Severed Feet Mystery: Unraveling the life of Melissa Caddick's Fraud and dissapearance

What if the shoes you choose to wear could lead to a morbid mystery that rocks the world? That's right, you'll never look at your running shoes the same way again after hearing about the eerie cases of severed feet washing up on shorelines, housed in buoyant footwear. Get ready to venture into these baffling mysteries that have gripped public attention for years.

 We analyze the terrifying implications of these phenomena, touching on the Thames Torso Murders, the infamous Black Dalia, and the chilling Body in the Suitcase case in Australia. We also scrutinize the severed feet mystery that has been puzzling Washington State since 2007, and the strange role running shoes play in these occurrences. Buckle up for a ride through some of the world's most chilling unsolved mysteries!

Lastly, we delve into the intriguing story of Australian fraudster Melissa Caddick, who vanished after swindling millions from her clients. Could her disappearance be linked to the severed feet found in running shoes? As we explore the impact of her actions on her swindled clients, we highlight the devastating aftermath of financial fraud. Join us for this compelling discussion filled with personal stories, unsettling mysteries, and thought-provoking conversations that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about these notorious cases. Tune in, hold on tight, and prepare to be amazed - and a little freaked out!

Transcript

tiffany: 0:13

Welcome to Rogue and Wicked.

wendy: 0:16

So I woke up this morning and I got into my car and it was robbed and ransacked. That sucks. Normally our security cameras are on and normally I have my door locked. And number three normally there is somebody home at that time, and so, by freak chance, all three of those things were not the case, because I had just used my car to move a bookshelf into my office. I was exhausted so I just forgot to lock in. So I go in there and they stole all my change and they left my expensive shit in there. I took my expensive shit out since, but I had all kinds of really cool stuff that would have been worth a lot more than the $3 worth of change.

tiffany: 1:01

Yeah well, they probably didn't want to pawn it, because then they have to give their ID and then if you say, hey, my stuff's stolen and you fill out a police report, then you can get it back and they can get arrested.

wendy: 1:10

Well, it seemed like a crack-ed job to me, and crack is whack guys.

tiffany: 1:14

Yeah, I mean my car gets robbed once every so often, like every few months Now. I just don't put anything in there that's worth anything, so like if they go through it, they go through it, but I stop locking it, otherwise they try to break the windows and stuff.

wendy: 1:27

Yeah, though it's crazy is there were other cars here, so it was because I left my door unlocked.

wendy: 1:33

There's just a whole bunch of weird shit that happened. We'll move on from there because that one doesn't get any attention. I wanted to mention this at the beginning of our podcast, especially as this place is near and dear to you and I. It's a sad recent event. According to Tampa Florida AP, a fight between two groups turned into a deadly shootout. It was during the Halloween festivities and it resulted in two deaths and 18 people hospitalized, which was in Ebor City and, as some of you listeners may know, that was Mayn and Tiffany's first playground, when we first met each other. Oh yeah, I love Ebor.

wendy: 2:09

So what's sad is that when the 8 on your side crew arrived, emmett Wilson fell to his knees at the side of his teenage son's body, alaya Chakwan Wilson. He said, naming his son, that he was only 14 years old, at the wrong place and the wrong time. And it's not the first time I lost a child. He added In 2014, I lost my child. Now, here it is 2023, and my baby boy. He's gone from gun violence. This was just a couple of days after that mass main shooting too, and I have a dark concept.

tiffany: 2:41

Things are going to get more tense in this country, oh yeah, especially with all the gun violence that's going on. I know we have a lot of listeners that are from other countries that don't have the same kind of gun violence that we do here in America, and it is. It's getting like out of control. Somebody needs to do something about it. The school shootings in Texas, I believe there was one, what in Ohio? Now we got one in Maine and then another in Tampa, and there's children dying too, and I mean, it's not that children's lives are any better, but anybody's life being taken by violence, any kind of violence, is wrong.

wendy: 3:12

I agree, but the more innocent for me, especially the younger, the more it hurts my heart. And it's crazy because I think about the fact I used to party in Ebor City at 14 and 15 and how stressful that used to make my mom and Sunny when they found out about it.

wendy: 3:26

They were like what are you doing? That place is so dangerous. How did you get in there? I wasn't going to snitch on my resources in that regard because, but at the same time I look back in hindsight and I think of this 14 year old boy and what my mom and Sunny thought about the whole situation. And they were right Ebor is dangerous.

tiffany: 3:44

Well, our parents are usually always right, because they know how dark the world actually is, and when we're young, we don't even think about that shit.

wendy: 3:50

You ain't kidding. Actually, I definitely knew how dark the world was, because before Tampa I had just left foster care.

tiffany: 3:56

Yeah, well, you know my past, so oh yeah.

wendy: 3:58

Yeah, we had a dark past, but that negativity is still there.

tiffany: 4:02

Yeah, it is.

wendy: 4:03

It's weird how you can still have that hope in spite of that fact. And by the time you get to the age we are now, you're like yeah, I know.

tiffany: 4:10

Exactly Now. I'm just like everybody's a suspect.

wendy: 4:14

And I haven't lost my childlike zest in regards to being playful and things, but when it comes to having faith in people, that bubble has fucking popped. Oh yeah, I know so as foot fetishes, I've been a conversation of late, including a few friends of mine who have entertained the prospect of selling foot fetish pictures.

tiffany: 4:36

Yeah, he makes some good money doing that shit.

wendy: 4:40

You and Bart, I decided to look up crime mysteries about feet and you know already that I've covered the stiletto killer, so where could we possibly go from there, right?

tiffany: 4:51

Yeah, I'm starting to think that you have a foot fetish. Well, these people are talking about projection.

