MELBOURNE, Australia >> Australian police on Tuesday found the bodies of a couple shot and killed by an ex-boyfriend, who happened to be a police officer, hours after he admitted to killing and hiding them under rocks and debris on a rural property.
The remains of former television reporter Jesse Baird, 26, and his flight attendant partner Luke Davies, 29, were found in the same surfboard bags that police allege the killer used to carry the bodies from Baird’s Sydney home last week, New South Wales Police Force Detective Superintendent Daniel Doherty said.
The bodies were found at a property near Bungonia, a town 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of Sydney, only 20 minutes drive from another property where police divers had spent days scouring waterways.
Senior-Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon, who dated Baird until late last year, was arrested Friday and charged with murdering the couple, but he had previously refused to answer police questions. The breakthrough came when he spoke to detectives on Tuesday and told them where to look.
Police suspected Lamarre-Condon first dumped the bodies last week at a property that officers later searched. But fearing that a traveling companion might reveal where they went, he returned alone on Feb.22 to move the bodies. Police say the acquaintance, who has not been named, was unaware they were transporting bodies and was not an accomplice.
Detective Sergeant Sasha Pinazza, who is in charge of the investigation, said the search ended Monday without finding any clue to the bodies’ location.