Heather Mack, the Illinois teen accused of bludgeoning her mother to death in a Bali hotel, had punched, pushed and bitten the woman in the past, The New York Daily News reported on Tuesday.
Despite a number of reports, Sheila von Wiese Mack, 62, never pressed charges against her daughter.
Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, are slated to stand trial in Indonesia, where they could face execution by firing squad if they are found guilty. Authorities said the pair beat Wiese-Mack to death and left her body in a suitcase at the St. Regis Bali last week before they tried to run off.
But the mother didn't get mental help for her daughter for years, surfacing reports now show.
Wiese-Mack refused to allow a police officer to photograph a bruise on her wrist that she said stemmed from her daughter biting her in 2012. While she knew her daughter needed psychological help, she told the officer that she didn't want Mack arrested because she felt jailing her wouldn't help the situation.
Police reports show that Wiese-Mack and her daughter bickered over typical family issues, but their dealings often escalated to the point of violence, according to The Chicago-Tribune. Mack's mother tried to limit her daughter's time on her computer, discovered Mack skipping school and occasionally running away from home. At times, Mack struck, bit or pushed her mother.
What began as a verbal disagreement quickly turned hostile in 2010 when Mack allegedly punched her mother in her broken ankle, according to The Chicago-Tribune. Wiese-Mack called the police on several more occasions in 2010 to report thefts in her home, including $1,000 she had been saving to give to her daughter. Wiese-Mack told police she suspected Mack took the money.
Oak Park police arrested Mack after she allegedly shoved her mother to the floor during an argument, causing her to break her arm. After she was injured, Wiese-Mack told officers that her daughter had pulled the cords out of the phone to stop her from calling 911.
Mack is claiming she is pregnant and needs to be transported back to the U.S. Schaefer has complained about the quality of the prison food he's been given, claiming it was KFC.
