Melissa Caddick: Human remains found on second beach could mean foul play

If the human remains found washed up on a NSW south coast beach end up belonging to Sydney fraudster Melissa Caddick, police will not be able to rule out foul play.

Investigators cannot afford to rule out foul play if the human remains found on Mollymook Beach prove to be that of missing fraudster Melissa Caddick, according to an expert criminologist.

The discovery of soft tissue from the stomach area, including a belly button, could change the direction of the investigation and give vital clues to help pinpoint the Sydney mother’s time of death, Dr Xanthe Mallett told The Sunday Telegraph.

“If the remains are those of Melissa, then narrowing down the time since death can really help establish a timeline, from when she left the house to when she entered the water,” she said.

Dr Mallett agrees it is feasible Ms Caddick may have entered the water at Dover Heights and her body washed up as far away as Bermagui on the NSW south coast.

Melissa Caddick with her husband Anthony Koletti.

Renowned criminologist Dr Xanthe Mallett. Picture: Jonathan Ng

However, three months in the water was a long time for certain parts to remain intact, suggesting she may have died later.

“Bodies can travel a really long way, particularly a foot in a trainer because the shoe holds all the elements together and running shoes are so buoyant that they would move in the tide very easily,” she said.

“For a stomach to be recovered three months later, after summer months, is a little more unusual. It could suggest the person died more recently. There’s certainly a lot of questions around this.

“Three months is quite a long time, I would be interested to know the decomposition level to determine if the body was in the water immediately after she disappeared.

“Police would go back to tidal experts to see what tidal patterns were doing, to see if that time frame and distance can genuinely be explained.”

Mollymook Beach where human remains washed ashore. Picture: Loren Toncini

Dr Mallett, an Associate Professor of criminology at the University of Newcastle, said when she learned of Ms Caddick’s foot being found by campers at Bermagui last Sunday, she was not convinced the woman had died.

Internationally renowned for her work across the behavioural science of criminology and hard science as a forensic anthropologist, she said losing a foot did not necessarily spell death.

“Now that we may have other human remains, if they are confirmed to belong to Melissa, then the investigation is taking another turn,” she said.

“All options have to remain open, including the unlikely chance of a really strange accident, suicide or something more sinister.”

Dr Mallett says she has always been sceptical that Ms Caddick committed suicide, saying this would be an unexpected outcome from what we have learned of her personality.

“Regardless of what happened, sadly it appears Melissa is probably deceased, and my thoughts are with her friends and family at this tragic time.”