The white van and the angle grinder: What Lamarre-Condon’s friend told police

A friend of Beau Lamarre-Condon told police in the days after he allegedly murdered Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies that she had driven to Goulburn with him in a van, triggering a search for the men’s bodies at a rural property.

Lamarre-Condon’s criminal trial heard on Wednesday that the woman, known as Elizabeth Kennedy in the proceedings, gave an induced statement to police, meaning a statement given on the condition that what is disclosed will not be used against them in any criminal proceeding.

Homicide squad Detective Senior Constable Christine Abela gave evidence that Kennedy said she had driven to Goulburn with Lamarre-Condon on February 21, 2024 in a white van. She had paid for an angle grinder at Bunnings Goulburn, the statement said.

Kennedy’s information prompted a police search for the bodies of Baird and Davies on February 23, the court heard. Abela told the court it was akin to searching for a “needle in a haystack” because Kennedy did not know the exact location of the property.

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

The 15-person jury has heard evidence he hired a white van hours after the alleged murders.

Kennedy said in her statement the accused had cut the padlock off the gate of a rural property after the Bunnings trip, the court heard.

Abela said a property in Bungonia was identified on February 25 and declared a crime scene following extensive police searches in the area. She found a cut padlock in the letterbox at the gate to the property, the court heard, and police used a drone to obtain an aerial view of the farm.

The property had a dam at the front and the rear, the court heard. Officers found weights and large rocks of cement in one of the dams along with a tinny.

The wires to the property’s CCTV system had been cut, Abela said, but the owner of the property had told her that “cockatoos had cut through those wires”.

The prosecution case is that Lamarre-Condon planned to kill Baird after developing an “obsessive and jealous infatuation” with him that escalated when Baird ended their casual relationship in November 2023.

The accused allegedly used his police-issued Glock pistol to shoot both men in Baird’s Paddington share house on the morning of February 19, 2024, and cleaned the home while Baird’s flatmates were out.

The prosecution alleges Lamarre-Condon killed Davies, a Qantas flight attendant and Baird’s new boyfriend, to eliminate a witness to his crime.

The court has heard Lamarre-Condon tried unsuccessfully to sink the bodies in a dam at the property in Bungonia on February 21. He would later leave the bodies in surfboard bags near the fence line of a Greek Orthodox monastery nearby.

A visibly emotional Abela gave evidence that she was one of a team of two officers who discovered the bodies on February 27. The bags were stacked on top of each other with sticks, branches and stones on top of them, the court heard.

There is no dispute that Lamarre-Condon was at the terrace when Baird and Davies died, that they died of gunshot wounds from his police-issued pistol, and that he was disguised as a delivery rider. There is also no dispute that he disposed of their bodies in surfboard bags.

However, the defence case is that Lamarre-Condon went to the Paddington home to pick up some of his belongings and did not expect anybody to be there. A struggle ensued in which his gun accidentally went off twice, killing Baird, and Davies accidentally shot himself in a second struggle, the defence says.

Lamarre-Condon panicked and disposed of the bodies, according to the defence.

On Wednesday, Senior Constable Bridey Allan, who specialises in crime scene examination, gave evidence about DNA evidence obtained from Lamarre-Condon’s gun.

Allan said she took seven DNA swabs from the Glock pistol and a gun plug. Tests conducted by the Forensic and Analytical Science Service 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.

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.

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