Heather Mack plea hearing: ‘Suitcase killer’ pleads guilty in US over Bali murder of socialite mom

“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack has pleaded guilty in a Chicago court today over the 2014 murder of her socialite mother in Bali, bringing some sort of conclusion to the shocking case.

In August 2014, Mack, then 18 and pregnant, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, then 21, bludgeoned Sheila von Weise-Mack, 62, to death with a metal fruit stand while on vacation at the luxury 5-star St Regis resort on the Indonesian island.

The couple, who described themselves as “Bonnie and Clyde” in chilling text messages, then stuffed her body in a suitcase and left it in the trunk of a taxi.

They were both convicted of premeditated murder in Indonesia – narrowly escaping death by firing squad.

After serving seven years in a Bali jail (where her daughter was born), Mack was extradited to the US where she was arrested on arrival in Chicago and hit with fresh charges of conspiracy to murder in a foreign country in November 2021.

Since then, she has been behind bars fighting the charges but had a change of heart and decided to take a plea deal.

Key points

• Heather Mack pleads guilty in Chicago court

• ‘Suitcase killer’ reveals gives reasoning for plea deal

• Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s body found in suitcase in Bali in 2014

Illinois police records reveal years of abuse before murder

Thursday 15 June 2023 13:10 , Rachel Sharp

Heather Mack was the daughter of socialite von Wiese-Mack and famed musician James L Mack and had a privileged upbringing in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago.

But, following James L Mack’s 2006 death, von Wiese-Mack called the police to their home dozens of times due to incidents of domestic violence.

Oak Park Police records reveal at least 35 interactions with officers since 2008 including accusations that Mack broke her mother’s arm, bit and punched her.

In 2012, she was convicted of battery in juvenile court for an attack on her mother.

In 2013 – just over one year before her murder – von Wiese-Mack confided in a detective that she feared Mack was going to kill her.

Heather Mack’s conviction in Indonesia didn’t stop her facing charges in the US. Here’s why

Thursday 15 June 2023 17:20 , Rachel Sharp

The filing of US charges against a Chicago woman convicted of killing her wealthy mother during a luxury vacation in Bali raised questions about how someone who has spent time in an overseas prison can be hauled into an American court on similar charges.

The US Constitution prohibits prosecuting someone twice for the same acts, commonly known as double jeopardy. But the allegations in von Wiese-Mack’s death involve two countries with their own laws and their own claims to jurisdiction, an expert said.

It’s a federal crime to kill a US citizen abroad, Barbara McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor and former US attorney in Detroit, told The AP in 2021.

“The United States government is a different sovereign than the government of Indonesia ” she explained.

The US must believe “there is some substantial federal interest that was not vindicated by the prior case,” McQuade said. “I don’t know what all the reasons are. But this appears to be a very premeditated plot. This could be the kind of thing where they say: ‘Seven years? That is just not enough.’”

The 2017 grand jury indictment publicly revealed this week in Chicago was sealed while Mack and Tommy Schaefer were imprisoned overseas. The US Justice Department has always had discretion to dismiss the case or stick with it.

“If the new administration had wanted to put the brakes on it, they certainly could have done that,” McQuade said Thursday.

The Associated Press

Heather Mack’s criminal case in Indonesia:

Thursday 15 June 2023 13:50 , Rachel Sharp

In 2014, Heather Mack and Tommy Schaefer were both charged with premeditated murder and faced the death penalty by firing squad in Indonesia.

While Schaefer ultimately pleaded guilty, Mack did not. Schaefer testified at trial that he killed the 62-year-old because she attacked him when she found out her daughter was pregnant. Meanwhile, Mack was allegedly motivated by a desire to be free from her controlling mother.

In March 2015, in the middle of her trial, Mack gave birth to the couple’s daughter Stella (who she raised in prison for the first two years of her life when she was placed in the care of an Australian woman living in Indonesia who Mack had befriended behind bars).

Both Mack and Schaefer were convicted of premeditated murder and – after prosecutors asked for the death penalty be taken off the table – Mack was sentenced to 10 years in prison while Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in April 2015.

In 2017, Schaefer’s cousin Ryan Bibbs, then 24, was also convicted of conspiracy to kill von Wiese-Mack and sentenced to nine years in prison after it emerged that he had coached the two killers in different murder methods.

Heather Mack’s US criminal case:

Thursday 15 June 2023 15:30 , Rachel Sharp

Heather Mack was released from prison in Bali in October 2021 after serving seven years – three years early due to good behaviour – and was briefly reunited with her daughter Stella, then six, who she planned to begin a new life with. But her newfound freedom was short-lived.

Five days later, the then 26-year-old was deported from the Indonesian island back to the US and was arrested as soon as she touched down on American soil.

The convicted killer and her young daughterwere greeted by waiting FBI agents at the gate at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and was immediately taken into US federal custody.

She was indicted on two counts of conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment, which was filed in 2017 but remained sealed while she remained in Indonesian prison, also charged Schaefer with the same counts.

