Two men walking along Bournda Beach near Tathra on the state’s South Coast at 12.15pm on Sunday made the grisly discovery of an ASICS running shoe containing the remains of a foot which DNA testing has since confirmed belong to missing Dover Heights woman Melissa Caddick.
The discovery came just prior to police issuing an arrest warrant for Ms Caddick on behalf of the corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, for numerous breaches of the Corporations Act.
Remains found in a shoe on the NSW South Coast have been identified as belonging to missing woman Melissa Caddick.
Ms Caddick, 49, disappeared in the early hours of Thursday morning, November 12.
The last people outside her family to see her alive were members of the Australian Federal Police who left her Dover Heights home around 7pm on Wednesday, November 11, after executing a search warrant on behalf of ASIC.
Assistant Commissioner Michael Willing at the Sydney Police Centre announcing finding remains of Melissa Caddick.Credit:SMH
Ms Caddick has been at the centre of a major investigation into allegations that she misappropriated more than $20 million from investors.
Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said the shoe matched the size and description of a shoe Ms Caddick was wearing when police raided her Dover Heights house.
Ms Caddick missed the 4pm deadline on Thursday to attend the registry to hand over her passport or any airline tickets.
After almost 30 hours had elapsed, around noon on November 13, her husband of seven years, Anthony Koletti, 38, reported his wife’s disappearance to police.
Mr Koletti told police his wife regularly went for a run and her running gear appeared to be missing. He also said she never left home without her phone.
“[The foot] had been in the water for some time. Scientists were able to extract DNA from the foot and match it to a sample of DNA that we had already obtained from a toothbrush belonging to Melissa from her relatives.”
Assistant Commissioner Willing said how Ms Caddick came to be in the water was “still a mystery” and the time, manner and cause of her death would be a matter for the NSW Coroner.
“Police have always kept an open mind in relation to what the circumstances were for her disappearance, including the fact that Melissa may have taken her own life,” he said.
The corporate regulator will continue its investigation into Ms Caddick and her company, Maliver Pty Ltd. “ASIC’s priority is to seek the return of funds to investors in the most efficient way possible,” an ASIC spokesperson said.
“ASIC will continue to work with the receivers and provisional liquidators to prepare for the Federal Court hearing listed on 7 and 8 April. ASIC considers the hearing should go ahead as a priority to seek return of funds to investors.”
Documents tendered to the Federal Court indicate that for a two-year period from 2018 more than $20 million of investors’ funds went into Ms Caddick’s accounts and was used by her to fund a lavish lifestyle that included designer clothes, jewellery and extravagant overseas holidays.
Bruce Gleeson, the provisional liquidator appointed by the court to sift through her complex financial affairs said that he had been unable to identify a single genuine document that Ms Caddick had provided to her investors who thought she was investing their money in shares.
Ms Caddick misled investors from the start by falsely claiming she was a registered financial adviser. She also lied about her company Maliver holding an AFS licence, Mr Gleeson said.
“There are hundreds of false bank statements, share contracts and share trading statements,” he said. He also said the provisional liquidators “have not identified any circumstances” in which any of the CommSec accounts she provided to her clients “have been found to be true”.
Her clients thought their money was safe and their investments were increasing, but “nothing could be further from the truth,” the liquidator said.
The matter will return to court in early April.
Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au) and beyondblue (1300 22 4636 and beyondblue.org.au)
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Kate McClymont is an investigative journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald.
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2021-02-26 01:05:25Z
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