‘Suitcase Killer’ Heather Mack reveals she will plead guilty to mom’s murder

‘Suitcase Killer’ Heather Mack has revealed she plans to plead guilty to her part in the 2014 murder of her socialite mother – after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence overseas for the brutal slaying.

Offered up by the 27-year-old heiress herself, the new detail is the latest development in the nearly decade-old case, and comes almost two years after Mack was arrested upon her return to her native Chicago from an Indonesian prison.

Mack’s wealthy mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack – married to the late James L. Mack, a renowned composer who died during a family trip to Greece in 2006 – was killed and stuffed in a suitcase before being left in a taxi on the island of Bali in 2014. 

Mack and her then-boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were later convicted of the crime in Indonesia – with Schaefer’s cousin Robert Bibbs sentenced to nine years in US prison for advising Mack and Schaefer about how to kill von Weise-Mack. 

Their apparent motive was money, hoping Mack would inherit the millions her already well-off mother had come into after the death of her husband. 

In an interview Wednesday, heiriess-turned killer Heather Mack – seen here with prison-born child Stella in 2015 – laid bare plans to strike a deal with prosecutors ahead of her August trial in the US. She has already served seven years overseas for the 2014 slaying

Mack with mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack

Police examine the suitcase which contained the body of an American tourist in Bali, Indonesia in 2014

Mack and her former boyfriend – Stella’s dad – were convicted in 2015 of plotting together to kill Mack’s mom, socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack (with her left,) at a luxury resort on Bali during a family trip, and then stuffing her body in a suitcase (right)

Currently in Indonesian prison on an 18-year bid, Tommy Schaefer shares a child with Mack - born after the pair were convicted in 2015 - and was the one to brutally beat von Wiese-Mack to death with a metal bowl in a bid to get a hold of her millions

Currently in Indonesian prison on an 18-year bid, Tommy Schaefer shares a child with Mack – born after the pair were convicted in 2015 – and was the one to brutally beat von Wiese-Mack to death with a metal bowl in a bid to get a hold of her millions

Currently in Indonesian prison on an 18-year bid, Schaefer shares a child with Mack – born after the pair were convicted in 2015. Speaking to The New York Post, Mack laid bare her plans to strike a deal with prosecutors ahead of her trial in the US. 

‘We were offered a good plea. First, it was 15 to 35 [years]; now they are saying zero to 25 years, including time served,’ Mack, who was also sentenced in Indonesia s but was released early for good behavior, told the paper Wednesday.

‘I have served nearly ten years in prison. I felt that I had done my time, so I was gung-ho for trial,’ the convicted criminal added of her decision.

‘Now, after sitting for so long, I know what I have to do.’

Mack’s attorney Michael Leonard agreed with his high-profile client’s assessment, but conceded that he is unsure how severe a sentence Mack – whose seven-year-old Stella is current in the custody of her cousin – will be handed come August.

‘The hope is that the judge will seriously consider the time she has already served and all the underlying circumstances of her life and her relationship with her mom,’ Leonard said.

‘Any federal criminal case requires a constant reassessment of risk and reward. Balancing risk in terms of a potential sentence and trying to minimize the risk to yourself.’ 

This uncertainty, the lawyer said, is still preferable to taking a chance of fighting the case in court – after prosecutors presented texts that showed how Schaefer encouraged Mack to suffocate her mom in her sleep during what was meant to be a relaxing Indonesia vacation – a task she could not bring herself to go through with.

In previous statements to the court, Mack claimed she hid in a bathroom a few days later at Bali’s Regis hotel, as Schaefer bludgeoned her mom to death with a fruit bowl.

Until now, she pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and obstruction of justice, but has a change of plea hearing scheduled for June 15.

Mack's wealthy mother, von Wiese-Mack - married to the late James L. Mack, a renowned composer - was killed and stuffed in a suitcase by the pair before being left in a taxi on the island of Bali in 2014. The couple were then discovered and arrested

Mack’s wealthy mother, von Wiese-Mack – married to the late James L. Mack, a renowned composer – was killed and stuffed in a suitcase by the pair before being left in a taxi on the island of Bali in 2014. The couple were then discovered and arrested

Mack is seen inside an immigration car after being released from Kerobokan Prison in Bali, Indonesia on October 29. She was released 34 months early for good behavior after being found guilty of plotting to kill von WIese-Mack

Mack is seen inside an immigration car after being released from Kerobokan Prison in Bali, Indonesia on October 29. She was released 34 months early for good behavior after being found guilty of plotting to kill von WIese-Mack