In the more than two years since Mack has been behind bars in the US, she has fought against the charges, arguing that she paid for her crime during her prison time in Bali.

The case was set to go to trial on 1 August in Chicago before Mack revealed her intentions for a change of plea.

ICYMI: FBI arrests ‘suitcase killer’ as she arrives back in US after release from Bali jail

Thursday 15 June 2023 17:30 , Rachel Sharp

The FBI has arrested “suitcase killer” Heather Mack as she arrived back in the United States following her release from a Bail prison.

Mack was taken into custody at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport as she and boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were indicted in Illinois on charges of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, one count of conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a US national, and one count of obstruction.

Mack and Schaefer were convicted in Indonesia of killing her socialite mother in 2014 and stuffing her body into a suitcase at a luxurious Bali resort in an plot to access her trust fund.

Catch-up here:

FBI arrests ‘suitcase killer’ Heather Mack after she returns to US from Bali

Heather Mack’s conviction in Indonesia didn’t stop US charges. Here’s why

Thursday 15 June 2023 19:30 , Rachel Sharp

The filing of US charges against a Chicago woman convicted of killing her wealthy mother during a luxury vacation in Bali raised questions about how someone who has spent time in an overseas prison can be hauled into an American court on similar charges.

The US Constitution prohibits prosecuting someone twice for the same acts, commonly known as double jeopardy. But the allegations in von Wiese-Mack’s death involve two countries with their own laws and their own claims to jurisdiction, an expert said.

It’s a federal crime to kill a US citizen abroad, Barbara McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor and former US attorney in Detroit, told The AP in 2021.

“The United States government is a different sovereign than the government of Indonesia ” she explained.

The US must believe “there is some substantial federal interest that was not vindicated by the prior case,” McQuade said. “I don’t know what all the reasons are. But this appears to be a very premeditated plot. This could be the kind of thing where they say: ‘Seven years? That is just not enough.’”

The 2017 grand jury indictment publicly revealed this week in Chicago was sealed while Mack and Tommy Schaefer were imprisoned overseas. The US Justice Department has always had discretion to dismiss the case or stick with it.

“If the new administration had wanted to put the brakes on it, they certainly could have done that,” McQuade said Thursday.

The Associated Press

What happened to Tommy Schaefer?

Thursday 15 June 2023 21:30 , Rachel Sharp

Tommy Schaefer was 21 when he bludgeoned Sheila von Wiese-Mack to death with Heather Mack back in 2014.

He was arrested along with Mack and charged with premeditated murder.

Schaefer later testified at trial that he killed the 62-year-old because she attacked him when she found out her daughter was pregnant. Meanwhile, Mack was allegedly motivated by a desire to be free from her controlling mother.

Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in April 2015.

Now, Schaefer is still serving his 18-year sentence in Indonesia before he too will face charges on US soil.

What we know about the chilling case of ‘suitcase killer’ Heather Mack

Thursday 15 June 2023 23:30 , Rachel Sharp

It’s a chilling case that has spanned two different continents and rumbled on for the best part of eight years.

Now finally, some sort of conclusion is about to be reached as Chicago woman Heather Mack is expected to plead guilty this week to her part in her mother’s heinous 2014 murder.

Infamously dubbed the “Suitcase killer”, Mack, then 18 and pregnant, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, then 21, bludgeoned her socialite mother Sheila von Weise-Mack, 62, to death and stuffed her body in a suitcase while on vacation at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp delves into the case here:

The chilling case of Heather Mack

Heather Mack’s plea hearing: Schedule

Friday 16 June 2023 01:30 , Rachel Sharp

– Hearing type: Change of plea hearing

– Date: 16 June

– Time: 8.30am local time

– Judge: Matthew F Kennelly

– Location: US District Court, Illinois

What happened to Sheila von Wiese-Mack?

Friday 16 June 2023 03:30 , Rachel Sharp

In August 2014, wealthy Illinois socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack took her troubled 18-year-old daughter on vacation to the 5-star St. Regis hotel in Bali.

After they arrived at the luxury resort, Mack used her mother’s credit card to buy a $12,000 business-class ticket for her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer to join them and a single night’s stay at the hotel.

In the early hours of the morning on 12 August 2014 – hours after Schaefer arrived – Mack, von Wiese-Mack and Schaefer were captured on hotel surveillance footage arguing in the lobby of the hotel.

Sometime after that, Schaefer bludgeoned von Wiese-Mack to death with the metal handle of a fruit stand.

Schaefer and Mack then stuffed her body into a suitcase and wheeled it down into the hotel lobby.

They hailed a taxi, loaded the suitcase into the trunk of the car and tried to check out of the luxury resort.

But, because von Weise-Mack had told the hotel not to let her daughter use her credit card, they were prevented from doing so and fled the scene.

The taxi driver – suspicious of the bloodied suitcase wrapped in hotel sheets – called the police who made the grim discovery of what was inside. The couple was soon tracked down to a budget motel and arrested on suspicion of murder.

