Accused played Taylor Swift's 'No Body, No Crime' during body disposal, Sydney court hears in former officer's murder trial

A court in Sydney has heard a startling account in the high-profile double murder trial of a former police officer. Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly played Taylor Swift's song No Body, No Crime in a van while attempting to dispose of two corpses. A friend of the accused gave that evidence to the New South Wales supreme court on Wednesday.

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. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.

The friend who testified is known to the court under the pseudonym Elizabeth Kennedy. She said that on 21 February 2024 — two days after the alleged murders — Lamarre-Condon picked her up in a white van at about 3pm. Kennedy said she thought the two of them were going out for lunch.

Defence lawyer John Stratton SC suggested to Kennedy that Lamarre-Condon had lifted a tarpaulin in the back of the van and shown her Baird's deceased head, and that she had been the one to bring up the song. Kennedy denied both suggestions. She said he did not show her Baird's body, and she did not choose the song.

Kennedy told the court: 'He was the one that put that song on in the car … it's a very niche song.' She said she asked him how he knew it and he said it was from the album evermore. '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,' she said.

In her own account, Kennedy said she noticed a blue tarp in the back of the van and a lemony smell, like it had just been cleaned. As Lamarre-Condon drove, the trip grew longer and longer. Every time she asked how much further, he replied, 'just 50 more minutes.' In the end it was a two-hour drive to Goulburn and Bungonia, about 150km away, the court heard.

Kennedy said the van's windows were open the entire trip and the air-conditioning was on full blast and freezing. During the drive, she said, he seemed 'bubbly.' But at one point, she told the court, 'It seemed like something went wrong and he wouldn't tell me about it.'

The court also heard that when he nearly ran over a bird, Lamarre-Condon said: 'you know I'd never hurt an animal, right?' He then tried to call another police officer friend. When the friend did not pick up, he panicked and swore, and began saying, 'if I'm quiet, I'm not angry, I'm just thinking,' Kennedy said.

Kennedy said Lamarre-Condon told her he would have to return to Bungonia and would be up all night. When she asked why, he said he could not tell her because he did not want to involve her. He then asked her to buy him a peach Lipton ice tea, saying he needed caffeine but did not drink coffee.

When Kennedy went into a service station to buy the drink, he also asked her to fuel up the van, but she could not do it because she did not know how to drive or fill up a vehicle. He was 'visibly annoyed,' swore and jumped out of the van. Asked why he did not want to do it himself, Kennedy told the court he said he did not want to be on camera.

As they left the service station, Kennedy noticed the blue tarp was no longer in the back of the van. The bodies of Baird and Davies were later found in Bungonia.

The defence claims Baird and Davies were accidentally shot as the accused acted in 'self-defence.' Stratton SC has said Lamarre-Condon cleaned up the scene and disposed of the bodies afterwards because he 'panicked considerably.' The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.