Heather Mack plea hearing: ‘Suitcase killer’ pleads guilty in US over Bali murder of socialite mom
Heather Mack – whose father was late musician James L Mack – and boyfriend Tommy Schaefer murdered her mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali in 2014
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“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.
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
“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
On 12 August 2014, Mack and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned Sheila von Wiese-Mack to death with the metal handle of a fruit stand and shoved her body in a suitcase at the luxury 5-star St. Regis resort in Bali
“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
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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
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
On 12 August 2014, Mack and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned Sheila von Wiese-Mack to death with the metal handle of a fruit stand and shoved her body in a suitcase at the luxury 5-star St. Regis resort in Bali