wendy: 4:58

Anyway, today we have an interesting story that gripped the public's attention in 2007 and lasted until 2021, and actually we have several cases. So we're going to begin with the perplexing case of the severed meat. Sorry, the perplexing case. Did you just say the severed meat? Yeah, the perplexing case of the severed feet mystery.

wendy: 5:24

The severed feet mystery was an interesting and strange phenomenon, and various outlets and media organizations have reported on this mystery. I had to look for it, so I didn't realize that so many platforms covered this shit. I had to type in murders, recording, feet, all kinds of stuff to find this case, because I was really tailoring it to some of the weird shit that we've been talking about Anyway. So CBC News, which is Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, extensively covered the story, providing updates on the discoveries, investigations and public response. The Vancouver Sun, which is a local newspaper in Vancouver, reported on the severed feet mystery, sharing details, theories and expert opinion.

wendy: 6:05

Global News, a Canadian news network, featured the story and provided ongoing coverage as new developments emerged. The Guardian, which is a UK based newspaper, also covered the story, bringing international attention to the mystery. Even CNN, which you know is a major international news network, reported on the severed feet mystery, highlighting the unusual and captivating nature of the phenomenon. These are just some examples of the media outlets that have covered the severed feet mystery, because this story garnered significant attention and generated public interest due to its eerie and puzzling nature. Yeah, it's wild, isn't that?

tiffany: 6:43

crazy and I was just thinking about this book that I saw the other day while I was at CVS and it was a National Geographic magazine and it was like on the shelf and I guess it was like Halloween themed or something.

tiffany: 6:55

And it was all about decomposition of human remains. So I picked it up and I just started lipping through it while my mom was checking out and I'm like, oh, this is interesting and it's explaining how your gut like literally stops eating food when you die. And it's like, oh, I'm gonna start eating the bowel now and it just start eating you from the inside out. And I'm like cool, and I'm like flipping through the pages, flipping through the pages, and then all of a sudden I land on New Zealand and the severed feet mystery and it had pictures of all the shoes that were found, all these shoes. And I was like, wow, that's wild, because Wendy was just telling me about that and I was like oh shit.

tiffany: 7:31

Yeah, it's funny how, like, the stars align and as soon as we talk about something, it'll pop up that like has to do with our cases.

wendy: 7:37

You know it's wild too is that the cases of detached human feet inside shoes along the coastlines were unique, but there have also been other instances of human body parts washing ashore in various parts of the world, although not necessarily feet and shoes. These cases often involve forensics investigations to identify the individuals and determine the cause of death. It's relatively rare, but it's an intriguing phenomenon in forensic science, so that's probably why you saw it in there?

tiffany: 8:06

Well, yeah, because they were talking about decomposition and I thought that was really neat.

wendy: 8:10

Yes, actually I learned a lot about decomposition in learning about this. First let me give you some examples of some other severed body parts. That have been found. So between 2001 and 2002 in London a series of dismembered torsos were found in the river Thames. Over a period of about a year the case became known as the Thames Torso Murders. It involved extensive forensics investigations to identify the victims and perpetrator. I would like to research that one a little bit more, but I didn't want to have an ADD tangent at that moment because I was fixated on feet. Yeah, the Black Dalia, which I think you know about in 1947, which is the case of Elizabeth Short, also known as the Black Dalia, involved the discovery of her mutilated body in Los Angeles. The case remains one of the most famous unsolved murders in the United States. I think you and I discussed this one right.

tiffany: 9:05

Yeah, and I love the mystery of Elizabeth Short, because that's a really old who done it. Pretty sure that they figured out, for the most part, who done it, but it can never be proven. That's the problem.

wendy: 9:16

Well, you, and I could surely traverse some of these cases more thoroughly in future podcasts. That's why I wanted to kind of lightly throw these out here. Oh yeah, also because it pertains to severed body parts and even though it's not feet, I still was fascinated about finding more. Let's put a bookmark in this real fast. You know what this made me think of? The movie Body Parts that came out in 1992. It's a horror movie. Have you ever seen it? I don't remember. That is about a serial killer who lends his body parts and people who lose their body parts and like arms and legs and so on and so forth. I don't want to give too many things away because it's a really good movie, but it is about a serial killer who donates his body parts and the body parts end up on other people and having some of his serial killer attributes.

tiffany: 10:06

Oh, wow, yeah, I know, I never saw that.

wendy: 10:08

I was supposed to be asleep because there's a luster driving so not too far from my house when I was a child and they would play a kid movie and then every kid's supposed to go to sleep, and then they would play the adult movie after and, of course, when I heard that was going to be a horror movie, you know my ass was like, yeah, I'm going to watch this. The body in the suitcase happened in 2015. In Australia, the body of a woman was found stuffed inside a suitcase that had washed ashore on Sydney beach. This case garnered significant media attention too. And finally, the foot in Croatia, 2016.

wendy: 10:43

A human foot in a sneaker was found washed up on a beach in Croatia. Similar to the British Columbia severed feet cases, it triggered a search for more remains and the investigation into the identity of the victim. These cases are often highly complex, requiring forensics experts to determine the identity of the victims and gather evidence to solve the crimes, and each case has a unique set of circumstances as well as the mysteries surrounding them. So I'm going to look more into those things and see if any of those severed body parts are worth investigating so that we can do future podcasts about them. But we're going to hone into the severed feet now, since we're all foot fetishy today.

tiffany: 11:25

Oh yeah, now we're into the feet, let's do it so.

wendy: 11:27

I am not just about the feet, but this area that I'm about to discuss is one of my favorite areas, like the rainforest on earth, so I'm glad that I'm able to mention it for any reason at all, and it just so happens that this first case that we're going to mention about severed feet happens to take place there. It all began in the picturesque region of British Columbia, canada, along the shores of the Salish Sea. The Salish Sea is a network of inland waterways covering the coasts of Washington state in the United States and British Columbia and Canada. The Salish Sea is a fantastic waterway system of interconnected marine ecosystems that includes a web of upstream links to rivers, forest, mountains and glaciers that sustain abundance of life.

