US couple in Indonesian resort charged with murder
BALI, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesian police charged an American couple with murder Friday after the body of the woman's 62-year-old mother was found stuffed in a suitcase on the resort island of Bali.
Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, both from Chicago, were arrested Wednesday in Bali's Kuta area, 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 Bali deputy police chief Brig. Gen. Gusti Ngurah Raharja Subyakta. He added that the couple refused to speak to investigators without a lawyer following initial questioning, and were being tested for illegal drugs.
Police said the couple hired the taxi and then placed the suitcase inside the trunk. They told the taxi driver that they were going to check out of the hotel and would return.
However, after two hours, Mack and 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 Schaefer checked in on Monday, police said.
CCTV footage shows that the victim had an argument with Schaefer on Monday in the hotel's lobby.
Von Wiese-Mack's body was being autopsied at a hospital in Denpasar, Bali. Head of Forensics Ida Bagus Putu Alit said there were signs of violence on the body indicating the victim fought before she died.
"We found scars on both forearms and the broken left-hand fingernail," Alit said following an external examination. "That indicated a resistance in a fight."
During initial questioning Wednesday, Mack acknowledged her mother died, but refused to disclose how, according to Haposan Sihombing, an Indonesian lawyer assigned by police to accompany the couple.
Sihombing said that Mack and her mother arrived in Bali on Aug. 4, and stayed first at Simanyak Hotel before moving to St. Regis on Aug. 9.
Mack signed investigating documents after Wednesday's questioning while Schaefer refused, saying he wants to wait for his lawyer to arrive from America, Sihombing said.
"In principle, they did not respond to many questions," Sihombing said. "They were not cooperative."
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 to local reporters, 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.
Powers didn't have details about the calls, but said none resulted in arrests. He added there were a number of emergency 911 calls made from the residence in which the caller hung up, and, as is standard procedure, the police department sent a squad car to investigate.
Von Wiese-Mack was the widow of highly regarded jazz and classical composer James L. Mack of Oak Park, Illinois, who died in 2006 at age 76.
In 2012, von Wiese-Mack joined a century-old Chicago book club called the Caxton Club. She had varied interests including Asian literature and Wagnerian opera, according to a May 2013 profile of her in the club's publication Caxtonian.
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Associated Press writer Don Babwin in Chicago contributed to this report.
Related:
Murder Charges 2014
Chicago Neighborhoods
Bali Travel
International Murder Charges
Indonesian Criminal Code
St. Regis Bali
