Sydney murder: Who is the Australian policeman believed to have killed a TV presenter and his partner?

The Sydney officer had been in a relationship with one of the deceased which ended last year

A search is underway for the bodies of a couple believed to have been murdered by a policeman in the Australian city of Sydney with his service pistol.

What happened in Sydney?

Police believe former television reporter Jesse Baird, 26, and his flight attendant partner Luke Davies, 29, were shot dead in Mr Baird’s shared house in the Sydney suburb of Paddington on Monday last week.

A man stands in front of floral tributes placed at the Paddington residence of Jesse Baird in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Picture: Bianca De Marchi/Shutterstock

Neighbours reported hearing one or more gunshots. Police began suspecting a homicide on Wednesday when the couple’s blood-stained possessions, including a phone, wallet, credit cards and a set of keys, were found in a rubbish container 19 miles from the crime scene.

Police initially suspected Mr Baird had killed Mr Davies after messages from Mr Baird’s phone to his housemates told them he was moving across the country to the west coast city of Perth and asking them to put his belongings in storage.

Police now allege the messages were sent to divert suspicion after Mr Davies died.

Who has been accused of their murders?

Senior-constable Beau Lamarre-Condon was charged on Friday with the murders of both people. He has not entered a plea or applied for release on bail.

A bullet case found in Mr Baird’s home matched the pistol Lamarre-Condon signed out of a police gun safe on February 15 and returned five days later.

Lamarre-Condon, 28, who joined the police force in 2019, had been in a relationship with Mr Baird that ended late last year.

Photos posted online show the former celebrity blogger posing with dozens of A-listers, including Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Harry Styles.

What is happening in the investigation now?

Officers are searching inland waterways for their bodies.

Police suspect Lamarre-Condon took the bodies in a rented van to a rural property in Bungonia, near Goulburn, around 125 miles south-west of Sydney on Wednesday.

Police allege he returned to the property on Thursday after buying weights from a department store that detectives suspect were used to sink the bodies in a waterway.

Police divers searched a number of reservoirs on farms in the Bungonia region on Monday.