Heather Mack pleads guilty to planning to kill her mom in Bali and leaving her body in suitcase
06/16/2023 12:37 pm PDT
CHICAGO (TCD) -- A 27-year-old woman who served time in prison abroad pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to conspiring to kill her mother while on vacation several years ago.
The Department of Justice announced June 16 that Heather Mack entered the plea for conspiracy to kill a U.S. national and faces up to 28 years in prison in connection with her mother Sheila von Wiese's death.
In August 2014, Mack and von Wiese traveled to Bali together for vacation. Mack used her mother's credit card to pay for her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, to fly to Indonesia and help her kill von Wiese. On Aug. 12, 2014, Schaefer went into von Wiese's hotel room and beat her to death in front of Mack. Then, they stuffed von Wiese's body in a suitcase and left it in a taxicab.
Mack and Schaefer went to trial in Indonesia and were convicted of charges relating to von Wiese's death. Mack was sentenced to 10 years in prison and served seven. Schaefer, however, is still incarcerated serving an 18-year sentence.
In November 2021, Mack returned to the United States and was subsequently arrested on charges of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a U.S. national, and obstruction. She could have faced up to life in prison for the first two charges if she went to trial and was convicted.
Schaefer faces the same charges out of the Northern District of Illinois.
Mack will be sentenced in December.
Be sure to check out the "Crime Watch Daily" episode about Heather Mack below.
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