Heather Mack, together with her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were convicted in 2015 in the murder of her US socialite mother, Sheila Van Weise Mack, that occurred in a 5-star Nusa Dua Hotel in Bali.
The sensational case recounted how on 12 August 2014, the then-pregnant teenage Heather Mack and Schaefer murdered the elder Mack and unsuccessfully attempted to smuggle her body out of the hotel in a bloody suitcase. The couple then absconded, taking refuge in a Kuta Hotel until a massive police hunt led to their arrest. Under arrests, the couple tried to persuade investigators that terrorist intruders from a nearby beach murdered the elder Mack.
Bali courts bought the two to trial in a Denpasar courtroom, where Heather Mack was finally sentenced to prison for ten years. Later, she gave birth to a daughter who stayed with her in the Bali penitentiary until her second birthday, when she was surrendered to a local family in Bali for custodial care.
For time served and after deducting sentence reductions under Indonesian law, Mack was released from Kerobokan Prison on 29 October 2021 and immediately deported to the USA with her daughter.
Tommy Schaefer, the estranged boyfriend and Mack’s partner in crime, was sentenced in 2015 to 18 years in prison. At one point in the investigation, Schaefer said he was motivated to murder by wanting to become quickly rich. He remains imprisoned in Bali.
As the New York Times reports, Heather Mack, now 27, has struck a deal with US Federal Prosecutors, who had charged the woman with murder conspiracy. Mack entered a “guilty plea” before the US District Court in Illinois in connection with the death of her mother.
The woman found guilty of murder in Indonesia was initially charged with conspiring to kill, conspiring to kill a US national in a foreign country, and obstruction of justice in connection with her mother’s 2014 death in Bali. Due to a plea bargain, two charges were dropped, and Mack was convicted of conspiring to commit murder.
The maximum sentence for the crime to which Mack has entered a guilty plea carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Her lawyers are lobbying the Courts for a sentence of less than 28 years in prison.
Sentencing for Heather Mack will take place on 18 December 2023.
It is presumed that Heather Mack’s conviction of murder in both Indonesia and the US bars the woman from any share of the inheritance from the sizeable estate of her deceased mother.
It is unclear whether, when Tommy Shaeffer completes his Bali prison sentence and is deported from Indonesia, if US prosecutors will also place him under arrest.
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