Friends of a widow beaten to death and stuffed in a suitcase at a Bali resort say they warned her not to take her troublesome teenage daughter along on the dream vacation.
The news comes as it emerged police had been called to victim Sheila von Wiese Mack's suburban Chicago home some 86 times to break up fights between the wealthy academic and her daughter, Heather Mack, 19, a college drop out who was 'hanging out with a bad crowd' and had recently moved into a hotel.
The two had an often tempestuous relationship, recalled close friend Mark Bacharach, and had been fighting prior to the vacation at the luxury St. Regis hotel on the Indonesian island resort.
But Mrs Mack tracked down her daughter, and despite the fact she 'barely recognized her anymore' the two set off on the 10-day-plus trip to the other side of the globe, where the 62-year-old ultimately met a grisly end.
Ms Mack and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, were arrested in connection with the murder early Wednesday morning. They have not been charged.
'She tried to hope when it came [to Heather],' Mr Bacharach told
NBC News. 'That was my friend's most outstanding characteristic.
'At least four or five of us would say to kick her out. She was hanging out with a bad crowd. 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.'
Police had been called to the Mack's sprawling house an incredible 86 times in a 10 year period, David Powers, communications officer for the Village of Oak Park, told MailOnline.
'They were all for domestic issues between mother and daughter,' he said. 'They were mainly for domestic issues and theft and there were some calls to 911 when the caller hung up. In such cases police send a squad car.
'There are no records of any arrests,' Powers added. 'But for a large portion of that time, the daughter would have been a juvenile, so those records would be sealed, so I can't say for certain.'
A next door neighbor backed up the claims, telling the
Chicago Tribune: 'Police were here all the time. They would call police on each other. It turned very abusive and volatile.'
Powers said Mrs Mack's death has sent shock waves through the upscale village which promotes itself on the ease of residents' commutes into Chicago.
'I first heard it this morning as I was preparing to come to work and thought what a terrible story, not dreaming it would have such a connection to the Village of Oak Park.'
Powers said the calls stopped in June of last year when mother and daughter moved to a luxury apartment in Chicago overlooking Lake Michigan.
According to NBC, police records show there was an outstanding warrant for Schaefer's arrest from February 2013 after he failed to appear in court on marijuana possession charge in Monroe County, Indiana.
The
Chicago Sun-Times reports that just three weeks ago the young couple allegedly used Mrs Mack's credit card without her permission to party at a city hotel. Schaefer was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct after he 'began getting loud and waving arms,' according to police records.
The glimpse inside the family life comes after MailOnline found a cryptic message posted by Ms Mack on Instagram saying, 'I refuse to let someone say what I can do' just days before her mother's body was discovered in the bloody case in the back of a taxi.
On August 7, Ms Mack posted a picture of idyllic Bali, presumably from the window of the exclusive St. Regis Hotel in Nusa Dua where she was staying with her mom with the caption: 'i refuse to let someone say what i can do, gettin (sic) money my attitude you know what it do #bali.'
Less than a week later, and just a day after Schaefer arrived, Mrs Mack's body turned up beaten and bruised, crammed into a suitcase that the young couple had left in the trunk of a cab before fleeing through the St. Regis' rear exit.
Mrs Mack, who once worked for Ted Kennedy, was wrapped in a blood-stained bed sheet, had several wounds to her head, and appeared to have put up a struggle, a doctor said.
According to
CNN, the couple told police they had been taken captive at the resort by an armed gang whose members killed Mrs Mack but they later managed to escape.
Mrs Von Wiese Mack and her daughter had been staying at the St Regis hotel for several days before Schaefer joined them on Monday, AFP reported Mr Utomo as saying.
The mother, who friends claim didn't like her daughter's hip-hop artist boyfriend, was recorded on CCTV arguing with Mr Schaefer in the hotel lobby the same night, he said.
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