The Squiz

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb and her deputy, David Hudson, gave updates about the investigation into Channel Ten presenter Jesse Baird and Luke Davies’ alleged murders yesterday… They say Baird’s phone was used to call triple-zero about 4 minutes after gunshots were heard at his Paddington home last Monday – but they’re not sure who made the call as it disconnected before anyone spoke… The police officer accused of killing the couple, Baird’s ex-partner Beau Lamarre-Condon, also purchased weights and an angle grinder at Bungonia –  about 2 hours south-west of Sydney – on Wednesday last week. Divers searched dams at a private property there yesterday, but “nothing of interest” was found…

What do they think happened?

Hudson says Lamarre-Condon hired a white van and drove it to Bungonia on Wednesday, returning there at least once before handing himself in to police on Friday, when he was charged with murder. Police allege Lamarre-Condon used the angle grinder to “sever a padlock from the gate” of the private property and later replaced it with “a padlock purchased from the hardware store”. They also believe he made a “partial admission” to a friend and that she travelled with him to Bungonia – but police haven’t named or accused her of wrongdoing. Lamarre-Condon isn’t assisting, leaving detectives with questions about whether the couple’s bodies were moved during a gap in the timeline investigators have put together. Reports say police have now turned their search to Grays Point in southern Sydney. 

So what now?

Hudson says the “number one priority” is to “locate Jesse and Luke to give the family some solace and be able to come to terms with what’s occurred”. In the meantime, NSW Police is facing questions about its gun rules, given Lamarre-Condon is alleged to have used his police-issued Glock to shoot the couple. Commissioner Webb said yesterday that police “have been updating our (service weapon) policies”, and she’s called for a review. The relationship between NSW Police and the state’s LGBTIQ+ community is also under the microscope, with Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Board requesting police not march in this weekend’s parade. The board said police participation “could intensify the current feelings of sorrow and distress”, and the community “needs space to grieve the loss of Jesse and Luke who, before this tragedy, would have been here celebrating with us at the festival”.