Lamarre-Condon took bodies to family farm of man he met on dating app

Beau Lamarre-Condon took the bodies of Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies to the family farm of a man he met on a dating app, his double murder trial has heard.

Lamarre-Condon, 31, is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court on two counts of murder over the shooting deaths of Baird, 26, a former TV presenter, and Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant, on February 19, 2024. The former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

On Wednesday, the Crown read a statement from a man Lamarre-Condon met on the dating app Hinge in 2023. He was 20 years old when he gave the statement to police on April 2, 2024.

The man said his father owned a farm at Bungonia, near Goulburn, and Lamarre-Condon stayed the night at the property on November 6, 2023, after the pair had spent time together in Sydney around September.

The accused had invited him to go on a weekend trip to a cabin that cost about $400 a night, he said, and he invited Lamarre-Condon to the farm to save money.

The Instagram video

“While we were there, Beau recorded a story on his Instagram account,” he said. He said the footage, posted on November 7, was “a combination of what we did … on the farm” and Taylor Swift’s song, You Belong With Me.

He said that he later saw “a man I now know to be Jesse Baird on Beau’s Instagram posts and stories”, including a post of Lamarre-Condon and Baird at the $400-a-night cabin.

“In November to December, 2023, I did ask Beau about who Jesse was, and Beau told me they were just friends,” the man said.

“I sensed that … Beau was not telling me everything.”

Communication between him and Lamarre-Condon waned from the middle of November, he said, and he officially started dating his current partner in mid-December.

The man blocked Lamarre-Condon’s number in January 2024 and deleted their text messages, he said.

“Beau was always normal with me,” he said. “I did not see any red flags with his mental health.

“He did not like his photo being taken. When we were out in public he always wore a hat like he was hiding his face … I just thought it was the whole cop thing that he did not want to be seen.”

Lamarre-Condon had originally told him he was a fitness trainer for the NSW Police and not an officer, the man said.

The man said he received a number of calls from a “no caller ID” or unknown number from 8.04pm on January 26, 2024, and he did not reply.

He said it was followed by messages on encrypted messaging app Signal from a person with the username Bob. “Hey [man’s name]!! Call me back,” the messages said. The man did not reply, he said.

Police contacted him on February 25 and told him “there was reason to believe that the remains of Jesse and Luke were located on the farm”.

The defence does not dispute that Lamarre-Condon tried unsuccessfully to sink the men’s bodies in a dam at the farm, before leaving them in surfboard bags near the fence line of a Greek monastery nearby.

Lamarre-Condon’s barrister, John Stratton, SC, told the jury in his opening address that his client “panicked considerably” after the men died of gunshot wounds from his police-issued Glock pistol but that he acted in self-defence.

Earlier on Wednesday, the court heard that NSW Police fired a test shot into Baird’s bedroom door at his former Paddington share house after discovering an apparent bullet hole in the door this year.

The Crown alleges Lamarre-Condon shot Davies through the door as he tried to call Triple Zero for help.

Prosecutors allege the original hole in the door was not visible in 2024 because Lamarre-Condon covered it with a stick-on hook on the inside of the door and a felt pad on the outside.

A video of the police test shot was played on Wednesday to the jury. It included a side-by-side comparison of the original hole in the door and the hole made by the test shot.

Lucas Van Der Walt, a police ballistics expert, gave evidence that the original and test holes both measured approximately 10 millimetres in diameter, with a “very similar spread pattern of the propellant particles”.

He said that “the original shot would have been discharged at a very similar distance” of between five and 10 centimetres.

Van Der Walt said testing for forms of gunshot residue known as nitrates and nitrites confirmed the residue on the outside of the door, consistent with the shot being fired from the outside.

‘Obsessive and jealous’

The Crown alleges Lamarre-Condon killed Baird, a former Network Ten presenter and producer, after developing an “obsessive and jealous infatuation” with him that escalated when Baird ended their casual relationship in November 2023.

The prosecution alleges the then NSW police officer shot Davies, Baird’s new boyfriend, to eliminate a witness to his crime.

The defence case is that Lamarre-Condon entered Baird’s share house disguised as a delivery rider to retrieve some of his belongings. According to the defence, a struggle ensued in which his police gun went off twice, killing Baird, and Davies shot himself accidentally in a second struggle.

The accused had his Glock pistol with him because he was trained not to leave it unattended, the defence has said. The Crown has said he should not have had the weapon because he was not rostered to work that day.

DNA on the gun

The court heard evidence last week that a partial DNA profile matching Davies was detected from a swab inside the barrel of Lamarre-Condon’s gun.

Tests also recovered DNA from at least three people on the grip and trigger of the gun, the court heard. Davies was identified as a major contributor, while the accused was matched as a minor contributor. The third person was not identified.

Testing of a DNA swab from the muzzle of the weapon identified Baird and Davies as contributors.

The jury’s question

The court heard on Tuesday that the 15-person jury had asked a question about the evidence of former crime scene investigator Greg Moon, a retired detective senior sergeant who worked on the Lamarre-Condon case.

Justice Natalie Adams said the jury’s note read: “Could the court please clarify if the expert witness Gregory Moon said blood back spatter could reach the inside of the muzzle of the gun through a bullet hole that traverses a door?”

Adams said that they would be reminded of Moon’s evidence during his cross-examination.

Moon was asked during his evidence last week if blood back spatter could travel back to the weapon through a door.

He said that “it could [travel] through the path of the bullet that is made through the door itself”.

Stratton put to Moon during cross-examination that “the likelihood of biological material finding its way from the wound of the deceased through a hole in the door less than a centimetre in width and into the barrel of a gun … approaches zero”.

“No, I disagree,” Moon said. “I believe it still can happen.”

Stratton said: “I’m putting to you that it’s very improbable.”

Moon said that he disagreed.

The trial continues.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.