Politics
Missing ‘fraudster’ Melissa Caddick may have cut off her own foot to escape police, top cop says
MISSING “fraudster” Melissa Caddick may have cut off her own foot to escape police, a top cop has said.
The woman’s mysterious disappearance is still being investigated, with police looking for the alleged conwoman’s remains after her rotting foot was found washed up on a remote beach in Australia.
Melissa Caddick vanished from her Sydney home in November[/caption]
A shoe washed up on the New South Wales South Coast containing Caddick’s dismembered foot[/caption]
New South Wales police commissioner Mick Fuller said he believes the Sydney woman is dead, but the case is not closed and there is a possibility she cut her own foot to escape police.
He said: “There’s always a chance she cut her foot off and is still alive but that’s pretty fanciful but nevertheless we haven’t closed this case.
“We are still looking for her remains and we’re still looking of where the funds [for defrauded investors] may be.”
Caddick’s Asics shoe containing her decomposed foot washed up on a remote beach on the NSW south coast last month, more than three months after she disappeared.
A report released last week showed the woman had likely misused more than $25 million of her investors’ funds, including family and friends.
LAVISH LIFESTYLE
Caddick had reportedly used cash she stole to fund a lavish lifestyle, including taking overseas holidays and buying expensive clothes and jewellery.
The 49-year-old vanished early on November 12 last year from her Sydney mansion, a day after cops raided her home in the wealthy suburb of Dover Heights.
On February 21, DNA testing matched the foot found at Bournda beach, 250 miles away, to Caddick.
Other bones and remains found on surrounding beaches did not belong to Caddick, police said.
During their investigation, police have identified 68 possible fraud victims.
She allegedly stole millions to fund a lavish lifestyle[/caption]
Commissioner Fuller said: “We feel sorry for them but we are still looking at trying to recover funds and that investigation continues.”
It comes as a criminal expert claimed the “conwoman” may have been murdered with her body parts dumped at sea.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing previously told reporters foul play against Caddick was possible, but suicide was more likely.
He said that the limited decomposition of the shoe would mean it had not been in the water for the entire three-month period since she went missing.
“The decomposition of the shoe would suggest it hasn’t been in the water for three months,” he told NCA NewsWire.
“While it’s not my area of expertise, if that’s the case a possible scenario is that she has been murdered recently or murdered and kept on ice for a while.”
Caddick disappeared from her Sydney mansion in November[/caption]
She went missing in the suburb of Dover Heights[/caption]
Another theory to explain Caddick’s disappearance has been that she jumped from the Dover Heights clifftops after walking from her home.
Commissioner Fuller said: “I’ve never seen someone’s body or body parts wash up 400km south of Sydney and in reasonably good condition … but that’s not to say it can’t happen.”
Caddick’s husband Anthony Koletti, 41, is in “delusion and denial” over claims that she misused the funds, his father Rodo Koletti said.
He said: “He doesn’t want to believe that the woman he loves and married is capable of it, but unfortunately the proof’s stacking up so much against her.
“He believes she was set up and he was going to look at suing ASIC and everybody else for raiding their house.”
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Mr Koletti was also caught in the scam as Caddick allegedly forged his signature to verify her fraudulent documents, 9Now reports.
However, he believes his son was not aware of the fraud and was not involved in it.
According to a report by 60 Minutes, Caddick took more than a million from her parents, who are aged in their 80s.
The alleged fraudster pictured on a family holiday[/caption]
