Two bodies have been found south-west of Sydney, Australia during the search for missing couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
The discovery comes four days after serving New South Wales police officer Beau Lamarre, 28, was charged with their murders.
New South Wales Police Force senior-constable Beau Lamarre-Condon, who dated Mr Baird until late last year, was charged on Friday with the murders of both men.
Detectives on Tuesday afternoon said a crime scene had been established at a second property at rural Bungonia near Goulburn about 160km south-west of Sydney.
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“Today … at that location, we believe we have located two bodies,” the NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, told reporters. “The families have been notified. We are very confident we have located Luke and Jesse.”
Webb said the discovery had been made with the assistance of the accused. The police assistant commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said Tuesday morning was the first time since he had been arrested that Lamarre had “willingly told us information”.
Fitzgerald said “he was forthcoming with detectives about the location” when interviewed at Silverwater jail in western Sydney where he is on remand. Police said two surf bags were found at the Bungonia crime scene.
Earlier in the day, investigators had been searching in the Royal national park south of Sydney and canvassing at Grays Point oval near Cronulla.
Webb said on Tuesday morning that divers concluded their search of dams at another property at Bungonia which was first searched on Sunday. The bodies were found about 20 minutes away from that initial search location, police said.
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Sen Const Lamarre was charged on Friday with the murder of 26-year-old Baird – a former Channel 10 presenter – and Qantas flight attendant Davies (29), Baird’s new partner.
Police allege the couple were killed last Monday by Lamarre at a home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs using his force-issued handgun. Lamarre then hired a white van to dispose of their bodies, police allege.
The deputy commissioner Dave Hudson told reporters on Monday that Lamarre was not cooperating with investigators in the search.
Police will allege that Lamarre made “partial admissions” about the killings last Tuesday to an acquaintance who is alleged to have accompanied Lamarre to the first Bungonia property.
The pair allegedly bought an angle grinder and padlock and drove to the gates of the property, where the acquaintance said she waited for half an hour at the entrance while Lamarre entered the property, having cut the lock. The new lock was placed on the gates before the pair returned to Sydney, Hudson said.
Police alleged at that time it was possible Lamarre had later returned and moved the bodies to another location.
Police said the acquaintance was fully cooperating with police and they believed she was “an innocent agent”. - The Guardian