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Neighbours heard arguing from Marcus Volke's apartment. Then they noticed the smell.

CONTENT WARNING: This article contains graphic details of a murder.

Neighbours heard Marcus Volke and Mayang Prasetyo arguing for hours before their inner-city Brisbane unit fell silent. Then they noticed the smell.

The inquest into the couple’s notorious murder-suicide on Tuesday was told witnesses heard the pair arguing loudly on the night of October 2, 2014, with Ms Prasetyo calling Volke stupid and screaming at him.

The arguing stopped sometime in the early hours of the morning, and a “putrid smell” was emanating from the unit by the next day.

Their neighbours were concerned, but the reality of what had occurred was a horror beyond imagination: Volke had killed his girlfriend, and was cooking her on the stove.

When the water from the pot boiled over and shorted the stove, Volke called an electrician, apologising for the smell and explaining he’d been cooking “pig’s broth”.

The court heard Volke left the apartment several times after murdering Ms Prasetyo: twice to buy a cleaver and cleaning products like bleach, scrubbing brushes and garbage bags, and once to get a cut on his hand stitched up at hospital.

Coroner Terry Ryan will on Friday release his findings into the grisly deaths, after hearing evidence over two days in the Brisbane Coroners Court.

He is also expected to rule on whether the police officers involved in trying to find and detain Volke shortly before his death on October 4, 2014, adhered to Queensland Police Service policy and procedure.

In her closing submissions on Tuesday, counsel assisting the coroner, Emily Cooper, said it was clear Volke had murdered Ms Prasetyo, a transgender escort who he had married in Denmark shortly after they met in 2013.

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She said their marriage was one of convenience; Ms Prasetyo helped pay off some of Volke’s significant debt, while he helped her get a visa to stay in Australia.

When the water from the pot boiled over and shorted the stove, Volke called an electrician, apologising for the smell and explaining he'd been cooking "pig's broth". (Image: Twitter)

The court heard when police arrived at the unit at about 9pm on October 4 and asked where Ms Prasetyo was he became defensive, especially when they told him they intended to search the unit.

The inquest heard he went back inside the unit to tether his dogs, but then locked the door, self-harmed and exited the building from a rear entrance, evading police when he ran down a dark alleyway and hid in an industrial rubbish bin.

Police found Volke a short time later and carried out CPR on him but he was already dead, the inquest heard.

The murder scene awaiting police inside the unit was so grisly that officers thought they had walked in on a Halloween prank: there were pools of blood around the fridge, body parts were found in a garbage bag in the washing machine, and Ms Prasetyo's feet were protruding from a stock pot in the kitchen.

Ms Cooper said Mr Ryan would be satisfied Volke's death was unavoidable and the actions of attending police were "authorised, justified and supported" by law.

"It's clear that there was no misconduct displayed by any of the officers involved," she said.

"There was nothing further that they could have done at the time."