An American teenager and her boyfriend have been arrested in Bali after her mother’s battered body was found stuffed into a suitcase outside an exclusive hotel.
Sheila von Wiese Mack was found crammed into a suitcase left in the trunk of a taxi in front of the five-star St Regis hotel in Nusa Dua, an upmarket district south of Denpasar.
The 62-year-old widow from Oak Park, Illinois, was half naked, had several wounds to her head, and appeared to have put up a struggle, a doctor said.
She had been staying in the hotel with her daughter, Heather, 19, and her daughter’s boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, local police chief Djoko Hari Utomo told reporters.
They were arrested early this morning after they were found at another hotel several miles away, the policeman said.
According to CNN, the couple told police they had been taken captive at the resort by an armed gang whose members killed Mack but they later managed to escape. But authorities are investigating a different version of events.
Mrs Von Wiese Mack and her daughter had been staying at the St Regis hotel for several days before Schaefer joined them on Monday, AFP reported Mr Utomo as saying.
She was recorded on CCTV arguing with Mr Schaefer in the hotel lobby the same night, he said.
The next day, the couple were checking out and sent several suitcases down to a taxi, allegedly including the one that contained the victim.
But instead of going down themselves, they crept out via a stretch of beach at the back of the hotel – an area covered by surveillance cameras.
The taxi reportedly waited for two hours, then the driver went into the hotel and soke to employees who searched the family’s room and found it empty. They then instructed the driver to take the luggage to the police station.
‘When they did not come down to get into the taxi, the suitcases were removed and the body was found in one of them,’ said Mr Utomo.
Police hunted them down to a hotel in the Legian tourist area, where they were found sleeping early this morning.
Mr Utomo said: ‘This is murder, and we will decide from our investigation whether it is premeditated or spontaneous.’
The Jakarta Globe reported that the driver told police he had gone to the hotel to pick up Mrs Mack and her daughter – whose full name was given by police as Lois Heather Mack – and Ms Mack’s boyfriend.
The young couple loaded the large suitcase into the boot, before going back into the luxury hotel – but they did not come back out again.
After waiting for two hours, the driver was advised by the hotel staff to report the matter to the police. It is believed that the suitcase was leaking blood by this point.