BALI, Indonesia (AP) — An American man has confessed that he killed his girlfriend's mother in a luxury hotel on Indonesia's Bali island, and the girlfriend has acknowledged helping him stuff the body into a suitcase, police said Friday. 
 
 FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2014 file photo, American Heather Mack, stands at the police district headquarters after she was brought in for questioning in relation to the death of her mother, in Bali, Indonesia.... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2014 file photo, an Indonesian police officer escorts Tommy Schaefer, left, as he is brought to the police station for questioning in relation to the death of his girlfriend's... (Associated Press) 
 
 Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, both from Chicago, were arrested in Bali on Aug. 13, a day after the body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack was found in a suitcase inside the trunk of a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort. 
 
 "Schaefer confessed to killing von Wiese-Mack during police interrogation," police chief Col. Djoko Heru Utomo told The Associated Press. "He was hurt and offended by the victim's words in an argument with him. That is the motive for the murder." 
 
 He said Mack, who is three months' pregnant, admitted in a separate interrogation that she helped Schaefer stuff her mother's body into a suitcase. 
 
 Utomo said Schaefer and Mack were accompanied by their Indonesian and U.S. lawyers during the interrogations. 
 
 Attempts to reach the Indonesian lawyers were not immediately successful. 
 
 The couple has yet to be formally charged. Utomo said officers hoped to complete their investigation and file their case with prosecutors before the couple's detention period ends in mid-October. 
 
 Police say they have interviewed dozens of witnesses, including the taxi driver and hotel employees, and some had reported an argument among the three over who should pay for the rooms. Security camera video showed the victim having an argument with Schaefer in the hotel lobby. 
 
 Police have said the couple hired the taxi and placed the suitcase inside the trunk. They then told the taxi driver that they were going to check out of the hotel and would return. After they didn't show up, hotel security guards who found blood on the suitcase suggested that the driver take the taxi to the police station, where officers opened the suitcase and discovered the body. 
 
 Von Wiese-Mack was the widow of highly regarded jazz and classical composer James L. Mack, who died in 2006 at age 76. 
 
 Von Wiese-Mack was a member of 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. ||||| An Oak Park man has confessed he killed his girlfriend’s mother in a luxury hotel on Indonesia’s Bali island, and the girlfriend has acknowledged helping him stuff the body into a suitcase, according to police. 
 
 Tommy Schaefer, 21, and Heather Mack, 18, were arrested on Aug. 13 after the battered body of Sheila von Weise-Mack was found in a bloody suitcase outside a luxury hotel on the resort island in Indonesia. 
 
 Police said the suspects have made separate confessions: Schaefer admitted to killing Wiese-Mack, 62, and Mack admitted helping him stuff her body into the suitcase. 
 
 Woman, boyfriend confess in slaying of her mother in Bali Woman, boyfriend confess in slaying of her mother in Bali Woman, boyfriend confess in slaying of her mother in Bali See more videos 
 
 "Tommy said that he was in an argument with Sheila von Weise-Mack in a hotel room. Tommy was offended and then killed Sheila," Djoko Hari Utomo, head of police in the provincial capital Denpasar told Reuters. "Heather was in the room. She witnessed the killing and then helped put the body into a suitcase." 
 
 Bali police spokesman Hery Wiyanto told CNN “it appears that the motive for the killing was because she was against Schaefer's relationship with Heather." 
 
 Utomo said Schaefer and Mack, who is three months pregnant, were accompanied by their Indonesian and U.S. lawyers during the interrogations. Attempts to reach the Indonesian lawyers were not immediately successful. 
 
 The couple has yet to be formally charged. Utomo said officers hoped to complete their investigation and file their case with prosecutors before the couple’s detention period ends in the middle of October. 
 
 Mack and Schaefer were taken into custody after police found them sleeping in a hotel room about 6 miles from the St. Regis, a luxury beachfront resort where they had been staying. The couple told police they had been taken captive at the hotel by an armed gang whose members killed von Wiese-Mack but that they had managed to escape, according to media reports. 
 
 Authorities said the hotel workers and the taxi driver who discovered the body gave a different version of events, however. 
 
 Von Wiese-Mack was seen arguing with the pair over who would pay Schaefer's hotel bill earlier that day, according to Tribune news services. Later the young couple came down with a suitcase that they loaded into a taxi after refusing offers of help from hotel staff, police said. 
 
 Mack and Schaefer then went back inside the hotel, where police say they tried to access her mother's safe deposit box containing their passports and jewelry. The hotel staff refused to open it and the couple exited through a back door, authorities said. 
 