PICTURED: Horror moment suitcase is found containing Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s body

Friday 16 June 2023 06:30 , Rachel Sharp

Mack and Schaefer called themselves ‘Bonnie and Clyde’

Friday 16 June 2023 08:30 , Rachel Sharp

Before carrying out the brutal murder, the young lovers exchanged messages describing themselves as the notorious criminal duo Bonnie and Clyde and in which prosecutors say show how they plotted and conspired to kill their 62-year-old victim.

In the messages, revealed in US federal court documents earlier this year, the couple plotted methods of murder, egged each other on and spoke about how “rich” they would be when Mack inherited her mother’s wealth after she was dead.

On the day that Mack and her mother von Wiese-Mack set off on their trip, Schaefer allegedly sent his girlfriend a text saying: “I can’t wait to be rich… Its crazy af Like Money Nothing rules the world.”

The next day, Mack replied telling him the “trips going as planned baby … faith”.

When Schaefer told her he had “a lot of faith” in her but “that a lot of things aren’t in her control”, Mack replied with chilling messages describing how she had been “watching” her “witch” mother.

Referring to herself as “bonnie” of Bonnie and Clyde, she urged her boyfriend not to “underestimate me”.

“I also know what is in my control … I know what makes people tick … the witch … I know what make [sic] her tick … I’m with her so much … I know her habbit [sic]… how she acts … what she does at certain times … its like breaking out of jail … It takes several years of watching … I have been watching her routine … and I know what I do control … Im sneaky … Im smart … and I watch … trust bonnie … Dn’t make everyone else mistake and under estimate me,” she wrote, per the court documents.

Other text messages revealed Schaefer encouraging Mack to smother her mother to death.

Oak Park police records reveal years of abuse of mother

Friday 16 June 2023 09:30 , Rachel Sharp

Heather Mack was the daughter of socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack and famed musician James L Mack and had a privileged upbringing in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago.

But, following James L Mack’s 2006 death, von Wiese-Mack called the police to their home dozens of times due to incidents of domestic violence.

Oak Park Police records reveal at least 35 interactions with officers since 2008 including accusations that Mack broke her mother’s arm, bit and punched her.

In 2012, she was convicted of battery in juvenile court for an attack on her mother.

In 2013 – just over one year before her murder – von Wiese-Mack confided in a detective that she feared Mack was going to kill her.

Heather Mack plans to plead guilty

Friday 16 June 2023 10:00 , Rachel Sharp

After years of fighting for her freedom – and blaming her mother for her own senseless killing – Heather Mack, 27, has now revealed her intentions to change her plea at a hearing in Illinois court on Thursday.

Speaking to The New York Post last week, Mack said she believed she had served her time in Indonesian prison and didn’t think she should be facing charges in the US.

“I have served nearly 10 years in prison. I felt that I had done my time, so I was gung-ho for trial,” she said.

“Now, after sitting for so long, I know what I have to do.

“I’m going to be a felon in America, and that is fine. I understand from [the US government’s] perspective that, if I don’t plead guilty and they didn’t indict me, I wouldn’t be a felon.”

She added: “I could become a police officer and work for the government… I could carry a firearm on the street.”

The exact terms of the plea deal remain unclear, but Mack said she is looking at a sentence of zero to 25 years, including time served.

Heather Mack set to plead guilty today

Friday 16 June 2023 10:57 , Rachel Sharp

The daughter of an American woman whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase at an Indonesian resort island is scheduled to appear in Chicago federal court on Friday to change her plea to guilty on charges she helped kill her mother in Bali nine years ago.

Heather Mack, 27, was convicted in Indonesia in 2015 of being an accessory to Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s murder with her then-boyfriend in a bid to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund. Mack, then 18 and pregnant, covered her mother’s mouth in a hotel room while Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned Wiese-Mack with a fruit bowl, prosecutors say.

Read more here:

Heather Mack, convicted in Bali of killing mother, set to plead guilty in US

Heather Mack’s plea hearing: Schedule

Friday 16 June 2023 11:30 , Rachel Sharp

– Hearing type: Change of plea hearing

– Date: 16 June

– Time: 8.30am local time

– Judge: Matthew F Kennelly

– Location: US District Court, Illinois

A body in a suitcase, Bonnie and Clyde fantasy and baby born in Bali prison: The chilling case of Heather Mack

Friday 16 June 2023 12:00 , Rachel Sharp

It’s a chilling case that has spanned two different continents and rumbled on for the best part of eight years.

Now finally, some sort of conclusion is about to be reached as Chicago woman Heather Mack is expected to plead guilty this week to her part in her mother’s heinous 2014 murder.

Infamously dubbed the “Suitcase killer”, Mack, then 18 and pregnant, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, then 21, bludgeoned her socialite mother Sheila von Weise-Mack, 62, to death and stuffed her body in a suitcase while on vacation at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp delves into the case here:

The chilling case of Heather Mack

Heather Mack’s criminal case in Indonesia:

Friday 16 June 2023 13:02 , Rachel Sharp

In 2014, Heather Mack and Tommy Schaefer were both charged with premeditated murder and faced the death penalty by firing squad in Indonesia.

