Major twist in the Melissa Caddick mystery: Following the money trail | 60 Minutes Australia

Talk about disconcerting, the macabre discovery of fraud? Melissa Haddock's foot on a beach means she took her own life or was murdered even more strangely with no other body parts found. Is there a chance she is still alive? The case of the 49-year-old woman who pretended to be a financial genius to steal $25 million from her family and friends remains intriguing and tonight we can reveal another extraordinary

twist

that might actually put a smile on those whose life savings heist. Liquidators who followed the

money

trail

have discovered a significant hidden meaning. A pile of cash The

mystery

of Melissa Katic and the missing millions had confused detectives until the sea offered a gruesome clue A shoe was located on the coast of Ordana National Park Inside that shoe were the remains of a foot human dna last night foot was compared to a DNA sample from

melissa

kadek's toothbrush and family members the discovery of

melissa

's foot nearly 400 kilometers from where she was last seen was a plot

twist

that no one saw it coming is a

mystery

and a mystery every time I think you will get an answer that will raise more questions tonight.

We can answer some of the biggest questions of all. Where did the

money

go? Where did the money go? For the first time, financial investigators take us inside their search for the truth. and they reveal an important advance, they have located a hidden fortune, the multi-million dollar question, where is all the money? Now there is a stock portfolio that is quite important. We are sure there will be a pretty healthy return for investors and after months of silence now Melissa's family is speaking out about this unfortunate saga it is a difficult time for your family it is a difficult time for everyone and it will take a long time for everyone to get over it and everyone goes back to normal this place is destroyed right now zero until last week few people had heard of bornda beach, a three kilometer stretch of sand on the south coast of new south wales, near the holiday paradise of marimbula, but this quiet hideaway has now become the latest location in a crime drama that has captivated much of

australia

.

It will be the coroner's responsibility to establish what happened as police sniffer dogs scoured the sands here searching for more clues about the woman who quickly became one of the country's most infamous con artists. 60 Minutes special investigator Gary Jubilan was also at the scene. It's a big step forward, but that's what it is. it opens up so many options again, it's a double-edged sword, but certainly from the researcher's point of view it's a significant advance because you can actually fix that, it's a fact, you can fix it at that moment in time, the deceased Melissa and the body. part has appeared here the question now is whether this is suicide or something more sinister either way Gary believes that a person close to Melissa knows more than she is letting on, I think with the nature of the crime Melissa supposedly committed it would be very difficult for someone else to not be aware of those activities or maybe be complicit, actively participate in that, if there is an accomplice, I see that as a potential motive for someone who may have caused harm to Melissa.

I think the police could rule out foul play. I don't think they can rule it out at this point and as they've been at pains to point out, they're keeping all options open and I think that's sensible in a situation like This no matter what happened, one thing is for sure Melissa leaves behind a child 15-year-old, as well as a brother, her parents and her husband, Anthony Coletti. My deepest condolences to all those people. I hope this puts some kind of closure on the forum. this is melissa's father-in-law, rhodo coletti, he has asked us not to show his full face after becoming the target of wild and unfair speculation online regarding melissa's disappearance tonight, he wants to give his opinion, i think everything The Melissa Caddick affair is over. taken on a life of its own I was guilty by association I am Anthony's father and it seems that some people have taken it upon themselves to launch fraudulent statements or statements lies um you know defamation of all kinds against myself my character and my profession which is just what I couldn't stand Well, I mean, let's clear up some of this speculation, I mean, you've been accused of killing Melissa Caddick, did you kill her?

No, you've been accused of helping her plan her financial fraud, well, did you? any part in that nothing at all and I am also interested tonight do you think your son Anthony was able to help plan a pot like this? Well, no, I don't know, Anthony is a hairdresser, a very good hairdresser, but I don't think so. uh, he has the ability to know what a financial plan is. I don't think I could have been in it at all or known what was going on, even if I didn't know what was going on I would believe everything they told Anthony.

He has become quite estranged from his family since Melissa disappeared without a trace in November last year We are asking the community to help bring Melissa home That's all Unemployed hairdresser and DJ came under intense scrutiny after being Initially evasive about his wife's whereabouts there is nothing but I can give him more questions. Questions were also asked about why Anthony waited more than 30 hours to report her wife missing, but despite the mountain of evidence against Melissa, her husband is apparently still convinced she is innocent. He is convinced that Melissa has been fooled once again into believing everything he says.

I've been told that and I think he'll eventually break down when the reality of what she did finally hits him, so you think Anthony still doesn't believe Melissa did anything wrong when I talked to him, certainly not, no. He believed she was deluded and that he was going to consider suing Asic and everyone else for breaking into her house and so on, to which my comment was pretty simple. They acted with a duly issued investigation order. You have no basis for anything. Obviously, it's a very challenging time for him, he would be distraught, he would be confused.

Do you think Anthony denies it? I think he denies it. Delusional denial. um, he doesn't want to believe that you know that the woman he loves and married is capable. but unfortunately there is so much evidence against his lover being blind sometimes it's not like that at all but again it's because he cares about the woman it's that simple but the facts don't lie, melissa katic scammed over 60 investors to the tune of $25 million, it turns out that Rodo was unknowingly caught up in this scam in a different way: he is a justice of the peace and Melissa would forge his signature to help verify his fake documents.

