An American heiress dubbed the ‘suitcase killer’ after helping kill her mother and stuffing her body in luggage on a luxury Bali vacation almost a decade ago has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Heather Mack, 29, heard heartbreaking victim impact statements before hearing her sentence in an Illinois court Wednesday, where she was branded a ‘monster.’
Prosecutors had sought a full 28-year prison sentence, after Mack’s crimes shocked the nation in 2014 when she conspired to kill her wealthy mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, with her boyfriend, Tommy Shaefer.
Mack previously pleaded guilty to the murder in Indonesia in 2015 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison before her early release in 2021. Immediately after returning to the US, she was arrested again and charged with conspiracy to kill a US national and obstruction of justice.
Alongside her 26-year sentence, Wednesday’s hearing also ruled over the restitution of $262,708.
Heather Mack, 29, was sentenced on Wednesday to 26 years prison for conspiring to kill her mother in Bali in 2014
Mack and her former boyfriend 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
Mack’s wealthy mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack – married to composer late James L. Mack, who died during a family trip in 2006 – was killed, stuffed in a suitcase and left in a taxi in 2014.
The heiress was in line to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund upon her mother’s death, and prosecutors said Mack and Shaefer plotted her murder for months so they could start a life together.
She pleaded guilty last June to one count of conspiring to kill Wiese-Mack with Shaefer, with prosecutors arguing that Mack, then 18 and pregnant, covered her mother’s mouth in a hotel room while Schaefer bludgeoned her with a fruit bowl.
When Mack and Shaefer tried to put the suitcase into the taxi, they fled when the driver suspected something was wrong, and were both arrested shortly afterward at a nearby budget hotel.
Schaefer was convicted of murder and remains in Indonesia, where he is serving an 18-year sentence.
At her sentencing on Wednesday, Weise-Mack’s brother Bill Weise said in his victim impact statement that Mack’s ‘brutal actions’ were ‘morally reprehensible’, and her decisions after the crime were ‘sickening.’
Feeling that she is a ‘monster and a selfish person,’ Weise said Mack is ‘so accustomed to lying that she doesn’t even know what is true.’
‘Heather is a master manipulator. She always knows exactly what she is doing,’ she added, reports Chicago Sun-Times court reporter Jon Seidel.
Pregnant at the time of her mother’s murder, Mack gave birth to a daughter, Stella, while serving her prison sentence in Indonesia. Weiss pleaded in court for her to ‘never be allowed to parent Stella’, who is now eight years old.
A statement was read on behalf of Stella’s legal guardian, Lisa Hellmann, during the sentencing, where she claimed Mack ‘knowingly and willingly put her daughter into exploitative situations time and time again for monetary gain, without regard to the detrimental consequences such actions could have on Stella.’
She added ‘Stella does not want to speak with her mother’, and ‘does not want to be raised by Heather. She has vocalized this to her therapist multiple times.’
Mack’s son Stella – whom she birthed serving her overseas sentence in Indonesian prison – is pictured here with her father, Tommy Schaefer. At Mack’s sentencing on Wednesday, it was heard that Stella, now 8, ‘does not want to speak with her mother’, and ‘does not want to be raised by Heather. She has vocalized this to her therapist multiple times’
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
Much of Wednesday’s hearing centered over whether Mack deserves credit on her sentence for the six years she served in Indonesia.
Mack’s attorneys argued against the prosecutors’ wishes of a 28-year stretch and pleaded for a reduced sentence, and sought a 15-year prison term.
Her lawyer, Jeffrey Steinback, insisted that Mack was the victim of abuse at the hands of her mother, and was coerced into killing her mother by Shaefer.
However, Mack seemed to dismiss these arguments as she spoke at the end of her sentencing hearing, saying her turbulent relationship with her mother was ‘no excuse.;
‘I’m responsible for my decisions,’ she said. ‘I made my decision. I can’t sit here and blame them for those decisions.’
‘There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her. I miss her smile. Her ‘I love yous’ and mostly her holding me.’
Before her speech, several people raised allegations of a racist and unhappy home in Mack’s household prior to her killing her mother.
Onita Mack, the sister of Heather’s renowned composer father James, said Wiese-Mack didn’t want black people inside their home.
She added that the ‘abuse of isolation and cutting people off from the family is a real one. And Shiela did that.’
A counselor detailed a therapy session between the mother and daughter where she asked Wiese-Mack to write down positive thing she could think of about her daughter.
She claimed her response was to brand Mack a ‘dirty wh***’ and used a racial slur.
Attorneys for both sides doubled down on allegations over Mack’s turbulent relationship with her mother, with a prosecutor noting that Mack told investigators her mother was trying to arrange for her to marry a much older man.
Mack’s lawyer Michael Leonard said Mack, 18 at the time, was introduced to a 36-year-old man her mother wanted her to accept marriage too, adding: ‘She was groomed.’
Despite the troubled relationship, prosecutors argued there was no excuse for the brutal nature of her mother’s death.
Prosecutor Frank Rangoussis said: ‘Ms. von Wiese died a painful death. She suffocated after repeated blows to her face fractured her nasal bone and her jaw bone, resulting in an obstructed airway.’
He added that she died ‘inhaling her own blood.’
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 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 her daughter now lives with her mother’s relative
The defense asked for a sentence that would have included credit for the seven years she spent in an Indonesian prison, alongside two years credit for the time she spent in custody in Chicago since her return to the US.
But Weise argued Mack shouldn’t receive credit or leniency for admitting guilt now, after previously offering varying explanations and excuses for her mother’s death.
The case gained international attention in part because of photographs of the suitcase Wiese-Mack was placed in, which seemed too small to hold an adult woman’s body.
The government is also seeking five years of supervised release for the 28-year-old – who has already pleaded guilty – as well as a $250,000 fine and restitution of $262,708.
Weiss claimed that Mack was able to access part of her mother’s trust fund in prison and was able to pay for protection in, part of the reason he felt she shouldn’t receive credit for her time served there.
He also asked for restitution to make up for ‘a portion of the $150,000 that Heather used to bribe prison officials.’
Next to speak was Lindsay Lococo, reading a statement on behalf of Weise-Mack’s sister Debbi Curran, who said Mack should ‘never ever see the light of day again.’
She said that Curran sees flashes of ‘horrific images’ in her mind ‘whenever I travel or simply see a suitcase’, which are ‘impossible to erase during the day or night.’