Australian police have been searching a remote property for the bodies of a TV presenter and his boyfriend, after their suspected murders last week.
Detectives allege Jesse Baird and Luke Davies were killed by a serving police officer in a Sydney house last Monday. Senior constable Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, who once dated Mr Baird, has been charged with two counts of murder. He has not commented on the charges.
Police divers are combing waterholes about 185km (115 miles) from Sydney. They say Mr Lamarre-Condon, 28, may have left the pair's bodies on the remote Bungonia property, after moving them in a white hire van from the alleged murder scene in Mr Baird's home.
On Monday, New South Wales Police said the suspected killer had taken “an acquaintance” to the Bungonia property last Wednesday. After severing a lock on a gate, Mr Lamarre-Condon then left the female acquaintance there before driving the van on to the property and returning 30 minutes later, police said.
She “wasn't aware the bodies were in the vehicle” and has been co-operating with detectives, Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said. He added that police were investigating whether Mr Lamarre-Condon had later returned and moved the bodies again.
The suspect had bought an angle grinder and weights from separate stores last Wednesday, the deputy commissioner said. Mr Hudson also said that in the hours after the alleged killings, Mr Lamarre-Condon had sent messages from Mr Baird's phone telling his housemates he was moving to Western Australia.
New South Wales Police have previously said a bullet matching Mr Lamarre-Condon's work-issued gun was found inside Mr Baird's house, along with a “significant” amount of blood.
The suspect was charged after taking himself to a Sydney police station on Friday. The case is believed to be the first suspected murder carried out by a New South Wales police officer in decades, and it has prompted an independent review into police officers' out-of-hours access to firearms.
Mr Baird had been a presenter and red carpet reporter on Network 10's morning show Studio 10 until the programme was axed in December, while Mr Davies was a flight attendant for Qantas. Mr Lamarre-Condon joined the police force in 2019 and was previously a celebrity blogger who had met stars including Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Miley Cyrus.
— CutC by bbc.com
