Bali Family Crime

 

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/