‘Suitcase Killer’ Heather Mack, 27, pled guilty in Chicago court to conspiring with boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, to murder her mother

Mack’s mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, was killed and stuffed in a suitcase while on vacation in Bali in 2014

Heather Mack’s then boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned Wiese-Mack to death in a hotel room with a fruit bowl

Prosecutors earlier tendered In text messages where Schaefer urged Mack to suffocate her mother so they could claim her estate, which he believed was worth up to $11million

Mack already served seven years in an Indonesian prison for her role in the death of Sheila von Wiese-Mack

Indonesian court convicted and jailed Mack and her boyfriend, Schaefer, for the crime in overseas in 2015

The third suspect, Schaefer’s cousin Robert Bibbs was sentenced to nine years in the US

She faces up to 28 years in prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for December 18

Mack has been held in prison custody since she arrived US in November 2021

‘Suitcase Killer’ Heather Mack, 27, pled guilty in a Chicago court to conspiring to murder her mother while on vacation in Bali in 2014. 

‘Suitcase Killer’ Heather Mack pleaded guilty in a Chicago court to conspiring to murder her mother while on vacation in Bali in 2014. 
Mack, 27, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a United States National. She will be sentenced on December 18 and faces 28 years in prison. 
In 2015, Mack was convicted in an Indonesian court of being an accessory to the murder of her 62-year-old mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack. She was convicted for helping her ex-boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, then 21, gain access to her mother’s room at the luxury resort, and bludgeon the victim with a metal fruit bowl. 

Heather Mack [left] conspired with her boyfriend to kill her mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack [right] while on vacation in Bali, to grab her millions. Convicted in Indonesia, she got early release after seven years in prison and was deported Nov 2021, along with the daughter she had in prison

A cabbie the pair hired reported the killers as they attempted to transport the body Sheila von Wiese-Mack [photo] stuffed in a suit case

Her body was later found stuffed in a suit case.
At the time of the murder, Mack was 18 years old and pregnant. She served seven years in prison in Indonesia before being released for good behavior in October, 2021. She was deported a month later along with the five-year-old daughter she raised in prison. Schaefer is the father.
Upon her arrival back in the US, she was arrested at O’Hare Airport and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Custody of her daughter, Stella, was given to a maternal cousin in Colorado. She’s since has been held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Mack [left], 18, helped her then-boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, [right], 21, gain access to Wiese-Mack’s room at the holiday resort in Bali where he bludgeoned the Illinois-native with a fruit bowl, in 2014

Earlier this month, Heather Mack, now 27, seen [photo] with the daughter she had during her 2015 trial and raised in prison, struck a deal with Illinois prosecutors. She served 7 years in prison in Indonesia before her early release in 2021 for killing her mother  

Authorities allege that Mack committed the crime so that she could gain control of her $1.5 million trust fund.
Mack’s wealthy mother was married to the late James L. Mack, a renowned composer who died during a family trip to Greece in 2006. The political strategist was killed and stuffed in a suitcase before being left in a taxi on the island of Bali.
Schaefer’s cousin Robert Bibbs was sentenced to nine years in a US prison for advising Mack and Schaefer on how to kill von Weise-Mack. Tommy Schaefer is serving his sentence in Indonesia.

Mack and her then boyfriend – Stella’s dad – were convicted in 2015 of plotting together to kill Mack’s mom, socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack at a luxury resort on Bali during a family trip, and then stuffing her body in a suitcase [photo]

Mack stood before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in orange jail garb and orange slippers as he asked her questions before she was set to enter a plea.
She spoke confidently and calmly as the judge asks her that she was giving up her rights to remain silent at the motion hearing. ‘Yes, your honor,’ she responded from a podium. 
After the judge explained the charge against her, Mack pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a U.S. national. 
Her plea deal calls for a sentence of no more than 28 years and the judge set a December 18 sentencing date. 

In 2015, Heather Mack at the age of 19 was convicted in an Indonesian court of being an accessory to the murder of her her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s

Von Wiese-Mack’s siblings William Wiese and Debbi Curran released a statement declaring that they were ‘relieved’ that Mack decided to plead guilty. 
‘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,’ the statement read. 
‘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,’ the release read.  

