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Speaker 1: This is gem Nation with landa.

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Speaker 2: Wow, that's the song from Anthony COLLETTI.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he's called Boddy Camis.

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Speaker 2: Is married to Melissa Kadic. How much of this do

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Speaker 2: we have to hear it? It's melodic. I can see

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Speaker 2: it coming to a stage near you. Well, the story

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Speaker 2: of Melissa Katic is one of the most extraordinary crimes

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Speaker 2: of the century. What happened to her? Sidney Connman, a

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Speaker 2: conn woman, she's the well maybe that's what's happened. She's

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Speaker 2: the glamorous woman who fleeced those she knew and loved

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Speaker 2: for millions of dollars to fund her lavish lifestyle. It's extraordinary.

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Speaker 2: She vanished November twenty twenty, within hours of the Federal

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Speaker 2: police investigators from the corporate regulator Asset raiding her house.

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Speaker 2: No word from her sense but her foot in a

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Speaker 2: shoe washed up some months later on the South Coast.

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Speaker 2: Extraordinary story and two of Australia's best investigative journalists, Kate

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Speaker 2: McClymont and Tom Steinford, have put together an extraordinary podcast

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Speaker 2: called Liar, Liar and Kate McClymont joins us.

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Speaker 4: Now, Hello Kate, Oh, good morning, Amanda and Jonesy Kate.

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Speaker 3: Where so many questions, so many questions.

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Speaker 2: I think the thing that most horrified me and listening

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Speaker 2: to your podcast, was the people that she prayed on.

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Speaker 2: Her family, her friends, her best friend who's a single mother,

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Speaker 2: she knows she's struggling, and she looks her in the

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Speaker 2: eye and takes her money.

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Speaker 4: I know, this is what really got me was the

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Speaker 4: fact that you could not only steal money.

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Speaker 1: From your friends.

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Speaker 4: And this friend that we're talking about, Kate, she was

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Speaker 4: a single mother, she was a nurse, she worked night

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Speaker 4: shifts because they were better paid, to try to support

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Speaker 4: her family. And here's Melissa spending her friend's money on the.

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Speaker 1: Most extraordinary lifestyle.

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Speaker 4: And we're talking, you know, half a million dollars each

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Speaker 4: and every year just on overseas travel. And that then

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Speaker 4: we've got the you know, the Dior gowns, that the handbags,

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Speaker 4: the shoes. Meanwhile, her friends, you know down in the Shire,

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Speaker 4: are really they're battlers. And you know she did this

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Speaker 4: to her relatives as well, like one of her you know,

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Speaker 4: some of her elderly relatives, they're about to lose their house.

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Speaker 4: You know, these are people who have worked hard their

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Speaker 4: entire lives.

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Speaker 2: Sid a mental illness obviously, but I know you speak

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Speaker 2: to forensic psychologists as Well's she not only was a

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Speaker 2: conn woman, but psychologically quite a drift.

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Speaker 4: Oh look, I think that she's definitely got you know,

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Speaker 4: I think signs of either not being a psychopath, definitely

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Speaker 4: a narcissistic sociopath. And they're the kind of people that

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Speaker 4: can do these things because they have no empathy. You know,

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Speaker 4: they can pretend that they care about people, but the

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Speaker 4: pretense only goes far as to snare the money from them.

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Speaker 4: And you know, to say to these people, you know,

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Speaker 4: don't you worry? You give me your money. I know

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Speaker 4: that you're busy, but I'm doing it for myself. So

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Speaker 4: why don't I put out a helping hand and I'll

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Speaker 4: invest your money as well. And far from being a

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Speaker 4: criminal mastermind, this was actually quite a simple scam. So

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Speaker 4: I get your money. I then just do fraudulent monthly reports.

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Speaker 4: I cut and paste comset and I say, guess what,

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Speaker 4: Amanda your money this month?

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Speaker 1: You know I've earned twenty percent.

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Speaker 4: And then you tell Jonesy, wow, look you know my

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Speaker 4: you know, my Melissa Caddick, she's doing really well. And

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Speaker 4: so then Jonesy puts his money in and because you're

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Speaker 4: friends with Melissa, you never think that a friend would

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Speaker 4: do this to you. You just wouldn't think.

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Speaker 1: That that would happen. And that's how she got away

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Speaker 1: with it.

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Speaker 3: Sounds like a good deal, you tell me about this.

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Speaker 3: Coming on the ground floor of this, it's quite fascinating.

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Speaker 3: When the TV show vanished and it had the speculation

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Speaker 3: that she got involved with this gangster and she lost

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Speaker 3: all his cash. This is the vanished show. This is

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Speaker 3: not a real thing. This is just speculation, and so

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Speaker 3: the gangster. The end of the vanished thing, sorry for

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Speaker 3: the spoiler of it, it's got her getting a foot

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Speaker 3: lopped off and thrown into the water. And presumably Melissa's

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Speaker 3: got a new life out there with one foot.

