Former Channel 10 presenter Jesse Baird and Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies were brutally shot at their own home, allegedly by an obsessed stalker police officer.
They were a hard-working couple who were excited for their future together.
Just a few days prior to this, they were having the time of their lives at a Pink concert, only for their bodies to be found a week after they were shot – NSW Police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon has been accused of the crimes.
NSW police discovered the bodies in two surfboard bags near a fence line near the entrance to a second property at Bungonia, south – west from Sydney.
The gun the was fired at the couple was a police issued handgun, that used allegedly stolen bullets from a shooting range to avoid suspension if some bullets were missing.
Evidence suggests that Senior Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon checked out his service pistol from Miranda police station and bought a singular surfboard cover two days prior to the incident – NSW police will allege that this indicates that Lamarre-Condon was planning to ‘only’ kill Jesse Baird. As such, that Luke Davies’ murder was unplanned as Lamarre-Condon allegedly went out after the murder to purchase a second surfboard cover and rented a white van from Sydney airport to transport these bodies.
Lamarre-Condon was ‘on the run’ for 3 days before handing himself into the police on Friday, February 23rd – though it has been reported that he initially refused to cooperate with them and only after changing his legal team did he reveal the location of the victims bodies.
Jesse Baird apparently was engaged in a relationship with Lamarre-Condon for a short while prior to the murders, though his friends deny this, suggesting that in fact the police officer had been stalking Baird and reportedly vandalised his car and other property.
Now the police force is desperately trying to send the message that what one of their officers allegedly did does not reflect or represent them as a whole, after the community has started to question the leadership of the NSW police commissioner (particularly as there was a delay about speaking out about this incident publicly). Critics of the Commissioner have also made the claim that she “will not last longer than a week”.
After being questioned about how she has chosen to handle the case she quoted Taylor Swift herself saying, “There will always be haters. Haters like to hate. Isn’t that what Taylor Swift says but I’ve got a job to do.”. Highlighting also that this wasn’t the only case she was working on.
Another interviewer asked,
“It’s taken you days to publicly address this. Are there questions over your leadership?”, to which she replied, “And that’s offensive. Of course, I’m doing my job, but I need to let my detectives do the job that I asked them to do.”
Overall, the community is mourning the loss of two positive, enthusiastic people. With members of the NSW Police Force showing their respect by participating in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, but in plain clothes rather than in uniform.
As of recently Senior Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon has been charged with the murder of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
