Beau Lamarre-Condon played Taylor Swift’s song No Body, No Crime while attempting to dispose of two corpses, a court has heard.
asserted
court → play → corpses
The NSW supreme court has been told he was driving to Bungonia with a friend when the song was played in the van.
asserted
song → tell → van
Lamarre-Condon, 31, is accused of fatally shooting Jesse Baird and his partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024.
asserted
Condon → accuse → February
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
asserted
He → plead → break
A friend of Lamarre-Condon, known to the court under the pseudonym Elizabeth Kennedy, said she thought she and the officer were going out for lunch when he picked her up on 21 February 2024 – two days after the alleged murders.
asserted
he → know → murders
He arrived at Kennedy’s home in a white van about 3pm that day, she told the court.
asserted
she → arrive → court
Defence lawyer John Stratton SC on Wednesday suggested Lamarre-Condon told her: “I’m not joking, if you don’t want to help me I completely understand and I won’t be mad”.
uncertain
I → suggest → me
He claimed Lamarre-Condon lifted a tarpaulin, which had been stored in the back of the van, and showed Baird’s deceased head.
asserted
which → claim → head
Stratton said the officer had told her Baird was dead and suggested Kennedy said: “this is like a Taylor Swift song, No Body, No Crime” before playing the song in the car.
uncertain
this → say → car
She denied Stratton’s suggestions and said he didn’t show her Baird’s body, nor did she choose the song.
“He was the one that put that song on in the car … it’s a very niche song,” she told the court.
asserted
she → deny → court
“I asked him how he knew it and he said it was from the album, evermore.
asserted
it → ask → album
“I tried to play a few more songs from the album, evermore, and he didn’t know any of them so it was very weird to me he knew that song.”
asserted
he → try → song
Kennedy on Wednesday morning offered her own account of events to the court.
asserted
Kennedy → offer → court
She said she noticed a blue tarp in the back of the van and a lemony smell, like it had just been cleaned.
asserted
it → say → van
As Lamarre-Condon took the wheel, the drive got longer and longer, she said.
asserted
she → take → wheel
Every time she asked how much further, he would respond, “just 50 more minutes”.
asserted
he → ask → minutes
It ended up being a two-hour drive to Goulburn and Bungonia, about 150km away, the court heard.
asserted
court → end → Goulburn
The van’s windows were open the entire trip and the air-conditioning was on full blast and freezing, Kennedy told the jury.
asserted
Kennedy → freeze → jury
She said that during the drive he seemed “bubbly” and talked about Swift, who was touring Australia at that time, as well as a Europe trip they were planning together.
asserted
they → say → time
They eventually stopped at Bunnings Goulburn, the court heard.
asserted
court → stop → Goulburn
In a statement read to the court on Wednesday morning, a Bunnings sales assistant said he had been approached by two customers that day who claimed they were staying at a friend’s farm in nearby Bungonia and had locked themselves out.
asserted
they → read → themselves
The worker suggested they use an angle grinder.
uncertain
they → suggest → grinder
As Lamarre-Condon and Kennedy went to the Bunnings checkout, the officer asked her to pay for an angle grinder and padlock because he did not have cash with him, she said.
asserted
she → go → him
The two then drove to Cella Farm in Bungonia and Lamarre-Condon explained he knew the people who owned the property.
asserted
who → drive → property
When they arrived, he asked her to put garbage bags over the van’s number plates, but she refused, so he did it himself, Kennedy said.
asserted
Kennedy → arrive → it
He then cut the padlock off the gate, cutting himself in the process and asked Kennedy to wait there and not turn on her phone.
“He left me there and drove out of sight behind the house where the bigger dam was,” she told the court.
asserted
she → cut → court
Kennedy began having a panic attack and, when Lamarre-Condon returned 30 or 40 minutes later, he told her to shush and asked if she had called anyone or turned on her phone.
asserted
she → begin → phone
As they began the return journey to Sydney, he asked if they could go back to Bungonia but she said she needed to be home.
uncertain
she → begin → Bungonia
Lamarre-Condon was “weird and cryptic” on the trip back, the court heard.
“It seemed like something went wrong and he wouldn’t tell me about it,” Kennedy told the court.
asserted
Kennedy → hear → court
At one point he almost ran over a bird and said, ‘you know I’d never hurt an animal, right?’, Kennedy said.
asserted
Kennedy → run → animal
Lamarre-Condon attempted to call another police officer friend during the drive.
asserted
Condon → attempt → drive
When the friend didn’t pick up, he said: “‘fuck fuck fuck’ and then he sort of panicked and that’s when he started saying, ‘if I’m quiet, I’m not angry, I’m just thinking’”, the court heard.
asserted
court → pick → ?
He told Kennedy he would have to return to Bungonia and that he would be up all night.
asserted
he → tell → Bungonia
She asked why and he said he could not tell her because he did not want to involve her, the court heard.
uncertain
court → ask → her
He then asked if she could buy him a peach Lipton ice tea as he needed caffeine but didn’t drink coffee.
uncertain
he → ask → coffee
As she entered the service station to purchase the beverage, he also asked her to fuel up the van, but she couldn’t do it because she didn’t know how to drive or fill up a vehicle.
asserted
she → enter → vehicle
He was “visibly annoyed” before he swore and jumped out of the car.
asserted
he → swear → car
When asked why he did not want to do it, Kennedy told the court he said he did not want to be on camera.
asserted
he → ask → camera
As they left, she noticed the blue tarp was no longer in the back of the van.
asserted
tarp → leave → van
The bodies of Baird and Davies were later found in Bungonia.
asserted
bodies → find → Bungonia
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
