WARNING: Graphic content
IT WAS the smell that drew police to the inner Brisbane apartment.
A foul stench no-one could quite place. Unmistakably foreign.
But no-one could have imagined the true horror that lay behind that apartment door.
Human flesh in a large pot, removed from a nearby stovetop.
Marcus Volke was a chef by trade — a chef with a particular interest in bone broth. But the final broth the 27-year-old would make came not from a quest for healthy living.
He made it to conceal a murder, and the sordid double life his family knew nothing about.
THE INQUEST
The two officers called to Volke’s apartment, ostensibly for a welfare check, thought they had stumbled upon a sick prank.
In the pot he had been using to cook his partner Mayang Prasetyo’s body parts, they found what appeared to be human feet.
Other parts of Ms Prasetyo’s dismembered remains were found in a garbage bag near the washing machine.
The inquest into Ms Prasetyo’s and Volke’s deaths heard that Senior Constable Bryan Reid and Constable Luke McWhinney initially were called to conduct a routine welfare check late on Saturday, October 4, 2014.
“(There) was a bad smell, it was something I hadn’t smelt before and can’t really describe,” Sen Constable Reid said on the opening day of the inquest in Brisbane on Monday.
An electrician had earlier visited to restore power in Volke’s apartment, which he had short-circuited when the pot on his stove boiled over.
It was the tradesman who raised the alarm.
The building managers called police, concerned about that odd smell and that the woman who lived there with him had not been seen for a couple of days.
Sen Constable Reid said Volke was initially co-operative when they questioned him outside his apartment.
But when he went back inside, telling the officers he needed to secure the pair’s dogs, Volke locked the door, self-harmed and jumped his balcony fence to escape to a rear laneway.
There was a pool of blood on the floor beside the pot that contained Ms Prasetyo’s feet.
Volke was later found dead inside an industrial garbage bin.
He had been seeking treatment for mental health problems in the weeks leading up to the death, the three-day inquest was told.
A SECRET DEAL
Detective Sergeant Joshua Walsh told the court the couple had met and struck a deal to help each other while working as escorts, according to police interviews with Volke’s former partner.
“She provided the information that they were residing together for an extended period of time,” Det Sgt Walsh said. “During that time, Marcus had accrued a debt of approximately $9000 in credit cards, with no means of repaying it.”
The detective said Volke had worked as a chef part-time, but was unable to continue because he had mental health problems. He decided to become a male escort in Melbourne clubs as a way of repaying the debt.
That’s where he met Ms Prasetyo, born Febri Andriansyah in Indonesia, who had begun transitioning into a woman before she moved to Australia.
“They came up with an agreement between the two parties that [Volke] would assist with her getting a permanent partner visa for Australia and she would assist him within transgender clubs within Melbourne and overseas, in Europe and Asia.”
The pair had travelled through Asia and Europe together, working as escorts in transgender clubs, the court heard.
Det Sgt Walsh said Volke and his former partner later kept in regular contact through emails and Facebook.
“She was able to ascertain that he was struggling, with both his identity and his employment, and wanted to break free from that and start as a dog breeder in Brisbane upon his return,” he said. “On one occasion she stated that he was considering self-harm.”
The court was told Volke had presented to a Newstead-based doctor with anxiety, depression and a sleep disorder, and had previously been treated by Victoria’s Ballarat Hospital as a teenager.
THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
The Double One 3 apartment complex in the up-market, riverside enclave of Teneriffe was so new in early October 2014, a giant banner still hung on the side of the building advertising units for rent.
Finishing touches were still being applied inside.
Ad hoc pieces of A4 paper taped to walls directed residents to their new homes, which investors had paid upwards of $600,000 for.
Volke, who was raised in the small country Victorian farming community of Haddon, just outside Ballarat, was among the first to move in.
He and his young Indonesian wife Mayang Prasetyo had lived in a ground floor apartment with their three small pugs for just a couple of months.
During their brief tenure in the building, Ms Prasetyo was frequently seen walking the dogs along the riverside paths and in parks nearby.
On the surface, they were a young couple who had recently returned to Brisbane after working on cruise ships, he as a chef, she as a cabaret dancer.
The reality was very, very different.
DOUBLE LIVES
Volke left his regional Victorian home for Melbourne to further his trade after high school but he soon discovered a far more lucrative profession.
At Pleasure Dome brothel, which promotes itself as having Australia’s “finest selection of male escorts and transsexuals”, he was introduced to fellow sex worker Ms Prasetyo.
She was working as a high class transgender escort, eventually charging her clients $500 per hour.
She sent the funds back to her impoverished mother and two younger sisters at home, paying for the girls to go to school.
They had no idea how she was earning the money that supported them.
The couple moved into private escort services after leaving the Melbourne brothel and travelled the world plying their trade.
They settled for a while in Denmark, where, under the name Heath XL, Volke advertised himself as a “young sexy Australian boy, very friendly and easy going, discreet and professional.”
“I’m open to all kinds of people, ages and backgrounds but if you are cool, serious and generous, then we can be a match!”
In 2013, the couple married in Copenhagen, after Volke asked his prospective mother-in-law for permission to marry her daughter on a return trip the couple made to Indonesia.
