Tommy Schaefer denies confessing to killing his girlfriend's mother in Bali

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Last week, authorities in Bali said that Tommy Schaefer had confessed to killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack during interrogation
But Shaefer has now told his attorney he never confessed to the murder
Shaefer and his girlfriend Heather Mack, 19, have both been in police custody since the killing last month but neither has been formally charged
The victim had been hit repeatedly with a heavy blunt object and pathologists found she suffered asphyxiation and a broken neck

By Associated Press and MailOnline Reporter

Published: 11:19 EST, 24 September 2014 | Updated: 13:44 EST, 24 September 2014

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A man accused of killing his girlfriend's mother and stuffing her body in a suitcase at a luxury resort in Bali has told his attorney that he never confessed to the murder - as authorities have claimed.

Chicago attorney Thomas Durkin said Tommy Schaefer told him by phone that he didn't confess to killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack, whose beaten body was found in a case in a taxi outside the St. Regis Bali Resort in August.

Her pregnant daughter, Heather Mack, 19, is also a suspect. Neither has been formally charged.

Last Friday, Colonel Djoko Hari Utomo, the police chief in Bali's capital, Denpasar, said that Schaefer, 21, confessed to killing von Wiese-Mack during questioning.

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Denial: Tommy Shaefer, pictured left as he is taken in to custody in August, has denied confessing to the murder of his girlfriend's mother in Bali. Police chiefs last week claimed he had admitted to the crime

Young couple: Authorities had also claimed that his girlfriend, 19-year-old Heather Mack (pictured together), had admitted to helping his dispose of the body

'He was hurt and offended by the victim's words in an argument with him. That is the motive for the murder,' Utomo told The Associated Press.

He also said Mack, who is three months' pregnant, admitted during 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, but Durkin said he has not gone to Indonesia.

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Neither Utomo nor his spokesman responded to after-hours phone calls on Wednesday seeking comment.

Attempts last week to reach the Indonesian lawyers were not successful.

Mack's U.S. attorney, Michael Elkin, has maintained that Mack is innocent, but he didn't respond to emailed questions last week about the purported confessions.

Murdered: Sheila von Wiese-Mack, pictured with her daughter Heather, was beaten to death last month

Dumped: Her body was found in a bloody suitcase left inside a taxi waiting outside their hotel

He released a statement on Monday thanking the police chief and his staff for their 'professionalism' while adding that he would not comment further while the investigation continues.

Police say they have interviewed dozens of witnesses, including the taxi driver and hotel employees, and some had reported an argument among the three over who should pay for the rooms.

Security camera video showed the victim having an argument with Schaefer in the hotel lobby.

The young lovers, who both come from the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, were arrested asleep in each other's arms in a hotel near the Bali international airport, after allegedly attempting to get hotel staff to open her mother's safe deposit box so they could retrieve their passports.

Police claim the young couple initially told them that they been taken captive at the St. Regis by an armed gang who killed Mrs Mack. They said they managed to escape the gang’s clutches and fled to the hotel in the Kuta area of Bali.

Heather is two months pregnant with what is believed to be Schaefer's child. Indonesian authorities say if she is convicted, the child could grow up in prison with her mother.

Due to this, the unborn baby has been granted a lawyer to look after his or her interests.

Locked up: Heather Mack, pictured in police custody last month, is pregnant, her attorney has said

Bali police probe woman found dead inside suitcase (archive)

Von Wiese-Mack's body was found stuffed into a suitcase after a taxi driver became suspicious when the couple loaded the luggage into his car but did not return.

Pathologists say she suffered asphyxiation, a broken neck and a broken nose and that she had probably been killed between 6.45am and 10am local time.

During her autopsy, several defensive wounds were also discovered, suggesting Mrs. Mack, had fought back while being attacked.

Family and friends of von Wiese-Mack will remember her at a funeral service Saturday at St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church in Chicago's lakefront Gold Coast neighborhood, according to an announcement on the church's website.

Von Wiese-Mack was the widow of highly regarded jazz and classical composer James L. Mack, who died in 2006 at the age of 76.

Von Wiese-Mack was a member of a century-old Chicago literary club called the Caxton Club. She had varied interests including Asian literature and Wagnerian opera, according to a May 2013 profile of her in the club's publication, Caxtonian.