Not guilty plea in woman's "suitcase murder" in Indonesia

CHICAGO -- The cousin of a Chicago man serving a prison sentence in Indonesia for his girlfriend's mother's death has pleaded not guilty to charges he assisted in the plot to kill the woman.

The Chicago Tribune reports that 24-year-old Robert Bibbs entered the plea Thursday morning to one count of conpsiracy in Chicago federal court. Bibbs is a cousin to Tommy Schaefer, who along with girlfriend Heather Mack, are serving sentences in Indonesia for the death of Mack's mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack.

The 62-year-old victim's body was found in August, 2014, inside the trunk of a taxi parked outside The St. Regis Bali Resort in the island's upscale Nusa Dua area, where she and her daughter had been vacationing. The mother had been bludgeoned to death with a metal fruit bowl.

Mack and Schaefer, both from Chicago, were arrested in Bali a day after the body was found.

Prosecutors said Bibbs had texted tips from more than 9,000 miles away in Chicago in hopes of getting a cut of the 62-year-old's inheritance. He is free on home confinement.