A 28-year-old Australian chef killed and dismembered his transgender girlfriend, boiled several of her body parts on their stove before slashing his own throat with a knife, police say.
Marcus Volke was caught boiling several body parts of his Indonesian girlfriend Mayang Prasetyo, 27, in chemicals on the kitchen stove in his apartment at Teneriffe, Brisbane, by the police. He ran from that place when cops arrived on Saturday night after someone reported of foul smell emanating from his house, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Later, Volke's body was found in an industrial bin where it is believed that he took his own life, says police.
When asked, his mother Dorothy Volke told ABC that she had no inkling that there was something wrong with his son.
"I'm not sure what he was doing – last we knew he was working on boats," she said.
The couple met each other on cruise ships while they were working.
The Independent reported that neighbours complained to the building manager of a rotting smell.
"I smelled something a few days ago, but we've had sewerage problems in the building over the past few weeks, which building managers have been trying to solve," Courtney Thorensen-Reichart, a tenant of the complex, told Brisbane Times.
"It smelled like rancid dog food, so I just thought someone had either been feeding their animal or the dog had made a mess."
Reichart told ABC, "It makes you feel sick that the poor girl sat there for however many days and we've been walking past, living our lives and thinking 'hmmm what's that smell'."
The authorities are still investigating the case and are examining CCTV footage from nearby apartments. But the police are still not sure about how long Prasetyo had been dead.
Many of her friends have expressed condolence on Prasetyo's Facebook page.
