By Murray Olds and Isobel Roe, ABC
Luke Davies, left, and Jesse Baird are believed to have been murdered last Monday. Photo: Supplied / Instagram
Police allege an angle grinder and weights were bought after the disappearance of Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies as the search for their bodies continues.
Police have confirmed they are searching a private property on Hazelton Road at Bungonia, two hours south-west of Sydney, where a new crime scene has been established in the remote location south of Goulburn.
Police divers have also been called in to help and are back in the waters, searching several dams on the property.
Twenty-eight-year-old Police Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon has been charged with two counts of murder over the men's deaths.
Lamarre-Condon is a former partner of Baird.
The search of the property was suspended overnight and resumed on Monday.
The area under investigation is hundreds of kilometres away from the initial search locations in Sydney and Newcastle.
Deputy Commissioner Hudson said a padlock and angle grinder were allegedly purchased at a local department store near Bungonia, and weights from a department store last Wednesday.
Police divers scoured a small waterway in suburban Newcastle on Saturday for evidence as a wider search continued for the bodies of the two men.
It is alleged Baird and his partner Davies were killed last Monday by Lamarre-Condon in a Paddington home in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
Detectives have searched the property a number of times as they look for clues to the suspected murders of Baird, a presenter at the Ten television network, and Davies, a Qantas flight attendant.
Detectives returned to Baird's Paddington home, where large amounts of blood were found last week, as part of their investigations on Sunday.
A number of floral tributes have been left outside the house.
Police Commissioner Karen Webb said investigators were "working around the clock" to resolve "many unanswered questions" relating to the case but could not comment further as the matter was before the courts.
Police said they believed Lamarre-Condon was in Newcastle on Thursday night prior to handing himself in to a police station in Sydney on Friday morning.
They said their priority was to locate the bodies of the two men and establish a timeline of movement in relation to a white van that was hired from Mascot on Monday evening.
Detective Superintendent Daniel Doherty from the Homicide Squad said a projectile and casing found in Baird's Paddington home was a ballistic match to a police-issued handgun and although no bodies had been found the men were believed to be dead.
Police alleged the men were killed in the Paddington home and said a "strong" line of inquiry was that the police handgun was discharged at that property.
Independent review into NSW police firearm access
Webb called on any witnesses to come forward to "help those families understand where their loved ones are and what happened".
"Police are working around the clock and we still haven't found the bodies of Jesse and Luke, and there's someone out there that knows where those bodies are and they still haven't led police to where they are," Webb said on Monday.
Webb also revealed the system around police accessing and storing firearms would be independently reviewed by her Victorian counterpart to give "the public confidence that we are taking this seriously".
"This has been declared a critical incident and the investigation will be overseen by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission so the circumstances in this case will be addressed," she said.
"But I have sought the assistance of Victorian Chief Commissioner Shane Patton to help NSW Police review rules around access and storage of firearms more broadly."
Webb also supported police marching this weekend in Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade.
There were suggestions the police force should not march because a serving officer was charged with the murder of the couple last week.
"It would be awful for the officers who are looking forward to participating in Mardi Gras to not march, and so I certainly hope that NSW Police will be able to march.
"We've been marching for 20 years and our participation is part of our restoration with the community and I think it's very important."
Premier Chris Minns agreed, saying many LGBTQIA+ officers were serving in the force and had suffered discrimination because of their sexuality.
"They've stuck with the NSW policing as a profession and they march in the Mardi Gras as a demonstration of the fact that they are police officers and that's their sexuality," Minns said.
"Yanking their invitation would be a regressive step and probably not indicative of the fact they've gone through a lot to be a police officer and we're glad they're in the NSW Police force."
This story was originally published by the ABC.
