Australian police officer is charged with murdering 2 missing men

A police officer in Australia was charged with murder Friday in the deaths of his former boyfriend and his new partner, who have been missing for days and whose bodies have yet to be found.

The New South Wales Police Force said in a statement that a 28-year-old senior constable was arrested after he presented himself at a police station in the Sydney suburb of Bondi.

As is customary, the force did not name the officer, but he was identified by local media as Beau Lamarre. A first-appearance hearing was scheduled at the Waverley Local Court Friday for a Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, according to online records.

Lamarre-Condon is accused of killing Jesse Baird, 26, a former TV presenter whom he is said to have dated until recently, and his partner Luke Davies, 29, who according to his LinkedIn account was a flight attendant for the Australian airline Qantas.

Items belonging to the two men that had blood on them were found in a dumpster Wednesday in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla, police said in an earlier statement.

Officers then went to Baird’s home in the Paddington area of Sydney, where there was “a large amount of blood,” detective superintendent Daniel Doherty said at a news conference Friday.

They also found a single bullet that was ballistically matched to a New South Wales police firearm belonging to the charged officer.

The gun, which was found in a police station gun safe, has been seized and will be forensically examined, Doherty said.

Investigators believe the two men were killed in Baird’s home, but they do not yet know the exact cause of death, Doherty said. He declined to comment on a possible motive but said police would investigate whether it was a “domestic-style incident.”

Doherty also appealed to the public for information on the movements of a white van that police believe was used to transport and dispose of the bodies. The van, which was rented Monday night, is also being forensically examined after being found Friday morning in Grays Point, a suburb to the south of Sydney.

“It’s really important we get the movements in relation to that van, as hopefully we can find the bodies and this is important for the family,” he said.

Lamarre-Condon was a former celebrity blogger who joined the New South Wales police in 2020, Australian media reported. Local news outlets published photos from his now-deleted Instagram account of Lamarre-Condon posing with multiple celebrities including Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga and the New Zealand singer Lorde.

Doherty said police had not received any previous reports of unusual behavior by the officer.