Her father-in-law did not realize this. until he sat down with us, have you ever done any work for Melissa's business? Malevolent at all. They never asked me, but I would never do it anyway. You know that your signature appears on some of her business documents. Should not? your signature that is not my signature did you know that she was also exchanging your name for nothing once again, I mean if you see my signature, it is very distinctive and not mine, how do you feel knowing what she has been doing? That's behind your back, considering all the other things she's supposed to have done, what am I supposed to feel?

I'm not surprised. I get it, perhaps Melissa's most despicable crime is defrauding her own elderly parents. This week we learned the extent to which she took more. More than a million dollars from her mother and father, both in their 80s, gave the money to their daughter with the understanding that she would invest in property, but now they discovered that she used it to finance her lifestyle. vast

major

ity of Melissa's. The victims were his family and friends. This is like a mystery story. I don't know if it's good or bad. Um, they're just the second positive. It's been a week of mixed emotions for Billy McMoore and Michelle Leslie too.

Do you think there will be justice now? Yeah, well, now that they found this, I don't think we're going to see justice. Michelle was a close friend of Melissa's who unfortunately also became a client and has now lost the couple's relationship. All retirement there was a small part of you that was sad that cried when the foot was washed. I felt sorry for the son and the parents and the parents of the family because she is still a person, a human being, I mean parents of murderers and uh armed. above, they are still parents and they still care about their child, they still go to court when someone has been accused of something and I think it would be very, very difficult for their parents to feel sorry for the family, I mean, if you were sad for Melissa. a little bit just a little bit because it's still a person it's a life since they lost their savings billy and michelle have had to uproot Sydney and start a new life a few hours from the coast to reduce their living expenses in terms of hope of get your money back do you just assume you won't get anything and if you get anything above that it's a bonus yes yes correct exactly yes we have put it on that yes a long time ago it just disappeared and it doesn't make sense?

Just thinking oh, she'll be there tomorrow to find it under the pillow, she's not there, but tonight we can reveal that financial detectives have found a stash of cash. Melissa Katic loved to flaunt her wealth. There was a mansion in the exclusive suburb of Dover. heights with stunning views over Sydney Harbor in the garage there were a number of high-powered sports cars and in the closet more than a million dollars worth of high-end clothing and jewelry and when she and her husband Anthony left home to their usual luxury vacations to Aspen and Fiji, they certainly made sure to do it in style.

I find it really hard to understand how anyone could spend so much money on private jets, the lavish vacations to Aspen, and the lavish way she spent on jewelry, etc. go ahead that's really i think what and why this matter is still of interest to people no one knows melissa

caddick

's finances better than bruce gleason he is the court appointed liquidator who has been tasked with reviewing all aspects of his business this is the first time he has accepted an interview since he took on the case over two months ago, you do this job for quite a while and you think that nothing will surprise you, but then you come across a matter like this and the level of interest and the The level of mystery has absolutely blown me away when this is the first time you discover evidence that Melissa was defrauding her clients.

We have gone back to the incorporation or the beginning of the Maliba company and we believe that almost immediately after starting, she was misusing investors' funds, you believe that she created the business to defraud people, there was certainly an intention of misusing investors' funds, Melissa created the business in 2013, but her friends and family did not know at the time that she was using her hard-earned retirement. savings to finance her lavish lifestyle, she boasted about how successful she was in attracting new clients, often boasting about owning the chalet where she vacationed in Aspen each year, but Bruce has now discovered that that was just one of Melissa's many lies, the reality was that At no time, based on the investigations we have done so far, did she ever own the Aspen property even though she claimed a few years ago to people she knew that she had acquired it , so this is all because of the idea that she had this.

Her successful facade she tried to portray to her investors, but it was all absolutely a lie: her extravagant lifestyle was being financed primarily by investors. Now we have discovered an even more extraordinary twist in the Aspen real estate scam, such was Melissa Katic's dedication to living a lie that she actually referenced that property in her will and left it to a family member, even though she would have known that he had only rented the apartment to get to the bottom of Melissa's fraud. Investigators have had to study her way of thinking as much as her money movements.

What kind of psychological traits are needed to try to pull off a scam like this? I think someone who is very charismatic is a key trait. There's, you know, a level of self-confidence and also. a level of invincibility that I'm fascinated to know, whether Melissa sensed the network was getting closer or there were no telltale signs that she was preparing for the end of all this, I think it's classic with people who operate Ponzi schemes, Tom, they never think that. The scheme will end, as I said, this level of invincibility will continue, but history shows us that all Ponzi schemes fail at some point.

Melissa Kaddick's scam collapsed on November 11 last year when her mansion was raided by corporate watchdog ASIC. and federal police, this footage of the operation is the last known sighting of Melissa before she disappeared without a trace along with $25 million of her investors' funds, but we can now reveal that some of her money has beenoverdraft hidden in investments, there is a shared portfolio. Which is pretty significant when you say pretty significant, so there are some funds that were genuinely invested that could come back to the people who trusted Melissa. Yes, that is correct at this point, we are sure that there will be a pretty healthy return for investors.

