Jesse Baird & Luke Davies | Celebrity Blogger Turned Cop Allegedly Commits Double Murder

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[00:00:30] This is True Crime Psychology and Personality, where we discuss the pathology behind some of the most horrific crimes

[00:00:44] and those who committed them from a scientifically informed perspective.

[00:00:49] I'm Dr. Todd Grande. I have a PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision

[00:00:55] and I'm a licensed professional counselor of mental health.

[00:00:58] Dr. Todd Grande, that's my YouTube channel.

[00:01:01] Today's question is, can I analyze the case of Jesse Bard and Luke Davies?

[00:01:06] First, to look at the background of this case, move to the timeline of the crime, then offer my analysis.

[00:01:12] This case takes place in New South Wales, Australia.

[00:01:16] In early 2024, 26-year-old Jesse Bard lived in a $3 million rented home in Paddington, which is an upscale suburb of Sydney.

[00:01:25] He had a successful career, having worked for Channel 10 as a television presenter and reporter for a few different programs.

[00:01:33] Jesse's last role there was as a red carpet reporter for a television morning show called Studio 10.

[00:01:40] The show was cancelled in December 2023.

[00:01:43] Jesse also worked as an Australian Rules Football Goal umpire.

[00:01:48] At some point, Jesse engaged in a sporadic sexual relationship with a 28-year-old man named Beau Lamar Condon.

[00:01:56] When he was in his late teens and early 20s, Beau was a celebrity blogger.

[00:02:01] He had posted images with celebrities like Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian, Russell Crowe, Mary Stiles, and Ryan Gosling.

[00:02:11] In 2019, Beau became a police officer in New South Wales.

[00:02:16] His mother had worked for the police for about 10 years, which may have contributed to Beau's decision.

[00:02:22] In 2020, Beau was investigated after using a taser on a man, but ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.

[00:02:29] He continued to work as a patrol officer and had the rank of senior constable.

[00:02:34] In 2023, the sexual relationship between Jesse and Beau ended, and Beau did not take this very well.

[00:02:41] By early February 2024, Jesse had a new lover, a 29-year-old flight attendant named Luke Davies.

[00:02:49] Luke lived in the Waterloo suburb of Sydney.

[00:02:53] Now moving to the timeline of the crime.

[00:02:55] On Sunday, February 18, 2024, Jesse Bard and Luke Davies were seen by friends at a hotel.

[00:03:03] They were there for a party for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival.

[00:03:08] This is the last time they would be seen alive.

[00:03:11] On Wednesday, February 21, at 11 a.m., a groundskeeper found several personal items in a trash container in Cronulla.

[00:03:20] This town is just south of Sydney.

[00:03:22] The items included a credit card, an $8,000 watch, a phone, a wallet, and bloody clothing.

[00:03:29] The groundskeeper contacted the police who connected the items to Jesse Bard.

[00:03:35] After visiting his residence in Paddington, the police found evidence of a struggle,

[00:03:40] a spent 40-caliber SNW cartridge case on the kitchen counter, bullet holes in the kitchen walls,

[00:03:47] and a large amount of blood in the kitchen and in a bedroom.

[00:03:52] The police started to suspect that Beau Lamar Condon may have done something terrible to Jesse and Luke.

[00:03:59] Here's what the police found during the course of their investigation.

[00:04:02] On Friday, February 16, 2024, Beau signed out a police-owned handgun from a police station in South Sydney.

[00:04:10] The spent cartridge case found in Jesse's residence matched this weapon.

[00:04:16] Beau indicated that he needed the gun for an event involving protest activity, which was scheduled for Sunday.

[00:04:23] This particular event was patrolled by police officers who were hired privately,

[00:04:28] like the organizers would pay the government to have the police officers there.

[00:04:32] On the next day, Saturday, February 17, Beau purchased a surf bag from a store in the Miranda suburb of Sydney.

[00:04:40] That same day, he deleted his social media accounts.

[00:04:44] On Monday, February 19, at about 9 a.m., video surveillance captured Beau exiting a black SUV in Paddington,

[00:04:53] not far from Jesse's residence.

[00:04:56] At 9.50 a.m., Jesse's neighbors heard gunshots at his home, but did not immediately report this to the police.

[00:05:04] Four minutes later, an emergency call was made from the phone of Luke Davies.

[00:05:09] A man could be heard saying, Get out! Lank off! before the call disconnected.

[00:05:15] The police tried to find out what happened, but could not locate the phone.

[00:05:19] Later that same day, Beau returned the firearm he had taken on February 16 to the police station,

[00:05:25] purchased a second surf bag, and rented a white Toyota minivan from the Sydney airport.

