American woman's body found in suitcase in Indonesia
BALI, Indonesia -- The body of a 62-year-old suburban Chicago woman was found stuffed inside a suitcase on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, and authorities on Wednesday arrested her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend in connection to the death, police said.
The suitcase containing Sheila von Wiese-Mack's body was found Tuesday inside the trunk of a taxi parked in front of the St. Regis Bali Resort in the island's upscale Nusa Dua area, said Col. Djoko Hari Utomo, the police chief in Bali's capital, Denpasar.
Von Wiese-Mack's 19-year-old daughter, Heather Mack, and her 21-year-old boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were arrested Wednesday morning at a hotel in Bali's Kuta area, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) away, Utomo said.
Both were being questioned but were refusing to talk until being joined by attorneys, he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta confirmed that von Wiese-Mack's body had been found, but did not give details.
Utomo said that Mack and Schaefer had hired the taxi and then placed the suitcase inside the car's trunk. The two then told the taxi driver that they were going to check out of the hotel and would return, he said, citing the driver, I Ketut Wirjana.
However, after two hours, Mack and Schaefer had not reappeared, Utomo said. Hotel security guards found blood spots on the suitcase, and suggested that Wirjana drive the taxi to the police station. Officers at the station opened the suitcase and discovered the body.
CBS Chicago reports the victim's body was wrapped in a white bed sheet that was stained with blood. Mack and Schaefer were tracked down and arrested several hours later.
Von Wiese-Mack and her daughter arrived at the St. Regis on Saturday, while Schaefer checked in on Monday, Utomo said.
Records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show von Wiese-Mack recently lived in Oak Park, just outside of Chicago. A neighbor told the paper that the victim and her daughter often got into screaming matches at home. The fighting was sometimes serious that it would result in physical injuries. The neighbor said von Wiese-Mack sold the house in May 2013, and that near the end police were visited once or twice a month.
CCTV footage shows that the victim had an argument with Schaefer on Monday in the hotel's lobby, he said.
An autopsy on von Wiese-Mack's body, conducted at a hospital in Denpasar, revealed the victim suffered several blunt force trauma injuries to her head, according to CBS Chicago.