BALI, Indonesia // Indonesian police charged an American couple with murder on Friday after the body of the girl’s 62-year-old mother was found stuffed in a suitcase.
Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, both from Chicago, were arrested on Wednesday, a day after the body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack was found inside the trunk of a taxi parked in front of the St Regis Bali Resort.
The charges are based on witnesses and crime scene evidence, said police said.
The couple refused to speak to investigators without a lawyer following initial questioning, and were being tested for illegal drugs.
The couple hired the taxi and then placed the suitcase inside the trunk, police said. They told the taxi driver that they were going to check out of the hotel and would return.
However, after two hours, Ms Mack and Mr Schaefer had not reappeared. Hotel security guards who found blood spots on the suitcase suggested the driver take the taxi to the police station, where officers opened the suitcase and discovered the body.
Von Wiese-Mack, also from Chicago, and her daughter arrived at the St Regis on Saturday, while Mr Schaefer checked in on Monday, police said.
Closed-circuit television footage shows that the victim had an argument with Mr Schaefer on Monday in the hotel’s lobby.
The head of forensics Ida Bagus Putu Alit said there were signs of violence on von Wiese-Mack’s body indicating the victim fought before she died.
“We found scars on both forearms and the broken left-hand fingernail,” Mr Alit said.
During initial questioning on Wednesday, Ms Mack acknowledged her mother died, but refused to disclose how, said Haposan Sihombing, an Indonesian lawyer assigned by police to accompany the couple.
Authorities in an upscale Chicago suburb, meanwhile, examined records of 86 incidents in which police were called to the family’s house in Oak Park where von Wiese-Mack lived with her daughter. Friends have also started talking, alleging that the mother-daughter relationship was sometimes contentious.
The calls started in 2004 and lasted through June 2013, according to village of Oak Park spokesman David Powers, who also said the family moved out about a year ago. The bulk of the calls were missing-person reports, and others included domestic problems and theft.
* Associated Press
