CHILLING NEW DETAILS EMERGE IN MISSING MUM MYSTERY.. ! – Disturbing new claims have surfaced in the disappearance of missing mother Katie Walker, as her father revealed she was allegedly planning to return to the UK before police say she walked into the ocean.
In the weeks before Katie Walker, 46, disappeared near a Sydney beach, she’d lost almost $200,000, her bank accounts were frozen, her phone was malfunctioning, her visa was almost up, and she was trying to get home to the UK.
Her life was in shambles, but her father Bassam Shlewet told the Daily Mail that he doesn’t believe the leading police theory that she took her own life on May 23 after she was spotted on CCTV walking down Alexander Street in Tamarama.
Investigators think Ms Walker descended a staircase to the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk, clambered over the rocks and went into the ocean sometime after 1.12pm on a Saturday, the busiest time of the week at the tourist hotspot.
She was wearing high-heeled boots, jeans and a black coat, while carrying a $2,000 red Medusa ’95 Versace handbag.
‘Katie was not dressed to commit suicide, and you wouldn’t go there to do it. It’s not the place for it,’ Mr Shlewet said.
He understands why suicide is a leading theory, but he said there are too many factors to the contrary – she was very dressed up, no one saw her on the beach that day, and her phone pinged at a Bondi cell tower at 7.40 that night.
On top of that, she had called Flight Centre on May 18, five days before she vanished, about buying tickets back to the UK with cash.
And when police entered Ms Walker’s Darling Point apartment in early June, after she was reported missing, they found two suitcases already packed and ready to go.
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Katie Walker, 46, was last seen in Tamarama at around lunchtime on Saturday, May 23
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The last known sighting of Katie Walker, 46, walking down Alexander Street in Tamarama
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Pictured: Alexander Street in Tamarama, where Katie Walker was last seen
Mr Shlewet has been trying to piece together his daughter’s last weeks. He knows she had recently divorced US-based wellness guru Dean Taraborelli, before returning to Australia to reconnect with her two teenage children from a previous relationship.
Ms Walker landed in Sydney in February with leftover funds from her US$500,000 divorce settlement, but her accounts were empty and frozen by the time she went missing.
She was relying on her father in England to help her secure a lease and cover her rent.
‘Katie was desperate. Everything was going wrong for her,’ Mr Shlewet said.
‘Her visa in Australia was almost finished. She had a big bank balance when she went to Australia and then suddenly she called me because she ran out of money.’
Ms Walker spent time with friends in Dubai before she landed in Sydney, during which time she made a series of bad investments that dramatically impacted her funds.
Her father helped her rent a unit in Darling Point for $995 per week and transferred additional funds to see her through, but she was actively making plans to leave the country to avoid overstaying her visa.
She had asked friends if she could stay with them in Dubai after leaving Australia.
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Katie Walker (pictured) was last seen in Sydney’s eastern suburbs at 1.12pm on Saturday, May 23. She was carrying her favourite Versace handbag when she disappeared
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Katie Walker lived in a $995-a-week unit in Darling Point (pictured)
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The owner of Katie Walker’s $995-a-week Darling Point rental (pictured) got her lease terminated at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal
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When they couldn’t accommodate her, she called Flight Centre but never went through with buying the tickets.
Texts between father and daughter, seen by the Mail, from late March to early June show Mr Shlewet asking Ms Walker if she had received the money he sent her.
She was slow to reply in the earlier messages because she was having issues with her phone, which is why her father wasn’t alarmed when she failed to respond to his messages between May 15 and June 2.
Mr Shlewet called her ex-partner in Australia, the father of her children, on June 2 and they realised that no one had heard from Ms Walker in about nine days.
The money he transferred to her was never collected.
A missing persons report was lodged with NSW Police that day.
Mr Shlewet flew to Sydney with his son, Ms Walker’s brother, to try to determine what happened.
They flew drones over the area and spoke to her friends, neighbours, police and anyone with CCTV footage near where she was last seen, but no one knew where she was.
Mr Shlewet was told his daughter had met two men at the Royal Oak in Double Bay a few weeks before she went missing.
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Katie Walker used to run a jewellery business which was once featured in British Vogue
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Pictured: The area where police think Katie Walker may have taken her own life – though her father disagrees
He told the Mail that police questioned the men and cleared them of any wrongdoing.
There was also a man who broke into her hotel room in Dubai.
Ms Walker screamed and hotel staff were notified, but police were never told because the hotel wanted to protect its reputation.
Mr Shlewet said she ran into the same man on a beach in Sydney.
‘How weird is that?’ he remarked.
‘We need to find out what happened. Did she talk to him? Is he hiding her? Do we know his name?’
Mr Shlewet flew back to the UK and hired a private investigator to find out what happened.
He has passed all the information on to police, but he hasn’t heard from them since July 9.
Ms Walker is described as slim, with brown eyes, long brown hair, about 172cm tall with a small black butterfly tattoo on her right hand.
Anyone who has seen her is urged to contact NSW Police.