I know you can't give me details in terms of actual dollar amounts, but we think it will be significant, there are still some challenges along the way that we have to resolve and certainly if they can be resolved. solved, then you know that that will allow the return to be a pretty healthy amount. The discovery is the first good news investors have received in months, but researchers emphasize that it is important to note here that while Melissa was using her clients' funds to purchase the shares, it was actually not for them, but for she herself. She made the purchases in her own name and kept them all.

The dividends to her will also be used to continue funding her big expenses, but while there may now be some money for Melissa's family and friends, there is one family member in particular who will be lost. Will Melissa's husband Anthony get a share of any of those assets? he is not a creditor of the company or melissa that we can establish so we don't see him as part of that picture right now so as it stands anthony gets nothing like i said we don't see him as a creditor while There have been many developments for genuine creditors over the last week.

They say their distrust of Melissa is such that they can't help but question perhaps the biggest development in this case so far. She could still be alive. Three teenagers found a shoe. and remains of a foot there have been big bombshells in the case of melissa

caddick

this last fortnight the police were able to confirm that the bones found inside the asic sports shoes belonged to her but these days nothing surprises her friends billy mcmoore and michelle leslie after they were scammed by the high-flying investor when you heard the news about Melissa last week and the discovery.

What was the first thing you texted a friend? Oh, my first reaction is that it's just a foot, where is the rest of the body? Is there evidence of cement? to say that she actually she is dead and then when I looked at her and then I saw that she was just a strong, I went, she is capable of anything, what do you mean she is capable of anything? Well she could still be alive maybe it's just something she wanted out to calm everything down if you find a thought that means she must be dead but who would know I mean it seems extremely unlikely but you honestly think she's capable of throwing a red herring like that, absolutely yes.

One of the enduring mysteries of this case is if Melissa fell off the cliffs near her house, then how did she manage to get here without being detected by a single CCTV camera? The route from her house is several hundred meters and passes many mansions with many security cameras, but none of them saw anything. Do you find it quite surprising that in such an affluent area where there are so many CCTV cameras that none of them have managed to pick it up? I would say it is unlikely that someone left a house with the intention of committing suicide.

I don't think they would care if they were being captured on CCTV footage or not if I were watching this investigation and I'm sure they wouldn't. saying things that wouldn't have been done maybe the police will go back and review that CCTV footage to see if anything has been missed in light of the new evidence that has emerged with the discovery of melissa's foot bones 60

minutes

investigator Special Gary Jubilan has been looking into the case and believes another area police will delve into is the area where Melissa's foot was washed ashore. It turns out that she was very familiar with this little-known beach, as she actually attended school camps here when she was a child, which really caught my attention. interest and that's where I started thinking, well, maybe she's been in this area and this is where she stepped into the water.

Is it sometimes a trait of criminals to go to areas they are familiar with when people disappear on me? experience, they go quite frequently and I think when we first talked about Melissa's disappearance, they go to an area that they feel comfortable with or are familiar with. One would have to consider the possibility that perhaps she had been considering her options for quite some time. before, if she committed suicide before deciding to kill herself, barring another surprising twist, the next step in this case is when the financial investigation brought by corporate watchdog ASIC returns to court next month.

No, I don't think this is a matter that we continued for months and months, our priority is to work with the liquidators to get a return for investors as quickly as possible. Tim Mullally is Asic's head of financial services compliance. He has revealed that the person who first smelled a rat was with Melissa and reported it. Authorities managed to dodge a serious bullet in the process. There were concerns expressed by people who had been approached to invest in the uh with MS Cadec. They were concerned about the information they had received, so the people who gave the initial notice never actually did. invested with Melissa, as I understand it, they did some digging, were a little concerned with some of the responses they received and determined that they would not be moving forward with that investment, for those who lost their money, there may soon be some sort of payout.

Melissa Caddick's house is understood to be put up for sale in the coming weeks and local agents tell me it could fetch up to $9 million in the currently booming market, once the amount still owed is removed. the mortgage that will mean. An additional $5 million will be added to the pool of assets that will be divided among investors and that's on top of the sizeable stock portfolio we revealed earlier. Melissa's father-in-law Coletti has spent months trying to correct false rumors implicating him in His daughter-in-law's crimes have effectively become collateral damage in this case, but now his attention is focused on his son Anthony, who not only lost his wife, but also lost his entire livelihood.

His son could soon be homeless. Are you welcome back? Mom and dad's place if he wants to come back and I'm sure he already knows that. What is your fatherly advice for Anthony? If you noticed some were there, if and when you needed us, we were there, as simple as that, I can't say it anymore, yeah. He is an adult, now you raise your children and try to teach them the difference between right and wrong and you can only hope that they make decisions accordingly, but you can't control that if this story has raised concerns and you need to talk to someone. call Lifeline at 13 11 14.

Hi, I'm Tom Steinfert, thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia. Subscribe to our channel now to get new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss our bonus minute segments and full 60 minute episodes. at nine now dot com dot a u and at nine now app