CHICAGO, Illinois – U.S. prosecutors in Chicago are seeking a 28-year prison sentence and maximum fines for Heather Mack, who brutally murdered her mother at a luxury resort in Bali 10 years ago. Mack served time in Bali before pleading guilty to federal charges in Illinois.
The incident occurred in 2014 when Mack, along with her boyfriend at the time, Tommy Schaefer, killed her mother, Sheila von Wiese. An Indonesian court found Mack guilty of holding her mother’s mouth shut while Schaefer beat her to death. They then stuffed her body into a suitcase at the St. Regis hotel and left it in a taxi.
Federal prosecutors described the murder as “vicious,” emphasizing that von Wiese struggled to stay alive, realizing that her daughter was responsible for her death. Mack’s lawyers are seeking a 15-year maximum sentence with time served credit for her Indonesian incarceration.
The case also involves Mack’s co-conspirator, Robert Bibbs, who received a nine-year sentence for helping to plot the murder. Schaefer, Bibbs’ cousin, is also accused of taking part in the murder to inherit money from von Wiese, as they recovered text messages between Mack and Schaefer in which they coordinated the murder and discussed how to spend the money. An autopsy found defensive wounds on von Wiese’s body and determined that she died of blunt force trauma.
Mack was released after serving seven years of her 10-year Indonesian sentence and deported to the U.S., where she was immediately arrested. Schaefer remains in prison overseas.
The prosecution is seeking a harsh sentence for Mack, emphasizing the brutality of the crime and the impact it had on the victim’s loved ones, while also highlighting the coordination of the murder and the perpetrators’ motivations.