Couple Admit To Killing Mother In Bali, Authorities Say
(CBS) -- A 19-year-old Chicago woman and her 21-year-old boyfriend have confessed to killing the woman's mother in Bali.
Heather Mack and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer were arrested in Bali, Indonesia on Aug. 13. That was one day after the body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, was found in a suitcase inside the trunk of a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort.
Police chief Col. Djoko Heru Utomo said Friday that Schaefer confessed during an interrogation on Monday and that Mack acknowledged her role in separate questioning later this week.
"Schaefer confessed to killing von Wiese-Mack during police interrogation," Utomo told The Associated Press. "He was hurt and offended by the victim's words in an argument with him. That is the motive for the murder."
He said Mack, who is three months' pregnant, admitted in a separate interrogation that she helped Schaefer stuff her mother's body into a suitcase.
Utomo said Schaefer and Mack were accompanied by their Indonesian and U.S. lawyers during the interrogations.
An autopsy found cuts on von Wiese-Mack's forearms, and a broken fingernail on her left hand, indicating she fought back against her killers. Police said she was beaten to death, likely with a heavy glass object.
The couple initially told police von Wiese-Mack, who lived in Oak Park, was killed by a gang of robbers, but they managed to escape. Police said their claims contradicted witness statements from the taxi driver and hotel workers.
After initial questioning, Mack and Schaefer refused to speak to investigators without an attorney. Published reports have said police conducted psychiatric tests on the couple to try to determine a motive.
Von Wiese-Mack and her daughter had been staying in Bali for more than a week -- first at Simanyak Hotel before moving to St. Regis -- before Schaefer showed up later, and checked in to a separate room.
The couple hailed a taxi Tuesday afternoon, loaded the trunk with their suitcases, and then told the driver they were going into the hotel to check out.
After approximately two hours, when they had not returned, hotel security guards noticed blood stains on the suitcase, and told the driver to take his cab to the police station. That's where police discovered von Wiese-Mack's body inside the suitcase, wrapped in a white bed sheet stained with blood.
Hotel security video showed the couple had fled the hotel through a back door after leaving the suitcase in the trunk of the taxi. Mack and Schaefer were tracked down the next day and arrested.
Police said hotel security cameras recorded Schaefer arguing with von Wiese-Mack the night before, but the motive for the murder is unclear.
