Melissa Caddick investigation: Head cop reveals what he think happened to the missing conwoman

The top agent who led the investigation into Melissa Caddick’s disappearance still believes the fraudster committed suicide after an investigation into her multimillion-dollar scam was opened, despite speculation that a child’s mother had fled Australia.

The 49-year-old was reported missing by husband Anthony Koletti on November 13, 2020, two days after business watchdog ASIC and Australian Federal Police officers raided her home in Dover Heights.

The police collected a mountain of CCTV footage from surrounding houses.

At a “milestone meeting” with senior police figures on Feb. 15, 2021, Detective Michael Foscholo asked for more resources to review the footage for signs of Caddick.

Six days later, Caddick’s decomposing foot washed up in a running shoe on Bournda Beach on the south coast of NSW, some 220 miles from her home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Since that grim discovery, Australians have been asking each other what they think happened to Caddick.

Det Sergeant Foscholo, who took over ten days after the investigation, was asked to do just that by Mr Koletti’s counsel, Judy Swan, during an inquest in Sydney’s Downing Center Local Court on Tuesday.

After a brief laugh at Mrs Swan’s initial question – whether he had ever heard of the phrase ‘someone died of shame’ – Det Sgt Foscholo gave his opinion.

“It was clear to me that Melissa Caddick’s fraudulent activities were one of the catalysts for her disappearance and ultimately the reason or motive for her suicide,” he said.

Det Sgt Foscholo said the discovery of the foot led police to search some “specific areas” on the south coast, but CCTV had already been collected in the coastal areas of Dover Heights and in marinas near Rose Bay.

At the February 15 meeting, only about 20 percent of the footage had been viewed.

No CCTV footage was available for the fastest route from Caddick’s house to the Rodney Reserve Cliffs, where Det Sgt Foscholo believes Caddick jumped.

“(It’s) the closest location to her house and it’s open ocean there,” he said.

“It’s not a bay … once you hit that open ocean, there are a lot of unknown variables.”

Gretchen Atkins, Detective Inspector Gretchen Atkins of the Eastern Suburbs Police District, said injured or otherwise impaired area officers had been assigned to watch CCTV from the home in Dover Heights where Caddick was last seen and from airports and other starting points.

“We were pretty understaffed at the time,” Detective Atkins told the inquest Tuesday.

Detective Sergeant Foscholo, who took over when Caddick’s disappearance began to draw a lot of attention, wanted more help.

“With the resources at my disposal, we got through it,” he said.

“Extra resources would have been good.”

His superior, Det Insp Atkins, said she tried to provide them.

“I gave him what I could at the time,” she said.

“It was time consuming and painstaking and he tried to revise it as soon as possible.”

Det Sergeant Foscholo told the inquiry that his strategy was to “saturate” the area around her house immediately, looking for any cameras that might be useful before it was removed or overwritten.

But the CCTV was only part of a complex investigation that was beginning to attract widespread attention.

“It was clear to me that Melissa Caddick was not going to turn herself in to a police station,” said Detective Foschoolo.

Caddick defrauded family and friends of between $20 million and $30 million in a Ponzi scheme before her disappearance.

The investigation will resume in February.

It comes after Caddick’s husband criticized his “sickening” portrayal on Channel Nine’s Underbelly show about his wife’s disappearance.

In an extensive exclusive interview with Daily Mail Australia, Mr Koletti said the program – in which he was played by actor Jerome Velinsky – portrayed him inaccurately and untruthfully.

“I don’t feel like they portrayed me at all,” he said. “I found it nauseating.”

Koletti said there was no truth to the show – which aired in April and used a creative license to tell the story of Australia’s most notorious conwoman.

‘It was difficult [to watch] – I found it very tasteless,’ he said.

The exact circumstances of Ms Caddick’s presumed death have yet to be confirmed by a coroner, who will complete an inquest into the matter this week.

The inquiry – which will conclude on Tuesday after further evidence from two NSW police officers – heard earlier that detectives initially believed she was on the run and there was no evidence of murder.

Koletti said he was not contacted by Channel Nine about the show.

“They stole my name and made up a story. I don’t think they see the damage it does,” he said.

Daily Mail Australia approached Channel Nine for comment on Mr Koletti’s comments.

Earlier in the interview, Koletti said he “felt” his wife was no longer alive when police told him they’d found her severed foot — breaking his silence about his new job and toll years of ridicule as a “failed DJ” and her ‘toyboy’ has adopted him.

Koletti revealed how he’s trying to move on with his life two years after Caddick disappeared without a trace after stealing $23 million of her clients’ money while posing as a financial advisor.

He has returned to hairdressing after finally getting a job as a senior stylist The Hair Angel in Balmain, Sydney’s inner west.

The constant scrutiny made finding a job very difficult with employers terrified of bad press associated with hiring a con artist’s husband.

But sitting in the saloon with his new boss Deborah Bradshaw, Koletti said he’s determined to draw a line under the saga. — even if it means never finding love again.

“I still love Melissa, and always will,” he said.

“I highly doubt I’ll find anyone else, but it doesn’t matter.”

Koletti knew his wife was dead when police approached him in March 2021 and said she washed up her severed foot on Bournda Beach – 250 miles from the home they shared together in Dover Heights.

Before that, he thought she was alive.

“In your heart you know if someone is no longer on earth,” he said. “When I spoke to the police that day, I knew she was gone. I felt it in my heart.’

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