An American man has been jailed for 18 years for murdering his girlfriend’s mother and stuffing her body into a suitcase on the Indonesian island of Bali.
A court in Denpasar found Tommy Schaefer, 21, guilty Tuesday of killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack at the luxury St. Regis Bali Resort in August last year.
His girlfriend, Heather Mack, 19, also faced trial over the attack. A verdict is expected in her trial shortly.
Schaefer had claimed he had killed 61-year-old von Wiese-Mack in self-defense after an argument erupted over his relationship with her daughter.
At the time of the murder, the younger Mack was pregnant with Schaefer’s child. She gave birth to a girl last month.
Body stuffed in bag
The beaten body of von Wiese-Mack was found in a large silver suitcase that the couple had loaded in a waiting taxi outside the resort. They told the driver they’d be back soon, but after a lengthy wait he alerted hotel staff who inspected the bag, noticed blood and called police.
The lovers were arrested after being found the following morning at another hotel about 15 kilometers (nine miles) away.
Inside the bag, von Wiese-Mack’s body had been wrapped in hotel bedding. A later forensic examination determined that she had died from a blunt force to the face that fractured her facial bones and caused her to suffocate.
Described as a Chicago socialite, von Wiese-Mack was reported to have a troubled relationship with her teenage daughter.
Schaefer denied that the murder was premeditated. He told the court that he acted in self-defense when his girlfriend’s mother started strangling him during an argument in the Bali hotel room.
“She squeezed my neck for about 20 to 30 seconds. I couldn’t breathe. I had blood going to my head and my eyes were so watery,” Schaefer told the court.
He said he reached for a nearby bowl “before she could.” “I couldn’t see for a moment because my eyes were so watery and I was distraught, I was in a state of mind, I had no idea what was happening. I was almost about to black out. And I grabbed it and I started swinging,” he told the court.
Mack told the court her mother had threatened to kill the couple’s unborn baby, according to local media.
The prosecutor alleged that the two planned the murder, because Mack’s mother disapproved of their relationship.
After being detained by police, the couple initially claimed they’d been taken captive at the resort by an armed gang, whose members killed Heather’s mother, and from they managed to escape.
The two were tried separately, though both trials were heard by the same judges, with the same prosecutors.
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of 18 years for Schaefer and are seeking 15 years for Mack.