The body of a woman tourist from Chicago was found stuffed in a suitcase in Bali, Tuesday. Police arrested the woman's daughter and her boyfriend in connection with the case.
Col. Djoko Hari Utomo, the police chief in Bali's capital, Denpasar, said the body of 62-year-old Sheila von Wiese Mack was discovered in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi parked in front of St. Regis, a five-star hotel in the Nusa Dua resort area.
The body was sent to a hospital in Denpasar where an autopsy found that Von Wiese Mack had visible wounds on her head and appeared to have struggled. "Looking at the wounds, the victim must have fought back," said Doctor Ida Bagus Alit.
Heather Mack, the dead woman's 19-year-old daughter and her 21-year-old boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were arrested Wednesday morning at a hotel in Bali's Kuta area, about 10 kilometers away, Utomo said, according to the Associated Press.
Von Wiese Mack and her daughter arrived at the St. Regis on Saturday, and Schaefer checked in on Monday.
According to the CCTV footage, Von Wiese Mack argued with Schaefer in the reception of the hotel on the same night, reports the Agence France-Presse. During checkout the couple took several suitcases, including the one that had Von Wiese Mack.
The couple hired the taxi and put the suitcase in it. However, the couple did not show up for a long time and the hotel security found blood spots on the suitcases. Officers opened the suitcase and found the body.
The CCTV video showed that the daughter and her boyfriend both left the hotel through a stretch of beach at the back of the property rather than the main entrance.
"This is murder, and we will decide from our investigation whether it is premeditated or spontaneous," said Utomo.
