Who is “Suitcase Killer” Heather Mack and What did she do?

Heather Mack is an American heiress and criminal convicted of killing her mother Sheila von Wiese with her boyfriend while on vacation in Bali, Indonesia, in August 2014.

Mack had a volatile relationship with her mother, and the killing allegedly occurred during a heated early morning argument.  Her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer admitted to the killing and repeatedly hitting von Wiese-Mack with a metal fruit bowl during the couple’s trial.

Following the murder, the couple stuffed von Wiese-Mack’s body in a suitcase and fled the hotel hours later, placing the suitcase in the trunk of a taxi. When the driver noticed blood leaking from the luggage, he called the police.

Heather Mack.  CREDIT FIRDIA LISNAWATI/AP

They were reportedly facing execution by firing squad, but Mack was sentenced to ten years in prison and Schaefer to eighteen years. Mack was released early in 2021 for good behaviour after serving seven years of her 10-year prison sentence in Indonesia, according to Mack’s US-based attorney, Vanessa Favia.

She was deported back to the United States and arrested at a Chicago airport by the FBI. Her federal trial was set for July 20, 2023. Mack, on the other hand, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to murder a US national in June 2023. She faces up to 28 years in prison under the terms of her plea agreement.