Haddad’s body found by kayakers on Sunday morning in the Lane Cove river in Woolwich • Sign up to receive the top stories every morning

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This article is more than 2 years old

Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a woman whose body was found by kayakers in a Sydney river on Sunday.

Although the woman has yet to be formally identified, she is believed to be Brazilian national Cecilia Haddad.

She was reported missing by her friends on Saturday and a postmortem was due to be carried out on Wednesday.

Haddad’s body was found by kayakers on Sunday morning in the Lane Cove river in Woolwich, on Sydney’s lower north shore. Police initially said her death was not being treated as suspicious, but revealed in the early hours of Wednesday that a homicide investigation had been launched.

At a press conference on Wednesday police revealed they had located Haddad’s car at West Ryde train station near her home in Ryde on Sunday Afternoon.

Detective Acting Inspector Ritchie Sim said police were reviewing CCTV footage from the station and other locations. He said officers had seen “some movements” on the footage, but declined to go into detail.

He said officers had begun treating the death as suspicious after discovering the car, and because Haddad had missed several appointments on Saturday.

Homicide squad detectives are now appealing for public assistance to piece together Haddad’s movements on the weekend before her death.

After attending a barbecue with friends in the Ryde area on Friday night, police said Haddad spoke to friends on the phone between 8am and 9am on Saturday morning.

That was her last known contact.

A Brazillian national, the 38-year-old worked for a mining company in Western Australia before moving to New South Wales in 2016 to work as a logistics manager for a freight company, and was most recently living in an apartment on St Anne’s Street, Ryde.

Sim said police had been in touch with Haddad’s mother in Brazil, describing her as “very upset” and “needing answers”.

Haddad’s ex-husband was travelling from Perth – where she lived for several years – to formally identify her. Sim said he was “very, very traumatised”.

Sim said detectives were interviewing a number of persons of interest but it was too early to identify whether there were any formal suspects.

“By all accounts, Cecilia enjoyed an active social life and had made a large circle of friends during her time in Sydney,” Detective Acting Inspector Ritchie Sim said.

Haddad was reported missing when she failed to keep various appointments on Saturday, which her friends described as completely out of character.

“So far, we have been able to establish Cecilia went to a barbecue on Friday night, and then spoke to friends on Saturday morning, but her movements after that time are unknown,” Sim said.

Police were told Haddad’s car, a red 2013-model Fiat 500 sedan with a black roof, registration number DJV50H, was seen outside her home on Saturday afternoon. They are keen to speak to anyone who may have seen her or the car after that time and before it was found at West Ryde station.

“We are specifically seeking CCTV or dash-cam footage of Cecilia or her vehicle, possibly in the Hunters Hill, Ryde, Top Ryde, West Ryde, and Woolwich areas over the weekend,” Sim said.

With Australian Associated Press