Beau Lamarre-Condon murder trial: Jesse Baird stalking claims and new evidence revealed in Sydney court

WARNING: Distressing.

“Goodbyes don’t necessarily mean forever, nor is it always the end. It can simply mean I’ll miss you until we meet again.”

Beau Lamarre-Condon sent this quote to TV presenter Jesse Baird after the journalist broke things off with him for the first time in April 2023, as he was not ready for a long-term relationship.

“I appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing your thoughts with me … Whether that means we are in each other’s lives or not in the future, we need to trust in that … Goodbye Jesse,” Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly wrote.

Mr Baird could not have known at the time that the offhand comment about meeting again would lead to him being dragged through nearly a year of alleged stalking and break-ins before his eventual death.

Mr Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Baird and the man’s new partner, Luke Davies, on February 19, 2024.

He remained stony-faced in the dock as his behaviour in the lead up to the alleged killings was described as “obsessive”, “jealous” and “weird” by prosecutors and even some of his old friends and colleagues during the first two weeks of his murder trial before the NSW Supreme Court.

‘Is this c..t serious’

Mr Lamarre-Condon told a series of people he had gone through Mr Baird’s phone and blocked other men or deleted messages without his knowledge, the jury was told.

The jury was shown two photographs of a hand holding Mr Baird’s phone in April before his first break-up with Mr Lamarre-Condon, with the phone displaying a message the journalist had sent to a man explaining that things with Mr Lamarre-Condon were “very casual”.

The former officer allegedly sent the photo of Mr Baird’s phone to his friend and fellow police officer Alexandra Scobie, quoting the words “very casual” before asking “is this c..t serious?”

“He’s downplaying it,” Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly wrote.

Hiding the bodies

They broke up shortly afterwards, and it wasn’t long before Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly told his friend Georgia Cook that he’d been “watching” Mr Baird, using his mother’s car and wearing a black hoodie so Mr Baird wouldn’t recognise him, the jury was told.

Over a Thai dinner, Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly told her he watched Mr Baird have sex with other men and on one occasion broke into his house.

The conversation shifted at some point, with Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly telling Ms Cook that if he killed somebody he would put their things in a dumpster and “take their bodies to bushland where nobody would ever find them”.

In August that year, he allegedly broke into Mr Baird’s home with a key he stole, with Mr Baird waking to find someone standing next to his bed.

Less than a year later, he disguised himself as an Uber eats rider before allegedly murdering Mr Baird and Mr Davies and dumping their bloodied belongings in a skip bin at Club Cronulla in Sydney’s south and later dumping their bodies outside the fence line of a Greek monastery in Bungonia in the NSW Southern Tablelands.

By that stage, Mr Baird had not spoken with the former officer in months, having cut all contact with him in November 2023 after he discovered Mr Lamarre-Condon had been going through his phone.

Mr Lamarre-Condon called Mr Baird a “manipulative player” after this final break-up before claiming in texts to a man Mr Baird was casually dating that the journalist had led him on and “gaslit” him, the jury was told.

The court was told he then tried to blame his behaviour on a fake cancer diagnosis in a message purportedly from his friend spanning more than 1600 words as “one last try to win Jesse back”.

Within days of that message, he asked a friend if her ex-boyfriend could get him a gun, the jury was told.

Cop’s ‘murder’ chat before alleged killings

The day before couple’s deaths, Mr Lamarre-Condon is accused of telling a colleague that he thought Paul Thijssen, who brutally murdered Lilie James with a hammer inside St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney’s CBD in October 2023, was “stupid” for being caught carrying out the killing on CCTV.

Newly-released footage shown to a murder trial jury shows the moment an ex-cop approached his alleged victim’s home disguised as an Uber Eats driver.

Former police officer Ben Higginson told the jury he was speaking with Mr Lamarre-Condon about the 2023 murder during a shift on February 18, 2024, as he had worked on the investigation.

They also spoke about what police look for in suspicious deaths in murders, but he didn’t think the exchange was out of the ordinary at the time as officers often talk about work.

“He thought Paul was stupid for doing it on CCTV, and asked me if he hadn’t murdered Lilie James and committed suicide, would he have got away with it,” Mr Higginson said.

Mr Higginson told the jury Mr Lamarre-Condon was “pretty blase” during the conversation, which he finds “concerning” upon reflection.