wendy: 12:13

In December of 2017, in a tiny community of the Jordan River in British Columbia, mike Johns and his dog, taz, were walking the beach when Taz began acting unusually frantic. Mike investigated and found what appeared to be a bone sticking out of a shoe, and within the shoe was the remains of a preserved human foot. Imagine that you're just like walking along the beach where your dog and your dog starts barking and you like knock it off, calm down, there's nothing out there and all of a sudden you see a bone sticking out of a fucking shoe.

tiffany: 12:43

Yeah, that would freak me out like I would. I would be afraid to like walking down the beach, like in my mind's, like the damn dog's, like gnawing on a sneaker and then you like go to see what's in the sneaker or why they're gnawing on a sneaker and there's a whole ass human foot in there. That would freak me out.

wendy: 12:58

Yeah, that would freak me out too. I already have a phobia about sticking my feet in the water without water shoes.

tiffany: 13:04

Oh yeah, me too, you do. Yeah, like I'm afraid a fish or something's gonna bite my toes off, right?

wendy: 13:09

like. If it's a freshwater lake, I'm afraid a leech is gonna get stuck between my toes. If it's an emotion, I'm afraid a crab's gonna cut it off. There's all kinds of things, but I can do okay in pools and the Gulf of Mexico. I'm pretty good there too, because the water is pretty stagnant and clear.

tiffany: 13:25

Yeah, you could see to the bottom, but then you got to worry about there's manorays.

wendy: 13:29

Yes, oh, and there's those little uh. What are they called? They look like little needles. They're probably called needle fish I wouldn't be surprised and they follow you around all curious, like that is the one place I have been able to swim without water shoes with the Gulf of Mexico. Oh yeah, me too, I wouldn't if I discovered what Mike found while he was walking with Taz.

tiffany: 13:49

However, no, no, I would definitely would be wearing water shoes. I probably wouldn't even go into the ocean after that, actually.

wendy: 13:57

So Mike nervously took it to the police and the RCMP, which is the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, go for it, tiff. Oh the good old.

tiffany: 14:05

Mounties. Eh, I'm no good at the British Columbian accent, but I gave it my whole college track.

wendy: 14:14

You got it out of your system and I know you needed that, yeah, so they arrived. Shortly after he called, mike was taken aback by how unfazed the police seemed, especially when his first inclination was that the foot was potentially the result of a murderous crime scene, even though murder wasn't something they usually contended with in those parts.

tiffany: 14:34

It's a really good neighborhood where he was yeah, and they're like not surprised by it, though, exactly. So it's like oh, it just happens here all the time, you know.

wendy: 14:45

That's the funny part. Wait till I get there too. Ah, so after he led the police to the scene where he'd found the foot, it became more apparent why the police didn't seem as perplexed as he was. The foot he'd found wasn't the first they'd contended with. In fact, since 2007, a series of severed human feet started washing up on the beaches, sending shock waves through the community. What makes this case particularly puzzling is a sheer number of feet discovered at the absence of any bodies. Over the course of several years, a total of 27 feet were found in various locations, primarily in British Columbia, but also in Washington state, united States. The feet, still enclosed in running shoes, would seemingly appear out of nowhere, leaving investigators and the public perplexed. It was an unprecedented phenomenon. The mystery sparked a lot of theories and speculation. Indeed, the public's imagination ran wild. Some believed it was a work of a serial killer, while others suspect a foul play or even criminal organizations. But as authorities began their investigation, they quickly discovered a more rational explanation.

tiffany: 15:55

Oh wait now these severed feet? Did they have a year as to when they thought that these bodies were in the water?

wendy: 16:01

I will get to that. Not all of them, but most of them.

tiffany: 16:05

Yes, because I was thinking to myself. Washington state was where two serial killers in the 70s were both killing at the same, almost at the same time. That's so many feet too. Yeah but there's a lot of bodies and they thought they killed a lot more people than what they found, and that's why I was wondering when the year was.

wendy: 16:23

So the first foot that they mentioned in this was found in 2007, but this goes on until 2021, so I'm gonna get into some of the details regarding the things that they investigated and found, but they didn't identify everyone first of all, so what you said is still possibly true.

tiffany: 16:41

Yeah, well, I was thinking if they're still in the chute, you would be able to tell the time period just from the shoe, the model shoe.

wendy: 16:48

Right. Well, that's true, unless you're me who wears like 10-year-old sneakers. Yeah, but the first breakthrough came when experts determined that the feet had likely separated from the bodies naturally due to decomposition and aquatic scavengers. The buoyancy of running shoes, combined with the decomposition gases, allow the feet to float and eventually wash up on shore. The human body is mainly composed of water, making it more prone to dismemberment when exposed to the elements. When bodies decompose in water, the ligaments and joints weaken, potentially allowing extremities like feet to detach. That's rather a morbid but logical explanation. But why were there so many feet inside running shoes? That was I'm like hmm, that makes sense, sure, but why running shoes?

tiffany: 17:38

right, that's one of the most common places people get abducted, as in parks, and, like usually, you would wear running shoes to a park Dude.

wendy: 17:45

I swear I was thinking the exact same thing, and when I think those types of things, my mind procures a visual, and the first one I thought of was you ever see the movie devil's advocate? Yeah, I love that movie when the dude is like running through the park and then he gets killed by a demon.

tiffany: 17:59

Oh yeah, that was the first thing. I didn't mean to punch the table. That was my knuckle.

