Conwoman search returns to sea cliff base

Police divers are gearing up for a thorough search along the cliffs where Sydney conwoman Melissa Caddick was last seen.

Dive squad officers off the cliffs at Sydney’s Dover Heights. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

Police divers are gearing up for a thorough search along the soaring sea cliffs where Sydney conwoman Melissa Caddick was last seen — more than three months after she vanished while out for an early morning jog.

Dive squad officers spent more than three hours in a boat off the base of the cliffs at Dover Heights, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, on Wednesday before abandoning plans to enter the water because of hazardous surf conditions.

A police spokesperson said the squad would reassess the situation at the site, a few hundred metres from Ms Caddick’s home, about 7am on Thursday and would continue to monitor conditions on a “day-to-day” basis until the search was completed.

Police would not elaborate on why they were searching the area so long after her dis­appearance or whether they had conducted previous sweeps along the sea cliffs, citing “operational reasons”.

The 49-year-old vanished on November 12, the day after the $7m mansion she shared with her husband and 15-year-old son was raided by Australian Federal Police on behalf of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. She has been accused of stealing more than $20m from her investors, including family and friends, and using the money to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Investigators told her that her assets had been frozen and she needed to hand in her passport.

Her son told police he heard the front door close about 5.30am the day Ms Caddick disappeared and assumed his mother had gone out for a run. Her husband of seven years, Anthony Koletti, 38, reported her missing a day later, on November 13.

Police last week revealed that Ms Caddick’s disembodied and badly decomposed right foot had been found by campers in an Asics running shoe washed up on Bournda Beach, about 430km south of Sydney, on February 21.

“Scientists were able to extract DNA from the foot and match it to a sample of DNA we had obtained from a toothbrush belonging to Melissa and from her relatives,” NSW police assistant commissioner Mick Willing said.

Until that discovery, police had been unable to rule out the possibility Ms Caddick was still alive and on the run.

DNA tests have confirmed a chunk of human torso found on a beach at Mollymook, about 220km north of Bournda Beach, is not connected to Ms Caddick.

Police said forensic testing had revealed the remains belonged to a 37-year-old man who had been reported missing in suburban Sydney a month ago.