Daily News Roundup

 

MONDAY, MARCH 1

A Sydney con woman whose remains were discovered 200km from her home may have been alive for months after suddenly vanishing from her $6.1 million mansion, reports news.com.

Melissa Caddick was declared dead by police on Saturday after DNA testing revealed that her severed foot, wedged inside a sneaker, drifted ashore on Bournda Beach on the NSW south coast.

DNA from the foot matched samples taken from the 49-year-old millionaire’s toothbrush and family members.

A large piece of torso flesh which included a belly button was found in the sand 150km away at Mollymook Beach on the same day, and two bones washed up on Turra Beach on Sunday.

Police say that remains resembling human intestines were also found 200km north at Cunjurong Point.

Forensic experts are now testing the latest body parts, but detectives believe the remains are too fresh to have been in the water since November 12 when Caddick went missing.

If they are found to be hers, it would mean the theory that the mother-of-one took her own life immediately after vanishing from her home in Dover Heights in Sydney’s eastern suburbs could be ruled out.

Her disappearance came two days after the Australian Federal Police and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) raided her home over allegations she was misappropriating investor funds through her finance business Maliver Pty Ltd.

The majority of her alleged victims were family members and long standing friends, none of whom had any idea up until recently that they were being fleeced of millions of dollars.

Police believed she was still alive until the decomposing foot was found, and though she is confirmed dead, when she died is still to be determined.

A senior investigator who spoke to The Daily Telegraph said that the condition of the discovered body parts means she was likely on the run for weeks before her death.

“Something in the water for that long, say a bit of flotsam or jetsam that washes onto the shore, has got green growth on it,” said Superintendent Joe McNulty, Commander of the NSW Marine Command.

“At first examination the shoe doesn’t appear to have been in the water for three months. The shoe needs extensive analysis to see how long it was in the water. It’s a vital clue where hopefully marine biology can provide some answers.”

Mr McNulty, who has been working in marine recovery for 30 years, said he has never heard of a case where a body that entered the water in Sydney could float hundreds of kilometres down the south coast.

Though it is possible for a body to get caught in the East Australian Current and float along for 100km in a single day, investigators with decades of experience say it is unheard of.

Another disturbing theory is that she is still alive somewhere — without her foot.

Speaking to Weekend Today on Saturday, University of Newcastle Associate Professor of Criminology Dr Xanthe Mallett pointed out that losing a foot didn’t automatically spell out death.

“When it was just a foot I would caution against the possibility that somebody is deceased. You can survive without your foot,” she said.

Dr Mallett has now further explained her comments, telling The Daily Telegraph that she was not convinced Ms Caddick was deceased when she first heard about her partial remains being discovered.

She told the publication that losing a foot didn’t immediately point to death as the only possibility for the accused conwoman, though if more remains were confirmed then that would change things.

“Now that we may have other human remains, if they are confirmed to belong to Melissa, then the investigation is taking another turn,” Dr Mallett said.

“All options have to remain open, including the unlikely chance of a really strange accident, suicide or something more sinister.”

Those entrusted their money with Caddick — some of whom considering her a close friend — have expressed shock at the latest developments.

Cheryl Kraft Reid entrusted almost $1 million of her superannuation with Caddick and last heard from two months prior to her disappearance.

“It’s a sad tragic outcome for her son but its also just a sad tragic outcome for us because we just don’t get closure,” she told 2GB.

“Besides the news we’re unlikely to see any return of that, it’s pretty devastating.’

“It’s not just the money, it’s the consequences of what’s happened to us and for the many years we’ve worked for zero returns because she decided to live an entitled and frivolous life.”

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Myanmar police have opened fired on protesters during the bloodiest day in weeks of demonstrations against the recent military coup in the nation, according to Reater/ABC reports.

At least 18 people were killed and several injured on Sunday, the UN human rights office said.

“Throughout the day, in several locations throughout the country, police and military forces have confronted peaceful demonstrations, using lethal force and less-than-lethal force that — according to credible information received by the UN human rights office — has left at least 18 people dead and over 30 wounded,” the office said.

Myanmar has been in chaos since the Army seized power and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership on February 1, alleging fraud in a November election her party won in a landslide.

The coup, which has brought to a halt the country’s tentative steps towards democracy after nearly 50 years of military rule, has drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets.

“Myanmar is like a battlefield,” the Buddhist-majority nation’s first Catholic cardinal, Charles Maung Bo, said on Twitter.

Police reinforced by soldiers were out early on Sunday, opening fire in different parts of the biggest city of Yangon after stun grenades, tear gas and shots in the air failed to break up crowds.

Several injured people were hauled away by fellow protesters, leaving bloody smears on pavements, media images showed.

One person was killed and “more than a dozen” were injured in the southern town of Dawei.(Reuters)

One man died after being brought to a hospital with a bullet in the chest, said a doctor who asked not to be identified.

A woman died of a suspected heart attack after police swooped to break up a Yangon teachers’ protest with stun grenades, her daughter and a colleague said.

Police also hurled stun grenades outside a Yangon medical school, sending doctors and students in white lab coats scattering.

A group called the Whitecoat Alliance of medics said more than 50 medical staff had been arrested.

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In his first speech since leaving the White House, former US President Donald Trump has said he will not start his own political party.

Addressing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Mr Trump hinted that he may attempt to run for the presidency again in 2024.

Early in his speech, the former president dismissed speculation he wanted to start his own political party.

Mr Trump’s relationship with the party appeared somewhat fractured when a handful of Republicans in both houses of Congress sided with Democrats on wanting to impeach him.

“We’re not starting new parties. We have the Republican Party. It’s going to be united and be stronger than ever before. I am not starting a new party,” he said.

Mr Trump also attacked current President Joe Biden, to whom he lost last November’s presidential election.

“Our movement of proud, hard-working American patriots is just getting started, and in the end we will win. We will win,” Mr Trump said.

The former president hinted he would consider running for the White House again in 2024.

“I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we began together four years ago is far from over,” he said.

“We are gathered this afternoon to talk about the future — the future of our movement, the future of our party, and the future of our beloved country.”

“Who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time.”