B

ali police have arrested an American couple for allegedly murdering an American woman whose body was found in a suitcase Tuesday afternoon.

The couple, Tommy Schaefer, 21, and Heather Lois Mack, 19, were caught at Risata Bali Resort and Spa in Kuta on Wednesday morning, around 10 kilometers from the crime scene.

Denpasar Police chief Sr. Comr. Djoko Hari Utomo said that the couple had been apprehended in a hotel room at around 8 a.m. '€œWhen our team raided the hotel room, they were still asleep. So, we caught them without resistance,'€ Djoko said.

Schaefer and Mack allegedly killed Sheila von Weise Mack, Heather Mack'€™s 62-year-old mother. The victim'€™s body was found in a silver suitcase, covered in a white bed sheet, that the couple had placed in a taxi trunk at The St. Regis Bali Resort on Tuesday afternoon.

Djoko said that police had received information early Wednesday morning that a couple alleged to be Schaefer and Mack were staying at the hotel. '€œThe hotel security reported it to us as they realized the names of their guests were identical to the murder suspects announced by the police,'€ Djoko said.

A joint team from Kuta Police and South Kuta Police immediately raided the hotel.

The couple reportedly checked in at Risata Bali Resort and Spa on Tuesday afternoon, several hours after having escaped from Nusa Dua.

The police took them to South Kuta Police station for interrogation, where they looked calm and relaxed. They have been visited by a representative of the US Consulate office in Denpasar.

During the initial examination, Djoko said, they had denied they had killed Mack'€™s mother. '€œThey said they had been locked up and held hostage by six people carrying knives who had followed them.'€

The police do not apparently believe the statement. '€œThe suspects can say anything, but we have evidence [of their involvement],'€ Djoko said.

The couple will be processed under the Indonesian legal system. '€œAs they committed the crime in Indonesia, they have to be processed under Indonesian law,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, an external examination of the victim'€™s body showed she had open wounds and bruises on her forehead, ears, nose and around the eyes.

Wounds were also found on her hands. '€œIt looks like the victim try to defend herself as there were many injuries to her hands,'€ Sanglah'€™s forensics facility coordinator, Ida Bagus Putu Alit, stated.

The Sanglah forensic department has received a letter from the police demanding an autopsy be carried out. '€œWe are still awaiting confirmation from the victim'€™s family. Once we get confirmation, we will conduct the autopsy. Only an autopsy can show the cause of the death,'€ Alit said.

South Kuta Police chief Comr. Gede Redastra alleged that the victim had been hit with a glass fruit container. '€œWe found pieces of glass around room 616 in The St. Regis Bali Resort,'€ he said.

Room 616 was where Schaefer had been staying since Monday night. It is unclear why the victim was in Schaefer'€™s room.

As reported previously, police officers at South Kuta Police station were shocked to find a body in the silver suitcase brought to them by a taxi driver on Tuesday afternoon. The suitcase had been put in the taxi'€™s trunk by two foreigners.

Based on a statement made by the taxi driver, I Ketut Wirjana, the couple placed the suitcase in his taxi at The St. Regis Bali Resort in Nusa Dua. Wirjana was at the hotel to pick up guests. When he arrived at the hotel lobby, a man and a woman told him to open the trunk and placed the suitcase inside.

They asked him to wait while they returned to the hotel lobby, but after two hours had not returned to the taxi. CCTV footage showed that the couple escaped via the beach. Police are still investigating the motive for the murder.