A man from the United States has been freed from Indonesia and deported back home after he spent 11 years in prison for the premeditated murder of his then-girlfriend’s mother in Bali. However, the case is far from over and he is now facing federal charges in the US upon his return.
Tommy Schaefer was previously sentenced to 18 years in prison in Bali for the 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, who was the mother of Heather Mack, when they all went on a luxury holiday.
The case garnered international attention and became known as the “Bali suitcase murder.”
During the original trial, prosecutors claimed that Schaefer and Mack were trying to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund that would eventually be given to von Wiese-Mack’s daughter in small sums.
The Guardian reported that Schaefer was deported to the US from Bali on the evening of Tuesday, February 24, after he served his sentence and received several remissions for good behaviour, according to the head of the Bali regional office of the directorate general of immigration, Felucia Sengky Ratna.
Von Wiese-Mack, a wealthy Chicago socialite, was found dead at the age of 62 in August 2014. Her body was badly battered and was found in the trunk of a taxi that was parked at the St. Regis Bali resort.
Mack, who was about to turn 19 years old, and Schaefer, who was 21 at the time, were arrested on the island in connection to the murder one day after her body was discovered.
Mack, who was a few weeks pregnant at the time of her mother’s death and gave birth behind bars, served seven years of a 10-year prison sentence in Bali after she was found guilty of helping to kill her mother.
A 2017 indictment that was unsealed in 2021 charged both Schaefer and Mack with one count of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, one count of conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a US national and one count of obstruction, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.
Following Mack’s release, she was deported back to the US in October 2021 and was arrested when she arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
She later pleaded guilty to helping kill her mother and stuffing her body in a suitcase during a trial in the US. Mack was ultimately sentenced to serve 26 years in prison in Chicago in January 2024.
“This was a brutal and premeditated crime,” U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly said while giving Mack her sentence, per CBS News.
Before she received her sentence, Mack publicly apologized for killing her mother. She said that there was “no excuse for trying to harm her.”
As Schaefer heads back to the US, he is now facing federal charges of conspiracy to kill someone in a foreign country, conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with a victim.
Schaefer is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on the three counts in Chicago on the morning of Thursday, February 26.
