Heather Mack – the Chicago woman convicted of helping kill her mother and stuffing her body in a suitcase on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali in 2014 – walked free from an Indonesian prison Friday after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence. The 26-year-old is now being deported to the United States.
Below are some major points in the case, as found in the Chicago Tribune archives:
Chicagoan Heather Mack and boyfriend stuffed her mom in suitcase after killing her in Bali. She did 7 years in prison. And now she’s being deported to the U.S. ？
Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, was found dead in Bali, Indonesia on Aug. 12, 2014. (Robert McCamant, Newberry Library)
Aug. 12, 2014
The suitcase in which Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s body was discovered is shown at a police station on the Indonesian island of Bali on Aug. 12, 2014. (SONNY TUMBELAKA / AFP/Getty Images)
The body of Chicagoan Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, is found inside a bloodied suitcase placed in the trunk of a taxi outside the luxury St. Regis hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali. Her daughter, Heather Mack, 18, and Mack’s boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, are arrested and detained as suspects.
In the early hour of the same day, von Wiese-Mack and her daughter argued in the hotel’s lobby after Heather Mack used her mother’s credit card to book a hotel room for her boyfriend.
Heather Mack and boyfriend Tommy Schaefer walk in handcuffs at Kerobokan prison in Denpasar on Indonesia's resort island of Bali to attend their trial Feb. 26, 2015. (Sonny Tumbelaka, AFP/Getty Images)
Aug. 15, 2014
Indonesian police formally designate Mack and Schaefer as prisoners in connection with von Wiese-Mack’s death. The designation comes after they were held for more than 48 hours, as is the practice in Indonesia.
This Oak Park home in the 600 block of Linden Avenue was a former residence of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, whose body was discovered stuffed in a suitcase in Bali in August 2014. Neighbors say police were often called to the home where von Wiese-Mack lived with her daughter, Heather Mack. (Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune)
Aug. 16, 2014
In the days after the discovery of von Wiese-Mack’s body, past police reports and statements from neighbors show that Mack and her mother had a volatile relationship. Police were often called to their former home in Oak Park.
Aug. 20, 2014
Bali police say ultrasound and urine tests confirm that Mack is pregnant, as she had said. Earlier, police had suggested the pregnancy might have been a ruse to ensure she was sent home.
The body of Sheila von Wiese Mack was found on Aug. 12, 2014, stuffed into a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi in front of the St. Regis hotel in the upscale Nusa Dua resort area of Bali. (Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty Images)
Aug. 22, 2014
Police disclose that witnesses reported seeing Mack and von Wiese-Mack arguing in the lobby of their hotel. Police say it is not clear what the argument was about and when it occurred.
Sept. 19, 2014
Indonesian police say the suspects have made separate confessions: Schaefer admits to killing von Wiese-Mack, and Mack admits helping him stuff her body into the suitcase. Mack later says she and Schaefer are innocent.
Heather Mack, left, kisses her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, inside a holding cell on Dec. 8, 2014, at the prosecutor's office in Denpasar on Indonesia's resort island of Bali. (Sonny Tumbelaka, AFP/Getty Images)
Dec. 8, 2014
Police conclude their four-month investigation into von Wiese-Mack’s slaying. Mack and Schaefer are briefly reunited before being transferred to the custody of prosecutors.
Tommy Schaefer, left, and Heather Mack, handcuffed, arrive at Denpasar District Court for their first hearing in a slaying trial in Bali, Indonesia, on Jan. 14, 2015. Mack and her boyfriend Schaefer, both of Chicago, are accused of killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack, her mother, who was found stuffed inside a suitcase in August. (Firdia Lisnawati / AP)
Jan. 14, 2015
Indonesian prosecutors charge Mack and Schaefer with premeditated murder in the death of von Wiese-Mack. The charges carry a possible death penalty under Indonesian law.
William Wiese, right, and Debbi Curran, center, sister and brother of victim Sheila von Wiese-Mack, talks with reporters after a hearing regarding the trust fund of Heather Mack at the Daley Center on June 12, 2015. Wiese is the executor of the trust fund. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)
Jan. 15, 2015
Mack sues her uncle, William Wiese, for access to von Wiese-Mack’s $1.56 million estate. Mack’s lawyers ask a Cook County judge to force William Wiese, who von Wiese-Mack had named as trustee with control over the funds until her daughter’s 30th birthday, to release funds for her legal defense.