While Schaefer ultimately pleaded guilty, Mack did not. Schaefer testified at trial that he killed the 62-year-old because she attacked him when she found out her daughter was pregnant. Meanwhile, Mack was allegedly motivated by a desire to be free from her controlling mother.

In March 2015, in the middle of her trial, Mack gave birth to the couple’s daughter Stella (who she raised in prison for the first two years of her life when she was placed in the care of an Australian woman living in Indonesia who Mack had befriended behind bars).

Both Mack and Schaefer were convicted of premeditated murder and – after prosecutors asked for the death penalty be taken off the table – Mack was sentenced to 10 years in prison while Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in April 2015.

In 2017, Schaefer’s cousin Ryan Bibbs, then 24, was also convicted of conspiracy to kill von Wiese-Mack and sentenced to nine years in prison after it emerged that he had coached the two killers in different murder methods.

What happened when Heather Mack was released from Bali prison?

Friday 16 June 2023 13:30 , Rachel Sharp

Heather Mack was released from prison in Bali in October 2021 after serving seven years – three years early due to good behaviour – and was briefly reunited with her daughter Stella, then six, who she planned to begin a new life with. But her newfound freedom was short-lived.

Five days later, the then 26-year-old was deported from the Indonesian island back to the US and was arrested as soon as she touched down on American soil.

The convicted killer and her young daughterwere greeted by waiting FBI agents at the gate at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and was immediately taken into US federal custody.

She was indicted on two counts of conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment, which was filed in 2017 but remained sealed while she remained in Indonesian prison, also charged Schaefer with the same counts.

In the more than two years since Mack has been behind bars in the US, she has fought against the charges, arguing that she paid for her crime during her prison time in Bali.

The case was set to go to trial on 1 August in Chicago before Mack revealed her intentions for a change of plea.

What happened to Tommy Schaefer?

Friday 16 June 2023 14:00 , Rachel Sharp

Tommy Schaefer was 21 when he bludgeoned Sheila von Wiese-Mack to death with Heather Mack back in 2014.

He was arrested along with Mack and charged with premeditated murder.

Schaefer later testified at trial that he killed the 62-year-old because she attacked him when she found out her daughter was pregnant. Meanwhile, Mack was allegedly motivated by a desire to be free from her controlling mother.

Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in April 2015.

Now, Schaefer is still serving his 18-year sentence in Indonesia before he too will face charges on US soil.

Mack hearing about to get underway

Friday 16 June 2023 14:29 , Oliver O'Connell

Heather Mack’s court hearing in front of Judge Matthew Kennelly will get underway in a few minutes in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Mack is expected to plead guilty this week to her part in her mother’s heinous 2014 murder.

Friday 16 June 2023 14:33 , Oliver O'Connell

After serving seven years in an Indonesian jail for murder, Mack was extradited to the US where she was arrested on arrival and hit with fresh charges of conspiracy to murder in November 2021.

After years of fighting for her freedom – and blaming her mother for her own senseless killing – Mack, now 27, has now revealed her intentions to change her plea at a hearing in Illinois court on Friday.

Speaking to The New York Post last week, Mack said she believed she had served her time in Indonesian prison and didn’t think she should be facing charges in the US.

“I have served nearly 10 years in prison. I felt that I had done my time, so I was gung-ho for trial,” she said.

“Now, after sitting for so long, I know what I have to do.

The exact terms of the plea deal remain unclear, but Mack said she is looking at a sentence of zero to 25 years, including time served.

Judge Kennelly takes the bench

Friday 16 June 2023 14:58 , Oliver O'Connell

Judge Kennelly has taken the bench and Mack is brought into the courtroom wearing an oragnge jumpsuit. She sits with one of her attorneys who whispers to her.

Both sides say they are ready to proceed.

The hearing is running approximately 25 minutes late.

Friday 16 June 2023 14:59 , Oliver O'Connell

Judge Kennelly explains to Mack how the hearing works.

He will ask her several questions and she will respond under oath.

She identifies herself as “Heather Lois Mack”.

Friday 16 June 2023 15:03 , Oliver O'Connell

Jon Seidel of The Sun Times reports that Mack tells the judge that as a juvenile she believes she was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and was “hospitalised a few times”

It transpires that the plea agreement has only been read to Mack over the phone.

Friday 16 June 2023 15:05 , Oliver O'Connell

There is an “angry outburst” from Judge Kennelly according to Dave Byrnes of Courthouse News as he demands to know why she has not seen a physical copy of the agreement.

Mack’s lawyer Jeffrey Steinback explains that the plea agreement has gone through several revisions and that he couldn't get a finalized version of the agreement into Chicago's federal prison last night.

This appears to satisfy the judge and Mack confirms she understands everything in the agreement.

Friday 16 June 2023 15:07 , Oliver O'Connell

Mack is expected to plead guilty plea for the single murder conspiracy charge to kill a United States national, which carries a maximum life sentence.

There is no mention yet of the evidence tampering or injury of foreign government property charges she was also indicted on.

