THE partial remains of a business woman accused of stealing millions from her clients have been found.
Melissa Caddick's rotting foot was found washed up on a remote beach, three months after she disappeared from her Sydney mansion.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission says stole at least £7.3 million in invested funds from over 60 clients, including family and friends, but the figure has been put as high as £14 million.
She vanished early on 12 November last year, a day after cops raided her home in the wealthy suburb of Dover Heights and DNA testing matched the foot to Caddick.
Police had found no trace of until last week when campers spotted a running shoe containing a decomposed foot on a beach 250 miles south of Sydney.
New South Wales Police assistant commissioner Mick Willing said: "It remains a mystery as to when and how she came into the water. At this point we can't rule out anything.
“We have kept an open mind, however given the circumstances of her disappearance, we have always considered the possibility that she may have taken her own life."
He said ocean drift modelling done by the police had shown it was possible that Ms Caddick could have entered the water near her Sydney home, where she lived with her husband and teenage son.
Officers were scouring a national park near Tathra on the state's south coast in the hope of finding more clues, he added.
Her disappearance gripped Australia and earlier this month police reiterated their belief that Ms Caddick was still alive.
She had reportedly been living a lavish lifestyle, including taking overseas holidays and buying expensive clothes and jewellery.
Caddick’s disappearance had been “distressing for many people including her alleged victims and of course her family and friends”, Willing said.
Cheryl Kraft Reid entrusted around £600,000 of her pension with Caddick, whom she considered as a friend and last heard from her two months before she vanished.
“Wow, that's a sad tragic outcome for her son but it’s also just a sad tragic outcome for us because we just don't get closure,' Ms Kraft Reid told 2GB radio.
“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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