Bone fragment, bloodied shoe prints

Hundreds of gruesome crime scene photos were shown in court, including some of a fragment of Mr Davies’ bone found in the Cronulla bin along with the bloodied items two days after the couple’s deaths.

The venue’s greenkeeper made the grisly find, with the jury told shoe prints on a bloodied quilt were consistent with shoes found near the Greek monastery where Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly dumped the bodies.

Bloodied AFL flags and a slew of AFL merchandise were also found in the bin, with the jury previously told Mr Baird was an AFL goal umpire.

The couple’s DNA was found on a series of the items, according to a forensic report.

Cop’s ‘weird’ questions

Hundreds of photos of three key vehicles in the case were shown to the jury, with Mr Lamarre-Condon accused of swapping his Tesla at a staging point in Kensington for a Mazda hired under his mother’s name on the morning of the couple’s deaths.

Forensic reports have revealed Mr Davies’ blood was found in the Tesla, while both his and Mr Baird’s DNA were found in the Mazda and a van he is accused of hiring to move the couple’s bodies.

Ms Scobie told the jury how nearly a year before the alleged murders, Mr Lamarre-Condon asked her “weird” questions about whether hire cars can be tracked and if call charge records still show up if a phone is switched off.

“Oh don’t freak out, I’m just asking … I promise I’m not doing anything illegal,” Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly told her.

The following year, she was unknowingly tasked with gathering CCTV related to the investigation into the couple’s disappearance, with Ms Scobie telling the court once she overheard that her then-friend was the suspect she removed herself from the probe to avoid a conflict of interest.

Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly used his role as a police officer to get CCTV footage of TV presenter Jesse Baird on a date with another man nearly a year before his alleged murder, a jury has been told. Mr Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Baird and his new partner Luke Davies and is fighting the allegations in a NSW Supreme Court trial.

$1500 Bunnings shopping spree

Receipts allegedly revealed Mr Lamarre-Condon spent nearly $1500 at Bunnings on bleach, disposable gloves, and concrete among other items in the days after the couple’s deaths.

It’s alleged he stuffed the bodies of Mr Baird and Mr Davies in surfboard bags and tried to sink them in a dam at a farm near Goulburn in the NSW Southern Tablelands before dumping them near the monastery, having poured concrete mix into the bags along with weights.

Newly-released footage shown to a murder trial jury shows the moment a former police officer bought a surfboard bag he allegedly hid a couple’s bodies in.

Their bodies weren’t found until nearly a week after their deaths, but the skip bin discovery led police to Mr Baird’s home on February 21.

CCTV played to the jury shows officers arriving to find cleaners at the home who had been hired by Mr Baird’s flatmates, as he was due to move to a different sharehouse the day after his death.

A detective asks the cleaners to “stop”, as the home was being declared a crime scene.

Police body-worn video from inside the home where a former police officer allegedly murdered a couple has been released as his trial continues. The jury was told Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly cleaned Mr Baird’s home after the couple’s deaths before a cleaner, hired by the TV presenter’s flatmates as he was due to be moving out that week, came on February 21.

“We’ve just got information that there might be some information here, some evidence for us,” the detective said.

Prosecutors allege the crime scene at Mr Baird’s home had “changed” by the time investigators were able to examine it.

‘Missed’ bullet hole

The couple’s DNA was allegedly found in blood samples taken from the home and subfloor, but a crucial piece of evidence was “missed” in the 2024 investigation.

The jury was told how a bullet hole from Mr Baird’s bedroom door was only discovered in July of this year, as it had been covered by a hook, with prosecutors alleging Mr Lamarre-Condon bought a mounting hook from Kmart after he shot Mr Davies through the door as he tried to call triple-0.

But Mr Lamarre-Condon’s legal team allege he acted in self-defence, claiming that Mr Davies shot himself during a struggle after his gun earlier “went off” twice and fatally wounded Mr Baird.

NSW Police Senior Sergeant Bronwyn Lansley, the lead investigator who examined Mr Baird’s home in 2024, agreed during cross-examination that no bullet, or mark indicating an impact from a bullet, was found in the bedroom.

She also agreed that testing undertaken on Mr Lamarre-Condon’s gun could not exclude Mr Davies as the “major contributor” to DNA found on the grip and trigger of the firearm.

Mr Lamarre-Condon nodded in the dock as his barrister cross-examined Ms Lansley, at times making notes.

The trial continues next week.