Police in southeastern Australia on Tuesday found two bodies after a male officer admitted to fatally shooting his male ex-lover and the ex-lover’s male companion.
Homicide detectives found the remains of 26-year-old former television reporter Jesse Baird and his 29-year-old flight attendant partner Luke Davies at a property near Bungonia, a town about 124 miles southwest of Sydney, ABC News Australia reported. They found the remains after Baird’s ex-partner, NSW Senior-Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon, admitted to murdering the pair and hiding their bodies under rocks and dirt, and divulged the location of their remains, according to the report.
“Today, this afternoon, detectives attached to Strike Force Ashfordby have located a second crime scene in Bungonia…and at that location we believe we have located two bodies,” New South Wales (NSW) Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters.
Lamarre-Condon, 28, fatally shot Baird and Davies at Baird’s home in Paddington, Sydney, sometime in the small hours of last Monday using his police-issued Glock pistol which he checked out a few days before, news.com.au reported. Lamarre-Condon reportedly turned himself in and faces two murder charges.
Lamarre-Condon initially yielded no information to the police following his arrest Friday, and the police initially searched a property where they suspected Lamarre-Condon dumped the bodies, the report noted. The police also searched various waterways as they suspected that Lamarre-Condon could have used weights he bought from a department store to sink the bodies, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Lamarre-Condon allegedly relocated the bodies by himself to the Bungonia property, suspecting that the acquaintance who helped transport the bodies to the first property could report him, according to ABC News Australia. However, the acquaintance reportedly did not know they were transporting bodies and was not an accomplice.
Authorities informed the families of the deceased of their findings and a specialist forensic investigation would take place, Webb reportedly added. (RELATED: Five Ex-Cops Charged With Murder In Death Of Tyre Nichols)
Isaac Muller, an ABC News Australia producer, told news.com.au Lamarre-Condon and Baird “were never going out” but “briefly” had an “encounter,” according to the news.com.au report.
“On behalf of the [NSW] Police Force, I’d like to pass on my condolences to the Davies and Baird families, their friends, and the LGBTQI+ communities in not just New South Wales but across Australia,” Webb said, according to the press conference footage.
Australia has strict gun ownership regulation, according to ABC News Australia. The procedures that aided Lamarre-Condon in checking out his pistol while off duty are reportedly under review.