Melissa Caddick mystery officially laid to rest
<p>A corner has revealed missing fraudster Melissa Caddick is dead but it’s difficult to determine when and how she died.</p>
<p>Deputy State Coroner Elizabeth Ryan released her findings after a lengthy coronial inquest examined the circumstances surrounding the 49-year-old’s mysterious disappearance.</p>
<p>“I believe it’s appropriate at the outset to say I have concluded Melissa Caddick is deceased,” Ryan said as she handed down her findings at the NSW Coroner’s Court in Lidcombe.</p>
<p>However, Ryan said it was tricky to make an accurate finding as to how, when and where she died.</p>
<p>Caddick disappeared from Sydney’s eastern suburbs in November 2020, hours after her Dovers Heights mansion, which doubled as her place of business, was raided by the AFP and ASIC.</p>
<p>The corporate watchdog had accused Caddick of operating a Ponzi scheme and misappropriating $24 million, including from her friends and family, to fund a lavish lifestyle including holidays, designer jewellery, clothing and shoes.</p>
<p>The case has sparked a number of conspiracy theories and even inspired a television series.</p>
<p>The inquest examined Caddick’s final hours, the actions of her husband Anthony Koletti, and the police investigation.</p>
<p>The court heard that Caddick had taken her own life by jumping off the cliff at Rodney Reserve, approximately 500 metres from her home, on the morning of November 12, 2020.</p>
<p>Caddick was heard walking out her front door at about 5:30am before disappearing and failing to turn up to a court appearance the following day.</p>
<p>However, Koletti did not report his wife missing to the Rose Bay Police Station until 11:45am on November 13 - 30 hours since she was last seen.</p>
<p>Amid his evidence, Koletti told the court he was under the mistaken belief he had to wait 24 hours to report someone missing.</p>
<p>“Did you delay reporting her missing until that point in order to give her time to try to go somewhere?” Counsel assisting the coroner Jason Downing asked.</p>
<p>“No,” Mr Koletti said.</p>
<p>NSW Police Sergeant Trent Riley told the court during the inquest that he found it “extremely strange and unusual behaviour” that Koletti had initially told police he did not want them to come to his house or go to the station to make a statement.</p>
<p>“I thought it was strange that a husband would ring the police station, report his wife missing from two days ago and wasn’t prepared to come to the police station and didn’t want police to go around and speak with him because he had too much work on that day,” Sergeant Riley told the court.</p>
<p>Sergeant Riley also told the court that Koletti provided conflicting versions of when he had last seen his wife alive.</p>
<p>He described Koletti as, “evasive, vague and inconsistent”.</p>
<p>Colette has been consistently critical of the ASIC investigation.</p>
<p>In an affidavit tendered to the court, he claimed he and Caddick were denied food, water and medical attention during the 12 hours when ASIC and AFP were present at their home.</p>
<p>However, the court heard that during the raid, Caddick drank a protein shake, Koletti made her several coffees and they occasionally smoked cigarettes in their backyard.</p>
<p>In a statement, he said, “I believe (Caddick) died as a direct result of ASIC’s negligence, cruelty and inhumanity.”</p>
<p>Despite conceding Caddick was responsible for defrauding millions of investors and that they were allowed to be in their home on the day of the raid, he still maintained ASIC was responsible for her death.</p>
<p>In February 2021, a foot washed up on Bourdna Beacon on the NSW south coast which was later identified as Caddick’s.</p>
<p>The court had previously heard that Caddick’s shoe was covered in 250g of goose barnacles when it washed ashore.</p>
<p>An expert's report stated the barnacle growth suggested the shoe would have been free floating on the surface of the water for three-seven days before washing up.</p>
<p>The court heard that it’s possible the shoe drifted on the ocean floor for several months before floating to the surface and onto the beach.</p>
<p>Oceanographer Dr David Griffin said that according to calculations using ocean currents, it’s plausible the show went into the water at Dover Heights and was found 400km south three months later.</p>
<p>Pathologist Jennifer Pokorny told the inquest in a statement that it was not possible to determine the full extent of Caddick’’s injuries as there were no other remains aside from the decomposed foot.</p>
<p>She added it was also not possible to determine a cause of death.</p>
<p>Forensic psychiatrist Dr Kerri Eagle told the inquest that after reviewing Caddick’s medical record, along with witness statement, it appeared she had narcissistic personality disorder.</p>
<p>She said that for people suffering from the disorder, their self-esteem and sense of well-worth latches onto external admiration and impressing others.</p>
<p>Dr Eagle revealed to the court that as a result of being charged, Caddick would have also been in danger of losing her work and the “respect and admiration” of others.</p>
<p>She told Ryan that when ASIC raided her home, it was possible it had a “very huge” impact on her self-esteem.</p>
<p>“Ms Caddick appeared to experience problems with low mood, depression and anxiety and problems coping with extraordinary stress … the low mood symptoms persisted as long as the stress persisted,” Eagle said.</p>
<p>She also noted that people with similar disorders have been known to take their own lives after a “major insult to their self-esteem”.</p>
<p><em>Image credit: Instagram</em></p>
