Bali criminal investigation chief Nengah Sadiarta also alleged for the first time that the murder weapon in the gruesome killing of Sheila von Wiese-Mack was a glass fruit bowl.

Mr Nengah said one of the suspects, the victim's daughter, Heather Mack, 19, had pointed the finger of blame at the other, her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21.

Police intended to interrogate Mr Schaefer on Thursday, but it was postponed after it became apparent his family in Chicago had appointed another lawyer for him.

It's likely the new lawyer will be Muhammad Rifan, who represented five of the Bali Nine, including death row inmates Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan. News reports two weeks ago wrongly suggested that Mr Schaefer had already confessed to the murder.

Ms von Weise-Mack, a 62-year-old Chicago socialite,  was bludgeoned to death in her room at the luxury St Regis resort in Bali on August 12 before her body was jammed into a suitcase, which was wheeled to the lobby and loaded into the boot of a taxi.

Mr Nengah said Heather Mack, who is pregnant while in custody, had blamed Mr Schaefer for the killing. She said she had only witnessed the attack.

"According to Heather, Tommy was offended by what the victim said during a quarrel in room 317," Mr Nengah said.

"The victim called Tommy a nigger. Tommy retorted, saying, 'Your husband was a "nigger" too'. Sheila then said, 'Yes, but a rich one'."

Ms von Wiese-Mack's husband, James Mack, was a well-known Chicago musician, composer and arranger who helped many other black musicians become established during the civil rights era.

CCTV footage of the day of the murder shows Ms von Wiese-Mack entering her room, number 317, at 3.48am – the last time she was seen alive.

At 8.40am, Mr Schaefer was seen leaving his room, 616, and going into Ms von Wiese-Mack's room. Mr Nengah said he appeared to be hiding something under his shirt.

"We suspect it was the fruit bowl … and that he used it to hit the victim," Mr Nengah said.

"We found broken glass and the metal handle [from the fruit bowl] in room 616. The fruit bowl was from room 616."

Mr Schaefer's fingerprints were found on the broken glass, and there was blood on his jacket that matched Ms von Wiese-Mack's, Mr Nengah said.

It's unclear from police notes when Heather Mack entered her mother's room, but CCTV shows her leaving it at 9.52am and then going back and forth carrying clothes and suitcases. Police allege the time of the murder was most likely between 8.40am and 9.52am.

Later, Ms Mack was seen outside in the hallway collecting a luggage trolley and taking it to room 317.

"The investigator found that odd because normally the hotel staff would be the ones using the trolley," Mr Nengah said.

At 11am, Ms Mack and Mr Schaefer were seen on CCTV leaving room 317 pushing the hotel trolley with a suitcase on it, wrapped in a white bedsheet. They went in the lift up to room 616, then down to the lobby, where they rejected the help of the hotel's assistant chief butler to wheel the trolley.

As the pair tried to check out, a security guard went to room 616 and found a "do not disturb" sign on the door. A receptionist asked Ms Mack about the blood seeping out of the suitcase onto the sheet covering it.

Ms Mack and Mr Shaefer insisted they would not pay for the room because Ms von Wiese-Mack would do it later, when she checked out.

But hotel staff refused to let them go.

The pair loaded the large suitcase into the back of a taxi, then went back into the hotel allegedly to collect more luggage, but instead they escaped out a side entrance and caught another taxi to the airport, then to a different hotel.

The original taxi driver waited over an hour for Ms Mack and Mr Schaefer to return before unloading the suitcase from the boot.

When police later opened it, they found von Wiese-Mack's body inside. Hotel staff also found three more suitcases abandoned in the hotel yard. They were stuffed with bloody clothing, sheets and pillow cases.

Ms Mack and Mr Schaefer were arrested the following morning at a hotel near the airport.