[00:05:32] The minivan was captured on video surveillance in front of Jesse's home.

[00:05:36] On Tuesday, February 20, Beau had a conversation with an acquaintance

[00:05:40] and allegedly made partial admissions about some type of homicidal activity.

[00:05:45] Jesse's phone was used to send text messages to his roommates saying that he was moving to Perth in Western Australia

[00:05:53] and asking them to sell or throw away his belongings.

[00:05:57] The police believed that Beau sent these messages.

[00:06:00] On Wednesday, February 21, the day the police started their investigation,

[00:06:05] Beau and a female friend drove to a rural property in Bungonia, which is 2 hours southwest of Sydney.

[00:06:12] Along the way, Jesse purchased an angle grinder and a padlock from a hardware store.

[00:06:18] Beau used the angle grinder to cut a padlock on the gate to the property,

[00:06:22] drove onto the property in his rented van, and remained there for about a half hour.

[00:06:28] Before he left, he put the new padlock he purchased on the gate.

[00:06:33] The police said the female friend was not involved in Beau's activity.

[00:06:37] She didn't know what he was doing.

[00:06:39] At 11 p.m., Beau purchased weights from a department store.

[00:06:43] The police believed that he returned to the rural property after this.

[00:06:47] On Thursday, February 22, Beau drove to the residence of a fellow police officer named Rene.

[00:06:53] Her residence was in Newcastle, which is 2 hours north of Sydney.

[00:06:57] Beau asked Rene for a garden hose to clean out the rented van.

[00:07:02] Rene stated that Beau appeared to be sleep deprived and he was rambling.

[00:07:07] He indicated that the van was full of blood and needed to be cleaned.

[00:07:11] In addition, he said something about how bodies were floating in a dam and they wouldn't sink.

[00:07:16] The police stated that Rene was not involved in the crime.

[00:07:20] On Friday, February 23, at 10.39 a.m., Beau turned himself in at a police station in Sydney.

[00:07:27] He was charged with two counts of murder.

[00:07:30] The police searched for the bodies of Jesse and Luke without success.

[00:07:34] On Tuesday, February 27, Beau drew the police a map of where he disposed of the bodies.

[00:07:41] This led to the discovery of the remains of Jesse and Luke in Lungonia.

[00:07:46] The bodies were found behind a mound of dirt on a gravel road.

[00:07:51] At the time making this video, Beau remains in jail awaiting trial.

[00:07:55] Now moving to my analysis.

[00:07:57] Here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case.

[00:08:01] Item number one.

[00:08:03] People who knew Beau found him to be mysterious and bizarre.

[00:08:07] He earned between $80,000 and $90,000 a year as a police officer,

[00:08:11] but his spending habits were highly inconsistent with that salary.

[00:08:15] He drove luxury vehicles, took lavish vacations,

[00:08:19] and owned expensive clothing and accessories made by designer brands.

[00:08:24] With no clear source of wealth, people started to wonder if he had a secret boyfriend.

[00:08:29] Beau told people that he was a celebrity blogger and money came with that job.

[00:08:34] Even at his most popular point, Beau was not really a well-known celebrity blogger.

[00:08:40] He was by no means famous, but perhaps he wanted to be.

[00:08:44] For example, Beau had a history of exaggerating how close he was to celebrities.

[00:08:49] He told his friends that he owned a swimwear brand and he claimed that he had been trained for the close protection unit.

[00:08:57] This unit comprises police officers who guard dignitaries and celebrities.

[00:09:02] Item number two.

[00:09:04] In the time leading up to his death, Jesse Bard told his friends that he was being stalked

[00:09:08] and his residents had been broken into multiple times.

[00:09:12] In August 2023, an intruder accessed Jesse's phone and deleted his contacts before leaving.

[00:09:19] The police, of course, believe this intruder was Beau.

[00:09:23] This behavior is consistent with a resentful stalker.

[00:09:26] This type of stalker intimidates and terrorizes a lover to regain power and control.

[00:09:32] Sometimes resentful stalkers transform into predatory stalkers, which is something that may have happened in this case.

[00:09:40] Item number three.

[00:09:42] Beau's attorney has indicated that mental health will be a factor in his defense,

[00:09:46] but did not reveal any specific mental health symptoms.

[00:09:50] There's not much information available about Beau's mental state,

[00:09:53] although there was one report indicating he was confronted by a senior officer in a police station while reminiscing alone.

[00:10:01] This is unusual, but certainly not evidence of mental illness.

[00:10:06] Some of Beau's behavior appears to be consistent with disorganized thinking.

