Two bodies have been found south-west of Sydney during the search for missing couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
The discovery came four days after the serving New South Wales police officer Beau Lamarre, 28, was charged with their murders.
Detectives on Tuesday afternoon said a crime scene had been established at a second property at rural Bungonia near Goulburn, about 160km south-west of Sydney, where the bodies were found in surfboard bags.
“Today … at that location, we believe we have located two bodies,” the NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, told reporters. “The families have been notified. We are very confident we have located Luke and Jesse.”
Webb said the discovery of the bodies had been made with the assistance of the accused.
The police assistant commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said Tuesday morning was the first time since he had been arrested that Lamarre had “willingly told us information”, after he obtained a lawyer.
Fitzgerald said Sen Const Lamarre – a former celebrity blogger whose full name is Beaumont Lamarre-Condon – was forthcoming with detectives about the location when interviewed at Silverwater jail in western Sydney, where he is on remand.
Det Supt Danny Doherty said the bodies were found under a fence at a driveway on the property on Jerrara Road and it appeared attempts had been made to cover them with rocks and debris.
Earlier in the day, investigators had been searching in the Royal national park, south of Sydney, and canvassing at Grays Point oval near Cronulla.
Webb said on Tuesday morning that divers concluded their search of dams at another property at Bungonia which was first searched on Sunday. The bodies were found about 20 minutes away from that initial search location, police said.
Lamarre was charged last Friday with the murder of 26-year-old Baird – a former Channel Ten presenter – and Qantas flight attendant Davies, 29, Baird’s new partner.
Doherty said police would allege in court that there was “some type of relationship at some stage” between Lamarre and Baird.
Police said the relationship “did not end well”.
Police allege Lamarre killed the couple on Monday 19 February at Baird’s share house in Paddington, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, using his force-issued handgun. Lamarre then hired a white van to dispose of their bodies, police allege.
The alleged use of a police handgun will be the subject of an internal NSW police review with oversight from the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (Lecc) as well as Victoria police.
“We’re in this position that a police firearm was used, and that can never happen again,” Webb said on Tuesday. “So we’ve got to look to ways to mitigate that risk in whatever way we can.”
Webb said Baird’s and Davies’ families had arrived from interstate and she had spoken to them.
“Each day, each hour was an agonising wait. So I’m relieved for the families … That’s what parents want – they want to know where their children are.”
The deputy commissioner Dave Hudson told reporters on Monday that Lamarre was not cooperating with investigators in the search.
Police will allege that Lamarre made “partial admissions” about the alleged murders to an acquaintance who is alleged to have accompanied Lamarre to the first Bungonia property on Wednesday 21 February.
The pair allegedly bought an angle grinder and padlock and drove to the gates of the property, where the acquaintance said she waited for half an hour at the entrance while Lamarre entered the property, having cut the lock. The new lock was placed on the gates before the pair returned to Sydney, Hudson said.
Police said on Tuesday they would allege Lamarre returned to the property and moved the bodies sometime in the early hours of the morning on Thursday 22 February.
Police said the acquaintance was fully cooperating with police and they believed she was “an innocent agent”.
Lamarre allegedly drove the van to Newcastle and used a hose belonging to a second acquaintance to wash out the vehicle.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said this week had been one of the “toughest imaginable” for everyone who loved Baird and Davies.
“Our heart goes out to everybody hurting right now,” he said. “We only hope they can find some peace and closure in the certainty of this sad news.”
Lamarre will remain in custody until he next appears in court on 23 April, while police prepare a brief of evidence.