Friday 16 June 2023 15:10 , Oliver O'Connell

Judge Kennelly also explains that if Mack is sentenced to less than life in prison she will be on parole for up to five years.

She may also face a fee of up to $250,000 plus court costs and restitution to her mother’s family.

He also tells prosecutors they will not be reading the full “factual basis” from the plea agreement in court.

Jon Seidel notes: “That likely means Mack’s admissions are long and detailed.”

Friday 16 June 2023 15:12 , Oliver O'Connell

As with all plea deals, this is a bit of a gamble on the part of the defendant. It states that Mack’s sentence will not exceed 28 years (with consideration given to time served in Indonesia) but Judge Kennelly also explains to Mack that sentencing guidelines aren’t binding on him, Dave Byrnes reports.

“I have to make up my own mind,” he says, noting he may come up with a worse sentence for her than she’s hoping for.

He won’t decide until the sentencing.

Heather Mack pleads guilty

Friday 16 June 2023 15:22 , Oliver O'Connell

“I plead guilty, your honour.”

Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiring to murder her mother on the Indonesian island of Bali in the summer of 2014.

Friday 16 June 2023 15:24 , Oliver O'Connell

Judge Kennelly voids Mack’s planned July trial for murder conspiracy, evidence tampering and injuring a foreign government’s property.

Her sentencing is set for 18 December 2023.

Full story: ‘Suitcase killer’ Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder

Friday 16 June 2023 15:45 , Oliver O'Connell

“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack is facing up to 28 years in US prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder her socialite mother at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali back in 2014.

Rachel Sharp reports.

‘Suitcase killer’ Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder socialite mother

Friday 16 June 2023 16:15 , Oliver O'Connell

“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack is facing up to 28 years in US prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder her socialite mother at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali back in 2014.

Mack, now 27, reached a plea deal with prosecutors in federal court in Illinois on Friday morning, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a US national and finally bringing some sort of conclusion to a horror case that has rumbled on for almost eight years.

“I plead guilty, your honor,” she told US District Judge Matthew Kelley.

Under the terms of the agreement, prosecutors recommend she faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison, with consideration given to the time she’s already served in Indonesian prison.

However, Judge Kelley warned that he could ignore the sentencing guidelines.

“I have to make up my own mind,” he said.

Siblings of Wiese-Mack issue statement on guilty plea

Friday 16 June 2023 16:28 , Oliver O'Connell

William Wiese and Debbi Curran, the siblings of murder victim Sheila von Wiese-Mack, have issued a statement on Heather Mack's guilty plea:

After almost nine years, we are very relieved that the mastermind of Sheila's murder admitted her guilt today. We will continue to be our sister Sheila's voice throughout the sentencing process to ensure that real justice is achieved. It has been devastating to witness the corruption in Indonesia which prevented true justice from being obtained eight years ago. Thanks to the incredible efforts of the US Attorney's Office and FBI, we are hopeful for a sentence that more appropriately reflects the heinous and premeditated nature of the crime.

Friday 16 June 2023 16:33 , Oliver O'Connell

Jon Seidel of The Sun-Times writes: “Sheila von Wiese-Mack's siblings have also told reporters they are hopeful that Judge Kennelly accepts Mack's plea deal. The support of the victim's family tends to make it more likely that the judge will go along with it.”

Friday 16 June 2023 16:45 , Oliver O'Connell

On 12 August 2014, Mack, then 18, and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, bludgeoned von Wiese-Mack to death with the metal handle of a fruit stand at the luxury 5-star St. Regis resort in Bali.

They then stuffed her body into a suitcase, hailed down a taxi and loaded it into the trunk of the car.

When they were unable to check out of the luxury resort – using her mother’s credit card – the couple fled the scene, leaving the bloodstained suitcase behind.

They were soon tracked down to a budget motel and arrested on suspicion of murder.

At the time of the murder, Mack – the daughter of socialite von Wiese-Mack and famed musician James L Mack – was pregnant with Schaefer’s child.

Prosecutors revealed that she had flown her lover out on a $12,000 business-class ticket just hours earlier charged to her mother’s credit card. Surveillance footage later captured the trio arguing in the hotel lobby after he arrived.

Less than 12 hours after he flew in, Mack was dead.

Friday 16 June 2023 17:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Prosecutors revealed that she had flown her lover out on a $12,000 business-class ticket just hours earlier charged to her mother’s credit card. Surveillance footage later captured the trio arguing in the hotel lobby after he arrived.

Less than 12 hours after he flew in, Mack was dead.

Chilling text messages later surfaced showing how the couple likened themselves to the notorious duo Bonnie & Clyde and plotted methods of murder with the help of Schafer’s cousin.

They were both convicted of premeditated murder in Indonesia and narrowly avoided facing the firing squad.

Friday 16 June 2023 17:45 , Oliver O'Connell

After Mack served seven years in an Indonesian jail, she was extradited to the US where she was arrested on charges of conspiracy to murder in a foreign country in November 2021.

