Bali ‘suitcase murder’ convict gets reprieve
She was convicted of assisting her boyfriend in her mother’s murder
AChicago woman convicted of assisting her boyfriend in her mother’s murder and stuffing the body in a suitcase on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali in 2014 is being released early from a 10year sentence, a prison official confirmed yesterday.
Heather Mack, who was 18 when she was arrested a day after the discovery of Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s body in the trunk of a taxi parked near the St. Regis Bali Resort, will be freed and deported to the United States on Oct. 29, said Lili, the Kerobokan Female Prison chief. Lili, who goes by a single name, said that Mack received a total of 34 months of sentence reductions, which are often granted to prisoners on major holidays, including a six-month remission of sentence awarded to her by the Indonesian government during the country’s Independence Day in August.
Mack and her then-boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were detained in August 2014 and convicted in April 2015. Schafer received an 18-year sentence. Before Mack was convicted, she gave birth to her and Schaefer’s daughter, Stella Schaefer.
There were reports of a troubled relationship between Mack and her mother, with officials confirming that police had been called to the family’s Oak Park, Illinois, home dozens of times. Mack can under now be reunited with her daughter, who is now 6. Under Indonesian law, a deported foreigner will be rejected entry to Indonesia up to a maximum six months.