 When they didn't return after two hours, the taxi driver opened the trunk and discovered a bloody suitcase, police said. The taxi driver drove the car to a police station, where Mack's body was found inside a hard-sided gray suitcase. 
 
 A coroner said she died of asphyxiation, but also suffered blows to her face and head. 
 
 Von Wiese-Mack's brother, William Wiese, has told the Tribune that his sister had long confided in him and their other sister, Debra, of her struggles with her daughter, Heather Mack, 18. Police in the family’s former hometown of Oak Park have said they made 86 visits to the home since 2004 to investigate allegations that Mack repeatedly battered her mother, threatened her and ran away. 
 
 In the most serious incident, the mother alleged that her daughter had pushed her to the ground, causing von Wiese-Mack to suffer a broken arm in 2011. Von Wiese-Mack often declined to have her only child arrested, according to police reports. 
 
 “I think my sister loved Heather more than anything,” Wiese said. “She would seek our input and advice. She tried so hard to help Heather through the years with therapists and psychiatrists. It was always a struggle to get Heather to (cooperate).” 
 
 Wiese was unaware of any specific diagnosis, though police reports suggest Mack suffered from depression. Wiese said the girl grew more difficult after the 2006 death of her father, James, a highly regarded Chicago jazz and classical music composer. He died after he suffered a pulmonary embolism in his hotel while on vacation. 
 
 Von Wiese-Mack alleged in a lawsuit against Royal Caribbean Cruises that his death was the result of an injury suffered during an earlier Greece vacation. A Cook County judge in 2011 approved a $1.5 million settlement. 
 
 Wiese said he suspects Schaefer showed up in Bali without his sister’s prior knowledge. The brother said von Wiese-Mack was excited about the trip when they last spoke. 
 
 “I think she was hoping it would be a fresh start for her and Heather,” he said. “She was such an optimist. She was forever trying to help that girl.” 
 
 Wiese said the family is planning a Sept. 27 memorial service in Chicago. ||||| Heather Mack, the daughter of an American woman found dead inside a suitcase on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali, gestures while in custody in a police station in Denpasar August 14, 2014. 
 
 DENPASAR Indonesia An U.S. woman detained on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in connection with the murder of her mother has retained legal representation for her unborn child, the suspect's legal team said. 
 
 Heather Mack, 19, from Chicago, and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, were arrested on Aug. 13 as suspects in the death of Mack's mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, whose battered body was found in a suitcase in a taxi outside a luxury hotel. 
 
 "I'm here to represent Heather's unborn child," lawyer Vanessa Favia told reporters late on Wednesday outside the police station where Mack is being detained in Bali's provincial capital of Denpasar. 
 
 Favia said Mack was three months pregnant. 
 
 "I'm here to make sure that she's getting proper nutrition and ... all the medical attention she needs, so that she can have a healthy baby in the future," Favia said. 
 
 The two suspects have not been formally charged with a crime. Under Indonesian law, charges would follow an investigation that could take weeks. 
 
 Police in Bali, who last week began interrogating Mack, told Reuters on Thursday, she would not get special treatment because of her pregnancy. 
 
 Mack's own lawyer said the investigation was still going on. 
 
 "I just hope that public opinion will be held until there's more evidence and not to judge at this point because it's a little bit early," Michael Elkin, Mack's U.S. lawyer, told reporters at the police station. 
 
 Asked how Mack was feeling, Favia said: "She's glad to have her team of lawyers to support her." 
 
 (Reporting by Wayan in Denpasar and Dennys Kapa in Jakarta; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Robert Birsel)
– Police say suspect Tommy Schaefer has admitted to murdering his girlfriend's mom, a month after her body was found stuffed in a bloody suitcase in Bali. Schaefer, who was arrested along with the victim's daughter, Heather Mack, confessed to killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, because "he was hurt and offended by the victim's words in an argument with him," police tell the AP. Witnesses reportedly saw von Wiese-Mack arguing with Schaefer, 21, and Mack, 19, about Schaefer's hotel bill the day von Wiese-Mack was murdered, the Chicago Tribune reports. Police say Mack admitted to helping her beau pack up her mom's body before dropping it in a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort. The pair then returned to the hotel and allegedly tried to break into von Wiese-Mack's safe-deposit box, which housed their passports and some jewelry, police say. They fled when hotel staff wouldn't assist them. Authorities say von Wiese-Mack suffered blows to the head but died of asphyxiation. Meanwhile, her brother William Wiese says his sister had been enthusiastic about the vacation. "I think she was hoping it would be a fresh start for her and Heather," who had a troubled relationship, he says. He suspects things went sour when Schaefer showed up unexpectedly. In a strange twist, Reuters reports Mack is now three months pregnant and has hired a lawyer to represent her unborn child.