A police officer charged with double murder told police he was not evading them, despite disappearing for several days after the incident, the Sydney court heard. Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, is charged with the murder of his ex-partner Jesse Baird and Luke Davies at a house in the city’s hinterland on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty.
The court heard that police attempted to contact Lamarre-Condon after the alleged murders. A female colleague sent him a message on Instagram: "Hey babe ... can you please contact the head of the Eastern Suburbs Homicide Squad as soon as you get in?" Police unsuccessfully tried to reach him for four days before he turned himself in, the court heard. He then led police to a rural property where the bodies of the two men, both in their 20s, were found in surfboard bags.
"I just want the detective or sergeant to know I am not evading them," the 31-year-old said during a three-minute phone call with police on 22 February. "Just tell them I will come in tomorrow." Evidence was presented during the jury trial at the New South Wales Supreme Court on Thursday, as prosecutors read the statement of the police officer who received the call, Constable Kye Richards.
The morning before the alleged murders, Lamarre-Condon sent a message to a friend – known by the pseudonym Fiona Rosso – telling her not to worry about him and that he would call later. "Also, I have just deleted all my social media," he wrote. Three days after the alleged murders, he appeared at Rosso’s door crying and saying he had "done something bad," the jury heard on Wednesday. Lamarre-Condon told her that police had tried to contact him, but that he had put his phone on airplane mode.
Armed with two buckets, he scraped blood from the rear of a white van parked in front of Rosso’s house, the jury heard. He then spent the night there before driving to Sydney. Rosso testified that Lamarre-Condon’s mother sent her son the code word "hot chocolate," which signified that police had searched her home after the alleged murders.
The statement of Constable Hayley Keefe was read on Thursday and describes attempts by New South Wales Police to contact their colleague and friend. The head of the Homicide Squad asked her to contact Lamarre-Condon on his personal Instagram account. On 21 February, she did so. "Hey babe ... can you please contact the head of the Eastern Suburbs Homicide Squad as soon as you get in?" she wrote. The message remained unread, and she deleted it because she felt uncomfortable using personal social media for work purposes, she wrote in her statement.
The prosecution alleges that Lamarre-Condon killed Baird "execution-style" at close range, according to a plan born of jealous obsession, before shooting Davies to eliminate a witness. The 31-year-old claims he acted in self-defence after entering the house to collect his belongings. His offer to plead guilty to manslaughter for Baird’s death was rejected by the prosecutors. The trial before Judge Natalie Adams continues.
