The first police investigator to work on fraudster Melissa Caddick’s disappearance has told an inquest her husband gave conflicting accounts of her final moments.
Detective Sergeant Michael Kyneur told the second day of the Caddick inquest that early on Anthony Koletti’s behaviour and his reporting to police were ‘unusual’.
Some 30 hours after Ms Caddick was heard leaving their house in Sydney‘s eastern suburbs early on November 12 her husband reported she was missing.
‘I was also aware he attended the coastline at Raleigh Reserve (and) he had taken a photograph of a shoe print,’ Det Sgt Kyneur said on Tuesday.
The first investigator to work on fraudster Melissa Caddick’s disappearance has revealed details of Anthony Koletti’s ‘unusual’ behaviour (pictured, Koletti and Caddick together)
Detective Sergeant Kyneur (pictured) gave details of Anthony Koletti’s behaviour and how he gave conflicting account of his wife’s disappearance on the second day of the inquest
‘I thought that was extraordinary.
‘That’s a dog park. It’s like saying I found a footprint on Bondi Beach.’
And he found Mr Koletti’s demeanour strange.
‘He didn’t appear to be overly concerned,’ he said.
‘In my experience, if your spouse or loved one goes missing there is usually some genuine concern or some type of emotion.’
But he did not believe that Mr Koletti had murdered his wife.
‘There was no evidence that Ms Caddick had suffered injury at the hands of Mr Koletti,’ he said.
‘I concluded that was not a viable proposition.’
The last known sighting of Ms Caddick was a day after ASIC raided her Dover Heights home on November 11, 2020.
Her Ponzi scheme victims, mostly family and friends, lost $20-$30 million she used to fund her lavish lifestyle.
Mr Koletti is seen outside the NSW Coroner’s Court in Lidcombe on Tuesday morning – one day after the inquest heard police suspected him of playing a role in Melissa Caddick’s disappearance during the early days of her disappearance. However, police later dismissed those suspicions and found she is strongly believed to have taken her own life
The disappearance of high-rolling conwoman Melissa Caddick after stealing $23.5million to fund a glamorous lifestyle has become one of Australia’s greatest unsolved mysteries
In February 2021 her foot encased in a shoe washed ashore at Bournda Beach on the state’s south coast.
Det Sgt Kyneur on Tuesday said he believed Ms Caddick had either taken her life due to the financial pressure she was under or ‘gone to ground,’ and was voluntarily missing.
Ms Caddick’s risk assessment was deemed ‘high’ following Mr Koletti’s report that she was missing on November 13, at 1pm.
That suggests Ms Caddick was injured or killed by another person resulting from her criminal activity, or that she possibly fled or committed self-harm in the face of her pending prosecution.
The detective read notes on the police system that Mr Koletti was sweating profusely, flustered and unsure of details regarding when he last saw his wife.
Louise Coleman, junior counsel assisting the coroner, asked if he pressed Mr Koletti on these details when he interviewed him on November 16.
‘No,’ he said.
‘This was a statement.
‘I didn’t cross-examine what he was saying in fairness to him, I also realised his wife was missing and I took that into consideration.’
ASIC raided Caddick’s Dover Heights home on November 11, 2020 acting on the suspicion that she had run a Ponzi scheme misappropriated $30 million from investors, including her friends and family
Koletti reported his wife missing to police 30 hours after he said she left the house to go for a walk or a run
Some of the discrepancies include that Mr Koletti said he first became concerned his wife was missing when he noticed her phone in their walk-in wardrobe, saying he left a post-it note and a gift beside it.
But on his first account to police, Ms Caddick’s son alerted him to her phone in the common living area.
Barrister Lachlan Gyles SC, on behalf of the NSW police, said until the morning of a press conference and not including the ASIC search warrant that had precipitated it, it was not an unusual missing persons investigation.
‘Ms Caddick at this point could well have walked into her residence or walked into Rose Bay Police Station, or a Gucci retail shop and the investigation would have completed largely without controversy,’ he said.
The inquest continues.