Since then, she has been behind bars in Illinois awaiting trial and had been fighting against the charges, insisting that she had served her time for her crime in Indonesia.

Earlier this month, she then revealed her intentions to take a plea bargain in the case.

Friday 16 June 2023 18:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Speaking to The New York Post last week, Mack said: “I have served nearly 10 years in prison. I felt that I had done my time, so I was gung-ho for trial,” she said.

“Now, after sitting for so long, I know what I have to do. I’m going to be a felon in America, and that is fine. I understand from [the US government’s] perspective that, if I don’t plead guilty and they didn’t indict me, I wouldn’t be a felon.”

She added: “I could become a police officer and work for the government… I could carry a firearm on the street.”

The exact terms of the plea deal were unclear, but Mack said she is looking at a sentence of zero to 25 years, including time served.

“So if they gave me 15 or even 18 years. I wouldn’t even have that much more time because of time served,” she told Business Insider.

“A good thing about my plea is that the maximum supervised release used to be ten years, and now it’s five years. If I did get the full five years of supervised release, I could be out in a year and a half or two years with good behaviour.”

Mack’s family reacts to ‘mastermind’ killer’s guilty plea

Friday 16 June 2023 18:45 , Oliver O'Connell

The devastated family of murdered socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack have welcomed the plea deal reached with her “mastermind” killer daughter Heather Mack.

William Wiese and Debbi Curran, von Wiese-Mack’s siblings, released a statement on Friday after Mack finally pleaded guilty to her part in her mother’s murder, more than eight years after the 62-year-old’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali.

Here’s what they said:

Heather Mack’s family reacts to ‘mastermind’ killer’s guilty plea for mother’s murder

In depth: Heather Mack’s mother feared her daughter would kill her. Police were powerless to prevent it

Friday 16 June 2023 19:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Rachel Sharp writes:

The world first heard the story of American teenager Heather Mack and her mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack when the 62-year-old’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Indonesia.

But the story actually begins many years earlier.

Behind the headlines about the so-called “Suitcase Killer” is a tragic story of a mother who endured years of domestic violence at the hands of her child inside the home they shared in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago.

Read more...

Heather Mack’s mother feared her daughter would kill her. Police couldn’t stop it

Earlier in court...

Friday 16 June 2023 20:15 , Oliver O'Connell

There was a tense moment between Mack’s defence lawyer and Judge Kennelly earlier in court. Here’s what happened:

Jon Seidel of The Sun Times reports that Mack tells the judge that as a juvenile she believes she was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and was “hospitalised a few times”

It transpires that the plea agreement has only been read to Mack over the phone.

There is an “angry outburst” from Judge Kennelly according to Dave Byrnes of Courthouse News as he demands to know why she has not seen a physical copy of the agreement.

Mack’s lawyer Jeffrey Steinback explains that the plea agreement has gone through several revisions and that he couldn’t get a finalized version of the agreement into Chicago’s federal prison last night.

This appears to satisfy the judge and Mack confirms she understands everything in the agreement.

Friday 16 June 2023 20:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Judge Kennelly explained that if Mack is sentenced to less than life in prison she will be on parole for up to five years.

She may also face a fee of up to $250,000 plus court costs and restitution to her mother’s family.

He also tells prosecutors they will not be reading the full “factual basis” from the plea agreement in court.

Jon Seidel notes: “That likely means Mack’s admissions are long and detailed.”

Friday 16 June 2023 21:15 , Oliver O'Connell

As with all plea deals, this is a bit of a gamble on the part of the defendant. It states that Mack’s sentence will not exceed 28 years (with consideration given to time served in Indonesia) but Judge Kennelly also explains to Mack that sentencing guidelines aren’t binding on him, Dave Byrnes reports.

“I have to make up my own mind,” he says, noting he may come up with a worse sentence for her than she’s hoping for.

He won’t decide until the sentencing.

Earlier: Guilty plea entered

Friday 16 June 2023 21:45 , Oliver O'Connell

“I plead guilty, your honour.”

Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiring to murder her mother on the Indonesian island of Bali in the summer of 2014.

Judge Kennelly voids Mack’s planned July trial for murder conspiracy, evidence tampering and injuring a foreign government’s property.

Her sentencing is set for 18 December 2023.

Full story: ‘Suitcase killer’ Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder

Friday 16 June 2023 22:45 , Oliver O'Connell

“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack is facing up to 28 years in US prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder her socialite mother at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali back in 2014.

Rachel Sharp reports.

‘Suitcase killer’ Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder socialite mother

Friday 16 June 2023 23:45 , Oliver O'Connell

“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack is facing up to 28 years in US prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder her socialite mother at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali back in 2014.

Mack, now 27, reached a plea deal with prosecutors in federal court in Illinois on Friday morning, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a US national and finally bringing some sort of conclusion to a horror case that has rumbled on for almost eight years.

“I plead guilty, your honor,” she told US District Judge Matthew Kelley.

Under the terms of the agreement, prosecutors recommend she faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison, with consideration given to the time she’s already served in Indonesian prison.

