He was somewhere on the streets of Istanbul, until he wasn’t. He was dead in a fistfight, until he wasn’t.

From the moment the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul this month, Saudi officials have offered a dizzying variety of public accounts about his fate. Here’s how the Saudi government has changed its story.

Oct. 3: Mr. Khashoggi left the consulate, and we have no idea where he is.

That was the contention of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in an interview with Bloomberg reporters, the day after Mr. Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for a marriage document and vanished.

“My understanding is he entered and he got out after a few minutes or one hour,” Prince Mohammed said, later adding, “We have nothing to hide.”