A Chicago teen accused of killing her mother and shoving her body into a suitcase in Bali has reportedly told Indonesian police she's pregnant, according to Australian news outlets. NBC News had not confirmed that detail as of Friday.
Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, were arrested Wednesday in Bali's Kuta area in connection with the death of Mack's mother, 62-year-old Sheila von Wiese-Mack.
The pair were arrested a day after the body of was found inside the trunk of a taxi parked in front of the St. Regis Bali Resort.
"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.
The newspaper also reports that if found guilty, the suspects could face a firing squad under Indonesian law.
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.
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."
Lucas G is a Chicago engineer who helped produce songs for Schaefer, an aspiring musician.
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"Every time we came to talk, we talked business. We were straight to the point. We talked about what we had to talk about. He never was out of line and everything always went smooth with the kid," G said.
"I could never in a million years see him doing anything like this just from my past experiences with the kid."
Authorities in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park are examining records of 86 incidents in which police were called to the family's house where von Wiese-Mack once lived with her daughter. Friends and neighbors said the mother-daughter relationship was sometimes contentious.
The calls started in 2004 and lasted through June 2013, according to village of Oak Park spokesman David Powers, who also said the family moved out about a year ago. The bulk of the calls were missing-person reports, and others included domestic problems and theft.
Powers didn't have details about the calls, but said none resulted in arrests. He added there were a number of emergency 911 calls made from the residence in which the caller hung up, and, as is standard procedure, the police department sent a squad car to investigate.
Von Wiese-Mack was the widow of highly regarded jazz and classical composer James L. Mack of Oak Park, Illinois, who died in 2006 at age 76.
In 2012, von Wiese-Mack joined a century-old Chicago book club called the Caxton Club. She had varied interests including Asian literature and Wagnerian opera, according to a May 2013 profile of her in the club's publication Caxtonian.
Chicago attorney Michael Elkin said Thursday that he'd been hired by Heather Mack and said the allegations against his client would be "disproved as the investigation continues."