Jan. 16, 2015
A Cook County judge rules that Mack has the right to access a fund established by her late mother to hire a defense attorney. Three months before her death in Bali, von Wiese-Mack placed her $1.56 million estate in a trust to be used for the “health, support, education and maintenance” of her only child.
Feb. 3, 2015
In a series of interviews with the Chicago Tribune, Mack insists she is innocent and says she is “petrified” about her future and that of her unborn child. Mack says she was compelled to contact the newspaper because her Indonesian criminal defense attorney is not being paid from her trust fund as ordered.
She also says there are good Samaritans helping her get food and vitamins and even a bed in her jail cell. She declines to offer details on the people’s identities.
“Indonesia’s been great to both me and Stella,” Mack said, using the name she plans to give her unborn child. She said her daughter will be named after Schaefer’s great-grandmother. She said she has ultrasounds once a month. Her baby is due April 1.
Feb. 20, 2015
A Cook County judge denies requests for medical and legal fees related to the unborn child. Lawyer Vanessa Favia, who had worked two weeks on the Indonesian island, seeks $126,000 in legal fees for her role representing the unborn child.
Tommy Schaefer, right, talks to Indonesian judges in a court room during a trial in Bali, Indonesia on March 12, 2015. Schaefer's girlfriend Heather Mack is seated at left in the background. (Firdia Lisnawati/AP)
March 12, 2015
Testifying at Mack’s trial, Schaefer tells the court that he killed von Wiese-Mack because he was angry after she threatened to kill his unborn baby and choked him for about half a minute. “I was angry, I took the fruit bowl and hit her,” Schaefer said in tears.
Heather Mack looks out from her room window at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, on March 19, 2015. (Firdia Lisnawati/AP)
March 17, 2015
Mack gives birth to a healthy 6-pound, 1-ounce girl at a hospital near the prison. Mack tells the Tribune she hopes to keep her daughter with her in the prison.
March 19, 2015
Von Wiese-Mack’s friend, Elliott Jacobson, provides the Tribune with more than 150 emails he said he received from von Wiese-Mack that chronicle her tumultuous relationship with her daughter. Some of the emails show von Wiese-Mack feared for her safety.
March 26, 2015
The trial is delayed after newborn Stella falls ill with jaundice. The sentence demand had been scheduled to be read in court, though, it could not be read in the defendants’ absence.
Tommy Schaefer, 21, and Heather Mack, 19, with a translator during their court appearance in Indonesia on March 31, 2015. (Agung Parameswara, Getty Images)
March 31, 2015
Prosecutors ask that Mack and Schaefer be spared the maximum possible penalty — death by firing squad — if the three-judge panel convicts the young couple of killing Mack’s mother. The prosecution’s recommendation of a 15-year prison sentence for Mack and an 18-year term for Schaefer outraged the slain woman’s family in the U.S.
April 7, 2015
Lawyers representing Mack and Schaefer argue that there is no evidence of premeditated murder in von Wiese-Mack’s death and seek light sentences if they are convicted. Judges could ignore the sentencing requests.
Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty in the 2014 death of Sheila von Wiese-Mack in Bali, Indonesia. Her daughter, Heather Mack, received a 10-year sentence April 21, 2015. (Firdia Lisnawati/AP)
April 21, 2015
In a unanimous verdict, the three-judge panel in Denpasar District Court convicts Mack and Schaefer in the slaying of von Wiese-Mack. Mack is sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Schaefer, who admitted fatally beating von Wiese-Mack but claimed self defense, receives an 18-year prison term.
May 5, 2015
After prosecutors appeal Mack’s conviction, she files an emergency motion in Chicago seeking more money from the $1.5 million trust fund to pay for her anticipated upcoming legal fees.
June 9, 2015
Mack considers having a local couple in Bali raise her baby until she is freed, one of her attorneys says.
