Family and friends of Jesse Baird, the former TV presenter feared dead, have said they were deeply concerned about the behaviour of police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon after the couple broke up.
Police have also revealed that a triple-0 call was made on the day of the suspected murder.
Baird, 26, a former Channel 10 red carpet reporter, and his Qantas flight attendant partner Luke Davies, 29, have been missing since Monday.
On Friday, Mr Lamarre-Condon was charged with two counts of murder after he handed himself into Bondi Police Station.
The bodies of the two men have not yet been found.
Police allege Mr Lamarre-Condon killed the two men at Mr Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney’s inner-east sometime between 12am and 5.30am on Tuesday morning and then used a hired white van to transport and dispose of their bodies.
It is alleged his police Glock pistol was used.
It’s thought Mr Baird, who was also an AFL umpire, and Mr Lamarre-Condon broke up just a few months ago.
Mr Baird’s relationship with Mr Davies was announced on Instagram in the past two weeks with a picture of the pair at a beach and in the Hunter Valley.
The couple were last seen in public at the Beresford pub in Darlinghurst, near Sydney’s CBD, on Sunday.
‘Worrying behaviour’
Police have now revealed that those close to Mr Baird were troubled about Mr Lamarre-Condon’s behaviour following the break up.
“There (were) no warning flags to us in relation to his behaviour or relationship breakdown,” homicide commander Danny Doherty said.
Nonetheless, he added, that since the men vanished it had “been documented that there was some worrying behaviour that has been alleged by family and friends”.
It was an “obvious line of inquiry,” Supt Doherty said.
Those concerns were not brought to the attention of police, however.
Mr Lamarre-Condon was rostered on to work last week but called in sick on Tuesday, after the alleged murders, according to Supt Doherty.
The gun allegedly used to shoot the couple was checked back into a suburban police station on Tuesday.
Mr Lamarre-Condon then failed to report for work on Wednesday, the same day police colleagues were first alerted about the disappearance of Mr Baird and Mr Davies.
“Through the evidence that’s been located to date, both the items in the skip bin that had blood on them and certain identification and other items and through the examination of the crime scene at Paddington, where a large amount of blood was located, police also located a projectile at the premises which had been discharged and also a fired cartridge case,” Supt Doherty said.
“This has now been physically matched to a NSW Police firearm and forms part of the evidence for the alleged facts to face court for this 28-year-old man.
“It’s really important that we do locate the bodies, not only for the cause of death but the answers for the family because they are still grieving and are starting to grieve now,” he added.
Mr Lamarre-Condon briefly appeared before Waverley Local Court, in Sydney’s east, on Friday afternoon wearing a black T-shirt.
The 28-year-old nodded along to the magistrate as the case was adjourned to April 23.
He did not apply for bail and it was formally refused.