A highly anticipated double murder trial is set to open Monday in Sydney, putting a former New South Wales police officer in the dock for the alleged fatal shootings of his ex-partner and her new partner early last year.
Thirty-one-year-old Beaumont Lamarre-Condon faces two counts of domestic violence-related murder and a third charge of aggravated break and enter, all of which he has pleaded not guilty to. Investigators allege the ex-officer used his service-issued police firearm to kill 26-year-old Jesse Baird, a working television presenter, and 29-year-old Luke Davies, a Qantas flight attendant who was Baird’s new boyfriend, inside a private residence in Paddington, an inner-city suburb of Sydney.
The case first sparked widespread public attention in February 2024, when members of the New South Wales Police Force launched an urgent, large-scale search for the two missing men. The search was triggered after police discovered bloodied personal items linked to Baird and Davies in a waste bin located in southern Sydney. Within days of the discovery, Lamarre-Condon turned himself in at a local police station and was formally taken into custody on the murder charges. Eight days after the killings are alleged to have occurred, authorities located the pair’s bodies, hidden inside surfboard bags in a remote rural area more than 200 kilometers southwest of Sydney.
In the weeks following his arrest and charging, New South Wales Police terminated Lamarre-Condon’s employment with the force. Court proceedings are scheduled to kick off Monday with the selection of a jury, after which both prosecution and defense legal teams will deliver their opening statements to the court. Legal observers estimate the trial will continue for approximately three months as evidence is presented and witness testimony is heard.