Kia Walker, left, holds her granddaughter during a visit with her son, Tommy Schaefer, on March 31, 2015, at a jail in Bali, Indonesia. (Agung Parameswara, Getty Images)
June 12, 2015
Schaefer’s mother, Kia Walker, expresses fears to a Chicago judge that Stella is being sold for $150,000. Mack’s attorney calls the allegation “nothing more than a smearing campaign.”
July 6, 2015
A certified English translation of the written findings of the three-judge panel, made public in Cook County court, offers a closer look at the trial and some of its haunting details — including the last time von Wiese-Mack was seen in public alive.
Robert Bibbs, at center, a cousin to Heather Mack's boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Oct. 29, 2015, after being arraigned on charges he aided in the plot to murder Mack's wealthy mother. (Anthony Souffle / Chicago Tribune)
Sept. 23, 2015
A cousin of Schaefer’s is arrested on federal charges alleging he conspired with the couple to kill von Wiese-Mack. Robert Bibbs, 24, of Chicago, advised Mack and Schaefer about how to kill Mack’s mother, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Chicago.
He pleads not guity the following month.
Oct. 13, 2015
Months after their tearful trial testimonies won them leniency, federal authorities allege recently released text messages between Mack and Schaefer — who refer to themselves as Bonnie and Clyde — expose a far more sinister plot.
Sheila von Wiese-Mack and her daughter, Heather Mack, pose in an undated family photo provided to the Tribune by von Wiese-Mack's friend Elliott Jacobson. (Elliott Jacobson)
Dec. 9, 2015
In written correspondence to a Cook County judge presiding over her $1.56 million trust case, Mack says “with all due respect” to her slain mother, she believes von Wiese-Mack lied and falsified court documents years earlier to gain control over a more substantial inheritance the daughter was due from her father’s estate.
Feb. 10, 2015
Schaefer instructs baby Stella’s court-appointed guardian to cease communicating her health to the court — something Judge Neil Cohen finds troubling.
Robert Bibbs, a cousin of Heather Mack's boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, arrives at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Dec. 13, 2016. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Dec. 13, 2016
Under an agreement with federal prosecutors, Schaefer’s cousin Bibbs will not be sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to a count of conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a national of the United States.
In a video posted to YouTube on Feb. 2, 2017, Heather Mack confesses to the 2014 murder of her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, while they were on vacation in Bali, Indonesia. (YouTube)
Feb. 2, 2017
Mack appears to confess on YouTube that she alone committed the killing, motivated by revenge, and that Schaefer was merely part of the crime’s attempted cover-up. She said she entrapped him into that role and expresses her remorse for it.
Feb. 8, 2017
Mack and her lawyer release a statement saying that the assertions she made in videos posted to YouTube were false and recorded under pressure. The statement said Mack was reading words written by Schaefer.
Kia Walker, the mother of Tommy Schaefer, speaks after a hearing on Feb. 17, 2017 at the Circuit Court of Cook County in the Richard J. Daley Center in Chicago. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)
March 14, 2017
A Cook County judge denies a request from Kia Walker, the paternal grandmother of baby Stella, to get guardianship of the child.
March 17, 2017
On the child’s second birthday, Mack gives custody of Stella to an Australian woman until her release from prison.
June 2, 2017
Bibbs is sentenced to nine years in prison for helping coach Schaefer in the murder in return for a share of von Wiese-Mack’s estate.
June 2018
Mack gives up her claim to her mother’s estate. The financial terms of the settlement agreement are confidential, but court records filed in the Cook County case make it clear Heather Mack will not receive “any property, benefit, or other interest.”
Instead, the beneficiary is Mack’s daughter, Stella, who was born in an Indonesian prison in March 2015 as Mack and her then-boyfriend awaited trial.
Heather Mack, center, is escorted by Indonesian immigration officers to an Immigration detention center in Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia on Oct. 29, 2021. (Firdia Lisnawati/AP)
Oct. 29, 2021
Mack walks free from prison after serving seven years of a 10-year-sentence. The 26-year-old will have to stay for a few days at the Immigration Detention Center in Bali, while awaiting flight and travel arrangements. She will be deported to the United States.
Her Indonesian attorney said the early release was in part due to a six-month remission of sentence awarded to her by the Indonesian government during the nation’s recent Independence Day celebration.
Sources: Tribune reporting and archives; AP
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