US teen suspected of suitcase murder laughs during questioning

A US teenager accused of stuffing her murdered mother's body in a suitcase on a family holiday in Bali has laughed and smiled during questioning by police.

Heather Mack, 19, and her 21-year-old boyfriend Tommy Schaefer are refusing to cooperate with investigators in Nusa Dua, Bali, where they are currently being detained, NBC Chicago reports.

Mack and Schaefer were arrested by Indonesian police on Wednesday after 62-year-old Sheila von Wiese-Mack's body was found stuffed in a suitcase.

The pair allegedly dumped the luggage with Wiese-Mack inside at a taxi rank outside luxury hotel St Regis Bali on Tuesday.

A cab driver is reported to have alerted police to the suspicious bag, which appears in photos to be smeared in blood.

Family friend Willie Nance said he spoke to the teen just last week and she seemed upset at her mother, who she had been vacationing with at the St Regis for several days before Schaefer arrived.

"I never thought it would go this far. I never dreamed it would go this far," he said.

NBC Chicago reports Mack and Wiese-Mack have a history of violent run-ins, with police visiting the family's Illinois home 86 times on domestic violence and theft calls between January 2004 and June 2013.

"But Sheila always took her back. (Heather) could be as charming and self-effacingly sweet one minute and then a vicious little monster the next," family friend Mark Bacharach told NBC News.

Mack's Chicago-based lawyer Michael Elkin said his client is yet to be charged.

Source: NBC Chicago, NBC News
Author: Chloe Ross, Approving editor: Simon Black