The Essex Millionaire Murders review – absolutely grim and astonishing true-crime TV

The circumstances of Carol and Stephen Baxter’s deaths in 2023 were so baffling, and so hideous, that everyone involved in the case can barely hold it together as they relive it. What a horrific worldWhat are we going to do with all the bad people? Like, really? What are we going to do with all the people whose stories hurl your mind back to a primitive state of lusting for vengeance, or make you long for a simpler time when the conclusion “They are evil” was considered a sufficient explanation and you could proceed with their punishment and society’s protection?Such are the thoughts that run through one’s mind when confronted with the likes of The Essex Millionaire Murders. The two-part documentary tells the grimly shocking story of the 2023 murders of Carol and Stephen Baxter. They were found dead in their home in Mersea, Essex, by their daughter Ellena. There were no marks on the bodies, no injuries, no signs of a break-in. Carol had become increasingly ill since they moved there, apparently from Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder, and husband Stephen had become her carer. Had it all become too much and they had then made a suicide- or murder-suicide pact? They had seemed a devoted couple and, though it was all mysterious, stranger things have happened: post-mortem and toxicology reports would, hopefully, offer answers. Continue reading...

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