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No charges have so far been pressed over the murder of
Chicago-based Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, whose battered body was
found in the suitcase outside the St. Regis luxury hotel in Nusa
Dua, Bali, earlier this week.
Her daughter, Heather Mack, 19, and boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer,
21, were arrested on Wednesday and detained as suspects.
Police said the young couple had checked out of the five-star
St. Regis hotel, where a single room can cost as much as $1,340
a night, on Tuesday.
Bali police spokesman Hery Wiyanto confirmed police were looking
at the possibility of premeditated murder, a crime that carries
the death sentence.
"Did they prepare the suitcase before the murder? Did they leave
the room to prepare weapons? The investigation still has a long
way to go," Wiyanto said.
Indonesian police said the investigation could take weeks.
On Thursday, police said they had run psychiatric tests on the
teenage daughter of the slain American woman, formerly an editor
for famed oral historian Studs Terkel who later studied with
Nobel literature laureate Saul Bellow at the University of
Chicago.
An official at the hospital that conducted the autopsy said von
Wiese-Mack had been repeatedly hit on the face and head with a
blunt object.
Von Wiese-Mack had recently moved to a condominium in Chicago.
Her husband, and Heather's father, classical music composer
James Mack, died in 2006.
(Reporting by Trisha Sertori in DENPASAR; Writing by Randy Fabi;
Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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Police
investigate possible premeditated murder of U.S. tourist in Bali
