It's a case that has been both captivating and perplexing.
A wealthy financial planner vanishes without a trace while being investigated for stealing millions of dollars from investors.
Months later, her decomposed foot — and now possibly more remains — washes up on the NSW South Coast, hundreds of kilometres from her eastern suburbs mansion.
The extraordinary case has fascinated the public because it has "all the makings of an exceptional mystery, which is far from over," according to former NSW Police officer and true crime author Duncan McNab.
"It's set in Sydney's east, with a lot of wealthy investors, and Caddick was seemingly living the lifestyle of the rich and famous," he said.
"Jets, Aspen ski lodges, Christian Dior shoes … absolutely every trapping of wealth about it.
"Then suddenly she disappears right in the middle of an ASIC investigation. Just evaporates."
Mr McNab, a former detective who has worked on or written extensively about some of Australia's most notorious murders and disappearances, said part of the appeal for people following the case was to see how the wealthy faced the consequences of their actions.
Ms Caddick and her financial services company had been under investigation by corporate watchdog ASIC, before she went missing in November.
ASIC alleges she misappropriated millions of dollars of investor funds, with lawyers for some investors estimating the figure could exceed $20 million.
What began as a missing persons case took a sinister turn on Friday when police revealed DNA from the foot — discovered at Bournda Beach, near Tathra, on February 12 — matched Ms Caddick's DNA.
Remains have now also washed up on other South Coast beaches — at popular holiday spot Mollymook, at Cunjarong Point near Lake Conjola, and Warrain Beach at Culburra.
All the remains will undergo forensic testing to determine whether they're animal or human, and if so, whether they provide a match to Ms Caddick.
Public fascination with the case has resulted in the emergence of online conspiracy theories, including speculation Ms Caddick could still be alive, minus a foot.
Bond University criminologist Terry Goldsworthy said he didn't give the "radical theories" much credit and believed police could be "confident" Ms Caddick was dead.
However many questions remain.
"If the person is now accepted as being deceased, was it an accidental death, was it a case of self-harm, was it foul play involved?" said Dr Goldsworthy, a former detective.
"[Police] may never come to a firm conclusion as to what they think happened. That will depend on how well they can track her movements up until she was deceased."
He said, while distressing, the discovery of more of Ms Caddick's remains could help determine what happened to her.
"For instance, if say there was foul play you may recover a bit of forensic material that will show a wound or something like that, so more is better."
University of Newcastle criminologist Xanthe Mallett told the ABC it was vital not to jump to conclusions before results of DNA testing were released.
"You can't assume somebody's deceased through the loss of a foot, because you can still survive it," she said, adding that the likelihood of Ms Caddick still being alive was "very low".
"But judging on the evidence we currently have, police cannot afford to assume that [she's dead] and therefore they will have to be investigating every possibility at this stage."
Ms Mallet said a snorkeller had gone missing in late January from Batemans Bay, just 50 kilometres from Mollymook, where some of the remains were found.
"So we're waiting to hear on the DNA as to whose remains they are, and whoever they belong to, a family is going to be getting some very distressing news in the coming days."
She also stressed the need to be mindful of the impact of the case on Ms Caddick's family.
"[She] has got a 15-year-old son and a husband who have been left in the dark, and regardless of what may have allegedly taken place, nothing has been proven and it must be incredibly difficult for them as they wait for final answers around this."
Case has 'appeal to online sleuths'
Criminologist Carolyn McKay, who researches the ethics of true crime, said the discovery of multiple remains had given the case a "ghoulish appeal".
Dr McKay, a director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, declined to speculate on how Ms Caddick may have met her death, but said she could "see why [the case] would have great appeal to the online sleuths out there".
She said there was "nothing new" about people's fascination with true crime but one reason could be that they were able to read about often horrific detail from relative safety.
"Is there some sort of element of knowing that this is a story that's happening to someone else? It's not happening to me?" she said.
"Is this some sort of perverse pleasure that we sometimes derive from someone else's misfortune, you know, that notion of schadenfreude?
"Is there also that sense of, 'There but for the grace of good fortune go I?'"
For Mr McNab, the case has been akin to a Russian nesting doll, with each development leading to more questions.
"[Initially we were asking] is it suicide or has she run off somewhere? Where could she have escaped to in the middle of the pandemic?
"It wasn't until last week that her shoe was found that we knew that she was dead, which then starts another mystery, because we now ask, 'How did she get out of Sydney's east?'"
Mr McNab said he was fairly confident police would eventually answer those questions but said that until then, the rest of us would continue to "scratch our heads" at the baffling case.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiX2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTAzLTAyL3doeS10aGUtbWVsaXNzYS1jYWRkaWNrLWNhc2UtaGFzLWNhcHRpdmF0ZWQtbnN3LzEzMjAzNzY00gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEzMjAzNzY0?oc=5
2021-03-01 18:05:27Z
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