Australians hunt for bodies of pair

Police officer faces charges

MELBOURNE, Australia — Police divers were searching inland waterways Monday for the bodies of a couple reportedly shot dead in Sydney a week earlier by a jilted police officer lover with his service pistol.

Police claim former television reporter Jesse Baird, 26, and his flight attendant partner Luke Davies, 29, were shot dead in Baird’s shared house in the inner-Sydney suburb of Paddington on Monday last week, New South Wales Police Force Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said. Neighbors reported hearing one or more gunshots.

Senior Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon was charged Friday with the murders of both. He has not entered a plea or applied for release on bail.

Lamarre-Condon, 28, had been in a relationship with Baird that ended late last year.

Police suspect Lamarre-Condon took the bodies in a rented van to a rural property in Bungonia near Goulburn, about 124 miles southwest of Sydney, on Wednesday.

Police claim he returned to the property on Thursday after buying weights from a department store that detectives suspect were used to sink the bodies in a waterway.

Police divers searched a number of reservoirs on farms in the Bungonia region on Monday.

“It’s our number one priority to try and locate Jesse and Luke to give the families some solace,” Hudson told reporters.

Lamarre-Condon was following legal advice by refusing to speak to police, Hudson said.

A bullet case found in Baird’s home matched the pistol Lamarre-Condon signed out of a police gun safe on Feb. 15 and returned on Feb. 20.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the rules that allowed the police officer to reportedly use the gun while he was off duty were being reviewed. “It’s a failure if someone has used their service firearm in the manner that’s alleged, which is why it’s necessary to have a review,” Webb said.

Organizers of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras asked police not to march at their annual parade this weekend.

The Mardi Gras’ board said LGBTQIA+ communities across Australia had been devastated by the loss of the couple, who had planned to celebrate at the parade on Saturday.

“The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Board feels that having the NSW Police march this year could add to the distress within our communities, already deeply affected by recent events,” the board said in a statement late Monday.

The board noted that the 28-year-old alleged killer had participated in the parade in the past.

Webb, who has taken part in the annual march since 2006, said she would meet with the organizers today to urge the board to reconsider its decision.

“We’re not dealing with a gay hate crime here. We’re dealing with a domestic homicide and … I’m disappointed [by] the position that Mardi Gras board has taken on this issue,” Webb said.

Police began suspecting a homicide on Wednesday when the couple’s bloodstained possessions including a phone, wallet, credit cards and a set of keys were found in a trash container 19 miles from the crime scene.

Police initially suspected Baird had killed Davies after messages from Baird’s phone to his housemates told them he was moving across the country to the west coast city of Perth and asking them to put his belongings in storage.

Police now claim Lamarre-Condon sent the messages to divert suspicion after Davies died.