Tommy Schaefer during his 2015 trial for the murder of his then girlfriend’s mother in Indonesia. Photograph: Firdia Lisnawati/APView image in fullscreenTommy Schaefer during his 2015 trial for the murder of his then girlfriend’s mother in Indonesia. Photograph: Firdia Lisnawati/APBaliUS man deported from Bali after 11 years in prison for ‘suitcase murder’ of then girlfriend’s motherTommy Schaefer released early from sentence for murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack and will face US federal charges
Prefer the Guardian on GoogleIndonesia has freed and deported a US man after he spent 11 years in prison for the premeditated murder of his then girlfriend’s mother on the tourist island of Bali, and he will now faces federal charges in the US.
Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison in Bali for the 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, the mother of Heather Mack, during a luxury holiday, in a case that became known as the Bali suitcase murder. Prosecutors allege the couple were trying to gain access to a $1.5m (£1.1m) trust fund.
Schafer was deported to the US from Bali on Tuesday evening after serving his sentence and receiving a number of remissions for good behaviour, according to a statement from Felucia Sengky Ratna, the head of the Bali regional office of the directorate general of immigration.
View image in fullscreenTommy Schaefer and Heather Mack during their trial in 2015. Mack served seven years of a 10-year sentence and was deported to the US in 2021. Photograph: Firdia Lisnawati/APThe badly battered body of von Wiese-Mack, a 62-year-old wealthy Chicago socialite, was found in the boot of a taxi parked at the upmarket St Regis Bali resort in August 2014.
Mack, who was almost 19 and a few weeks pregnant at the time of the killing, and Schaefer, 21 at the time, were arrested on the island a day after the body was found.
Mack served seven years of a 10-year prison sentence in Bali for helping to kill her mother and was deported in October 2021. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison in Chicago in January 2024 after she pleaded guilty to helping kill her mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase.
Schaefer faces federal charges in the US of conspiracy to kill someone in a foreign country, conspiracy to commit murder, and tampering with a victim. He is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on those counts in Chicago on Thursday morning.
