This will haunt me for the rest of my life.
The August 2014 murder of von Wiese-Mack, 62, made headlines around the world.
She was a kindhearted woman with a sparkling smile and quick wit
She also loved her daughter, despite their often rocky relationship.
Sheila was filled with positive energy. This was a real life, not just a character.
She’s up in heaven and she can’t speak.
The siblings bowed their heads as autopsy photos of their sister’s bruised and battered face were flashed on a flat-screen.
Her life senselessly ended in the most horrific way possible.
Moments later, a federal judge sentenced him to 9 years in prison
for helping coach his cousin Tom to carry out the
sensational murder
in return for a share of her multimillion-dollar
estate.
Bali is a resort island.
Bali is a holiday island.
She is escorted by Immigration guard.
She (with her boyfriend) were convicted of killing her mother and
stuffing the body in a suitcase.
She was freed from prison on Friday.
She was handed a 10-year jail term in 2015.
Her boyfriend got
18 years for the murder of
Chicago socialite.
It was a notorious case.
He beat the 62-year-old victim to death with a fruit bowl
He beat her during a heated argument.
The suitcase contains a battered body.
The couple abandoned the suitcase in a taxi and fled.
She felt emotionally battered.
She was pregnant at the time of the crime.
Mack was found guilty on
a lesser charge of assisting
in the murder.
She has been granted early release for good behaviour.
Heather is completely free.
When she was released, she was a bit shocked and emotional.
She hesitated and was scared, but we cheered her up.
She wore sunglasses and an orange prison vest.
She was 19 at the time of her
conviction,
She was handed to immigration officials to await deportation back
to the United States.
Bali's immigration office
declined to comment on her case
They declined to say when she would be flown back home.
Her daughter is raised in a Bali foster home.
It was not immediately clear if Mack's now six-year-old daughter would
also be deported at the same time.
She did not want her daughter to be deported and "hounded by the
(US) media".
He is now fluent in Indonesian and Balinese.
Since the pandemic she has had only video contact with her daughter.
The 2014 murder shook
the usually sedate
holiday island,
with details of the grisly killing emerging during the closely followed
trial.
von Wiese Mack's badly beaten body was discovered in the taxi
outside the hotel.
She had been staying with her daughter and Schaefer.
The couple had fled to another part of Bali, where police arrested them.
Schaefer, who remained in prison,
He confessed
to the killing
during his trial but
He claimed he was defending himself during an argument with von Wiese
Mack,
She was unhappy that her daughter was pregnant.
Prosecutors alleged that Schaefer "blindly hit" von Wiese Mack
with the fruit bowl in a fit of rage
after she hurled
a racial slur at Schaefer, who is Black.
During the attack, Mack hid in a bathroom but
She later helped Schaefer stuff the body into a suitcase.
-0-
Heather Mack (center) of the US is escorted by Immigration guards
to the immigration detention house in Jimbaran, on the resort island
of Bali on October 29, 2021
An American woman convicted with her boyfriend of killing her mother and
stuffing the body in a suitcase at a luxury Bali hotel was freed from prison on
Friday.
In the notorious case, then teenager Heather Mack was handed a 10-year
jail term in 2015 while her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer got 18 years for the
murder of Chicago socialite Sheila von Wiese Mack on the Indonesian holiday
island.
Schaefer beat the 62-year-old victim to death with a fruit bowl during a
heated argument at the five-star St. Regis resort,
before the couple abandoned the suitcase containing the battered body in
a taxi and fled.
Mack, who was pregnant at the time of the crime, was found guilty on a
lesser charge of assisting in the murder.
Now 25, she was freed from Bali's Kerobokan prison on Friday, the head
of the prison's female section said,
saying Mack had been granted early release for good behaviour.
"Heather is completely free," said prison head Lili, who like
many Indonesians goes by one name.
"When she was released, she was a bit shocked and emotional.
She hesitated and was scared, but we cheered her up.
" Wearing sunglasses and an orange prison vest,
Mack, who was 19 at the time of her conviction,
was handed to immigration officials to await deportation back to the
United States.
Bali's immigration office declined to comment on her case
or say when she would be flown back home.
It was not immediately clear if Mack's now six-year-old daughter, who
was being raised in a Bali foster home,
would also be deported at the same time.
Earlier, Mack's lawyer told AFP that she did not want her daughter to be
deported and "hounded by the (US) media".
Since the pandemic, Mack -- now fluent in Indonesian and Balinese -- has
had only video contact with her daughter, the prison official said Friday.
The 2014 murder shook the usually sedate holiday island,
with details of the grisly killing emerging during the closely followed
trial.
The court heard how von Wiese Mack's badly beaten body was discovered in
the taxi outside the ritzy hotel where she had been staying with her daughter
and Schaefer.
The couple had fled to another part of Bali, where police arrested them.
Schaefer, who remained in prison, confessed to the killing during his
trial but claimed he was defending himself during an argument with von Wiese
Mack, who was unhappy that her daughter was pregnant.
Prosecutors alleged that Schaefer "blindly hit" von Wiese Mack
with the fruit bowl in a fit of rage
after she hurled a racial slur at Schaefer, who is Black.
During the attack, Mack hid in a bathroom but
later helped Schaefer stuff the body into a suitcase, the trial heard.
Tom
listens to the verdict at his trial in Bali.
His
politeness and expression of remorse during the trial led to a
lighter sentence
An
Indonesian court found
an American couple guilty
of premeditated murder and
A
court sentenced them to prison in the killing of the woman's mother on
the resort island of Bali.
The
District Court sentenced Tom to 18 years in prison and Mack to 10 years
for
killing Sheila while vacationing in August.
The
woman's badly battered body was found stuffed in a suitcase
The
suitcase was inside the trunk of a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort.
The three-judge
panel decided to be
lenient toward Mack, 19, because she recently gave birth.
Her newborn baby
badly needs a mother's love and breast-feeding.
The court ruled that
Schaefer, 21, was guilty of battering Mack to death in a hotel room
The court ruled that his
girlfriend had helped with the killing.
Both were tried
separately in the same court with the same judges and prosecutors.
They were arrested
a day after the body of von was found.
The couple have a
week to decide
whether to appeal the verdict.
Von Wiese-Mack
reportedly did not approve of the couple's relationship.
The charge of premeditated murder carries
a maximum penalty of death.
Prosecutors had sought
an 18-year jail term for Schaefer and a 15-year sentence for Mack.
Presiding Judge
Made Suweda described Schaefer's deeds as sadistic but
his politeness and
expression of remorse during the trial led to a lighter sentence.
Schaefer testified
at his trial that
von was angry
when she learned about her daughter's pregnancy and tried to strangle him,
prompting him to strike
her with a metal fruit bowl.
Mack helped
Schaefer stuff her mother's body into the suitcase by sitting on it to
enable Schaefer to close it.
They then placed
the suitcase in the trunk of the taxi and told the driver they were going to
check out of the hotel and would return, but they never did.
Mack and Schaefer plotted to kill
Mack's mother because she didn't
endorse their relationship,
Mack once proposed
that Schaefer hire a hit man for $50,000.
Von was the
widow of highly
regarded jazz and classical composer James,
who died in 2006 at
the age of 76.
She had prayed the
following:
"Dear God, I
know you don't hear from me quite often, and I sometimes have acted like a
jerk, but please have
mercy on my soul and that of my daughter Stella, as I
miss my mother and father so very much. Amen."
Source:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/interviews-with-bali-suitcase-killers-uncovers-disturbing-details-behind-the-gruesome-murder/FE4GXDF7O7RQWZOCGLT7SZWZAQ/
