Melissa Caddick’s husband deleted text messages from his phone to hide from police that he smoked a joint with a friend the night his wife disappeared, her inquest has been told.

Anthony Koletti told the court he drove to a friend’s house on the evening of November 12, 2022, to get an “e-cigarette”.

“Was it in fact to smoke a joint?” counsel assisting Jason Downing SC asked.

“I don’t know … it’s possible,” Mr Koletti said.

“You must remember,” Mr Downing said.

“Let’s just say I did, what’s your point?” Mr Koletti said.

“On a night you told us you were conducting searches throughout the day … you in fact went to smoke a joint with a friend,” Mr Downing said.

Mr Koletti said he was concerned about his wife and accepted if he did it was to calm himself down.

The text messages exchanged with that friend were later deleted by Mr Koletti before he handed his phone over to police to assist with their inquiries, Mr Downing said.

Mr Koletti said doing that must of had “something to do with marijuana”.

He formally reported his wife missing the following day on November 13, and was asked if he had been out the night before.

“Not that I know of,” he said.

Mr Koletti’s evidence resumed on Thursday after he was asked to step down due to his distress and confusion.

Overnight he had been receiving ongoing abusive messages including one via LinkedIn, his lawyer Judy Swan said.

“Dodgy prick, I hope you get locked up,” it read.

The day Mr Koletti says his wife left their Dover Heights, Sydney, house and never returned he texted her at 7.16am on November 12.

“Are you OK?” he wrote.

Soon after this, he found her iPhone in their walk-in wardrobe, he confirmed on Thursday, which “weirded” him out because she never left home without her phone.

At some point he noticed her keys, wallet, a bag full of files were also left behind, but can’t recall when.

“The only thing I can vividly remember is the phone.”

He didn’t leave the home that morning before 7.30am, he said, and was then taken to CCTV stills taken near the Dover Heights cliffs – previously shown and marked by Mr Koletti in July last year.

Ms Caddick’s black Mercedes appears to be located in the photograph.

“This is me looking for Melissa can’t confirm it’s me but looks like me,” he has scrawled above his initials.

The image is time-stamped at 6.55am on November 12.

“As you can see it’s all a bit of a blur,” Mr Koletti says before adding his recollection is “quite hazy”.

“I don’t recall going anywhere,” he said.

In several different police reports and for weeks after Mr Koletti maintained Ms Caddick left the home in black exercise gear and silver Asics.

But after she failed to return he says he assumed she was meeting with a lawyer, or staying in a hotel before her court appearance the following day.

Mr Downing asked why he insists she left in athletic wear if he later believed she was meeting with a lawyer.

Mr Koletti said it was based on assumptions, but denied seeing her wearing them.

Meanwhile, Ms Caddick’s brother Adam Grimley has said in an affidavit the family was “floored” counsel assisting seemed to be “going after” his brother-in-law.

He noted counsel seemed to be presenting “unverified gossip as fact” and said Mr Koletti had suffered enormously from the loss of his wife, the shock of her misconduct and unsubstantiated accusations that followed.

– AAP