The missing MILLIONAIRE

She scammed her friends and family out of thousands, then vanished into thin air. A new ITVX documentary explores the mystery of Melissa Caddick

- FRANCES LEATE

Melissa Caddick was a woman who had it all – a luxurious penthouse in one of the wealthiest parts of Sydney, Australia,  a successful business, a loving family, loyal friends and a handsome younger husband. And as if that wasn’t enough, she also had a designer walk-in wardrobe bursting at the seams with haute couture dresses, Christian Dior shoes and Gucci handbags. She went on luxury holidays, wore expensive jewellery and drove luxury cars.

Only, one morning in November 2020, the fitness fanatic, 49, went out for a run and never came back. Where was she? Did she have something to run from? The world was gripped by the mystery of her disappearance and now a new ITVX documentary, The Real Vanishing Act: The Missing Millionairess, attempts to answer some of those questions.

Melissa had always been eager to impress, and by the time she was in her 20s, she had a high-flying career working as a stockbroker. She married a lawyer and in 2006, aged 35, they had a son, but her marriage broke down in 2011. Melissa soon became close to her hairdresser, Anthony Koletti, then 29, and in 2013 they married.

By now, Melissa had her own business working as a financial advisor, investing money for a select group of people, allegedly making them huge amounts of profit on the stock market. But her clients had started to notice a few things – the trading account numbers on their statements didn’t match, and they weren’t allowed to access their accounts online themselves, they only had printed statements Melissa had given them.