Preethi was ‘living her best life’

POLICE are continuing to piece together the final hours of Sydney dentist Preethi Reddy’s life before she was killed and stuffed in a suitcase in her own car.

The Penrith woman’s body was found in her VW Golf in a Kingsford lane about 9.30pm on Tuesday, almost three days after she was last seen. She had been stabbed “numerous times”.

Her former boyfriend, Tamworth dentist Harshwardhan Narde, 34, had hours earlier taken his own life in a fiery car crash on the New England Highway. In a statement released on behalf of Dr Reddy’s family, her sister Nithya said: “Words cannot capture the pain we are feeling with the passing of my beautiful big sister.

“Preethi (right) was a bright light, loveable, kind, and protective of all whom were lucky enough to have been loved and cared for by her.

“Prior to this unthinkable event, she had been the happiest I’d ever seen her – she was living her best life.” The statement added: “We ask that everyone keep that in mind that we are grieving and we need space to do that.”

Investigators believe they know who killed Dr Reddy but are pleading for more information about her whereabouts before her death.

They believe she reconnected with Dr Narde in Sydney but are still trying to understand exactly what happened.

The gruesome discovery of Dr Reddy’s body on Tuesday came just hours after police issued a public appeal to find the 32-year-old from Penrith. Dr Reddy, 32, was reported missing on Sunday after she failed to return home following a dental convention at St Leonards over the weekend.

She was captured on CCTV inside a city McDonald’s about 2.15am on Sunday.