Released 7 years into her 10 year sentence for good behavior, Heather Mack is seen inside an immigration car after being released from Kerobokan Prison in Bali, Indonesia in Oct. 2021. She’d been convicted for plotting to kill von Wiese-Mack

Earlier this month, Mack laid bare her plans to strike a deal with prosecutors ahead of her trial in the US.
‘We were offered a good plea. First, it was 15 to 35 [years]; now they are saying zero to 25 years, including time served,’ Mack, who was also sentenced in Indonesia but was released early for good behavior, said Wednesday.
‘I have served nearly ten years in prison. I felt that I had done my time, so I was gung-ho for trial.
‘Now, after sitting for so long, I know what I have to do.’
Mack who was convicted in 2015 for plotting to kill von Wiese-Mack, was released 34 months early into her 10 year prison sentence in Bali for good behavior, in October 2021.

Tommy Schaefer who shares a child with Mack, born after their 2015 conviction, was 21 when he brutally beat his girlfriend’s mother to death with a metal bowl in a bid to get a hold of Heather’s $1.5million trust fund. He’s serving 18 years in a an Indonesian prison

Mack gave birth to the pair’s daughter during their 2015 murder trial in Indonesia. She was allowed to live with the child during her incarceration overseas, but her daughter now lives with her mother’s relative. Schaefer is serving an 18-year sentence in Indonesia

Mack’s attorney Michael Leonard agreed with his high-profile client’s assessment, but conceded he was unsure how severe a sentence Mack.
‘The hope is that the judge will seriously consider the time she has already served and all the underlying circumstances of her life and her relationship with her mom,’ Leonard said.
‘Any federal criminal case requires a constant reassessment of risk and reward. Balancing risk in terms of a potential sentence and trying to minimize the risk to yourself.’
This uncertainty, the lawyer said, is still preferable to taking a chance of fighting the case in court.
Prosecutors will be making a strong case for premeditation after tendering texts that showed how Schaefer encouraged Mack to suffocate her mom in her sleep during what was meant to be a relaxing Indonesia vacation>
She did not through with the task. However, she enabled the killing when he undertook it himself.

The young Heather [left], with parents James Mack and Sheila. Initially Heather claimed she acted to avenge the death of her father

In previous statements to the court, Mack claimed she hid in a bathroom a few days later at Bali’s Regis hotel, as Schaefer bludgeoned her mom to death with a fruit bowl.
Until now, she pled not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and obstruction of justice, but has a change of plea hearing scheduled for June 15.
Her trial was set to commence on August 1 in Chicago, nearly ten years after the case first grabbed headlines due to Mack’s plotting to kill von Wiese-Mack and her subsequent stuffing her body in a suitcase she and her lover left in the trunk of a taxi.
Mack was eighteen and pregnant at the time, and prosecutors argue that she helped Schaefer cram the body into the case and wheel it downstairs where they hailed a cab and loaded it into the trunk.

Mack says seven-year-old Stella, seen as an infant in her father, Tommy Schaefer’s arms, standing next to her mom, does not know why both her parents are imprisoned and she wants to keep it that way

The pair fled when the driver became suspicious something foul was afoot. The pair were arrested shortly after at a nearby budget hotel.
Both were tried and convicted in 2015, as US prosecutors filed a separate case that accused Mack of conspiring with Schaefer prior to their Bali trip, stealing her mom’s credit card and using it to fly him out in a $12,000 business class seat.
In text messages presented during those proceedings, Schaefer urged his teen lover to suffocate von Wiese-Mack so they could claim her estate, which he believed was worth up to $11million.
He ended up battering the mark with a metal bowl until she suffocated on her own blood after sustaining a broken nose.
At trial the murderer claimed testified his victim had racially abused him and tried to strangle him during an argument about the pregnancy. However, prosecutors proved the young lovers had plotted to kill her for months and had already tried but failed to kill her by overdose.
Prior to her mother’s death, Mack reportedly had a fraught and often violent relationship with her mother.
Under Indonesian law Mack was allowed to live with her daughter in her cell until the child turned two when Mack gave custody of her to an Australian whom she befriended during her trial. Since their return the seven-year-old lives with her grandmother’s niece in Colorado.