Husband denies helping Caddick disappear

Greta Stonehouse | September 29, 2022

Melissa Caddick’s husband has denied playing any role in his wife’s disappearance and that he deliberately delayed reporting her missing to buy time or avoid police attention. 

Anthony Koletti told the inquest into the fraudster’s disappearance and suspected death that he definitely did not assist in her vanishing without a trace. 

“Did you delay reporting her missing in order to give her time to try and go somewhere … or end her own life?” counsel assisting Jason Downing SC said.

“I did not,” Mr Koletti said. 

Earlier the hairdresser and part-time DJ was again questioned about the day he says Ms Caddick disappeared on November 12, 2022 from their Sydney eastern suburbs home. 

That evening he drove to a friend’s place in Rose Bay to get an “e-cigarette,” he told the NSW Coroners Court. 

“Was it in fact to smoke a joint?” Mr Downing asked.

“I don’t know … it’s possible,” Mr Koletti said.

“You must remember,” Mr Downing said.

“Let’s just say I did, what’s your point?” Mr Koletti said.

“On a night you told us you were conducting searches throughout the day … you in fact went to smoke a joint with a friend,” Mr Downing said.

Mr Koletti said he was concerned about his wife and accepted he smoked weed to calm himself down.

Text messages exchanged with that friend were later deleted by Mr Koletti before he handed his phone over to police to assist with their inquiries, Mr Downing said.

Mr Koletti said doing that must have had “something to do with marijuana”.

He formally reported his wife missing the following day on November 13, and was asked if he had been out the night before.

“Not that I know of,” he said.

The day she went missing is “all a bit of a blur,” Mr Koletti said on Thursday before adding his recollection is “quite hazy”.

“I don’t recall going anywhere,” he said.

In several different police reports and for weeks after Mr Koletti maintained Ms Caddick left the home in black exercise gear and silver Asics. 

But after she failed to return he says he assumed she was meeting a lawyer, or staying in a hotel before her court appearance the following day. 

Mr Downing asked why he insists she left in athletic wear if he later believed she was meeting a lawyer.

Mr Koletti said it was based on assumptions, but denied seeing her wearing them. 

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Kerri Eagle diagnosed Ms Caddick with a “narcissistic personality disorder” but noted the limitations of never having interviewed her and purely based on statements and other records.

Ms Caddick portrayed herself as a highly successful and affluent person and fed her self-esteem through the admiration of others, Dr Eagle told the inquest. 

Facing exposure as a fraud and not appearing as brilliant as she projected, if she felt she could not recover from such humiliation she may suddenly feel no other outlet than suicide, Dr Eagle said. 

But from her assessments the doctor did not believe she displayed psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies. 

Ms Caddick’s Ponzi scheme victims, mostly family and friends, lost $20-$30 million she used to fund her lavish lifestyle

In February 2021 her decomposing foot encased in a shoe washed ashore at Bournda Beach on the NSW south coast.

Ms Caddick’s brother Adam Grimley has said in an affidavit the family was “floored” counsel assisting seemed to be “going after” his brother-in-law.

He noted counsel seemed to be presenting “unverified gossip as fact” and said Mr Koletti had suffered enormously from the loss of his wife, the shock of her misconduct and unsubstantiated accusations that followed. 

Overnight he had received abusive messages including one reading: “Dodgy prick, I hope you get locked up,” his lawyer Judy Swan said.

The inquest continues on Friday.