Heather Mack issues new confession in mother's Bali murder, promptly recants

The Chicago Tribune reports that court records show 22-year-old Heather Mack won't receive “any property, benefit, or other interest” from Sheila von Wiese-Mack's estate.

Mack's daughter, Stella, will be the sole beneficiary of the estate. Other details of the settlement filed this month are confidential.

Stella was born in prison in March 2015, shortly before her mother and Tommy Schaefer were convicted in the killing of von Wiese-Mack.

Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison and Mack received a 10-year prison sentence. Authorities say Mack and Schaefer discussed killing von Weise-Mack in text messages.

An Australian woman in Bali has custody of Stella until Mack's release.

February 14, 2017:

A wild new twist in the highly publicized case of Heather Mack.

In a Crime Watch Daily exclusive, Heather made all kinds of accusations from behind bars about her mother. And now she's talking again -- and this so-called confession is the biggest one of them all.

It was one of the most sensational crimes we've ever covered: In our exclusive jailhouse interview with teen killer Heather Mack, she told us how her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned her mother, Sheila Von Wiese-Mack, to death in a Balinese hotel room before they both stuffed her body in a suitcase and dumped it in a taxi.

But now, in a stunning new update, Heather Mack is back with an all-new confession that she says changes everything we thought we knew about the crime.

In a three-part video posted to YouTube just days ago, Heather says not to listen to anything she said before. Before, Heather said the killing was more or less in self-defense. The evidence suggested she did it for the inheritance money. But now, Heather says the true motive was darker than anyone realized.

You heard right. Heather says her dad didn't die from a pulmonary embolism after all, but by her own mother's hand.

"Two weeks before I came to Bali I found out she killed my father and I made it up in my heart, in my mind, my soul, in my blood, in the oxygen running through my body, that I wanted to kill my mother," Heather says in the video.

But saying she only came up with the idea two weeks before the Bali trip contradicts these texts sent from Tommy to a Chicago cousin a full six months before the murder. But then when it comes to Tommy Schaefer, those texts, and so much more -- Heather Mack still has a lot to say.

Heather Mack is making some outrageous new claims from behind bars, dragging the name of the her mother Sheila through the mud.

In our first exclusive interview with the girl convicted of conspiring to kill her own mother with her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, Heather Mack said: "I miss my mother. Yeah. I miss my mother."

But in a video posted to YouTube just over a week ago, Heather says: "I don't regret killing my mother, as evil as that may sound, that's my reality."

Heather now claims her mom's murder was a revenge killing after, Heather says, Sheila killed Heather's dad, famed jazz composer James Mack, 10 years earlier.

"I got this whole new savage idea in my head that I wanted to kill her in a hotel room because she had killed my father in a hotel room," Heather says in the new videos.

Which is exactly what she did with the help of her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer. At least, that's what the record shows.

But Heather has something new to say about that, as well.

"Tommy is an innocent man. This is the truth and whoever is watching this, don't hate Tommy. He's innocent," Heather says in the videos. "I told Tommy he was going to come here for a vacation. He came to Bali, my mom found out, I killed her myself, and then I told Tommy that if he did not help me clean the room and get rid of the body that I would tell the police that he did it, I would pay money to get him arrested, so he helped me clean it. He ran with me.

"I began turning off Tommy's phone. Taking Tommy's phone when he was asleep starting in Chicago, taking Tommy's phone and having conversations between Tommy and myself. Texting myself, having fake conversations and then deleting them before he could see them."

But Tommy did confess to the murder in court, which Heather says was also her fault.

"We told Tommy together, my lawyers and I, that if he didn't take the blame in the court that he would get the death penalty, so he lied in the court because of me," Heathers says in the videos. "My motivation for doing this was myself ."

Ultimately, Tommy was given 18 years for the crime, while Heather received a 10.

"I am sorry Tommy Schaefer. I am sorry. I love you and I really love you and if I could go back I would do it myself and I am sorry that everyone whoever knew you now thinks you're a murderer when you're not. I am sorry you won't be able to get a job. I am sorry that everybody thinks you're some crazy killer. I love you Tommy," Heather says.

And that's where the video ends. But there seem to be several contradictions in Heather's latest claims, including when it comes to the man she now says is completely innocent. In a 4,000-word letter released to the media a few months ago, Tommy Schaefer calls Heather Mack a manipulative sociopath, and once again takes responsibility for his actions, writing:

So what do the people who knew Sheila von Weise-Mack best have to say about it all?

"I watched it several times in complete disbelief," said Sheila's friend Elliott Jacobson. "You know she's kind of a person who's a student of 'alternative facts.'"

And Heather's Aunt Debbi, Sheila's sister, has even more to say, especially when it comes to Heather's new claims about why she killed her own mom.

"Oh gosh, it's such an appalling, vicious lie," said Debbi Curran. "My sister loved her husband Jim, and she would never have done anything to hurt him. It's just a vicious, cruel, mean, cold-blooded lie."

Why would Heather lie now about Tommy's involvement when she got a lesser sentence than Tommy?

"I don't know. I really don't understand at all," said Curran. "It makes no sense whatsoever."

"She might have done this videotape in order to get back in the spotlight and get some more media attention," said Jacobson.

But could there be an even more outrageous explanation?

Her attorneys say every bit of the so-called confession, from taking responsibility for the murder to threatening Tommy with the death penalty, was coerced. In fact, they say it was written by none other than Tommy Schaefer himself, who forced Heather to read it on camera.

"I don't know if they're getting bored in prison and they have to decide to do something else, but yeah, I don't understand it at all," said Debbi Curran.

In fact, there are only a few things the people who loved Sheila say they do understand, what they know to be true.

"The family lost a sister and a niece, essentially. This woman is just lost, she's lost and I think she's just a mistake in nature," said Elliot Jacobson.

"The plan was to kill her mother, and they succeeded," said Debbi Curran. "Sheila was beaten to death, brutally beaten to death, and stuffed into a suitcase. That's the only sure thing we know."

From the Heather Mack YouTube channel: