Teen, Boyfriend Charged With Mum’s Murder Could Face Death By Firing Squad

A 19-year-old teenager, Heather Mack and her 21-year-old boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, have both been charged by the Indonesian police with the murder of Heather’s Mum, Sheila von Wiese-Mack. The body of the woman’s 62-year-old mother was found stuffed in a suitcase on the resort island of Bali.

According to NBC Chicago;

Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, were arrested Wednesday in Bali’s Kuta area, a day after the body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack was found inside the trunk of a taxi parked in front of the St. Regis Bali Resort.

If found guilty of murder, both could be sentenced to death under Article 340 of Indonesia’s Criminal Code.

The charges are based on witnesses and crime scene evidence, said Bali deputy police chief Brig. Gen. Gusti Ngurah Raharja Subyakta. He added that the couple refused to speak to investigators without a lawyer following initial questioning, and were being tested for illegal drugs.

“We also conducted a pregnancy test on the girl because she said to the police that she is pregnant,” a police commissioner identified as Hery Wiyanto was quoted by News Corp Australia as saying. NBC News had not confirmed that detail as of early Friday morning.

Police said the couple hired the taxi and then placed the suitcase inside the trunk. They told the taxi driver that they were going to check out of the hotel and would return.

However, after two hours, Mack and Schaefer had not reappeared. Hotel security guards who found blood spots on the suitcase suggested the driver take the taxi to the police station, where officers opened the suitcase and discovered the body.

Von Wiese-Mack, from Chicago, and her daughter arrived at the St. Regis on Saturday, while Schaefer checked in on Monday, police said.

CCTV footage shows that the victim had an argument with Schaefer on Monday in the hotel’s lobby.

Von Wiese-Mack’s body was being autopsied at a hospital in Denpasar, Bali. Head of Forensics Ida Bagus Putu Alit said there were signs of violence on the body indicating the victim fought before she died.

“We found scars on both forearms and the broken left-hand fingernail,” Alit said following an external examination. “That indicated a resistance in a fight.”

Mack, 19, had a long history of fighting with her mother. Between January 2004 and June 2013, police went to the family’s Illinois home 86 times on domestic violence and theft calls.

All of the domestic violence reports involved Mack and von Wiese-Mack, NBC Chicago reported.

NY Daily News reported that, Mack and Schaefer were arrested Wednesday. During two days of questioning, the couple refused to cooperate with police. Mack was even seen smiling and joking during one part of the investigation.

Mack allegedly told police she is pregnant and claimed she needed transferred to the United States for medical treatment, news.com.au reported. She has undergone medical tests — including a pregnancy test — at a local hospital, but those results have not been released.

In Indonesia, death row inmates are executed by firing squad. The condemned is taken to a field and shot by 12 gunmen. If the dozen shots to the chest do not kill the prisoner, the squad’s leader will deliver a point-blank shot to his or her head, the New York Times explained.