Seven months pregnant this teenager may face the death penalty if convicted of the horrific bashing murder of her own mother.
They have been labeled the “Bali suitcase murders”.
An American teenager and her boyfriend accused of the brutal bashing and murder of Sheila von Wiese Mack – a Chicago “socialite”.
The accused – Sheila’s 19-year old daughter, Heather Mack and her boyfriend 21-year old boyfriend Tommy Schaefer have appeared in court in Bali charged with premeditated murder.
All allegedly because her mother did not approve of her boyfriend.
Now seven-months pregnant Heather Mack was informed of the charges before a packed court overnight, her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer appearing separately but in front of the same judge.
She and her boyfriend are accused of murdering Heather’s mother and stuffing her body in a suitcase before trying to leave it in the boot of a taxi and flee Bali where they had been holidaying together.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the family had a history of ongoing tensions, with Heather Mack at one point asking her boyfriend to find a hit man willing to kill her mother in the United States for $50,000.
Prosecutors say that the couple had allegedly schemed to kill Sheila Von Wiese-Mack before with one plot they came up with to suffocate her with a pillow and another to making the death appear like a suicide by the beach.
However last August while on holiday in Bali the ongoing troubles came to a head.
The couple were arrested on August 13, a day after von Wiese-Mack’s body was found in a suitcase in the boot of a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort.
According to NBC, police allege that Heather Mack and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer – a self-described ‘rap artist’ – hired a taxi and placed a suitcase inside the car’s boot.
They allegedly told the taxi driver that they were going to check out of the hotel and would return.
After two hours when Ms Mack and Mr Schaefer had not reappeared hotel security guards investigated – and found blood spots on the suitcase.
The driver took the suitcase to police who found the body of Ms Von Weise-Mack inside. She appeared to have been bashed her bloodied body shoved into the case.
Police say the couple then used the dead woman’s credit card to pay for their room at another hotel where they fled. They were arrested at the Kuta hotel.
The teenager, from Chicago has claimed she is innocent – saying at one stage that three men wearing masks burst into her mother’s room at the resort and attacked her, and now allegedly saying she had no part in the beating.
In an indictment, prosecutors claim that it was Schaefer who struck von Wiese-Mack repeatedly with the iron handle of a fruit bowl.
It is alleged that things got out of hand when Heather’s mother found out Schaefer was in Bali. She hadn’t known that her daughter’s boyfriend was joining them on their trip.
Mack had quietly booked another hotel room for her boyfriend under her mother’s name, according to AP and he had flown to Indonesia on his own several days after they arrived.
It is reported that at about 3 a.m Shiela von Wiese-Mack realised her daughter was not in their room, and went looking for her.
The on-duty manager in the hotel told her that she was actually paying for two rooms and that her daughter might be in the second room with her boyfriend.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that during a heated argument in the lobby Sheila exclaimed, “So Tommy Schaefer the thief is here?”
Mack later returned to the room she shared with her mother, prosecutors told the court, as von Wiese-Mack argued with Schaefer via text message.
Later that morning the fighting began again, this time between Schaefer and von Wiese-Mack.
A racial slur was used , The Sydney Morning Herald saying von Wiese- Mack screamed at Schaefer
that he was “just a nigger”.
Prosecutors say that Schaefer returned to his room and came back with a fruit bowl, beating Sheila von Wiese-Mack repeatedly with it.
The brutal slaying complete the couple then conspired to hide the body and flee Indonesia.
Lawyers for Heather however say that the murder was not premeditated and that Heather hid in the bathroom, terrified while the attack took place.
She claims she helped hide her mother’s body because he was the father of her unborn baby and she owed him her loyalty.
The trial continues on January 21. If convicted they could face the firing squad.
Top Comments
Presumably they're claiming the murdered woman called him a nigger to elicit sympathy and understanding for his anger?
Well, I call BS. No one else heard that - it's only the testimony of the accused.
...And what race did she think her daughter was? She wouldn't have said that!
"At 8.30am Schaefer rang the bell of the room. The couple hugged and started talking, waking Ms Von Wiese Mack.
The court heard a fight ensued with Ms Von Wiese Mack screaming at Schaefer that he was "just a nigger". Although initially laughing off the insult, Schaefer then allegedly grabbed the handle of the fruit bowl and swung it at his girlfriend's mother.
The court heard Heather Mack ran to the bathroom but Schaefer continued raining blows on Ms Von Wiese Mack until she stopped moving.
Schaefer called out for Heather Mack to come out from the bathroom. The couple allegedly hugged and Schaefer said: "Sheila is dead".
The court heard they stuffed Ms Von Wiese Mack's body into the suitcase. Heather Mack sat on the suitcase so her boyfriend could close it." (SMH link in article)
Wonder if they'd let her have this baby first before execution? Surely they won't shoot a pregnant woman.Then who gets to raise the child?
She hasn't even gone on trial yet, these things take forever. The two Bali 9 members who were sentenced to death still haven't been executed and that happened in 2005. From memory the girl can keep the infant in jail with her. Not sure for how long though.