Bali's 'suitcase murder' pair have confessed, say police
An American man has confessed that he killed his girlfriend's mother in a luxury hotel on Indonesia's Bali island, and the girlfriend has acknowledged helping him stuff the body into a suitcase, police said.
An American man has confessed that he killed his girlfriend's mother in a luxury hotel on Indonesia's Bali island, and the girlfriend has acknowledged helping him stuff the body into a suitcase, police said yesterday.
Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, both from Chicago, were arrested in Bali on August 13, a day after the body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack was found in a suitcase inside the trunk of a taxi at the St Regis Bali Resort.
"Schaefer confessed to killing von Wiese-Mack during police interrogation," police chief Colonel Djoko Heru Utomo said. "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 US lawyers during the interrogations.
The couple has yet to be formally charged. Utomo said officers hoped to file their case with prosecutors before the couple's detention period ends in mid-October.