Father Lured Future Son-in-Law to Execution-Style Murder Months Before Daughter's Wedding

An Australian Army veteran vowed to kill his daughter’s fiancé just two days before fatally gunning him down, prosecutors told the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney on Monday. 

Luke Samouel Simon, 60, allegedly told his daughter’s fiancé, Damien Conlon, 38, to get on his knees and “confess” before shooting him in the head in February 2023, the New Zealand Herald reports. 

Simon was accused of “luring” his future son-in-law to his Oberon, Australia home, and saying “bye-bye Damien” right before shooting the younger man, according to News.com.au. Conlon was pronounced dead at the scene.

The court viewed surveillance footage of Simon repeatedly visiting his gun safe in the days leading up to the killing, the New Zealand Herald reports. However, the judge in the case said it wasn’t obvious from the video whether Simon was removing the gun itself or simply taking the gun’s cover out of the safe, per Sunday World.

In November, Conlon’s fiancee, Linda Simon, addressed her father in a victim impact statement, stating, “Luke, I believe you are a coward.” She also said Simon “couldn’t face Damien like a man and have a conversation with him like a human being.”

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Linda Simon also asked the judge to give the family “peace of mind” so they would no longer have to “live in fear of Luke walking the streets and having to see him.”

In the statement, she described her father’s actions as “cold, callous and calculated” and noted he’d killed “a son, a father, a brother, a loving partner and a good friend to many,” per the Irish Mirror.

Linda Simon was just a few months away from marrying Conlon, and the couple had two children together: two-year-old Mason and 10-month-old Elias. Conlon was also stepfather to Linda’s two older kids. 

The couple met on a dating app in 2019, according to the Irish Mirror, and had already put down deposits on their upcoming wedding venue, church, and more. Conlon moved from Ireland to Australia in 2011, where he launched his own carpentry business.

“Damien had a dream and he followed it, and we are all proud of how he made it come true,” Conlon’s brother John told the Sligo Champion in 2023. “I love him, and I miss him, and he was our family’s best friend.”

A GoFundMe posted to support his family described Conlon as “a beacon of love, humor, strength, loyalty, and kindness.”

Simon, who was in court Monday, has pled guilty to the crime. He will be sentenced in April. The exact motive for the murder is unclear.