While Ms Prasetyo’s family knew of her marriage, Volke’s family back near Ballarat were completely in the dark.
As far as they knew, the son who infrequently called home and occasionally visited — alone — was travelling the world while cooking on cruise ships.
They knew nothing of Ms Prasetyo’s existence, or of their son’s double life.
The extent of his deception was not revealed until after his death.
In addition to coming to terms with the grief of suddenly losing their son, his parents also had to absorb the confronting details of his sordid life being so publicly exposed.
When reporters came knocking at the family property in the days following the deaths, Volke’s clearly distressed father Peter, a karate instructor, chased them away.
The 27-year-old was farewelled in a small, private funeral service in North Ballarat.
Media interest was high but they were told, in no uncertain terms, they were not welcome.
A NEW LIFE IN BRISBANE
Volke and his new wife returned to Australia nearly a year after their August 2013 marriage in Copenhagen.
Like many affluent young professionals, they chose to live in Teneriffe.
Teneriffe boasts plentiful cafes, bars and boutiques, among the rustic, riverside red brick buildings that once operated as wool stores, now converted to sought after apartments.
The couple both continued to work as private escorts.
Friends and family hinted that, despite their recent marriage, their relationship was a volatile one.
None of them could have foreseen the horror to come.
THE MURDER
Neighbours heard Volke and his wife fighting inside their apartment late on Thursday, October 2.
Ms Prasetyo was not seen again.
In the days following the discovery of her remains, Detective Senior Sergeant Tom Armitt said investigators did not believe the murder was a premeditated one, but the tragic outcome of a heated domestic dispute.
The true circumstances of her death may never be known.
But while Volke may not have intended to kill Ms Prasetyo, he went to extreme lengths to cover up her murder.
It was not just the inevitable charges and loss of his liberty that was looming.
The discovery of her death would also expose the life he had so carefully hidden for so many years.
Stuck with his wife’s body in a heavily populated area, Volke got to work with the disposing of it.
He took out a large pot and one of his chef’s knives and cut her into pieces.
It is not known exactly when he hatched his disturbing plan.
But by Saturday, there was that distinctive stench pervading the air of the Double One 3 complex.
The first sign that something was amiss in Volke’s apartment.
It was similar to rotting meat, some residents later told police. Like dog food, others reported.
The smell itself may not have ever been enough for residents to call police and Volke may well have gotten away with murder.
But on the Saturday, two days after Ms Prasetyo’s death, fate intervened.
FATE INTERVENES
The pot Volke was using to cook parts of his wife’s body boiled over and into the electric oven.
It short-circuited and cut the power supply to the apartment.
To carry out his plan, Volke had no choice but to phone an electrician.
He sounded casual when he called Brad Coyne.
“G’day, is this a 24 hour electrician?” he asked in that phone call.
“Yeah,” came Mr Coyne’s reply.
“I’ve got a bit of a problem.”
Later that day, Mr Coyne knocked on the apartment door.
“You have to mind the smell,” Volke said to him.
He was cooking pig’s broth, he explained to the electrician, who already suspected otherwise.
Garbage bags were strewn around the apartment.
There were bottles of chemicals and rubber gloves, the smell of bleach mingling with that odd, foul stench.
He restored the power, left the apartment.
On the way out, he talked to the building manager and police were called.
Within hours, Volke would also take his own life.
THE WELFARE CHECK
Sen Constable Reid and Constable McWhinney responded to the building manager’s request for the welfare check.
The scene that confronted the officers in that near-new unit was particularly gruesome.
Volke instinctively fled.
He slashed his own throat inside the apartment before jumping his balcony fence, which faced a laneway behind the building, leaving it smeared with blood.
He continued to leave a blood trail as he ran and hid in an industrial bin a nearby laneway.
With a suspected murderer on the loose, police quickly mobilised and soon an estimated 15 officers swarmed to Dath Street.
For years, Volke had successfully concealed his marriage and life as a male sex worker.
As he hid from police in the wheelie bin it was all on the brink of exposure.
It was inside the bin that he died, the blood leaving streaming from his throat wound so quickly, subsequent CPR attempts by police and paramedics were utterly hopeless.
THE CORONIAL INQUEST
The investigation into Volke and Ms Prasetyo’s death was a lengthy and painstaking one.
The Queensland Ethical Standards Command, the body reserved for internal police investigations, led the probe, as Volke was on the run from two officers when he took his life.
This week, Coroner Terry Ryan will hear submissions to make the final ruling on one of Brisbane’s most gruesome cases of murder-suicide.
The death of Febri Andriansyah, as the pre-operative transgender woman was still legally known, is expected to be a largely open and shut ruling.
That of Volke, however, warrants further investigation.
The police response will be under the microscope, with the question Mr Ryan will make the ruling on being, did the officers who were called to the scene that night contribute, in any way, to the 27-year-old’s death?
As well as Sen Constable Reid and Constable McWhinney, three other officers — Detective Sergeant Tom Jakes, the dog squad’s Senior Constable Robert Richardson and district duty officer, Senior Sergeant Sean McKay — are set to give evidence.
The hearing continues on Tuesday.
If you or someone close to you needs help, call Lifeline on 131 114 or visit beyondblue.org.au
National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800 RESPECT.
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