Fraudster Melissa Caddick´s missing 30 hours explained as senior cop offers ... trends now
On the morning of November 12, 2020, with the sun only minutes away from rising above the cliffs of Dover Heights, Melissa Caddick is believed to have walked several hundred metres to a nearby reserve and taken her own life, an inquest has been told.
The search for answers in one of the country´s most compelling mysteries took a step towards resolution this week, as an inquest into Ms Caddick´s disappearance and suspected death heard some of its final evidence.
Ms Caddick, 49, vanished from her palatial Dover Heights home in Sydney´s eastern suburbs more than two years ago, never to be seen or heard from again.
Her disappearance came amid an investigation by the financial watchdog ASIC, which has accused her of ripping off $23m from investors and raided her home a day before she went missing.
The inquest has been told that early on in their investigation, police ruled out foul play and concentrated on two theories - that she had gone on the run to escape justice or had died by suicide.
A senior cop in charge of the investigation told the inquest this week that proof of life checks found no evidence that Ms Caddick was still alive and he believed she died in the rocks and sea below Rodney Reserve on November 12, 2020.
Footage of the moment investigators raided Melissa Caddick´s safe has been played at an inquiry into the fraudster´s disappearance.
After Ms Caddick was reported missing by her husband Anthony Koletti, police began their search that included canvassing the neighbourhood for CCTV footage from nearby homes
RODNEY RESERVE
After Ms Caddick was reported missing by her husband Anthony Koletti, police began their search that included canvassing the neighbourhood for CCTV footage from nearby homes.
The CCTV system from her Wallangra Rd house had been seized by ASIC investigators when she was raided on November 11, robbing NSW Police of the chance to capture her last known movements.
During the inquest, Mr Koletti was described as exhibiting 'extremely strange and unusual behaviour', including making contradictory statements, in their initial dealings with him.
According to Mr Koletti and Ms Caddick´s son, who can only be known as Witness B, she was heard exiting the front door around 5.30am, never to return.
Melissa Caddick
The last time Melissa Caddick's voice was captured on tape revealed in audio recording revealed during the inquest into her suspected death.
However, police said they did not take Mr Koletti - a hairdresser and part-time DJ - at his word.
They considered the possibility that Ms Caddick may have left her home shortly after ASIC and the AFP departed on the evening of November 11.
So, instead of having to examine only a brief segment of footage from each piece of CCTV they retrieved, they had to pore over 40 hours from each.
The search for any footage of Ms Caddick, in what are believed to be her last moments, ultimately proved unfruitful.
Detective Sergeant Michael Foscholo, who was the officer in charge of the investigation, told the inquest this week that he believed Ms Caddick had taken her own life by jumping into the sea at Rodney Reserve.
During a canvas of the neighbourhood, officers discovered there were no CCTV cameras along the most direct route from her home down to Rodney Reserve, which would have been down Wallangra Rd and onto Dover Rd.
Missing Woman Melissa Caddick
`IS SHE NOT THERE?´
According to police, in the early stages of the investigation they suspected that
