stephen farrow is the man police named yesterday as a murder
21:35suspect just hours after releasing this image of the 47 year old he was arrested at this house in
21:41folkestone in kent after a tip-off from a member of the public
21:46police began looking into farrow's background
21:51stephen farrow was from shropshire he was one of six children and he grew up in a deeply religious
21:58family he was said to have hated his father but he did really love his mother but he had a
22:03deep
22:04rooted hatred of christianity it was soon discovered he had a history of violence and had served eight
22:11years for aggravated burglary police began to explore any links to the murder of betty yates
22:17could farrow be a double killer and could the bloody footprint found at the vicarage provide the
22:23evidence they needed they called in paudrigo shay an expert witness specializing in marks and traces
22:32i was given brief circumstances of the incident what had happened
22:35um and the exhibits that were present at the scene now in custody police were able to seize farrow's
22:43boots enabling paudrig to compare them with the footprints from the crime scene we're looking at this
22:49for overall size pattern any degree of wear and also any damage features that may be present
22:56paudrig instantly noticed damage to the sole of one of the boots and hoped the flawed feature might make
23:02his job easier the chance of that damage feature being present on this shoe and on another shoe in
23:08the same position with the same size shape is actually very very small to get a print of the boot
23:16known as a test mark paudrig first coats the sole in aluminium powder so i've placed the boot now onto
23:23the
23:23sticky acetate which will transfer the aluminium powdered sole pattern onto the acetate and then peel it off
23:35and it's left a one-to-one impression of the shoe print the test mark and the prints left at
23:43the
23:43crime scene appear to match but paudrig must also look for corresponding damage marks we need to confirm
23:50that any features we find on a test mark are actually present on the shoe itself to be able to
23:55confirm that they are damaged features paudrig's footprint analysis had given him a clear result
24:02the marks recovered from reverend john suddard's scene were similar in pattern
24:06to the submitted boots from stephen farrow and detectives recovered more vital evidence linking
24:12farrow to the murder at the vicarage after the arrest police found a knife on stephen farrow they also
24:19found traces of reverend suddard's blood on farrow's jacket and trousers detectives were now convinced
24:27farrow was also guilty of betty yates murder both victims had lived alone and were deeply involved in
24:34christianity something farrow despised and evidence at both crime scenes suggested the killer had lingered
24:41for some time afterwards but farrow denied murdering either victim could paudrig prove that the suspect had
24:49been in betty yates home he thought the yoga mat found close to her body might hold the answers
24:56i was asked in relation to the betty yates case to examine a yoga mat that had footwear marks on
25:03it
25:03and compare those with the boots from stephen farrow but there was a problem the yoga mat had already
25:09been cut into pieces by the original forensic team in a bid to find biological material having a full-length
25:16mark enables us to make size comparisons if we don't have the entire footwear mark we can't be certain
25:22that um it's it's exactly that right size as the shoe that's been submitted paudrig was supplied with
25:30the remainder of the yoga mat there was a partial mark present on the piece of cutout fabric and then
25:37a remaining half partial mark already on the yoga mat and when that was placed in together it looks like
25:44a full length footwear mark is now visible the footprints on the yoga mat matched stephen farrow's
25:50boots and paudrig's evidence now links him to both murders conclusive evidence is the highest evidence
25:57we can have and it's we don't see it very often in in generally in forensic science uh foot remarks
26:02is
26:02one of the only evidence types that you can say for certain that a mark was made by a specific
26:08shoe
26:08a full dna profile of farrow was also found on a swab taken from betty's left hand which strengthened
26:15the case against him he was charged with two counts of murder and a burglary he was suspected of
26:21committing at a separate address in thornbury at first farrow admitted to the burglary but denied
26:28the murders until he was confronted with the forensic evidence he admitted to the manslaughter of john
26:35suddard's on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to his mental state at the time but he continued
26:42to deny the murder of betty yates the case went to trial in october 2012 the jury found him guilty
26:51of
26:52both murders and of the burglary after deliberating for eight and a half hours a homeless man with a
26:58hatred of christians who murdered a retired teacher and a vicar has been jailed for life stephen farrow
27:05diagnosed as a psychopath killed reverend john suddard at his vicarage in south gloucestershire
27:10and 77 year old pensioner betty yates at her home in worcestershire both murder cases were solved by
27:16forensics through dna and footprint analysis the forensic work of podrick o'shea was absolutely
27:24crucial in getting a conviction although farrow had admitted to the manslaughter of john suddard's he
27:31was still denying that he'd killed betty yates so linking the two crime scenes was absolutely key
27:37the work i carried out was was very important in relation to the betty yates case it was a conclusive
27:43link between the suspect and the scene and it was a very strong link between the defendant and the scene
27:51at reverend suddard's several of my colleagues have worked on this case as well it was all vital to
27:58getting the result that we got two cases there that show how science and expertise cut through lies
28:09and uncertainty to reveal the truth about what really happened ensuring justice could finally
28:14be served for those who no longer have a voice
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