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Speaker 2: Why would they keep her alive if she'd stolen their money?

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Speaker 2: I don't know.

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Speaker 3: Well, as I say at the end of this, I

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Speaker 3: could have just made it all up and she's just dead.

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Speaker 3: But you know, that's that's what the TV show was.

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Speaker 4: Well, the funny thing was that we were about to

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Speaker 4: record the first episode of the podcast the very day

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Speaker 4: Melissa Caaddick's foot washed up.

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Speaker 1: And we're talking about February twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 5: So Tom Steinfort, my podcast co host, and I looked

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Speaker 5: at each other and went, well, the stories a, she's

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Speaker 5: obviously dead, and talking to the writers of Underbelly, they

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Speaker 5: went no no.

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Speaker 4: As soon as her foot washed up, That's when we

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Speaker 4: knew we had a drama.

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Speaker 1: And I must admit nothing.

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Speaker 4: Prepared me for the level of interest that the mystery

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Speaker 4: of that foot washing up created. And Amanda, it was

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Speaker 4: funny that you mentioned before about you know that perhaps

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Speaker 4: she was a man. People send him things like one

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Speaker 4: person sent him something recently saying I'm a little bit

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Speaker 4: of a psychic and I love it when people are

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Speaker 4: a little bit of a psychic. So the little bit

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Speaker 4: of a psychic said that Melissa Caddick had changed into

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Speaker 4: a man, she had one foot, and she was on

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Speaker 4: the Greek Islands.

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Speaker 1: So thanks to the little bit of.

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Speaker 4: A psychic for telling me about the the change in sex.

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Speaker 4: But I'm glad she's living a happy life in Greek

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Speaker 4: as a man.

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Speaker 3: Jacob, do you know that's free?

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Speaker 2: Do you more put on? Do you think that that's

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Speaker 2: what happened? I mean, or I know you speak to

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Speaker 2: marine scientists to see about the foot washing in with

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Speaker 2: all the tides that is eminently possible or eminently possible.

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Speaker 2: So what's your feeling as to what happened to her?

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Speaker 1: Look, my feeling is that she is dead.

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Speaker 4: And I think that while the drama, you know, with

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Speaker 4: having a crime figures chasing her, the reality was was

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Speaker 4: that her victims didn't know they were victims until they

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Speaker 4: read my story in the Sydney Morning Herald which said

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Speaker 4: Comset accounts have eight digits. Melissa Kaddick had only six.

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Speaker 4: And that morning I got emails and I got phone

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Speaker 4: calls from people saying, oh my god, I've just realized

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Speaker 4: that's us and other people rang comsick to be told they.

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Speaker 1: Never had an account. So there was no.

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Speaker 4: Motive for people to kill her because they didn't know

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Speaker 4: that they were victims. And in fact, when she first

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Speaker 4: went missing, you know, her relatives and friends were contacting

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Speaker 4: the police, you know, saying that she'd been kidnapped, perhaps

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Speaker 4: by discaruntled investors. So you know, look, they weren't aware

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Speaker 4: that she was the you know, the shyster.

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Speaker 3: That she was. And that's the thing. Her exit strategy

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Speaker 3: was to actually take her own life. That was pretty much.

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Speaker 3: It much funny though.

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Speaker 4: That a lot of her investors are still convinced that

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Speaker 4: she would never do that, only because she was so organized,

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Speaker 4: she was so meticulous, everything ran on clockwork, and they

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Speaker 4: say she would have had an exit plan. I remain unconvinced,

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Speaker 4: And of course we're waiting until September when there'll be

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Speaker 4: an inquist and then hopefully the forensic pathology will be

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Speaker 4: to tell us, hopefully how her foot came to be

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Speaker 4: separated from the rest of her body, you know, worthy

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Speaker 4: marine organisms to show that it had been in the

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Speaker 4: water for that long. So I think hopefully there'll be

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Speaker 4: answers in September.

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Speaker 2: In the meantime, it's all back in court on Monday

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Speaker 2: as everyone fights over the house for the spoils.

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Speaker 3: Well, Kate, it's great to talk to you. Liar Liar

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Speaker 3: a true crime podcast about Melissa Cattig. You can download

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Speaker 3: it right now on the iHeartRadio app.

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Speaker 4: Do that.

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Speaker 3: And Kate tell us about this ground level scheme that

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Speaker 3: you've got a man who was talking about it. I've

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Speaker 3: got some money, I'll just tip it in there.

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Speaker 4: You two can be in on the ground level.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, Kate,