wendy: 18:05

She's like hell, yeah, oh yeah, fuck yeah. But that was the first thing that my mind created was that spectacle. There have been many movies that I've seen where people are jogging and they go and get killed. Oh yeah, I could see that. There's even like comedic ones, like scary movie when Carmen Electra was jogging oh yeah, yeah, yeah, she had running shoes on. I had a hard time making it past her. I have a crush on Carmen Electra. Who doesn't man? Oh good, I thought she'd be one we'd disagree on.

tiffany: 18:34

Yeah, we have different tastes of men, but we do like a lot of the same women.

wendy: 18:38

Yeah, that's for sure. So anyway, running shoes are designed to be lightweight and buoyant, allowing the float when exposed to water. Additionally, the foam and air pockets in the shoes provide added buoyancy, so the shoes essentially act as flotation devices for the severed feet, and the shoes help to keep the feet afloat and protect it then from being devoured by marine life or sinking to the bottom. Pretty crazy, right?

tiffany: 19:03

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense, yeah, and in my mind I'm thinking about if I was a body on the bottom of the ocean or the canal or wherever waterway, and my legs would be up in the air. So eventually, yeah, almost waving around underwater.

wendy: 19:21

Yeah.

tiffany: 19:21

And until, but then your body becomes buoyant too, though, because then, when sea composition happens, you trap gases in your torso. So why aren't they finding other body parts?

wendy: 19:32

Well, for a short period of time, that's true, but the thing is, shoes are not as biodegradable as the bodies are.

tiffany: 19:40

No, because the foam yeah.

wendy: 19:41

Yeah, and so while the rest of that body may have for a short duration of time, then, exactly how you just described, it was only a matter of time before it became fish food and fell to the bottom. Meanwhile, a foot inside of a shoe would be preserved, because a fish can't get in there the same way, and a piece of plastic isn't as biodegradable as your body, and so it creates like a flotation device, but also something that shields them while everything's decomposing and falling apart. That one piece, it kind of holds it inside.

tiffany: 20:15

Yeah, plus the rubber and stuff, I would think that it almost acts as like a preservative, a modification of the actual foot. I wonder if a windbreaker would work similar to that. I'm not sure. I mean, I know that's vinyl. Well, windbreakers aren't all vinyl, but they have poly. There's a lot of people that wear polyester type clothes or poly fabrics that do decompose, though.

wendy: 20:37

Do you remember in the 90s, those plastic pants that we used to wear, and when your thighs would rub together, they'd be like whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Oh yeah, it would be like whoosh, whoosh.

tiffany: 20:46

It would be fart noises when you sat down.

wendy: 20:48

Yes, yes, it would fall up in the air. I think those might work pretty well, for that they might.

tiffany: 20:53

Yeah, oh, you're talking about the swishy pants. Yes, I don't know what they're called but yes, they're track suit pants.

wendy: 20:58

Right, yeah, but there's a specific type that was made out of really shitty, obnoxious plastic.

tiffany: 21:05

You're talking about the vinyl ones, right, like the Adidas ones. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah they're track pants.

wendy: 21:11

Oh, okay, no shit, yeah, all right, so I mean maybe something like that, but really, running shoes are perfect in regards to preservation and as far as floating devices are concerned. True so, but still, we've got the shoes figured out and how all that shit was preserved, but why so many feet?

tiffany: 21:28

Yeah, that's wild.

wendy: 21:29

In such a short period of time, so I thought I'd throw this in. Part of the answer lies in the fact that the Salish Sea is heavily traveled and it's a shipping route.

wendy: 21:37

There have been instances where people have gone missing at sea and their bodies have not been recovered. Over time, these bodies can naturally decompose, leading to the detachment of extremities such as feet, which could enter the ocean currents and eventually wash up on the shore. It seemed that the severed feet mystery of 2007, hence resulted from natural processes and unfortunate circumstances. While the imagery of severed feet washing ashore is undoubtedly unsettling, it's essential to approach these mysteries rationally and consider all the possibilities before jumping to sensational conclusions. That Akilah did it, however, that was the general consensus of thought at that time. The case of the severed feet mystery is a reminder of how nature can sometimes create puzzling enigmas that initially defy explanation, and how most people draw conclusions on the darkness that human society provides. I'm certainly no different, because my first thought was that these feet must have been the acts of a deranged killer, and the fact that they haven't fully figured out who all of the feet belonged to makes me believe that it's still possible.

tiffany: 22:45

Yeah, I mean, I kind of thought that too. I thought that it is very possible that could be serial killer, but I don't know. Speaking of those, deeply impacted.

wendy: 22:54

Let's discuss who some of the victims were and I say some of them because, like I said, they weren't all fully discovered. In August of 2007, the first foot found was identified as belonging to Joshua D Belding, a depressed man from Surrey, british Columbia, who had gone missing in 2004. In February 2008, a foot found on Flatts Island was identified as belonging to I cannot pronounce this to save my fucking life, but you can try if you'd like. A-b-d-e-r-r-a-h-i-m, h-h-a-s-o-n. Can you wanna try that one?

tiffany: 23:30

No, that's like that's a A-A-R-O-N name right there.

wendy: 23:33

Yeah, that is so A-A-R-O-N, that fucking. I asked three people in my house if they could pronounce it and they're avid readers too and they're like when do you fuck you?

tiffany: 23:44

Yeah, that's not a last name, that's an I-chart.

wendy: 23:46

No, oh my God, that was brilliant. So a Vancouver resident reported missing in 2007. A foot discovered on West Ham Island was identified as belonging to Staphon. Here goes a last name that's also hard to pronounce Z-A-H-O-R-U-J-K-O. No, I'm not trying that one either.

tiffany: 24:06

No.

wendy: 24:07

A man who disappeared in 1987, that's a long ass time ago.

