Melissa Caddick’s husband exhibited ‘unusual’ behaviour after disappearance, inquest hears

The first police investigator to work on the disappearance of alleged fraudster Melissa Caddick has told a Sydney inquest her husband gave conflicting accounts of her final movements.

Det Sgt Michael Kyneur told the second day of the Caddick inquest that early on, Anthony Koletti's behaviour and his reports to police were "unusual".

About 30 hours after Caddick was heard leaving their house in Sydney's eastern suburbs early on 12 November 2020, her husband reported she was missing, the inquest was told.

"I was also aware he attended the coastline at Raleigh Reserve [and] he had taken a photograph of a shoe print," Kyneur said on Tuesday.

"I thought that was extraordinary. That's a dog park. It's like saying I found a footprint on Bondi beach."

The detective sergeant said he found Koletti's demeanour strange.

"He didn't appear to be overly concerned," he told Lidcombe coroner's court. "In my experience, if your spouse or loved one goes missing, there is usually some genuine concern or some type of emotion."

But Kyneur did not believe that 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."

Koletti has denied any involvement in his wife's disappearance.

The last known sighting of Caddick was the day the financial services watchdog Asic raided her Dover Heights home on 11 November 2020.

Her Ponzi scheme victims, mostly family and friends, lost $20-$30m which she used to fund her lavish lifestyle.

In February 2021, her foot encased in a shoe washed ashore at Bournda Beach on the New South Wales south coast.

Kyneur said on Tuesday he believed Caddick had either taken her life due to the financial pressure she was under or "gone to ground" and was voluntarily missing.

Caddick's risk assessment was deemed "high" following Koletti's 13 November report that she was missing.

That suggested Caddick was injured or killed by another person due to her alleged criminal activity, or that she possibly fled or killed herself in the face of her pending prosecution, the inquest was told.

Kyneur had read notes on the police system that 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 Koletti on those details when he interviewed him on 16 November.

"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."

Some of the discrepancies raised in the inquest included that 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.

"Melissa we had everything taken from us. This is a gift for you," the note allegedly read, with a pair of earrings "I had lying around," Koletti said, according to Kyneur's evidence.

But in his first account to police, Koletti said Caddick's son had alerted him to her phone being in the common living area.

Koletti told police he texted the cleaner from his wife's phone the day she disappeared to cancel the appointment. He pretended to be her.

He then phoned her "best friend" and her brother Adam Grimley but did not tell them Caddick was missing, to elicit "an honest answer," he told Kyneur, the inquest heard.

A video that played before the court on Tuesday showed Koletti telling the friend "Melissa is asleep beside me", hours after she had reportedly disappeared.

Kyneur said while he did not believe Koletti had murdered his wife, he did believe he could be withholding information about her location.

Coleman asked why the homicide squad had not been brought in early, or a crime scene established until 19 days after Caddick was reported missing.

Kyneur said Koletti was always cooperative and consented to police searches.

Barrister Lachlan Gyles SC, acting on behalf of NSW police, said initially it was not an unusual missing-person 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.