Cops found Melissa Caddick’s husband suspicious, inquest into vanished fraudster hears

The inquest into missing fraudster Melissa Caddick has heard of police concerns around her husband’s actions in the days after her disappearance.

Anthony Koletti, the husband of missing fraudster Melissa Caddick, was at one time a suspect in her disappearance, an inquest has heard.

The coronial inquest into the 49-year-old’s disappearance began on Monday, with the NSW State Coroner’s Court hearing senior police in charge of the investigation had subsequently come to the conclusion there was “no evidence to support the theory” of his involvement in her suspected death.

The inquest, before Deputy State Coroner Elizabeth Ryan, is due to run for 10 days and will examine the circumstances surrounding Ms Caddick’s suspected death, including her state of mind before her partial remains washed up on a southern NSW beach.

The witness list will include her husband, DJ and hair dresser Anthony Koletti, police, psychologists and ASIC investigators.

Her family, including her parents Ted and Barbara Grimley, were present in the court on day one of the inquest on Monday.

Melissa Caddick’s disappearance is the subject of an inquest. Picture: Andy Baker.

Anthony Koletti and Ms Caddick

She was last seen at her Dover Heights home on November 12, 2020

The last known confirmed sighting of Ms Caddick was by her son – who can only be known as Witness B, at her Dover Heights home in the early hours of November 12, 2020.

The sighting took place just hours after federal police and ASIC raided the $6.2m property.

Counsel assisting the coroner Louise Coleman told the court that officers involved in the investigation in 2020 suspected that Mr Koletti was involved in Ms Caddick’s disappearance.

“It is plain from the brief of evidence that as early as 13 November 2020, each of the three police officers that had attended Mr Koletti’s home that day and had subsequently spoken with Witness B held concerns regarding the accounts provided by Mr Koletti and suspected that he might have been involved in some way in Ms Caddick’s disappearance,” she said.

Sergeant Trent Riley, who is due to give evidence at the inquest, said in a July 2021 statement that he believed that Mr Koletti knew of Ms Caddick’s whereabouts.

“He states that Mr Koletti had told him several lies, that his story had changed multiple times, and that he made ‘strange and unusual comments about different aspects of his version’,” Ms Coleman said.

One of the constables who spoke to Mr Koletti on November 13, 2020 said they had concerns about his statements.

She described it as “strange” that he checked the cliffs of Dover Heights, but told officers she seemed fine the night before and did not suffer from any mental health issues.

Mr Koletti at one point told police that if his wife had fled, she was likely staying at the Meriton at Bondi Junction, however there was no record of her ever staying there.

The coroner received one police document last week in which it was revealed that an unnamed officer “was of the view that Koletti had likely killed the deceased”.

Ms Caddick and Mr Koletti. Picture: Facebook

A foot belonging to Melissa Caddick washed up on a NSW south coast beach.

However the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Michael Foscholo, was “of the personal view that (Ms Caddick) has taken her own life shortly after leaving the house”.

The court further heard that Detective Sergeant Michael Foscholo says he found “no evidence to support the theory” that Koletti played a role in Ms Caddick’s disappearance.

Mr Koletti has never been charged in connection with her disappearance.

Ms Coleman told the court that “many of the inconsistencies in Mr Koletti’s accounts do not appear to have been identified or pursued by NSWP”.

The court heard that police did not conduct a crime scene examination of Ms Caddick’s home, or cars owned by her and Mr Koletti, until 19 days after she vanished.

“It suggests that even amongst the officers involved in the investigation, there were concerns as to some of the steps taken and not taken, particularly soon after Ms Caddick was first reported missing.”

The court was told that Mr Koletti did not make a statement to police until November 13, by which time his wife had been missing for more than 24 hours.

On that afternoon officers went to his home to take a missing person’s report.

Mr Downing told the court that one of the officers who attended his house noted Mr Koletti’s “composed, relaxed and seemingly uncaring persona … was unlike any other person I had taken a missing person’s report from previously” and his version of events “did not seem to make sense”.

Bodyworn camera footage played to the court showed the officers speaking to Mr Koletti on November 13.

He told the officers that he woke up in their bed at 6am but by that time Ms Caddick had left.

“She does not go anywhere without her phone,” Mr Koletti said.

He described her disappearance as “completely out of character” and that she didn’t “miss an appointment for anything”.

“You can imagine we’ve worked very hard for what we have,” Mr Koletti told the two officers.

Caddick’s Dover Heights home is being put up for sale. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper.

The inquest is expected to hear from ocean currents experts after a foot – identified as belonging to Ms Caddick – was found washed up on a beach near Tathra, more than 400km south of Sydney three months after she went missing.

Mr Downing said that by August 2020, Ms Caddick appeared to be under financial pressure and that during a walk around the cliffs of Dover Heights, she told a friend: “If I am going to end it, it’s going to be here.”

“According to that friend, Ms Caddick sometimes commented to her, ‘I can’t do it anymore’,” Mr Downing told court.

The court was told that during the breakdown of her first marriage, following her return to Australia from the UK, Ms Caddick told her brother: “If it all gets too much for me, you’ll find me at The Gap.”

Another friend told police that around that time in 2012, Ms Caddick had previously been a missing person after her affair with Mr Koletti was exposed.

Around that time, she also gave another friend a four-letter “code” that she told to pass onto her brother in the event she went missing.

The corporate watchdog has accused Ms Caddick of operating a Ponzi scheme since 2012, misappropriating $20m to $30m worth of investor funds, including from her friends and family, to fund a lavish lifestyle.

The inquest continues.