Melissa Caddick’s Asics shoe would have had barnacles on it ‘within 15 days’ if she had died around the same time she went missing, forensic expert claims
- Forensic expert claims Melissa Caddick’s shoe should have more ocean debris
- Dr Paolo Magni said barnacles would attach to the shoe in less than 15 days
- She vanished after ASIC carried out search warrant at her luxury Sydney home
- Her foot was discovered in a running shoe on NSW South Coast on February 21
An expert’s claim that Melissa Caddick’s shoe should have had more barnacles has fuelled speculation the conwoman could have been alive long after she vanished.
According to an international expert in aquatic forensics Caddick’s Asic shoe would have had barnacles and marine growth on it within two weeks of being in the water.
The shoe was found three months after the conwoman’s disappearance in November, 400km from her home on Bournda Beach on the NSW South Coast.
A expert in aquatic forensics has said he expected Melissa Caddick’s Asic shoe to have more barnacles and marine growth
The shoe, which was found in relatively good condition, will undergo considerable testing to pinpoint exactly how long it remained in the water for.
‘If the shoe had been floating that long I would expect barnacles,’ Dr Paolo Magni from Murdoch University told The Daily Telegraph.
‘November to now is summer time so the water is pretty warm with a lot of plankton, full of little creatures that are extremely active because of the warm water.
‘I would have expected something on the shoe … based on my experience.’
Caddick’s decomposed foot was found on Bournda Beach on the NSW South Coast in a rare Asics shoe 400km away from her home
Dr Magni said if the shoe had been protected by a plastic bag or submerged in a car, there would be a lesser chance of marine growth appearing on the shoe.
The expert in aquatic forensics said in his experience, barnacles can attach on a shoe in less than 15 days.
New South Wales police are currently compiling a team of experts to analyse the shoe, with their findings to be sent to the Coroner.
‘An anthropologist would work on the bones and any flesh, someone like me would work on the shoe, and experts on tides and currents and water temperatures would also have to be consulted,’ Dr Magni said.
Pictured: Melissa Caddick and her husband Anthony Koletti before she went missing on November 11
Caddick, 49, vanished the day after corporate watchdog ASIC executed a search warrant at her luxury $6.1million home in Dover Heights in the city’s eastern suburbs on November 11.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has said authorities were still unable to say whether she killed herself or if there was foul play involved.
Pictured: NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller
He noted the limited decomposition of the shoe would indicate it had not been out in the ocean for the entire three-month period since she went missing.
‘While it’s not my area of expertise, if that’s the case a possible scenario is that she has been murdered recently or murdered and kept on ice for a while,’ he said.
He also raised the outlandish possibility Ms Caddick could have severed her own foot to throw police off the scent – and that she could still be alive.
‘There’s always a chance she cut her foot off and is still alive, though it’s pretty fanciful,’ he told 2GB on March 8.
However, the Police Commissioner is satisfied the 49-year-old millionaire is dead.
Mick Fuller said the limited decomposition of the shoe would indicate it had not been out in the ocean for the entire three-month period since the conwoman went missing
‘We’re still trying to recover funds [for defrauded investors] and that investigation continues. But we haven’t closed this case.’
Mr Fuller said many people jumped from the Dover Heights cliffs without their remains washing up several hundred kilometres away.
‘[It’s not common to see] body parts wash up so far south of Sydney and in such good condition given she went missing on or about November 11,’ he said.
‘Not to say it can’t happen. The coroner will make further determinations.’
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said there was always a chance Melissa Caddick cut her foot off and is still alive but said it was ‘pretty fanciful’
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