However, Judge Kelley warned that he could ignore the sentencing guidelines.

“I have to make up my own mind,” he said.

Siblings of Wiese-Mack issue statement on guilty plea

Saturday 17 June 2023 00:45 , Oliver O'Connell

William Wiese and Debbi Curran, the siblings of murder victim Sheila von Wiese-Mack, have issued a statement on Heather Mack’s guilty plea:

After almost nine years, we are very relieved that the mastermind of Sheila’s murder admitted her guilt today. We will continue to be our sister Sheila’s voice throughout the sentencing process to ensure that real justice is achieved. It has been devastating to witness the corruption in Indonesia which prevented true justice from being obtained eight years ago. Thanks to the incredible efforts of the US Attorney’s Office and FBI, we are hopeful for a sentence that more appropriately reflects the heinous and premeditated nature of the crime.

01:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Jon Seidel of The Sun-Times writes: “Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s siblings have also told reporters they are hopeful that Judge Kennelly accepts Mack’s plea deal. The support of the victim’s family tends to make it more likely that the judge will go along with it.”

How did the crime unfold?

02:45 , Oliver O'Connell

On 12 August 2014, Mack, then 18, and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, bludgeoned von Wiese-Mack to death with the metal handle of a fruit stand at the luxury 5-star St. Regis resort in Bali.

They then stuffed her body into a suitcase, hailed down a taxi and loaded it into the trunk of the car.

When they were unable to check out of the luxury resort – using her mother’s credit card – the couple fled the scene, leaving the bloodstained suitcase behind.

They were soon tracked down to a budget motel and arrested on suspicion of murder.

At the time of the murder, Mack – the daughter of socialite von Wiese-Mack and famed musician James L Mack – was pregnant with Schaefer’s child.

03:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Prosecutors revealed that she had flown her lover out on a $12,000 business-class ticket just hours earlier charged to her mother’s credit card. Surveillance footage later captured the trio arguing in the hotel lobby after he arrived.

Less than 12 hours after he flew in, Mack was dead.

Chilling text messages later surfaced showing how the couple likened themselves to the notorious duo Bonnie & Clyde and plotted methods of murder with the help of Schafer’s cousin.

They were both convicted of premeditated murder in Indonesia and narrowly avoided facing the firing squad.

04:45 , Oliver O'Connell

After Mack served seven years in an Indonesian jail, she was extradited to the US where she was arrested on charges of conspiracy to murder in a foreign country in November 2021.

Since then, she has been behind bars in Illinois awaiting trial and had been fighting against the charges, insisting that she had served her time for her crime in Indonesia.

Earlier this month, she then revealed her intentions to take a plea bargain in the case.

05:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Speaking to The New York Post last week, Mack said: “I have served nearly 10 years in prison. I felt that I had done my time, so I was gung-ho for trial,” she said.

“Now, after sitting for so long, I know what I have to do. I’m going to be a felon in America, and that is fine. I understand from [the US government’s] perspective that, if I don’t plead guilty and they didn’t indict me, I wouldn’t be a felon.”

She added: “I could become a police officer and work for the government… I could carry a firearm on the street.”

The exact terms of the plea deal were unclear, but Mack said she is looking at a sentence of zero to 25 years, including time served.

“So if they gave me 15 or even 18 years. I wouldn’t even have that much more time because of time served,” she told Business Insider.

“A good thing about my plea is that the maximum supervised release used to be ten years, and now it’s five years. If I did get the full five years of supervised release, I could be out in a year and a half or two years with good behaviour.”

Mack’s family reacts to ‘mastermind’ killer’s guilty plea

07:45 , Oliver O'Connell

The devastated family of murdered socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack have welcomed the plea deal reached with her “mastermind” killer daughter Heather Mack.

William Wiese and Debbi Curran, von Wiese-Mack’s siblings, released a statement on Friday after Mack finally pleaded guilty to her part in her mother’s murder, more than eight years after the 62-year-old’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali.

Here’s what they said:

Heather Mack’s family reacts to ‘mastermind’ killer’s guilty plea for mother’s murder

In-depth: Heather Mack’s mother feared her daughter would kill her. Police were powerless to prevent it

09:45 , Oliver O'Connell

The world first heard the story of American teenager Heather Mack and her mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack when the 62-year-old’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Indonesia.

But the story actually begins many years earlier.

Behind the headlines about the so-called “Suitcase Killer” is a tragic story of a mother who endured years of domestic violence at the hands of her child inside the home they shared in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago.

Abuse which ultimately escalated to that day in 2014 when the 18-year-old and her 21-year-old boyfriend bludgeoned her to death at a 5-star resort in Bali.

Rasul Freelain, a retired Oak Park Police sergeant who arrested Mack multiple times for allegedly abusing her mother, tells The Independent that the warning signs were there as soon as he met the pair for the first time back in 2010.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Heather Mack’s mother feared her daughter would kill her. Police couldn’t stop it

History of violence

10:45 , Oliver O'Connell

In the years leading up to the murder, police records reveal that officers responded to a string of violent incidents committed by Mack against her mother at their home in Illinois.

