Melissa Caddick’s death: more remains washed ashore after horrifying discovery of teenagers on Australian beach

More human remains have been washed ashore in Australia after three teenage campers found a foot belonging to suspected con artist Melissa Caddick on a beach.

Forensic investigators attended the site near Mollymook Beach on the south coast of New South Wales around 6.30 p.m. Friday after part of a human torso was found, 7NEWS reported.

DNA testing will be required to determine if the remains belong to Caddick, whose foot was discovered more than three months after he disappeared from his Sydney mansion.

New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Willing said yesterday that it was one of the highest-profile missing persons cases he had worked on in his 30 years on the force, as dozens of investigators worked to find the missing woman.

Caddick, 49, was accused of defrauding her friends and family of more than A $ 20 million (NZ $ 21.3 million) through her fraudulent investment business Maliver Pty Ltd.

Caddick disappeared from his home in Dover Heights in the early hours of November 12, hours after investigators from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) raided his home and told him he would have to surrender his passports the next morning. .

But the massive investigation into where Caddick might be came to an end after three teenagers found a shoe on a beach on the south coast of New South Wales on Sunday afternoon.

One of the campers went to dump the Asics shoe in a bin, only to make the horrifying discovery that there were bones inside, and alerted authorities, 9News reported.

Yesterday, the police confirmed that the remains found on the remote beach of Bournda matched the DNA of the missing woman extracted from her toothbrush.

What Caddick did

The leaked documents, obtained by news.com.au earlier this month, detail exactly how investors were tricked into giving Caddick their hard-earned money.

Each of the investors happily gave their money following a “strong personal recommendation from people they trusted.”

All of his investors, who helped Caddick amass a fortune of AU $ 20 million, were old friends of Caddick or their family members.

In almost every case of those who chose to invest, their relationship with Caddick or a family member had spanned more than 20 years.

And in a further tragic twist, often the person who made the investment recommendation had already been unknowingly absorbed.

Over the years, no red flags were raised with Caddick or his business. Any investor who wanted to withdraw their funds had done so easily and repeatedly.

How it came undone

ASIC investigators launched an investigation in September 2020 after another financial advisor reported that Caddick was using its financial services license without permission.

Investigators began examining the documents handed over to investors and found that nothing was legitimate.

Bruce Gleeson, the court-appointed liquidator, said earlier this week that he had not found a single genuine document given to investors.

“There are hundreds of fake bank statements, stock contracts and stock trading statements,” he said.

Gleeson also admitted that none of the CommSec accounts he gave to his clients “have turned out to be true.”

Caddick is believed to have been copying and pasting CommSec letterheads to create the fraudulent documents and maintain investor confidence.

‘Live large’ with investor funds

Before Caddick landed in the spotlight of ASIC, the 49-year-old businesswoman and her husband Anthony Koletti were living a great life, all thanks to money invested in Caddick’s allegedly fraudulent business.

There is no indication that Koletti, Caddick’s teenage son or anyone else in his family had any knowledge or involvement in the alleged Caddick fraud.

A bank statement from Caddick’s American Express card revealed that the couple was shelling out around A $ 600,000 a year to fund their high-roller lifestyle.

ASIC documents revealed that Caddick had lost a whopping AU $ 230,000 at Christian Dior, AU $ 120,000 on ski trips to Aspen and AU $ 108,000 at Flight Center between December 2017 and August 2020.

Dominic Calabria, a partner at Bridges Lawyers, who represents several victims who trusted Caddick with their savings, told The Sydney Morning Herald that it was clear that the Dover Heights couple had been “living large.”

Caddick’s disappearance

The night before she disappeared from her $ 7 million Australian home, Caddick was filmed by ASIC investigators.

A panicky Caddick was seen in the footage questioning Australian Federal Police officers and ASIC investigators.

Caddick was told that he had to surrender his passport and was informed that his assets would be frozen.

Hours later, at 5:30 a.m. on November 12, she left her family’s home and was never seen again.

A tragic ending

Caddick’s disappearance puzzled police, friends and family for months, but that mystery was solved this week when campers discovered a shoe, with a bad foot inside, on a remote beach.

Three teenagers walking along Bournda Beach, near Tathra on the south coast of New South Wales, shortly after 12 p.m. Sunday made the grisly discovery.

DNA testing on the remains this week confirmed the foot belonged to Caddick.

“[The foot] it had been in the water for some time. The scientists were able to extract DNA from the foot and compare it to a DNA sample that we had already obtained from a toothbrush that belonged to Melissa from her relatives, “Assistant Commissioner Willing told reporters.

“The police have always kept an open mind regarding the circumstances of her disappearance, including the fact that Melissa may have taken her own life,” he said.

ASIC offered its condolences to Caddick’s friends and family and said it would keep trying to uncover his lost funds.

“ASIC’s priority is to seek the return of funds to investors as efficiently as possible,” an ASIC spokesperson said in a statement.

“ASIC will continue to work with the trustees and provisional liquidators to prepare for the Federal Court hearing scheduled for April 7 and 8. ASIC believes that the hearing should continue as a priority to seek the return of funds to investors.”