Indonesian killed by chef a transsexual

SINGAPORE - The Indonesian who was allegedly killed, chopped up and cooked by her Australian chef husband was a trans-sexual who used to work at a Melbourne cabaret show and had paid for her sisters' education back home.

Mayang Prasetyo, 27, was the sole breadwinner of her family in Lampung, Indonesia, and sent money home to support the family, including putting her two sisters, aged 15 and 18, through school.

Her mother Nining Sukarni told the Courier Mail that she was devastated by the loss of her eldest child.

Daily Mail Australia reported that online advertisements showed Ms Prasetyo charged up to A$500 (S$558) for her services as an "international escort". Another report in the Brisbane Times said she worked at Melbourne transgender cabaret show Le Femme Garcon before settling in Brisbane with her husband Marcus Volke, 28.

Ms Sukarni told the Courier Mail that her daughter was "fine" when they last spoke last Thursday. The couple visited Indonesia last year and Mr Volke seemed "quiet" and "submissive", and had just started working in a Brisbane restaurant, the mother said.

The couple, who met on an international cruise ship, got married last August and Ms Prasetyo moved to Brisbane to be with Mr Volke. But she had complained of being "bored" and wanted to return home to Bali where they owned a home, said her mother.

The couple had recently moved into an apartment in Teneriffe, the Queensland capital's inner city, according to reports. Police were called in after neighbours complained of a foul smell from the apartment.

They found parts of Ms Prasetyo's body strewn across the apartment, and some parts had been allegedly cooked by Mr Volke on a stove. Other parts of her body were found in garbage bins outside the apartment, said the reports.

The police said Mr Volke fled through a glass door and leapt over a balcony when detectives arrived at his flat and hid in an alley, where he killed himself.

Residents reported hearing loud arguments coming from the couple's home recently. A resident told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that she first noticed the smell last Wednesday, and that it got worse each day.

Mr Volke's mother Dorothy told Courier Mail that she had spoken with her son just a week before and he seemed "normal".

"He was happy and he was coming home for Christmas, everything was normal," she told the Courier Mail. The family lives in Ballarat, Victoria.

"He'd been on a ship, going from one country to another. They hadn't been in Brisbane for very long, only a few months. They were starting to get settled."

Mrs Volke said that although her son seemed normal when she spoke to him on the phone, she hadn't seen him in person for about 18 months.

"We didn't know what was going on," she said.

Courier Mail quoted friends of Ms Prasetyo as saying they had concerns about Mr Volke, saying he was quiet, difficult to get to know and "extremely cold".

This article by The Straits Times was published in MyPaper, a free, bilingual newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.