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Attorney: Oak Park Man Did Not Confess To Killing Girlfriend's Mom In Bali

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The attorney for an Oak Park man accused of killing his girlfriend's mother in Indonesia has disputed a report by police in Bali that his client confessed to the murder.

According to the Associated Press, Bali Police Chief Col. Djoko Heru Utomo said Friday that 21-year-old Tommy Schaefer and 19-year-old Heather Mack both confessed to police that they killed Mack's mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, while vacationing in Indonesia in August.

"Schaefer confessed to killing von Wiese-Mack during police interrogation," 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.

On Tuesday, Schaefer's lawyer, prominent Chicago defense attorney Thomas Durkin, disputed that his client has admitted to killing von Wiese-Mack.

"Mr. Schaefer did not confess," Durkin said in an email to CBS 2.

Heather Mack and Tommy Schaefer
Heather Mack, 19, (left) and Tommy Schafer, 21, (right) are escorted by police officers during a in investigation into the death of Mack's mother, who was found stuffed inside a suitcase the couple allegedly left in the trunk of a taxi outside a resort on the Indonesian resort island Bali. (Photo credit: SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images)

Schaefer and Mack have been held as suspects in the murder since Aug. 12, when von Wiese-Mack's body was found stuffed inside a suitcase the couple allegedly left in the trunk of a cab outside the St. Regis Bali resort.

Formal charges have yet to be filed.

An autopsy found cuts on von Wiese-Mack's forearms, and a broken fingernail on her left hand, indicating she fought back against her killers. Police said she was beaten to death, likely with a heavy glass object.

The couple initially told police von Wiese-Mack, who lived in Oak Park, was killed by a gang of robbers, but they managed to escape. Police said their claims contradicted witness statements from the taxi driver and hotel workers.

Von Wiese-Mack and her daughter had been staying in Bali for more than a week -- first at Simanyak Hotel before moving to St. Regis -- before Schaefer showed up later, and checked in to a separate room.

The couple hailed a taxi Tuesday afternoon, loaded the trunk with their suitcases, and then told the driver they were going into the hotel to check out.

After approximately two hours, when they had not returned, hotel security guards noticed blood stains on the suitcase, and told the driver to take his cab to the police station. That's where police discovered von Wiese-Mack's body inside the suitcase, wrapped in a white bed sheet stained with blood.

Hotel security video showed the couple had fled the hotel through a back door after leaving the suitcase in the trunk of the taxi. Mack and Schaefer were tracked down the next day and arrested.

Police said hotel security cameras recorded Schaefer arguing with von Wiese-Mack the night before, but the motive for the murder is unclear.

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