Heather allegedly claims the murder was unintentional
Friday morning (Chicago time) we had the strange situation where the Associated Press, followed by Agence France Presse and the Chicago Tribune, all reported that Tommy had confessed to the murder and that Heather had confessed to being present and also to helping force her mothers body into a suitcase.
The Jakarta Post had a nearly-contemporaneous story which said that the two suspects still denied everything. (See posts #751 and #752.)
Today the author of the Jakarta Post story linked to in #752, Ni Komang Erviani, writes of Tommys and Heathers alleged confessions, again in the Jakarta Post. His story opens like this:
The Bali Police said on Friday that two US youths held in detention since last month had finally confessed to murdering US woman Sheila von Weise Mack and hiding her body in a suitcase.
Following intensive interrogation, Denpasar Police chief Sr. Comr. Djoko Hari Utomo said that Tommy Schaefer, 21, and his girlfriend Heather Lois Mack, 18, the daughter of the victim, had admitted to murdering Mack.
Both suspects have confessed to the murder, Djoko said.
Heather, however, has only confessed to witnessing the murder and claims to have taken no active part in the crime. She also claimed that Schaefer had no intension of murdering [Sheila von Weise Mack] in the first place, he added.
[BBM]
The new information contained here is Heathers claim that the murder by Tommy was
unintentional and that she very
specifically denies any active participation in the murder.
Compare also the second paragraph, where the police chief equates Heather's specific alleged confessions (being present, desecrating her mother's body by forcing it into the suitcase)
with actual murder with the 4th paragraph quote, where he falls back, saying she "has only confessed to witnessing the murder..."
Contradictory. Confusing. Frustrating.
See:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/20/suitcase-murder-suspects-confess-police.html