Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of killing Mack’s mother Sheila von Wiese Mack, 62, and stuffing her into a suitcase.
The situation has gone down in Bali, Indonesia.
Mack’s body was found Tuesday inside the trunk of a taxi parked in front of an upscale hotel in Bali’s Nusa Dua area.
Col. Djoko Hari Utomo, police chief in Bali’s capital, Denpasar, confirmed the younger Mack and her boyfriend were arrested.
Utomo says the two had stayed in the same hotel as the victim and are believed to have placed the suitcase in the taxi.
He says CCTV footage shows the victim had an argument with Schaefer on Monday in the hotel’s lobby.
Neighbors said that they heard arguments from the home over the years.
“You just don’t know,” one resident in the quiet, tree-lined neighborhood on Linden Avenue in Illinois, where the family lived, told the Chicago Tribune. “You don’t assume behavior is going past anything but difficult teen years. It’s just beyond shocking.”
Apparently Mack and Schaefer had hailed a taxi driver at the St. Regis and placed onebag in the trunk and two more in the back seat, according to the driver, who spoke to local broadcaster TransTV. But they didn’t return. Two hours later, the driver entered the hotel, spoke to employees, and went to the couple’s room. It was empty.
The taxi driver and manager opened one of the trunks but saw blood so they took it to the police station, where the body was found inside.
Sheila Von Wiese Mack. (Newberry Library)
An Indonesian police officer escorts Tommy Schaefer, left, as he is brought to the police station for questioning in relation to the death of his girlfriend’s mother, in Bali, Indonesia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
An Indonesian police officer escorts Tommy Schaefer, left, as he is brought to the police station for questioning in relation to the death of his girlfriend’s mother, in Bali, Indonesia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
Indonesian forensic police officers view evidence related to the death of an American woman at a police station in Bali, Indonesia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
Ida Bagus Putu Alit, a forensic expert at the hospital that conducted an autopsy, said Mack had been “hit by a blunt object and the blows were concentrated on the face and head.”
“There were signs of a struggle by the victim, as there were bruises on her arms and some fingers were broken,” Alit added.
The younger Mack and her boyfriend told CNN that they had been taken captive at the resort by an armed gang who killed Mack, while they managed to escape.
The pair were found sleeping at a hotel in Legian, about 8 miles from the resort where they had left the suitcase.
The body inside the suitcase was wrapped in a hotel bedsheet and tied up with duct tape, reported the Jakarta Globe.
Hotel staff told police that Heather and Schaefer had refused to allow the hotel’s bellboy to take the suitcase down to the taxi the next morning.
The staff also tried to detain the pair at the hotel while they attempted to find the missing Mack, but Heather and Schaffer fled on the beach.
Just weeks before the trip, Schaefer had been arrested for disorderly conduct while with his girlfriend, the Tribune reported. Police had gone to the Conrad Hotel in downtown Chicago after getting a call from the elder Mack, who complained that her daughter and he boyfriend had used her credit card without permission, spending as much as $1,000.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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