Australian police say two bodies have been found during the search for missing Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
“We are very confident that we have located Luke and Jesse,” NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.
Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, a police officer who once dated Mr Baird, was charged with murdering the pair last Monday.
The bodies were discovered on a rural property in the town of Bungonia.
Police said that after initially refusing to cooperate with the investigation, Mr Lamarre-Condon finally disclosed where the two bodies were located on Tuesday morning.
Detective Superintendent Daniel Doherty said the remains were found “near the entrance to the [Bungonia] property” and that attempts had been made “to cover the bodies with rock and debris”.
He added that police will now allege “two surf bags” were used to transport the deceased couple from Mr Baird’s inner city Paddington home, where it is believed they were killed.
A new crime scene was set up at the rural location, after police learnt that Mr Lamarre-Condon visited the property with an acquaintance last Wednesday in a white hire van believed to be carrying the two bodies.
After severing a lock on a gate, Mr Lamarre-Condon then left the female acquaintance there before driving the van on to the property and returning 30 minutes later, police said.
The case – which has gripped Australia – is believed to be the first suspected murder carried out by a New South Wales police officer in decades, and it has prompted a review into the out-of-hours access officers have to their firearms.
On Monday, it also led organisers of Sydney’s iconic Mardi Gras parade to uninvite NSW police from this year’s march.