Sydney divers search for bodies of same-sex couple allegedly shot dead by jilted police officer

Police divers were searching inland waterways on Monday for the bodies of a same-sex couple allegedly shot dead in Sydney a week earlier by a jilted police officer lover with his service pistol.

Police allege former television reporter Jesse Baird, 26, and his flight attendant partner Luke Davies, 29, were shot dead in Baird’s shared house in the inner-Sydney suburb of Paddington last Monday, New South Wales police force deputy commissioner David Hudson said. Neighbours reported hearing one or more gunshots.

Senior-constable Beau Lamarre-Condon was charged on Friday with the murders of both. He has not entered a plea or applied for release on bail.

Lamarre-Condon, 28, had been in a relationship with Baird that ended late last year.

Police suspect Lamarre-Condon took the bodies in a rented van to a rural property in Bungonia near Goulburn, around 200km (124 miles) southwest of Sydney on Wednesday.

Police alleged he returned to the property on Thursday after buying weights from a department store that detectives suspect were used to sink the bodies in a waterway.

Police divers searched a number of reservoirs on farms in the Bungonia region on Monday.

“It’s our number one priority to try and locate Jesse and Luke to give the families some solace,” Hudson told reporters.

Lamarre-Condon was following legal advice by refusing to speak to police, Hudson said.

A bullet case found in Baird’s home matched the pistol Lamarre-Condon signed out of a police gun safe on February 15 and returned on February 20.

Police commissioner Karen Webb said the rules that allowed the police officer to allegedly use the gun in a violent crime while he was off duty were being reviewed.

“It’s a failure if someone has used their service firearm in the manner