tiffany: 24:12

Yeah, 1987 is long, 1987 to 2008. Yeah, that's a big period there.

wendy: 24:18

It sure is 20 years yeah it's 20 years about.

wendy: 24:22

Just a year over. His case was initially considered unrelated to the others, but was later included in the investigation. In May 2008, a foot found on Gabriela Island was identified as belonging to Patrick James Farmer, a man with a history of mental health issues who had gone missing in 1999. In June 2018, a foot was discovered on Botanical Beach which was identified as belonging to Matilda Wallace, a woman from Washington state who had been reporting missing in 2018.

wendy: 24:55

It's wild, because you'd think that there'd just be no way to assume anything but foul play and certain crimes committed in these situations. However, it's important to note that some of the ones who were identified had a history of mental health issues or were known to be vulnerable individuals, and in some cases, they're still under investigation or not identified yet. Yeah, that's crazy. Many theories have been tossed around, including the possibility of foul play, though coroners familiar with the case say ocean currents and decomposition naturally separated the feet from their owners. As we already mentioned, others speculate that the remains might belong to four unrecovered victims of the 2005 plane crash. In June, a prankster spooked local authorities by planting a gruesome surprise for one unwitting beachgoer a rotting animal paw stuffed inside an Adidas shoe.

tiffany: 25:47

What kind of animal.

wendy: 25:48

It didn't say but it said paw, so I'm assuming a cat or a dog.

tiffany: 25:53

It would have had to have been a dog, because that's a bigger paw. What a sick fuck, but yeah, that's fucked up. Like they must have found a dead animal, though I don't know Like, unless he killed one, but I doubt it.

wendy: 26:01

It's big news. There's feet showing up on shore. Inside running shoes, I can see a teenager doing some stupid shit like that.

tiffany: 26:09

Well, yeah, I could too, because I mean, if that was being found all the time and like I knew that there wasn't like a serial killer out there, because they're like, oh well, they're just washing up and there's all these gruesome body parts and you're just like some dumb kid, like I could see you just like sticking a dead animal's foot in there. But then how are you gonna get the dead animal's foot off? You're gonna have to hack it off Like that's nasty.

wendy: 26:30

I thought the same thing. I was like what a sick fuck. Well, maybe it was a dead animal they found and did that. I would like to believe that and not think anything else. Yeah, me too. The most recent discovery was made in November when another foot turned up in Washington, less than 50 miles south of the US-Canadian border. As to why there have been so few leads, police spokesman Charlene Brooks told CNN we suffer from the CSI effect. People think we can do things faster than we can. But a Vancouver panhandler told Blumerang News he's already cracked the case. He's like I'll bet you it was a murder. You just don't find feet lying around. No, that's great. I could see like somebody's uncle or grandpa saying that.

tiffany: 27:13

Yeah, I could totally see a little. Like you said, he was a panhandler. Yeah, yeah, yeah he's a little homeless man. Yeah, I could see him saying that. It's like while you know.

wendy: 27:23

Oh, he sounds adorable. While it was widely accepted that it could have been the work of a serial killer, officials from both Canada and the United States have canceled out any file play throughout the years. Kathy Taylor, a forensics anthropologist at the King County Medical Examiner's Office, told Vox in 2017 that it's a result of living in a densely populated area. So I was like you've got to be kidding me.

tiffany: 27:49

All those feet and not one fucking murder, Not one, yeah, but we live in a densely populated area and I've never seen those severed feet on the beach. I've seen all kinds of other stuff on the Jersey Shore. Shouldn't be there, but not feet Well.

wendy: 28:02

I went deep diving and I learned that there were actually 21 feet found up to where we are now, in 2023. There's even been some speculation about one of the unfortunate victims whose mother alluded to file play, but nothing was ever substantiated. However, all those feet led me to another case Pun intended, ha ha ha and ha ha ha. Said case involved a foot in a running shoe and during the same period, but on another side of the globe, melissa Cattick, a known fraudster and millionaire, whose rotting foot was also found in a running shoe on a beach in Australia. Melissa Cattick, a known fraudster and millionaire, whose rotting foot was also found in a running shoe on board at Beach, australia. Melissa Cattick disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 2021. Melissa Cattick's story grabbed headlines worldwide, leaving many people wondering what exactly happened to her. She was an Australian businesswoman and a financial advisor. She lived in an affluent suburb of Dover Heights in Sydney, australia. She had a seemingly successful career and was known for managing large sums of money for her clients. It's already getting suspicious.

tiffany: 29:16

Oh, I know all about her. I already know this case. Oh, you do yeah.

wendy: 29:20

Man, she's a swindler.

tiffany: 29:22

Oh, yes, she was, she really took them.

wendy: 29:25

She took them, man the real killer in this was her. I was like I'm never about victim blaming. I am absolutely against it. But when I heard what this woman had done to so many people, she set herself up to get killed.

tiffany: 29:38

Yeah, but I don't even know what happened to that woman.

wendy: 29:41

So she had a seemingly successful career and was known for managing large sums of money for her clients. She'd even allow her female friends to share in her lavish wardrobe with the what's mine is yours behavior and clients who befriended her. She used them to gain access to their trust before gaining access to their finances.

tiffany: 30:01

And she wasn't even a real financial advisor. She was a fake financial advisor, oh yeah.

wendy: 30:07

Yeah, she was. She had that fake it till you make it attitude so she would wear all these really expensive clothes and things and be like look at me, oh yeah, I am swimming in wealth here. Not only am I wealthy, but I'm going to gain your trust and I'm going to make you believe that I'm successful so that I could get your fucking money. Yeah, melissa was married and had a teenage son who shared in their luxurious lifestyle. Her so-called friends, cheryl, invested $800,000. Michelle and Billy handed over their hard earned retirement savings. She had roughly 60 customers on her business books and between them, her clients gave her get this $20 million.

