Missing conwoman Melissa Caddick could be hiding in Canada, according to fanciful claim on the footless fraudster’s whereabouts published on a Facebook group – but many have cast doubts.
A man claims to have seen Caddick ‘limping’ at a wedding in Gatineau, a city in Quebec, almost four years after she disappeared from Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
‘I was at my cousin’s wedding when a destitute woman appeared that no one seemed to know. She was leaning over the food table, eating like she hadn’t in days,’ the man explained in the unverified report.
‘She had bleached blonde hair clearly from a box, walked with a limp, maybe because of a prosthetic, and obvious plastic surgery.
‘After learning about Melissa Caddick and seeing her photo I had an immediate flashback. It was her. No matter how much plastic surgery you get, you can’t change the shape of your big head.
‘Waiting for my cousin to send me candid wedding photos to cross reference but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet.’
Caddick, who ran a bogus financial services company, vanished in November 2020, a day after ASIC investigators and n Federal Police officers raided her home at Dover Heights.
The 49-year-old misappropriated about $23million from investors, mostly family and friends, and was declared dead by a coroner in May last year.
In February 2021, Caddick’s right foot – matched by DNA – was found in a shoe washed up on a beach south of Tathra, about 500km from where she was last seen alive.
The potential sighting of Caddick drew a host of responses on the Facebook page from users, with most rubbishing the idea.
‘Unless you have photos to prove it, I will treat this post as unverified,’ one said.
Another added: ‘Why do I feel like you’re talking absolute sh*t.’
A third said: ‘I don’t think she’d be without money or starving, she’s a master manipulator and planner, she would’ve been very well organised and had things planned well ahead of time.’
However, others supported the idea.
‘That is an insane breakthrough. Thank you for letting us know. She doesn’t sound like she is faring well.’
A second added: ‘Doesn’t surprise me, can’t wait for the pictures.’
A third joked: ‘Did she try and sell you financial services?’
Regardless of whether Caddick was seen in Canada, many ns continue to wonder if she might still be alive and intentionally avoiding detection.
However, criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro told Daily Mail that it is more likely she is dead.
‘The shoe may have been planted to prove that she was deceased or that she’d gone out to sea,’ he said.
‘Who knows? More likely than not she’s deceased. That’s my view. How has she died? That’s speculative, whether it was by suicide or by foul play.’
Mr Watson-Munro said that although losing a foot might seem extreme to some people, it paled when compared to serving a 10 to 15-year prison sentence.
‘She could afford a good surgeon who could perhaps remove the foot and have a prosthetic foot made that’s fitting and comfortable,’ he said.
‘Now, for some that may seem pretty drastic but when you’re faced with what she was facing in terms of probably decades in prison, certainly more than 10 to 15 years, you would think for that amount of money, it’s a softer option.
‘She was the queen of the con, the Queen of the Ponzi scheme.’
People do incredible things to make quick money and to escape justice.
While there are no recorded instances of anything as extreme as a person cutting off their own foot to fake their death, in theory it is possible.
In 2019 Slovenian woman Julija Adlesic, 22, arrived at hospital with her hand severed above the wrist, which she claimed happened when she was cutting branches.
It was recovered in time to be sewn back on, but she still managed to collect one million euros.
It was later revealed she had taken out five insurance policies and her boyfriend had done multiple web searches on artificial hands.
An investigation found she had used a circular saw and she was charged with fraud.
In 1977, n man Carl Synnerdahl fooled the justice system into believing he was blind to receive a minimum sentence for armed robbery.
Then pretending to attend church counselling, complete with dark glasses and a white cane, he escaped and hitchhiked to Sydney.
He was also caught.