Loving man, 62, drinks girlfriend’s birthday cocktail and ends up dead in bed

Wendie-Sue Dent insists she did not kill her lover, but the courts found her guilty of murder – twice – with her latest appeal rejected and her victim’s family insisting she should ‘live long, die slow’

After the death of his partner of 33 years in 2011, heartbroken David Lawrence felt lost^[1]. He was well known in his hometown of Morphett Vale, just south of Adelaide, New South Wales. He had worked in the motor industry for most of his career and had a comfortable life.

But David, who often volunteered locally, wanted to share his life with someone special. When he started dating Wendie-Sue Dent, his family disapproved, fearing she was taking advantage of his good nature at a vulnerable^[2] point. However, he had fallen head over heels in love^[3] and their relationship developed quickly. By the end of 2015, they had been living together – in David’s home – for 18 months.

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While he was financially well off, Dent’s life had been more unstable. She had worked as a nurse aide, a childminder and as an escort to feed her addictions. Her drug habit spanned 40 years and she took opioids and Valium. She had also been in trouble with the law previously for forging prescriptions to get her fix.

In fact, Dent seemed to be the complete opposite of David, an honest man who loved travel, fishing^[6] and woodwork. But twice divorced Dent had charmed him and told friends that they planned to marry. As David’s 62nd birthday, on 1 December, approached he started to feel ill. He became quiet and withdrew from his social circle and his friends and family grew concerned when he failed to reply to their birthday messages.

Then, on December 3, Dent reported that she had found David dead in bed. It was a huge shock for the family of a man who’d had only minor health problems throughout his life. At first the death wasn’t treated as suspicious and it was assumed that David had died in his sleep. But a post mortem soon revealed he had died from a deadly cocktail of prescription drugs morphine, Valium and tramadol.

CHANGED HIS WILL

David had swallowed a fatal mix of seven medications, including at least 20 doses of morphine, which alone would have been enough to kill him. Some of the medicines had been prescribed for David. But, chillingly, most had not.

The police concluded that David had unwittingly taken the deadly drugs in food or drink. In fact, he had been murdered. While investigators couldn’t give a specific timeline, they believed he could have been killed on his birthday – by somebody “very close” to him.

Police started to look at those closest to David, including his three brothers and two sisters, who were soon eliminated from the inquiry. A detective said David’s estate, including his home and life savings, together worth upwards of £250,000, was “worth somebody killing somebody for”.

Investigators discovered that in the weeks before his death David had changed his will – and left everything to Dent. It seemed an incredible coincidence that she should benefit from that change within weeks. Could she have made David do it? Had she forged the will herself?

When questioned, she claimed that as they were talking about getting married, David was simply making provisions for their future. Dent had the motive and opportunity and David’s family were convinced that she was responsible for his death. But the evidence was circumstantial and it took the police more than a year to build a case.

In the meantime, Dent continued to live in the home she had shared with her lover. Finally, in July 2017, to the relief of David’s family, Dent was arrested as she got off a plane at Adelaide airport. The media dubbed her the Black Widow – a woman who had poisoned her kind and vulnerable lover for his money.

DRUG-INDUCED FOG

At her trial in 2020, the defence argued that there was no evidence to prove Dent had poisoned her lover. Instead, they suggested that David could have accidently taken an overdose himself. Dent insisted the couple were planning on getting married – so why would she kill him?

But the prosecution submitted that Dent had taken advantage of David’s generosity – and faked his will. He had always been reluctant to take medicine, so he was unlikely to have made a mistake with the dosage, and there were too many drugs in his system for them to have been taken by accident.

In April 2020, after a seven-week trial, Dent, 62, was found guilty of murder and was sentenced five months later. The judge said her crime was one of pure greed and that Dent had exploited David’s love for her own benefit. “Mr Lawrence was besotted with you,” he told her. “Ultimately you killed him for your own financial gain.”

The judge said Dent had preyed on David’s kindness and showed no remorse. It was revealed that Dent had hurt David’s family by pursuing his money and defacing the condolence memorial book at his funeral. She was sentenced to life with a minimum of 25 years in prison.

Although David’s family were relieved, Dent appealed against the conviction. Her lawyers argued the verdict was unsafe as it was based on circumstantial evidence, and in 2021 it was overturned.

This year, though, Dent stood trial again, this time before a judge without a jury. The defence claimed she had been in a “drug-induced fog” at the time of the killing and provided information about her addictions and traumatic past. However, in June, Dent was found guilty for the second time.

The judge said in court, “I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Ms Dent administered the prescription drugs to the deceased.” And she told Dent, “In the days preceding his death you isolated [David] from his family and friends and you sedated him with Valium. You then administered to him the fatal dose or doses of your prescription drugs intending to kill him.”

In an emotional impact statement at the sentencing hearing, David’s brother, Phillip Lawrence, said, “He was killed for money, nothing else. This person who murdered David would have spent his life savings on frivolous things for herself, like shopping, gambling, drugs, alcohol, taxi fares and legal fees.”

Dent was again given the same sentence – life with a minimum term of 25 years in prison. Dent, now 66, filed another appeal in a bid to get her conviction overturned but last year it was rejected.