Oak Park Police records show at least 35 interactions with officers since 2008 including reports of Mack breaking her mother’s arm, biting her and punching her. The records also include reports of stealing credit cards and money – an apparent motive for the murder.

While only Mack now knows when the violence first began, the first record of police being called to the home came in April 2008 for a report that the then-13-year-old had locked her mother in a room and threatened her.

The next police report came in January 2010 when Mack allegedly punched her mother’s broken ankle.

Sgt Freelain first met von Wiese-Mack in November of that year when she reported that her daughter had stolen her credit card and $1,060 cash.

A detective specialising in youth and family issues at the time, he was assigned the case and says he met von Wiese-Mack in person and spoke with her on the phone several times. It was also the first time he met Mack, then aged 15.

After interviewing her, Mack admitted that she stole her mother’s credit card but denied stealing the cash.

1/3

11:45 , Oliver O'Connell

“In that first meeting, I certainly saw how Sheila was torn in terms of what to do about Heather,” Sgt Freelain recalls.

“She suspected and then knew that she had stolen from her but didn’t want to follow through on pressing charges against her daughter which is understandable but as things progressed that infliction would make things very difficult for us to be able to help Sheila.

“In that first meeting it was clear something was wrong – in terms of both the financial side of things but also her daughter’s behaviour.

“But it was the next time when I met Sheila in February 2011, that alarm bells really went off.”

Sgt Freelain says that von Wiese-Mack turned up at the police department that night with her right arm broken and in a cast.

In one violent incident that January, Mack had pushed her mother causing her to fall and break arm, according to a police report later filed.

“Her body language – she looked so beaten back,” Sgt Freelain says of that day in February 2011.

“In November, it was clear there was some kind of domestic dynamic that wasn’t good but Sheila hadn’t been forthright in elaborating about what was going on.

“But that night I got her more comfortable talking and she opened up about the physical and verbal abuse. We established a good rapport that night that stayed over the next two-and-a-half years.”

Von Wiese-Mack told him what had happened to her arm.

“I told her ‘I’ve worked with families where the kids abuse the parents and it doesn’t fix itself’,” he says.

“I told her about one case where a kid went on to murder their mother.”

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12:45 , Oliver O'Connell

But when Sgt Freelain says he told von Wiese-Mack that they would have to arrest Mack and that she needed to press charges over the alleged attack, he says “reality hit” and she ran out of the police precinct.

“She was so fearful of the idea of Heather being arrested,” he says.

“I figured I would never see her again but she came back the next day to say she’d been attacked by Heather again.

“An officer came and got me from the detective division and said a ‘woman is asking for you’.

“I went out and it was Sheila Mack. She had been attacked and was crying and said ‘I’m sorry, I should have listened to you. Can you help me?’”

He adds: “And that was the first day that I arrested Heather.”

On 17 February 2011, Mack was arrested for the first time for domestic battery over the January attack on her mother that resulted in her broken arm.

This marked a major step forward for von Wiese-Mack.

Up until that point, Sgt Freelain says there was a pattern of her calling 911 to report Mack’s alleged attacks but then refusing to cooperate when police urged her to press charges.

But it was a cycle von Wiese-Mack ultimately couldn’t get out of.

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‘Suitcase killer’ Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder

13:45 , Oliver O'Connell

“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack is facing up to 28 years in US prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder her socialite mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali back in 2014 – finally bringing some sort of conclusion to a horrific case that has rumbled on for almost eight years.

Rachel Sharp reports.

‘Suitcase killer’ Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder socialite mother

Heather Mack’s family reacts to ‘mastermind’ killer’s guilty plea

14:15 , Oliver O'Connell

The devastated family of murdered socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack have welcomed the plea deal reached with her “mastermind” killer daughter Heather Mack.

William Wiese and Debbi Curran, von Wiese-Mack’s siblings, released a statement on Friday after Mack finally pleaded guilty to her part in her mother’s murder, more than eight years after the 62-year-old’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali.

Read more...

Heather Mack’s family reacts to ‘mastermind’ killer’s guilty plea for mother’s murder

Full story: Heather Mack’s mother feared her daughter would kill her. Police were powerless to prevent it

14:45 , Oliver O'Connell

The world first heard the story of American teenager Heather Mack and her mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack when the 62-year-old’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Indonesia.

But the story actually begins many years earlier.

Behind the headlines about the so-called “Suitcase Killer” is a tragic story of a mother who endured years of domestic violence at the hands of her child inside the home they shared in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago.

Abuse which ultimately escalated to that day in 2014 when the 18-year-old and her 21-year-old boyfriend bludgeoned her to death at a 5-star resort in Bali.

Rasul Freelain, a retired Oak Park Police sergeant who arrested Mack multiple times for allegedly abusing her mother, tells The Independent that the warning signs were there as soon as he met the pair for the first time back in 2010.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Heather Mack’s mother feared her daughter would kill her. Police couldn’t stop it