A former New South Wales Police officer broke down in tears while describing how Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly arrived at her home and scrubbed blood from a rental van days after Jesse Baird and Luke Davies were allegedly killed.
The woman, known for legal reasons as Fiona Rosso, told Lamarre-Condon’s trial that he came to her house in the dark on 22 February 2024, saying he wanted to “say goodbye” to his loved ones.
Ms Rosso said she feared he was planning to take his own life. She invited him inside, but told the court that his demeanour changed and he said: “I’ve done something bad, I don’t want to tell you, I don’t want to incriminate you.”
She said Lamarre-Condon knew she had been diagnosed with chronic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and alcoholism as a result of her work with NSW Police.
He asked whether she had been watching the news. When she said she had not, he asked her to search for Jesse Baird’s name online. Ms Rosso said she saw reports about the disappearance of Baird and his new partner, Luke Davies.
The court heard Lamarre-Condon then asked her to look up schizophrenia and whether someone with the condition could be charged. Ms Rosso said he spoke about an “out-of-body experience” and having no control.
When he asked to clean his car, Ms Rosso refused. But after her partner called at about 9.30pm, Lamarre-Condon filled a bucket with water and went outside, she said.
Ms Rosso followed him and saw a white van parked near her home. She told the court its boot door was open, blocking her view of the number plate.
“I walked out there with my drink and sat on the gutter and he scrubbed and I sat there in the gutter,” she said, becoming distressed as she gave evidence.
She said Lamarre-Condon appeared to be trying to remove blood. “I don’t know if it was on the other side that he saw a bit of blood to scrub off and he couldn’t get it off so he’d have to paint it,” she told the court.
Ms Rosso said she did not look inside the van. When a neighbour came outside, she told them: “My mate’s just cleaning his van.” She said she was trying to keep herself safe and did not want to reveal that anything was wrong while Lamarre-Condon was there.
After returning indoors, she searched for Jesse Baird’s name again and saw that a police officer was a suspect. “When reading the articles I saw [the number for] Crime Stoppers and I just wanted to scream, ‘He’s here! He’s here!’” she told the court.
Ms Rosso said Lamarre-Condon used her phone because his own was in flight mode and had no reception. She alleged that he told her he had driven for two-and-a-half hours to a farm with “a girl” to dispose of the bodies.
“They tried to get rid of the bodies and sink them, he said they wouldn’t sink and [the girl] said, ‘I can’t do this, take me back’, so they drove 2.5 hours back,” she said.
The court also heard that Lamarre-Condon described an earlier incident at Baird’s home involving his police-issued gun. Ms Rosso said he told her Baird had accidentally discharged the weapon into a wall and that they had tried to remove the bullet.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, you’re basically telling me you’ve just killed Jesse’,” she said.
Ms Rosso said Lamarre-Condon slept on one end of her sofa while she slept on the other. The following morning, after her alarm sounded at 4.30am for a medical assessment, he showered, called his aunt and uncle and left the house.
