Australian chef kills girlfriend, cooks body parts in a pot
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An Australian chef reportedly murdered his girlfriend, cut up her body parts, and cooked them in a pot before fleeing from police and killing himself.
Police responding to reports of a bad smell coming from an apartment in Brisbane Saturday found Marcus Volke, 28, in the residence. Volke tried to run from officers through a glass door, leaped over a balcony, and hid in an alleyway before fatally slashing his throat in a nearby garbage bin, Sky News reported Monday.
The grisly scene inside the apartment included dismembered parts of Volke’s girlfriend’s body in a pot on the stove. Other parts of the Indonesian woman’s body were found in garbage bags in trash bins outside the apartment, local media sources reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The woman has been identified as Mayang Prasetyo.
Volke and Prasetyo met while working on international cruise ships. He had recently returned to Australia, his mother said. The couple had moved into the new apartment complex in a wealthy suburb just weeks ago, according to reports.
"He was happy and he was coming home for Christmas; everything was normal," Dorothy Volke told the Courier-Mail newspaper.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police said they were trying to establish the exact time of death.
Resident Courtney Reichart told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that she first noticed the pungent smell she compared to rotten meat on Wednesday, and the odor got worse each day.
"On Saturday when I came out for a walk, it made your eyes water, it made you want to be sick," she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It makes you feel sick that that poor girl sat there for however many days and we've been walking past, living our lives and thinking 'hmmm what's that smell', but you don't put two and two together," Reichart said.
"You don't think that a bad smell equals a murder," she added.
Reichart had met the couple on several occasions, telling the ABC they were a "normal couple" and the girlfriend was "gorgeous.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Volke was originally from the Victorian city of Ballarat, where his funeral will be held.