A young woman who stuffed her mother's murdered body into a suitcase then loaded it into a Bali taxi was acting like a "robot" at the time and barely remembered what she had done, her lawyer has said.
A reconstruction of the gruesome August 12 killing of Chicago socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, was held on Monday at the murder scene inside room 317 of the luxury St Regis resort in Bali.
Lawyers say it was based on facts agreed by both suspects: the victim's daughter, Heather Mack, 19, and Heather's boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, who have both been detained on suspicion of premeditated murder.
Schaefer apparently confessed to the murder on Friday, but has said he was provoked by racist comments, including the use of the n-word, from von Wiese-Mack, whom her daughter says suffered from bipolar disorder.
Heather Mack's lawyer, Raja Nasution, told Fairfax Media that his client had nothing to do with the murder itself and did not even witness it. Mack has told police that, after Schaefer struck the first blow, she ran and hid, crying, in the ensuite of her mother's room as he hit her three more times.
According to Mr Raja, Schaefer had only arrived at the Nusa Dua hotel from the United States at 2am on the day of the murder, and Mack, without her mother's knowledge, had gone to greet him.
The following morning at 8am, Mack, who is pregnant with Schaefer's baby, had urged her boyfriend to visit von Wiese-Mack in her room. He had brought with him the fruit bowl — the property of the hotel — as a gift to a woman who souvenired hotel property wherever she stayed.
That was the reason he was hiding the bowl under his shirt — it was not that he intended to kill her, the lawyer said.
But inside room 317, an argument began over Mack's pregnancy. Von Wiese-Mack then made offensive comments about Schaefer and his baby both being "niggers". Statements to police suggest von Wiese-Mack also threatened to kill the baby.
During the argument, as Schaefer was standing by the bed, von Wiese-Mack had her hands around his throat as if to strangle him - a scene that was re-enacted and photographed as part of Monday's reconstruction.
Schaefer has said he then grabbed the metal handle of the fruit bowl and hit von Wiese-Mack once with it, then continued to beat her to death as Mack hid in the bathroom.
Mr Raja said Mack's shirt was covered in blood not because she had participated in the murder, but because she had hugged her mother's body after Schaefer had stopped.
Mr Raja said the idea of putting the body into a suitcase was Schaefer's. For Mack, "it was all a blur and she acted like a robot," the lawyer said.
"She was torn between her own mother and the father of her baby."
Both Mack and Schaefer cried during the reconstruction.
"Heather said she wants to be a good mother, she wants to take care of her baby," Mr Raja said.
"Naturally she wants to be free to do that. As a lawyer, of course, we also naturally wish for our client to be free."
He said that a few weeks ago, Mack had been hospitalised for three days because she had not been eating and drinking, and the doctor feared she might lose her baby.
If police continue their resolve to charge the pair with premeditated murder, they may face life in prison, or the death penalty.
