A Sydney court has heard an accused police officer claimed he was not avoiding detectives during a three-minute phone call shortly before surrendering over the alleged murders of two men.
Beau Lamarre-Condon, 29, a former NSW Police senior constable, is accused of shooting dead former television presenter Jesse Baird, 26, and flight attendant Luke Davies, 29, inside a Paddington terrace house in February.
The Guardian Australia reported that proceedings in Sydney on Tuesday laid bare the final, frantic attempts by police colleagues to reach Lamarre-Condon in the days following the alleged killings, as detectives gradually pieced together the scale of the incident.
Social media contact prior to surrender
The court heard that as investigators scrambled to locate the off-duty officer, a fellow colleague took to Instagram in an effort to establish direct contact with him.
The colleague sent a direct message reading: “Hey hun ... can you please contact the crime manager at eastern suburbs asap when you get a chance?”
The informal social media outreach highlighted the initial uncertainty surrounding the officer's movements before homicide detectives escalated their inquiries. At the time the message was transmitted, Lamarre-Condon had ceased reporting for his rostered shifts, prompting growing alarm among his commanding officers and peers within the eastern suburbs police command.
The three-minute phone call to detectives
Evidence was also tendered detailing the final interactions between Lamarre-Condon and law enforcement before he turned himself in.
The court heard that Lamarre-Condon engaged in a brief three-minute phone call with police investigators after vanishing for several days. During the exchange, the accused officer reportedly insisted that he was not actively "avoiding them", despite having evaded repeated attempts by colleagues and detectives to track his whereabouts.
Shortly after the brief conversation took place, Lamarre-Condon presented himself to Bondi police station, where he was formally arrested and subsequently charged with two counts of murder.
Search that gripped the state
The court hearing revisits a complex multi-agency inquiry that captivated the country earlier this year. Detectives were initially alerted to the disappearance of Baird and Davies after bloodied possessions and personal effects belonging to both men were discovered in a commercial skip bin in Cronulla.
A days-long search operation was mounted across metropolitan Sydney and regional New South Wales, culminating in the discovery of the two victims' bodies hidden in surfboard bags on a rural property near Bungonia, in the Southern Tablelands.
Focus on police procedures and service weapons
The proceedings have also renewed attention on the alleged misuse of official police resources. Prosecutors allege that Lamarre-Condon utilised his police-issued Glock pistol to commit the crimes before returning the weapon to a secure police station armoury days later.
The case has prompted sweeping reviews within the NSW Police Force regarding protocols governing the storage, sign-out procedures, and after-hours access to service firearms by off-duty personnel.
The matter remains before the court.
