A jealous ex-boyfriend murdered a young dentist after she told him she was moving away to start a new life with another man, friends claim.
Harshwardhan Narde, 34, is believed to have stabbed Preethi Reddy, 32, to death in a 'crime of passion' after she told him they had no future as a couple.
He stuffed her body into a suitcase and dumped it in the boot of her car, then deliberately drove his BMW into the path of a semi-trailer and killed himself.
Harshwardhan Narde, 34, (left) is believed to have murdered Preethi Reddy, 32, (right) in a $300-a-night Sydney CBD hotel room on Sunday
Narde and Dr Reddy had a tumultuous five-year relationship that ended for good last year, and she moved on and started dating another man in November
A close friend of Dr Reddy told Daily Mail Australia they suspected Narde probably 'snapped' when they had dinner on Sunday night and learned of her plans to move on with her new boyfriend.
They believed Dr Reddy agreed to have dinner with Narde to gently 'tell him it was over once and for all and he needed to move on'.
'I wish she never felt sorry for him, she was too nice,' Dr Reddy's friend told Daily Mail Australia.
'She saw him depressed and blamed herself and thought one dinner will not harm me. And the dinner dragged on and on.'
After dinner, friends said Dr Reddy and Narde went back to his hotel room at the Swissotel on Market Street in the CBD where she spent the night in an effort to placate him.
Friends said Narde had told her he wanted to open his own practice in Sydney to be with her, but Dr Reddy told him she was moving to Melbourne where her new boyfriend lived.
Homicide detectives believe Dr Reddy was killed sometime between 11am on Sunday when she was seen in the foyer of the Swissotel Hotel in Market Street, and Monday afternoon.
About 5.30am on Monday when Dr Reddy hadn't returned home, a close friend sent frantic messages to Narde to see if he'd heard from her
Texts exchanged between Ms Reddy and her friend showed she was excited to move to Melbourne, and was even looking for jobs there.
'I love him so much, I can't wait for you to meet him,' she wrote in December after a trip to visit her boyfriend in Melbourne.
'I wanna get married, I can't wait.'
However, while madly in love and moving on with her life, Dr Reddy still couldn't completely cast her old flame aside.
'I'm so glad you finally dumped [Narde] and moved ahead,' the friend wrote, but Dr Reddy replied 'you make me sound like such a bitch'.
Dr Reddy and Narde had attended a dental conference in St Leonards, on Sydney's lower north shore, on Saturday night and ate together nearby afterwards.
It followed a tumultuous five-year relationship that ended for good last year, after which Dr Reddy started dating her new boyfriend in November.
Narde then told her had spoken with Dr Reddy's sister Nithya and the family was very worried, but said he had no idea where she might be
Police said she walked back to the hotel Narde was staying at on Market Street and stayed the night there - likely her last night alive
Harshwardhan Narde (pictured) died in a fiery crash on the New England Highway in NSW on Monday, a day after Preethi Reddy, 32, vanished from Sydney's CBD
Dr Reddy met Narde, a fellow dentist, in 2013 during a course and they dated until 2016 but were on-again off-again by later in the year.
Weeks before her 30th birthday in October that year, while they were 'on a break', Narde was contacting her friends trying to organise her party.
Ms Reddy eventually opted to not tell him about her celebration at a restaurant in Coogee because she didn't want her friends to know they were seeing each other.
Saturday, March 2
7pm: Preethi Reddy leaves a dental convention in St Leonards on Sydney's north shore and talked with her ex-boyfriend Harshwardhan Narde.
The pair had dinner at an Indian restaurant in Crows Nest later that night.
Sunday, March 3
2.15am: Dr Reddy is seen at a McDonald's on George Street in the Sydney CBD.
She is believed to have stayed in a Swissotel room on Market Street in the Sydney CBD with Narde.
11am: Dr Reddy last spoke to her family, telling them she planned to head home in a few hours after having a late breakfast.
1.47pm: Dr Reddy's phone was last active according to mobile data.
Dr Reddy's family reported her missing later that night and Narde was questioned hours later.
Monday, March 4
5.30am: Narde replied to frantic text messages from a friend about Dr Reddy, denying he knew where she was.
10pm: Narde died after driving his BMW into a deliberate head-on crash with a truck.
Tuesday, March 5
9.30pm: Dr Reddy's body is found stuffed inside a suitcase in the boot of her grey Volkswagen Golf on a street in Kingsford.
'He was always forcing things, even when they weren't a couple, and she'd go along with it even if she just wanted to be friends,' the friend said.
By 2017, Dr Reddy decided to give the relationship another try and spent a lot of time in Tamworth, in NSW's Upper Hunter region, where Narde worked.
'Harsh kept complaining that she wasn't trying to get a job in Tamworth and blamed her for everything wrong with the relationship,' the friend said.
'He was very possessive.'
The close friend said Dr Reddy 'admired Narde's work' but her boyfriend would always get angry when she suggested how he could do better.
Dr Reddy alternated between not wanting to tell her friends, family, and colleagues she was back together with Narde, and not wanting to say they broke up.
She felt so awkward about finally breaking up with Narde in early 2018 breakup that she sat with him at last year's conference in March.
Narde found it even harder to let go, insisting they were 'meant to be' and kept trying to get back together.
He took off on a long overseas trip, returning in mid-February when Dr Reddy confided in her friend that she was worried about him.
On Friday when she was at the Bungalow 8 nightclub in Darling Harbour after the first day of the conference, she spoke about how hard Narde being there was.
'Preethi said he wasn't himself, that
