Couple Accused Of ‘Suitcase Murder’ Await Verdict In Bali

Heather Mack, 19, of the United States looks on in jail after her verdict hearing on April 21, 2015 in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.

Photo by Agung Parameswara/Getty Images

Coverage of Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s murder and Heather Mack’s 2015 trial

In 2015, Heather Mack was tried in Indonesia for the murder of her mother, Chicago-area socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack. Von Wiese-Mack was found dead in Bali in 2014.

On Aug. 12, 2014, the body of Chicago-area socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack was discovered in a suitcase outside the St. Regis Bali Resort in Indonesia. Days later, her daughter Heather Mack, then 18, and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, then 21, were arrested and charged with her murder.

An autopsy found von Wiese-Mack, 62, died of asphyxiation from a broken nose bone resulting from a blunt blow, authorities said. She also had a broken neck.

Mack and Schaefer were detained in August 2014 and convicted in April 2015. Schafer received an 18-year sentence while Mack was sentenced to 10 years. While in prison, MAck gave birth to a baby girl.

Former neighbors described the relationship between von Wiese-Mack and her daughter as tense. And records show that Oak Park police were called to von Wiese-Mack’s former home in Oak Park 86 times since January 2004 for issues including domestic trouble, theft and missing-person reports, a village spokesman said.

The Chicago Sun-Times covered the 2014 murder and Mack’s trial in 2015 and interviewed her from her prison cell in Indonesia.

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August 14, 2014 07:46 PM