Melissa Caddick may have staged disappearance, detectives say
Detectives are investigating if millionaire Sydney businesswoman Melissa Caddick meticulously staged her own disappearance, having been last seen almost two weeks ago.
Police & Courts
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Detectives are investigating a theory millionaire Sydney businesswoman Melissa Caddick meticulously staged her own disappearance as it can be revealed security cameras panning her mansion stopped working days before she vanished without trace.
Officers reveal they are examining CCTV footage from neighbouring homes in the exclusive Dover Heights suburb where the 49-year-old lived and revealed the two cameras attached to her $7 million home stopped working the week she disappeared.
“This is a very extensive investigation, it‘s been two weeks now and we are very worried for her welfare,” Bondi police acting crime manager Stuart Thomas said.
“We have examined CCTV footage from neighbouring homes, the cameras on her property stopped working days before she left her home.
“We are not ruling anything out at this stage and are working on several theories.
“Finding her is the priority, the family have been very cooperative and are putting on a brave face.”
Another officer, close to the investigation, added, “Maybe she just doesn‘t want to be found.”
The Federal Court had the day previously frozen her assets, including 17 bank accounts, and barred her from fleeing the country.
A corporate watchdog probe into how she managed her company, Maliver Pty Ltd, and handled investor money, was preoccupying her mind and she had voiced some of those concerns with husband, Anthony Koletti.
When the music producer woke the next morning, his wife of seven years was gone.
The mother of one’s suspicious disappearance has left detectives, who are yet to find any trace of Ms Caddick, scratching their heads.
Her teenage son from a previous marriage, who lives at the home on Wallangra Rd, told police he was in the home gym when he heard the front door open and close about 5.30am on November 13.
Mr Koletti, who is 11 years her junior, said he was asleep at the time.
Police believe Ms Caddick went for a run along her usual route through Dover Heights and towards Watsons Bay. She wore running attire — a black singlet, leggings and silver Nike runners — but left her phone and purse behind.
“She always took her phone,” Mr Koletti said.
“In this case, this is the only time since I have known her that she didn’t have her phone with her,’ he told a press conference outside Bondi Police station on Friday.
Thirty-six hours after their last conversation, Mr Koletti contacted Eastern Suburbs Police Station and reported his wife missing.
Ms Caddick was meant to appear in the Federal Court and hand in her passport the day she went missing but in her absence Mr Koletti turned up.
He informed the court his wife hadn’t come home from a run 24 hours earlier. Officials inside the courthouse told him to make an official missing persons report. At midday, Mr Koletti reported his wife’s disappearance.
Ms Caddick’s phone and bank accounts have not since been accessed.
She has not contacted her family or friends either.
Her distraught brother, Adam Grimley, pleaded with the public to help bring his little sister home.
“It is extremely out of character,” he said, fighting back tears from outside Bondi police station.
Details of the investigation are set to be revealed when the matter is next in court on Friday.
Anyone with information is urged to contact police on 02 93699899, or Crimestoppers on
1800 333 000
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