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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Peter Brewer

Dam dive only deepens mystery in dark case of missing couple

The mystery only deepened on Monday as police divers withdrew from a property in Bungonia, near Goulburn, just after 1.30pm.

NSW police clearly had strong intelligence to suggest alleged murderer Senior constable Beau Lamarre-Condon had used the vacant rural property for nefarious purposes.

Last week the accused NSW police officer, who has been charged with two counts of murder, had travelled to the property shortly after the deaths of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird.

And yet what he did there is unknown because he's so far not assisting police with their investigation.

Police at a cordoned off road leading to a crime scene near Goulburn. Picture by Elesa Kurtz

However, police have determined Lamarre-Condon had travelled with a female acquaintance the day after the alleged killing in a rented white van to the Bungonia property, having purchased an angle grinder and padlock at Bunnings in Goulburn.

Once there, Lamarre-Condon is alleged to have disappeared with the van up the driveway and out of sight while his acquaintance waited at the gate. The woman is now "fully co-operating" with police and is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Even more curiously, the accused returned again a day later around 4.30am, having bought weights and torches.

The curious gap in Lamarre-Condon's timeline has police somewhat perplexed.

However, NSW Deputy Commissioner David Hudson speculated it was possible the accused "had returned to that property and retrieved the bodies and disposed of them somewhere else".

Which sounds like a most grisly and calculated process.

Police crime scene tape was strung across the entrance to Hazelton Road on Monday, barring entry to the large media scrum gathered there from the early morning. Some had driven up from Canberra, others down from Sydney.

Television relay vans parked along the narrow country road pointed their dishes skywards and Skylink satellite feeds were uploading regular updates, although there was precious little new information from police.

Live crosses were made throughout the morning by the assembled TV networks but in the absence of anything new to offer, it was all just a matter of waiting.

Some media had briefly been given access as police conducted a line search at the front of the property.

But that was mostly for show. The police focus, and primarily that of the divers, was more on a larger dam at the rear of a large weekender-type shed on the property. This dam could not be seen from the gate.

As the hours ticked by, various police vehicles drove in to supplement the eight or so already on scene and out of sight of the assembled media.

In came NSW police riot squad members in their black Toyota LandCruisers with heavily tinted windows, members of the specialist Raptor South team based out of Wollongong, a K9 unit, a hired tilt-tray truck and a unmarked forensics vehicle.

A small boat was taken away from the property on Monday. Picture by Elesa Kurtz

There was a ripple of excitement as late in the morning as the tilt-tray emerged with a small aluminium "tinny" strapped on the back.

But then came word that divers had packed up. This site had nothing to offer, and the search would resume elsewhere.

And meanwhile, mystery deepens into the whereabouts of the remains of the two murdered men.

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