The eerie site where couple's bodies were left

Steve Evans
Updated February 29 2024 - 5:50pm, first published February 28 2024 - 4:07pm

It is the eeriest place: a glade of eucalypts down a short gravel path, off an asphalt road in the middle of the bush.

Watch: The dirt track where two bodies were discovered.

At the end of the path are two heaps of earth. Behind those metre-high heaps, two bodies - believed to be of the two missing partners, Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29 - were dumped and left at the fence line of a rural property in Bungonia, 30 kilometres south-east of Goulburn.

Police are still trying to lay down the precise timeline of how and when they came to be there.

They believe that one of their officers - Beau Lamare-Condon - first drove for 20 minutes down the road, past the fateful side track, with a friend who knew nothing about what had happened.

At the end of that first journey, he left the friend alone in the car for half an hour and then returned having done something or other as yet unknown, and decided to return to Sydney.

The scene were police discovered two bodies, believed to be of Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29. Pictures Karleen Minney, Instagram
The scene were police discovered two bodies, believed to be of Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29. Pictures Karleen Minney, Instagram

But then, so the police believe, he returned later, turning off into the eerie glade, probably at night. He was carrying, they believe, his victims and his Glock police weapon.

The bodies were in surf bags, bags which he must have dragged with difficulty to behind the mound.

The signs there now after the police have left are that the alleged perpetrator was in a rush. There was no attempt to bury the alleged victims, one of whom was his fleeting lover.

There was, according to the police, a hasty covering with debris but no attempt to dig a grave, for example.

The alleged murderer had also left other material but the police have not disclosed what that was. They are not indicating that it was anything sinister, perhaps just the personal effects left by a man in a hurry.

According to the police, the man in custody had finally guided detectives to the scene by drawing a rudimentary map.

One other mystery remains: why did the alleged killer initially drive with his unwitting friend to the property 20 minutes down the road from the resting place of the dead couple?

And on the first drive, were the bodies in the boot, unbeknownst to the friend?

The police removed the bodies on Tuesday evening after bereaved family members had visited the grisly scene, and after the necessary forensic examinations were finished.

The bodies have now been taken to Sydney where a formal post-mortem examination was to take place.

On Wednesday morning, the glade was still the scene of some police activity. Officers were combing the road and verges in a line, shoulder touching shoulder. They were aided by a police dog.

Part of the eeriness of the final disposal site comes from a Greek Orthodox monastery only 50 metres away. It is silent and presumably occupied by men who are accustomed to live their own lives alone and far from trouble.

They must have been unaware of the grisly drama unfolding in panic just outside their padlocked gates.

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Steve Evans

Steve Evans

Reporter

Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."