[00:10:10] Perhaps he could make the argument that he didn't know what he was doing.

[00:10:14] For example, it doesn't make sense that he invested so much energy in hiding the bodies only to implicate himself in the murders.

[00:10:22] For the most part, however, I think Beau is going to have a challenging time convincing a jury

[00:10:27] that his mental health symptoms fully explained his alleged crime.

[00:10:32] The main problem for Beau is the premeditation part.

[00:10:36] For example, he removed a gun owned by the police and returned it after the murders.

[00:10:41] He took ammunition from a shooting range and replaced the cartridges that were used in the alleged crime.

[00:10:47] Beau purchased a surfboard bag before the murders and another one afterward.

[00:10:51] He rented a van and later cleaned it out with a hose.

[00:10:55] He purchased an angle grinder to gain entry to a rural property and a padlock to conceal this entry.

[00:11:01] And Beau was frustrated when weighing down the bodies in water didn't work, so he moved the bodies to another location.

[00:11:08] It is reasonable to believe that Beau knew that his alleged behavior was wrong and he was trying to escape responsibility.

[00:11:16] Item number four. This case featured a few people who had no involvement in the crime

[00:11:21] but who failed to demonstrate a sufficient level of critical thinking skills.

[00:11:25] For example, the female friend who accompanied Beau in the white van should have realized that something was amiss.

[00:11:32] She rode in this van with Beau and there was a blue tarp in the back.

[00:11:36] He drove to a remote area and cut through a padlock with an angle grinder.

[00:11:40] When he returned, the tarp was not in the back of the van anymore.

[00:11:45] The police reported that this was a long time female friend.

[00:11:49] Didn't she notice that some of Beau's behavior was bizarre or out of the ordinary?

[00:11:54] Is this something he did on a regular basis?

[00:11:57] Jesse's roommates also disregarded pretty obvious warning signs.

[00:12:01] They entered Jesse's residence after the murders and saw that it was disorganized.

[00:12:06] There were red stains on the floor, a surf bag and a blue tarp.

[00:12:10] They thought that the red stains were beet juice that Jesse had spilled.

[00:12:15] I'm curious as to what they made of the bullet holes in the kitchen wall and the spent cartridge case on the counter.

[00:12:21] Did they think that a beet fired the gun or maybe the beet was an intruder who was shot?

[00:12:26] Like it was unable to beat someone to the draw.

[00:12:29] Maybe the roommates missed the bullet holes and the spent case, but even so, the circumstances warranted further investigation.

[00:12:37] This demonstrates how far it is from people's minds that someone they know would be involved in a serious crime,

[00:12:43] whether as a perpetrator or as a victim.

[00:12:46] When a problem is inconceivable, clear evidence of the problem tends to be ignored.

[00:12:52] Item number five, what do I think happened in this case?

[00:12:56] This is just a theory, my opinion.

[00:12:58] Bo had traits of vulnerable narcissism, like being vindictive, insecure, petty, self-centered, impulsive, irresponsible and having sense of entitlement.

[00:13:08] He was not willing to tolerate losing his sexual relationship with Jesse and decided to murder him.

[00:13:14] When he arrived to commit the murder, he discovered that Luke was there, so he killed him as well.

[00:13:19] I don't think that Bo planned on this because he had only purchased one surf bag before arriving.

[00:13:25] Bo worked diligently to cover up his crime, but the same personality characteristics which led to the crime also interfered with concealing it.

[00:13:35] I'm moving to my final thoughts.

[00:13:37] This murder case is unusual in the sense that both Bo and Jesse had careers that placed them in the spotlight,

[00:13:43] but as far as the crime itself, the motive was not that out of the ordinary.

[00:13:48] It sounds like Bo was a resentful and predatory stalker who refused to take no for an answer.

[00:13:54] It's an obvious warning sign that Jesse had available was the stalking behavior,

[00:13:58] but there's no way he could have predicted that Bo would have escalated to murder.

[00:14:02] Jesse's romantic partner Luke did not have access to any warning signs unless Jesse told him something.

[00:14:09] Luke was murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[00:14:13] He tried to call the police for help, but the wrong police officer was already there.

[00:14:19] Bo was in fact guilty. This case illustrates the level of depravity and determination he maintained.

[00:14:25] Most killers who were serious about getting away with a crime like this would have waited upon seeing another person with the victim,

[00:14:33] but Bo is not going to let anyone stop him from getting his revenge.

[00:14:38] This has been True Crime Psychology and Personality from Ars Longa Media.

[00:14:45] This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

[00:14:51] Ars Longa, Vita Brevis.

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