Less than a week after she was freed from Bali on good beahvior, Mack was nabbed on a three-charge federal indictment after landing at Chicago O'Hare Airport on November 3.  Mack was accompanied by the six-year-old prison-born daughter at the time

Less than a week after she was freed from Bali on good beahvior, Mack was nabbed on a three-charge federal indictment after landing at Chicago O’Hare Airport on November 3.  Mack was accompanied by the six-year-old prison-born daughter at the time

Mack gave birth to daughter Stella during the couple's 2015 trial in Indonesia. She was allowed to live with the child during her incarceration overseas, but she now lives with her mother's relative

Mack gave birth to daughter Stella during the couple’s 2015 trial in Indonesia. She was allowed to live with the child during her incarceration overseas, but she now lives with her mother’s relative

Her trial is set to commence on August 1 in Chicago, nearly ten years after the case first grabbed headlines due to Mack’s plotting to kill von Wiese-Mack – and her subsequent stuffing her body in a suitcase she and her beau left in the trunk of a taxi.   

Mack was eighteen and pregnant at the time, and prosecutors contend she helped him cram the body into the case and wheel it downstairs where they hailed a cab and loaded it into the trunk. 

The pair ran away when the driver became suspicious something foul was afoot, and were arrested shortly afterward at a nearby budget hotel and put on trial.

Both were convicted the next year, as US prosecutors filed their own case that accused Mack of conspiring with Schaefer prior to their Bali trip, stealing her mom’s credit card and using it to fly him out in a $12,000 business class seat.

In text messages presented during those proceesings, Schaefer urged his teen lover to suffocate von Wiese-Mack so they could claim her estate, which he believed was worth up to $11million.

He ended up doing the job himself – in gruesome fashion – battering the political strategist with the  metal bowl until she suffocated on her own blood after sustaining a broken nose.

Schaefer later testified that Sheila had racially abused him and tried to strangle him during an argument about the pregnancy.

In reality, the besotted lovers had plotted to kill her for months and had already tried but failed to kill her by overdose, prosecutors were able to prove.

Speaking to the Post Wednesday 20 months after she was cuffed by federal agents in front of her daughter after stepping off the plane at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, Mack explained how she looked forward to assimilating into society after serving the duration of her US sentence.

‘I’m going to be a felon in America, and that is fine. I understand from [the US government’s] perspective that, if I don’t plead guilty and they didn’t indict me, I wouldn’t be a felon. I could become a police officer and work for the government.’

She even added: ‘I could carry a firearm on the street.’

A younger Stella is pictured here with her father, Tommy Schaefer. Mack said Stella, now seven, does not know why both her mother and father are imprisoned, and she wants to keep it that way

A younger Stella is pictured here with her father, Tommy Schaefer. Mack said Stella, now seven, does not know why both her mother and father are imprisoned, and she wants to keep it that way

Mack is pictured shortly after her release from a Bali prison in October

Mack is pictured shortly after her release from a Bali prison in October

Mack and baby Stella

Heather Mack and Tommy Schaefer were in Bali when they murdered Heather's mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack in a hotel room

Mack was pregnant at the time of the murder and delivered her daughter, Stella (pictured together, left), in prison. Mack’s then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer (pictured holding Stella, right), who is also the father of her child, is serving an 18-year sentence for murder 

 Mack faces two counts of conspiring to kill her mother, as well as a third count of corruptly destroying, mutilating, and concealing evidence – a charge incurred for ‘forcing the body of Sheila A. von Wiese into a suitcase,’ accoding to prosecutors.

Von Wiese-Mack’s siblings have testified that they feared for their safety if Mack should be released, after attorneys claimed Mack was coerced into the murder plot to be free of her mother’s control.

Prior to her mother’s death, Mack reportedly had a fraught and often violent relationship with her mother. According to the Associated Press, police responded many times to the family’s Oak Park, Illinois house.

Hotel cameras show the three arguing in the lobby of the St. Regis on August 12, 2014, the night he arrived. 

Stella, meanwhile, lives in Colorado with Lisa Hellman, a teacher who is the niece of the late von Wiese. 

Under Indonesian law, Stella was allowed to live with her mother in her cell until she turned two when Mack gave custody of her to Australian native Suartama, whom she befriended during her trial.

Behind bars in Bali, Mack – who enjoyed a privileged upbringing in Chicago’s upscale Oak Park suburb, growing up in a $1.5m mansion -was said to have left her life of crime behind, going to church, organizing fashion shows and teaching other inmates to dance.

In her a 2019 interview with DailyMail.com she said felt ‘more Indonesian than American’, could speak their language and had no desire to return to the US.

‘My daughter is more Indonesian than American. She has a good life here,’ Mack said.  

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