Coroner confirms Australian conwoman’s death, nature of demise remains unknown

Canberra:  An Australian coroner on Thursday confirmed the death of conwoman Melissa Caddick, who vanished from her Sydney home in November 2020 with only her partially decomposed foot found washed up on a beach months later, but the nature of her demise still remains unknown,

The 49-year-old has not been seen since the country’s corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), raided her home on the morning of November 11, 2020, reports ABC News.

The raid was part of the ASIC’s probe into an alleged Ponzi scheme run by Caddick and an inquest heard that investors lost between $20 and $30 million.

At the time her home was raided, authorities suspected she had stolen in excess of $23 million.

Three months after she disappeared, a decomposed foot washed up on a NSW South Coast beach. It was matched to Caddick’s through DNA analysis but the cause of death could not be determined by an autopsy.

On Thursday, Deputy State Coroner Elizabeth Ryan concluded Caddick was dead but said questions around how, when and where she died remained “problematical”.

“The conclusion I have reached is that Melissa Caddick is deceased. However… I do not consider the evidence enables a positive finding as to how she died, or when and where this happened,” the BBC quoted Ryan as saying.

Ryan also said it was “certainly possible” Caddick died by suicide, but could not make findings beyond that.

“A finding that a particular scenario is plausible does not equate to acceptance of it on the basis of reasonable satisfaction,” she said.

The last confirmed sighting of Caddick was by officers at the raid on her home.

Her husband, Anthony Koletti, told police they believed she had gone for an early run the next morning. Her car and all her personal belongings had been left behind.

But she was not reported missing by Koletti for more than 30 hours, and only after he had dialled in to a court hearing that she was due to attend and appeared surprised she had not turned up.

Koletti has denied any knowledge of his wife’s crimes or any involvement in her disappearance, and police say they have uncovered no evidence to dispute that.

–IANS