Murdered dentist Preethi Reddy told ex-lover Harshwardhan Narde of her plans to marry and move

Dentist Preethi Reddy told her possessive ex-boyfriend “I’ve moved on, you need to do the same” just hours before he stabbed her and stuffed her in a suitcase.

• Body of dentist found in suitcase

Dentist Preethi Reddy told her possessive ex-boyfriend “I’ve moved on, you need to do the same” just hours before he stabbed her and stuffed her in a suitcase.

Dr Reddy, 32, told ­Harshwardhan Narde she was moving to Melbourne with her new boyfriend, who, his family said yesterday, she was planning to marry.

Preethi Reddy was planning to marry her new boyfriend. Picture: L. Costa Photography

MORE NEWS:

Secret police files expose Sydney’s deadly underbelly

Packer embroiled in Hollywood scandal

Judge: ‘NRL’s ‘ban’ damaged de Belin’s career’

Ex-boyfriend Narde, who had been contacting Dr Reddy via text and Facebook in the six months since she ended their relationship, refused to accept it was over, sources said.

Narde, 34, who had driven 400km from Tamworth to see Dr Reddy at a dentist convention in St Leonards, reportedly pleaded for a second chance and told her of his plan to open a practice in Sydney to be near her.

Friends say he guilted her into having dinner one final time on Saturday, telling her he was deeply depressed over their breakup.

Police believe Narde, 34, stabbed Dr Reddy to death in his room at the CBD Swissotel in Market St ­sometime on Sunday afternoon. He died in a fiery head-on collision with a truck near Tamworth on Monday.

“Something in him cracked and he became enraged­, he wouldn’t accept it was over and had not left her alone since she broke it off,” a source close to the investigation­ said yesterday.

“This is absolutely the definition of a crime of passion­. Preethi told him she had met someone else and that it was serious and she was moving to Melbourne.”

Harshwardhan Narde had no history of violence but had “not left her alone” since they broke up. Picture: Facebook

Dr Reddy had met her new boyfriend through their parents and she was “the happiest I’d ever seen her — she was living her best life”, her sister Nithya said.

The new boyfriend’s mother yesterday said the couple had been dating for four months and were planning­ to marry. “We’re deeply worried for our son, he’s devastated,” she said.

Narde, who had been seen numerous times with Dr Reddy at the conference, had told police and her family he was the last person to see her — and was worried about where she might be.

But police believe that after killing her, he drove her car — with her body in the suitcase in the boot — to Kingsford and left it there ­before driving to Tamworth, and into the path of the truck.

The Swissotel Hotel on Market St in Sydney, which is believed to be the scene of the murder. Picture: John Grainger

Friends yesterday said Dr Reddy was “guilted” into going to dinner with Narde.

“Preethi was very sweet and felt bad that she had upset him,” one friend said.

A colleague at the dentist conference said he saw Dr Reddy and Narde together a number of times and that “she was friendly to him but not tactile”.

Dr Reddy’s new boyfriend wrote a heartbreaking tribute to her on social media, saying: “I’ll see you again one day … and we’ll continue where we left off my angel.”