tiffany: 30:50

Oh yeah, I know she was living high on the hog for a long time before she got caught.

wendy: 30:55

Mm-hmm. She first came to the attention of authorities when the Australian Securities Investments and Commission, ASIC, which regulates financial services in Australia, launched an investigation into her business practices in 2020. Following client complaints. They started looking into her company and discovered discrepancies in her financial affairs. It was alleged that she had misappropriated millions of dollars from her clients and it seemed that Melissa was involved in fraudulent activities. So on November 11, 2020, ASIC executed a search warrant at her house. However, she was not present at the time. Investigators seized documents, electronic devices and other evidence of her financial dealings. Shortly after the raid, Melissa's disappearance came to light. Can you imagine that? They searched her house, they find all this legal shit and then, all of a sudden, she?

tiffany: 31:50

disappears. Oh, I believe it. I mean, wouldn't you disappear?

wendy: 31:55

Yeah, you don't go fucking with people's money, and these are people who have the money to invest some of them Some of them gave their entire life savings to her because they trusted her and those are the ones that she considered quote-unquote friends. That broke my heart because I watched some of these interviews with her friends and they said that she had no conscience whatsoever, like when she first went missing. They were concerned about her, but that was before they actually knew that her house had been raided and that they were involved in the very discrepancies that the other people were complaining about oh yeah and like that's just awful.

tiffany: 32:34

But when there's money involved, people change. You could think somebody is your friend, but a lot of times people will turn on you at the drop of a hat when there's money involved, right Well, and she's one of them.

wendy: 32:45

Oh yeah, Her husband last saw her on the evening of November 11th 2020, the same day that raid occurred. The raid.

wendy: 33:00

She told her family that she was going running the morning that she disappeared. However, she never returned and her family reported her missing. Keep in mind it wasn't her husband who called the police concerning her disappearance. At this point, her friends and family were concerned about her disappearance and her well-being because they had no idea that just before her house was raided for the fraud that included them being ripped off along with her other clients. We're going to get into that later on, but here they are, um concerned friends and family, while her husband's like oh, couple days, no big deal? I guess not. So what, my wife's missing.

tiffany: 33:36

Yeah.

wendy: 33:36

There's little known about the specific dynamics of her and her husband's relationship. It is believed that Melissa and Anthony had been married for several years before the disappearance, that they lived in an affluent neighborhood, as we mentioned already, in Sydney and appeared to lead a pretty comfortable lifestyle, and he was no saint either.

tiffany: 33:55

No, he was a kept man, he was like I ain't asking no questions.

wendy: 34:01

In an interview I watched, her friends said that she wore the pants in the house. Her husband, who was much younger and a hairdresser as well as a part-time DJ, was interviewed by police days after she vanished, aired at the inquest into her disappearance because their relationship was a subject of interest and speculation. Anthony, who was in his late 30s at the time, was described by friends and family as a devoted husband and father to their teenage son. However, the cop who investigated Melissa Caddick's disappearance thought her husband was shedding fake tears during one of his initial interviews with police, and they were taken aback by his bizarre behavior after he declared himself quote unquote too busy to make a missing person's report.

tiffany: 34:47

Yeah, I mean, he may have known, because she was like I'm leaving you know what I mean, I mean I got, I'm in trouble and, like any juniors are son Right, that's possible or teeny, but it was a son right, yeah, yeah.

wendy: 34:58

Mr Coletti told him that he didn't think that his wife was quote unquote missing at that stage. I can see that too. She's an entrepreneur. She wears pants. Don't ask me any questions and you'll be fine. Then she goes missing for a couple of days. I can see that being reasonably true. However, the inquest heard that was contradicted by Mr Coletti's statements about becoming worried when he discovered her phone was still at home and that he had searched the cliff tops around their home. So that kind of doesn't add up either. Sergeant Riley also labeled it very strange that Mr Coletti had called Ms Caddx, loved ones and friends, but failed to tell them she was missing.

tiffany: 35:40

Mm-hmm Failed to tell the police or her relatives.

wendy: 35:43

He had no problem talking to her friends and family, but didn't call them.

tiffany: 35:48

Yeah, that's a big no. No, well, I mean, I could see him not calling the police if he knew what was going on.

wendy: 35:52

Yeah, if he knew what was going on exactly.

tiffany: 35:55

Which I believe he did. I mean, I really do.

wendy: 35:57

Yeah, if he knew she was murdered and he knew about that or partook in it somehow, because he has a lot to gain from it.

tiffany: 36:04

Uh, yeah, maybe, Well, not really. I mean. Well, if she dies, I mean he doesn't get anything.

wendy: 36:09

Because of the raid and all the things that were proven to be fraudulent.

tiffany: 36:13

Yeah, you're right. Yeah, because it would. All those accounts would have been frozen If she was murdered. It's possible.

wendy: 36:19

he knew If she escaped it's also possible. He knew. There's just way too many variables with this guy, Except his inconsistencies. He told a journalist that he stayed up until 4am that night writing music. The next Tuesday he gave evidence that he had gone to bed with his wife before later getting up due to his sleep apnea. The inconsistency was sketchy, so he definitely couldn't fucking keep his story straight.

tiffany: 36:43

I feel like he was helping her get away, maybe Because she was going to go to prison for a long, long time.

wendy: 36:50

It's possible, yeah, so a few days after she vanished, her decomposing foot inside of a running shoe washed up on a beach about 400 kilometers south of Sydney. Dna testing confirmed it belonged to her. This discovery intensified the investigation and search efforts were focused on the ocean, where it was believed she may have entered the water. They hoped that the evidence regarding her disappearance could be found on her remains. Initially, some speculated that she may have staged her own disappearance to avoid legal consequences. I could see that, but chopping off your own foot, bro, nope, no.

