US couple go on trial over Bali suitcase murder

BALI/DENPASAR: An American couple went on trial in Indonesia on Wednesday on charges of murdering the woman’s mother last year on the resort island of Bali.
The badly beaten body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, was found in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi outside an upscale hotel.
The 19-year old Heather Mack, who is pregnant, and Tommy Schaefer, 21, could face the death penalty if found guilty of the premeditated murder of Sheila von Wiese Mack, 62, whose body was found in the case in the boot of a taxi in August.
Both of them are from Chicago, are being tried separately at the Denpasar District Court on Bali. The judges and prosecutors are the same in both trials. Prosecutors charged them with premeditated murder, which carries a possible death penalty. Mack and Schaefer said they understood the charges. They are to enter pleas when the trial resumes next week.
Mack earlier told investigators that Schaefer beat her mother during an argument, according to her lawyer.
They were arrested on Aug. 13, a day after von Wiese-Mack’s body was found in the taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort.
In the indictments, obtained by The Associated Press, prosecutors said the couple plotted the murder because von Wiese-Mack did not endorse their relationship.
The prosecutors said Mack, who is now seven months’ pregnant, once suggested that Schaefer hire someone to kill her mother for $50,000 before their visit to Bali.
Mack and her mother arrived in Bali on Aug. 4 and stayed in Kuta before moving to the St. Regis hotel in Nusa Dua, where they planned to stay until Aug. 14.
Schaefer arrived Aug. 12 and stayed at the same hotel in a room booked by Mack under her mother’s name.