Sydney police provided an update on Monday into the investigation into the suspected double murder of gay men Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
Commissioner Karen Webb appeared before the media and said police had a lot of information to sort through, but at this stage police had not been able to locate the bodies of the two missing men.
Authorities became concerned about the welfare of the couple after a worker discovered items belonging to them in a skip bin in Cronulla on Wednesday morning. The items included credit cards, clothing, a mobile phone and an expensive watch, and there was also blood at the scene.
When police searched the homes of the two men, they found signs of a disturbance and a significant amount of blood at Baird’s Paddington terrace, it was quickly established as a crime scene.
Attention turned to Baird’s former partner Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, a senior constable in the New South Wales police force.
Lamarre-Condon handed himself into police on Friday morning, but he has not been cooperating with investigators to assist in locating the bodies of the missing couple. Police say they believe that Lamarre used his police firearm to murder the two men at Baird’s Paddington home on Monday morning, and then hired a white van from Sydney airport to remove the men’s bodies from the crime scene.
They are now trying to establish a timeline of Lamarre-Condon’s movements over the last week to determine where the men’s bodies may be located.
Speaking to the media on Monday Commissioner Webb said she had asked for a senior officer from Victoria to review the NSW police’s procedures for the handling of police weapons in light of the recent incident. She also indicated an investigation will be taken into the police’s recruitment processes.
Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson outlined what they believe to be the timeline of events over the last week in the hope that members of the community may be able to assist in filling in the gaps.
Hudson shared that shots were heard by neighbours in Paddington, but no reports were made to police. They also confirmed that four minutes after the shots were heard a Triple-Zero emergency call was made from Baird’s phone, but it disconnected. Police have not been able to ascertain who made the call. A patrol car was sent to the area the call was made but police were unable to determine specifically where the call had come from.
Police allege that later that evening the accused officer hired a white HiAce van from Sydney airport. Police say that on the Tuesday Lamarre allegedly made a partial admission to an acquaintance that he had been involved in the deaths of two people.
While police launched their investigation on the Wednesday after finding items belonging to the two men in Cronulla, they believe Lamarre-Condom was visiting a rural property near Bungonia, south-east of Goulburn.
The accused man was allegedly travelling in the hired white van with a female acquaintance who police say was “not involved in anything” and has been helping police with their inquiries. Together they purchased an angle grinder and a padlock from a local hardware store before heading to the property.
After removing the padlock, and replacing it with a new one, the Assistant Commissioner said the acquaintance was left alone at the top of the property for 30 minutes while the accused continued on in the white van. Afterwards the pair returned to the Sydney area on Wednesday afternoon.
Later on Wednesday evening, Lamarre-Condon is believed to have purchased weights from a Sydney department store, and police believe he them returned to the Bungonia property overnight, having borrowed two torches from his acquaintance. Police have ascertained that the accused man left the Bungonia area around 4:30am on Thursday.
Police believe say after spending some time in Sydney, they believe Lamarre-Condon then travelled in the van to Newcastle, where without disclosing he’d been involved in any criminal activity, met up with another acquaintance who supplied him materials to clean the van.
Lamarre-Condon then returned to Sydney on Friday morning where he handed himself into police.
On Sunday and Monday police searched the Bungonia property for signs of the missing men’s bodies, including bringing in divers to search two dams on the property, but nothing was found. Police have suggested that after he returned to the property on Wednesday night Lamarre-Condon may have moved the bodies to another location.
“It’s our number one priority to be able to locate Jesse and Luke.” Deputy Commissioner Hudson said. “To be able to give their families some solace and comes to terms with what has occurred.”
The deputy commissioner also confirmed that friends of Jesse Baird had received text messages from him on the Tuesday evening, but police believe these were sent by the accused. The texts reportedly claimed that Baird had decided to move to Western Australia.
Witnesses have also told police that the relationship between Baird and Lamarre-Condon had not ended well in late 2023, and police believe the accused murder may have used a key to enter Baird’s property and delete messages and contacts from his mobile phone, but this was not reported to police at the time.
OIP Staff
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