tiffany: 37:26

If you're going to chop something off, like, you're probably going to pick a hand or something, not a foot or a finger maybe, I don't know. Yeah, not a whole ass foot.

wendy: 37:34

Trying to pick just on song, barefoot off of it. It doesn't seem feasible to me. No, just drug me, take it off in my sleep, I don't know, man.

tiffany: 37:41

Now I feel like she might have jumped off of one of the cliffs because she didn't want to go to prison.

wendy: 37:45

Maybe anything is on the table with this woman. Oh yeah, and again, I'm not one to victim blame, I'm honestly not. But this woman like robbed people of their entire lives with no conscience. There's no good result in something like this, especially if you get caught. I know Others believe that she may have taken her own life, given the financial and legal trouble she was facing. I mean, she'd allegedly ripped off her own family and friends. Yeah, but I don't know man. Without more evidence, it's challenging to determine what truly happened. Police say that they suspected Mr Coletti of lying about or withholding information during the investigation. Meanwhile, counsel assisting Jason Downing, sc, said that Mr Coletti wasn't honest and seemed to be purposely trying to scramble his answers to make them gel in court. In contrast, the court was also shown a news interview where Mr Coletti recounted the raid as inhumane, saying that he and Ms Caddick were offered no food, water, medical or psychological attention. Also, he could have been emotionally distraught. He'd contended with a raid on missing wife being questioned and then a piece of her body washed ashore.

tiffany: 38:55

That's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot, and, like the investigators and everyone, it's all speculation. Nobody can actually say anything really, except for that the woman's foot washed ashore and we don't know if she's dead or alive. But if I was to take a guess, I would say she's dead. I would too, and I'm not laughing because she's dead. I'm laughing because I mean, if somebody's foot is floating in the water, then they're probably deceased.

wendy: 39:19

And right after something that profound was discovered. Yeah, because she was fucked either way. Whether somebody she ripped off found her, whether she ended up going to prison, there was just no good direction to go after that raid. No, not really no. Following Melissa's disappearance, anthony made emotional pleas for a safe return and cooperated with the authorities during the investigation. He expressed shock and confusion over her sudden vanishing, maintaining that he didn't know about her alleged fraudulent activities or any involvement in her disappearance. The impact of Melissa's disappearance on Anthony and their son was undoubtedly immense, regardless of which. Losing a loved one under such mysterious circumstances would undoubtedly be incredibly distressing for the family. I have so much empathy for the son, and maybe her husband didn't know what she was actually up to, and perhaps he were right. She's like I got to disappear because somebody's after me. If that was the case in her foot wash to shore, I'm sure he wasn't expecting that.

tiffany: 40:20

I feel like she could have decided oh well, there's no way me escape in this island without them knowing. So I was thinking it's possible that she could have committed suicide because she didn't want to go to prison and she knew there was no way off of the island.

wendy: 40:33

Right. And like everybody knew who she was because it was such a big news story or she was murdered- what was sad to me is that her son was only 14 when his mother's face was splashed all over the news.

tiffany: 40:46

Yeah, that's a shame.

wendy: 40:47

He chose to live with his stepfather Coletti, despite his biological father living in Sydney. Still, not only did he lose his mom, but how embarrassing it must have been, on top of the heartache that he must have incurred having lost her, that she was berated after she died, based on the fraud that she was committing. So not only does his mom die and he loses a mother, but then he has to contend with how her sins precipitated that?

tiffany: 41:17

Oh yeah, because you know that people harassed him probably, and that's a shame because he's not involved, right?

wendy: 41:23

Here. He had nothing to do with it, but he doesn't just lose a mom. In this case he loses a mom, a lifestyle and his entire world popped right in front of his face. That's so much to go through at 14 and I really did empathize the most with him, especially having a criminal as a mom and just not knowing it. Oh yeah, Her remains haven't been found and the case remains open to date.

wendy: 41:46

The investigation is ongoing, with authorities examining her financial records and trying to determine the extent of her fraudulent and illegal activities. They've learned she did a Ponzi scheme, which she used to fleece investors out of 20 to 30 million dollars that paid for her lavish lifestyle. Upon the notion that she'd been murdered, investors who lost their money have teamed up to fight for their stake in her multi-million dollar hole. While her disappearance is still unsolved, Auctioneers have sold art, jewelry and clothes once belonging to her in a bid to recoup some of the millions that she swindled from her victims. Wow, Melissa's husband has made a filing in federal court to reclaim watches, jewelry and paintings, which are set to be sold to repay victims of her fraud.

tiffany: 42:36

Oh yeah, they need their money back and that's so screwed up that she stole all that money. Because you're not just stealing money from people and that's what she probably thought like whatever screw them, but you're like stealing people's entire lives, like their retirement, everything they worked hard for in their entire. That's devastating. You're so right and she was a smooth criminal too.

wendy: 42:57

Like she was able to get people to believe her scams until she was caught.

tiffany: 43:03

Yeah, she just slid right in there. She was just like oh hey, I'm a financial advisor now and they didn't even question her.

wendy: 43:09

No, and those the closest to her were the ones who were taken aback the most when it happened. The ones who caught on were the ones who were further away. She'd really gaslit the shit out of the ones who were really intimately close to her. Once they figured that out, it was like you know, when we figure out a sociopath is pathologically lying in that bubble pops.

tiffany: 43:30

Oh yeah.

wendy: 43:30

That's when you realize wow, like this person, this human being was actually capable of doing this?

tiffany: 43:36

Yeah, because nobody wants to believe that you know.

