The tragic downward spiral of teen model turned drug addict

Nobody knows who killed Sarah Gatt, the victim of Melbourne's horrible body-in-the-bathtub mystery.

But what has emerged is the downward spiral of an aspiring teenage model after years of hard drug abuse.

As police continue to hunt for the killer who left the 41-year-old to rot for eight months, a fuller picture of her tragic story emerged today.

Police revealed yesterday deliberate steps were taken to “fool people” into believing the mother-of-four was alive and well after her death in April.

Her body was discovered by police after they noticed a foul smell coming from the apartment unit.

Ms Gatt’s murder was the end of a decades-long downward spiral that started not long after she attended modelling school.

Her father, Victor, said she was close to closing a modelling deal with Kmart before the tragic downturn.

Ms Gatt became addicted to hard drugs, struggling with the addiction until the day someone took her life in her long-time Kensington apartment.   

"I don’t know how it happened," Victor said.

"I put her in different places to try and get her cleaned up but it didn't happen," Ms Gatt’s father, Victor, told reporters.

Victor revealed he lost contact with Ms Gatt about 18 months before she died. He believes Ms Gatt started using drugs as early as 16.

"She didn't want to see me anymore," he said.

"Whatever I said, she just didn't want to do it."

‘‘I should have pushed myself to go and see her, but Sarah is the type of person if she doesn’t want to see you, she doesn’t want to see you.”

Her stepmother, Cheryl, said yesterday Ms Gatt had dreams and aspirations for a career in counselling so she could help people.

"She had a lot of big dreams, she had good intentions," she said.

"And no one deserved to die like that, it doesn’t matter what happened, or what her life was, she doesn’t deserve to die like that."

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.