Hidden in plain sight: How a cute dog photo revealed Melissa Caddick's staggering profits

Six months before she disappeared, accused fraudster Melissa Caddick sent a lighthearted photo of her pet dog posing in her home office to one of her victims.

In a desperate hunt for clues, the victim only recently thought to take a closer look at the cute, but seemingly ordinary happy snap, the podcast Liar Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions reveals.

Zooming in on the notepad on Caddick's desk, the sum $46,000 was can be seen scrawled on the paper.

That was the eye-watering amount of profit Caddick was making from her alleged crimes every single day.

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In the month of May 2020 alone, the accused Sydney fraudster made a staggering $1.426 million.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age journalist Kate McClymont, who hosts the podcast, told Today the discovery showed how sometimes clues could be 'hiding in plain sight'.

"The person that provided me with that photo is one of, not only Melissa's victims, but she worked one day a week for Melissa," McClymont said.

"So she is sitting there day after day seeing all of these things, but it wasn't until after Melissa disappeared and the 'Herald' broke the story saying she was running a Ponzi scheme, they didn't even realise they were all victims." 

Caddick's case is one that has captivated the nation.

Things came crumbling down for Caddick when  the federal police, on behalf of ASIC, executed a search warrant on her Dover Heights home in Sydney's east in November 2020.

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It was suspected she had fleeced millions of dollars from her victims, mainly family and friends in a Ponzi scheme to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Caddick disappeared the day after the police raid.

Months later, in February 2021, the remains of her foot inside a running show washed up on a South Coast beach. 

An inquest will be held into her death in September.

McClymont told Today the inquest may reveal some of the many mysteries surrounding how Caddick died.

"Already I have heard that some of her victims have been interviewed by the police to provide alibis," she said. 

A forensic pathologists would hopefully be able to shed some light on what happened to Caddick's foot, if it was severed from her body, or had deteriorated while in the ocean, McClymont said.

"Until we hear from a forensic pathologist, that is still one of the big mysteries in this case."