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Police considered tossing pig carcasses wearing running shoes into the ocean in an effort to unravel the mystery surrounding Melissa Caddick’s disappearance, a court has heard.
The fraudster’s disappearance is being examined by an inquest after she disappeared in November 2020, just hours after ASIC and the AFP raided her mansion in Sydney’s eastern suburbs over a Ponzi scheme which she used to steal $20m-$30m.
She has been believed dead since a running shoe containing a foot, later DNA matched to Ms Caddick, washed up on a NSW South Coast beach, more than 400kms south of Sydney.
The NSW Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that police at one stage considered conducting an experiment involving pig carcasses being thrown into the ocean, fitted with running shoes and tracking devices.
The court heard it was supposed to test ocean currents and how sharks would react.
Detective Sergeant Steven Morgan told the court on Thursday that he did not know if they ever followed through with the experiment.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked if it ever took place.
Meanwhile, Ms Caddick’s mother has asked a coroner to allow her to give evidence at the inquest into the fraudster’s disappearance and suspected death.
The court heard on Thursday that Ms Caddick’s mother Barbara Grimley and brother Adam Grimley had both asked to give evidence, despite not being on the witness list.
Mr Koletti’s solicitor Judy Swan on Thursday told the inquest that Barbara Grimley and Adam Grimley wished to give evidence because they were concerned their voices “weren’t being heard”.
The court has heard Mr Koletti, a hairdresser and part-time DJ, did not make a missing person’s report for 30 hours after his wife was heard walking out the door of their home.
And when he did speak to police, he told officers that he was “too busy” working from home that day to come into the station to make a statement.
Mr Koletti told officers that at that stage he didn’t consider that his wife was “missing”, the court was told.
However, that was contradicted by his statements about becoming worried when he discovered her phone was left behind and that he had searched the cliff tops around their home.
As well, Mr Koletti made conflicting statements about the time his wife was last seen early on November 12.
Sergeant Trent Riley previously told the court that he was concerned by Mr Koletti’s initial statements to police.
And on the afternoon of November 13, he and two other officers went to Mr Koletti’s Dover Heights mansion to interview him for the second time in several hours.
Police body-worn camera footage shows that after Mr Koletti greeted the officers with a smile, Sergeant Riley told him that he was “just a bit” concerned.
“I’m just a bit worried about where your wife might be and I really need you to give me the full info,” Sergeant Riley said as he told Mr Koletti that he needed to clarify some of his statements.
Detective Inspector Gretchen Atkins, the crime manager at the NSW Police eastern suburbs command, told the court that the circumstances of Ms Caddick’s disappearance “raised alarms” during early investigations.
The court was told that under police policy the homicide squad should be notified if, during a police investigation, “suspicious circumstances” were found.
However, Inspector Atkins said in the Caddick investigation, there was nothing to support the theory that Ms Caddick had been murdered.
On November 20, officers took part in a 14-minute search of the three-storey home but only because they suspected that Ms Caddick might have been hiding out there.
The police footage played to the court also showed that on November 13, Mr Koletti allowed police to do a brief search of the five-bedroom house.
Sergeant Riley previously told the court that at the time, he suspected that Ms Caddick was “safe and well”, but Mr Koletti was withholding information.
Mr Koletti has never been charged with anything in respect of Ms Caddick’s disappearance.
Police bodyworn video footage of officers speaking to Melissa Caddick’s husband a day after her disappearance.
Inspector Atkins told the court that in the early stages of the investigation, police were working off the theories that Ms Caddick had taken her own life or was on the run of her own volition.
Counsel assisting the coroner Jason Downing questioned whether a crime scene investigation should have been carried out sooner.
“I’m very comfortable with what we did, the searches that were conducted,” Inspector Atkins said.
“Later, there was a forensic search undertaken, but I was happy with the progress we were making.”
The inquest also heard on Thursday that Ms Caddick had taken out a life insurance policy which also included cover in the event she took her own life.
The inquest continues.
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