wendy: 43:39

Yeah, I that it must have been a lot to try to surmise and to cope with. There's little doubt that she was murdered due to the nature of her crimes and how many lives that she ruined, but the suspects are endless and so are the potentialities. Also, as we noted earlier, the ocean is vast and if she did enter the water, her remains may never be recovered. Until then, save for the crimes that she provably committed, the case of Melissa's potential murder remains an unsolved mystery. Suffice it to say, from the beaches of British Columbia to the Australian shores where Melissa was found, there are severed body parts, particularly feet and shoes, leaving the 21st century with plenty of open cases to be solved, oh yeah.

tiffany: 44:25

Especially like with all the ones they found in New Zealand too. Yeah, it's just scary and it's like. You know, in the ocean there's like bodies everywhere, from shipwrecks to drownings to plane crashes, all kinds of people dying and going into the water, people even getting murdered, and it's just, it's a freaky, freaky thing and the ocean is a scary, scary place. It's so vast. Oh yeah, you could lose somebody in that forever, like if she was murdered and like, say, weighted down fish could have eaten her.

wendy: 44:55

Yeah, Well, what's different about her case too, and compared to the other ones, is how quickly the foot was found after her disappearance, because the ones that were found in British Columbia they were some really large time intervals between the two.

tiffany: 45:10

Yeah.

wendy: 45:11

And with her. It was just a few days after they raided her house. It wasn't long after she disappeared that her foot appeared.

tiffany: 45:20

Yeah, so I know she got a head start and I knew that he knew that she was supposed to be leaving.

wendy: 45:24

Right, that's possible. That feels I did not think of that until we did this podcast, but that is possible. If she wasn't there when it was being rated, it's possible that he might have had a clue that they were coming and he told her to stay away and then she's like well, I can't come back now because they caught me. So, like you said, take care of my son. There are so many variables at play here. There's no question that she was a criminal and there's a really high probability that she's dead, because the idea of chopping off your own foot is fucking unreasonable to me.

wendy: 45:58

Oh yeah, we're not talking about these other feet that disappeared and then the bodies were completely eaten and then the foot became preserved and detached from the body. We're talking like within the same month. That shit ain't gonna happen.

tiffany: 46:13

No, and I really do think she's dead, but whether she killed herself or whether she was murdered, I want to know, but I don't, and nobody, I think, knows, unless which I didn't ever heard of, so I don't know if, like maybe you know this or not because you were researching it recently Whether or not there were any indications of dismemberment of the foot.

wendy: 46:34

They did not mention anything about that.

tiffany: 46:37

Like soul marks or anything like that.

wendy: 46:40

Right? No, they didn't. There was no inclination in regards to that, and they are waiting to find the rest of her body so that they can actually figure out how that happened.

tiffany: 46:50

Okay, alright, so they don't know that. So I guess what we will never know, unless they find her body, and unless it's still intact, well, it's still an unsolved mystery and we don't have a lot of unsolved mysteries on this show.

wendy: 47:03

So maybe, like some of the unsolved mysteries that have occurred when we first did it and then later on they came to some kind of conclusion, that will happen, because this is still it's only 2021 and there were a lot of people involved in this situation. So maybe if she was murdered, if she was murdered, somebody will say the wrong thing or they'll find a telephone record or something is in play that is unforeseen. Now, bendis we've witnessed in the past, allow us to know and have the type of closure to be sure of what actually did happen to her.

tiffany: 47:41

Oh yeah, and I hope, I hope we do get an answer at some point?

wendy: 47:44

Absolutely, but it's really scary to know that there is a wave, in spite of all our technology, that these pieces of shit can actually get away.

tiffany: 47:54

Yeah, they do. I mean, we're doing a case next week about what our murder, which I will talk about.

wendy: 47:59

Oh, wow.

tiffany: 48:00

Yeah, so. So I want to thank you for doing that case. That was a really intriguing case and I'm glad that you brought that to my attention because it was nice to hear a case that I already heard of before so that we could like talk about it together. And also I didn't know about all those feet that they found in British Columbia. So that was kind of interesting too, and it made me think.

tiffany: 48:20

When I said killers earlier, I thought about Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway, because they had all these bodies that were never found. They think that there are like many other dump sites and other people that were attributed to those killers that were never found. So I was like, hmm, I wonder if that's why I said the 70s or whatever, or 60s and 70s, because I was wondering if their body parts could have washed off after all those years of decomposing and I was wondering if it was possible that the limb disarticulated from the foot and floated to the surface. But then when you said that most of these were found recently, I kind of figure that those aren't the same, the earliest.

wendy: 48:58

I recall was 1987, in regards to the bodies that they figured out who they were.

wendy: 49:05

There were some that were unidentified, and one brilliant thing that you brought to my attention was the shoe making year. You and I have shoes that are 10 years old, make and model and all of that nonsense, but it's still something to consider. And even if their shoes or feet did not wash ashore and they're not part of the 21 feet that were found in British Columbia, it is still very possible that some of the bodies that still have yet to be discovered were dropped in the ocean, especially based on what we know now, so they weren't too far from coastlines either?

tiffany: 49:43

No, and they weren't too far from Washington State. Yeah, well, that was interesting, thank you. If you'd like to check us out on Facebook, instagram, twitter, youtube or TikTok, then you can find us under Rogue and Wicked podcast. If you'd like to join our Patreon and become a subscriber, then you can find us at wwwpatreoncom. Our tier one listeners get pictures, polls and exclusive content. Our tier two listeners get all that plus a bonus episode monthly. Our tier three listeners get two bonus episodes monthly and all tiers get a shout out on the pod. Grab a copy of Wendy's book Sage. It's available at roguepoetnet. Any cool stories, questions or case suggestions should be sent to our email at rogueandwicked at yahoocom. And don't forget to give us a five star review on Spotify, apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. The more reviews that we get, the more pod episodes that we can bring to you. Thanks for listening and until next time.