Mack was charged with federal conspiracy charges for helping her boyfriend kill her mother during a 2014 luxury vacation
Heather Mack intends to plead guilty in the U.S. to federal conspiracy charges in connection to the high-profile 2014 death of her mother during a luxury vacation in Bali, her attorney said, according to reports.
Dubbed the “suitcase killer,” in 2015, Mack and her now-former boyfriend Tommy Schaefer were found guilty in Indonesia of killing her mother, 62-year-old Chicago socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack, at an upscale hotel in Bali in 2014.
The pair then stuffed her body into a suitcase they left in a taxi.
At the couple’s trial, Schaefer confessed to the killing and admitted to hitting von Wiese-Mack repeatedly with a metal fruit bowl.
Mack, who was pregnant with Schaefer’s baby during the 2015 trial, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for helping Schaefer kill her mother. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
In 2017, while Mack and Schaefer were still in prison in Indonesia, they were charged in U.S. Federal Court in Chicago with conspiring to kill Mack’s mother.
In 2021, after serving nearly seven years of her sentence, Mack was approved for early release from Indonesia’s Kerobokan Prison due to good behavior, Mack’s U.S.-based attorney, Vanessa Favia, told at the time. The BBC reports sentence reductions are common in Indonesia.
Mack was deported back to the U.S. in 2021. Accompanied by U.S. federal authorities, she and her daughter Stella flew back to Chicago.
Mack was arrested by the FBI when she returned home to the U.S. for the first time in seven years, the Associated Press reported. Her trial is scheduled to begin in August.
Her attorney, Michael Leonard, said her defense team has been in talks with federal prosecutors “over the last several weeks,” the Associated Press reports.
“We anticipate that the parties will be in a position to enter a written plea agreement, and proceed with a change of plea hearing on June 15,” Leonard said in an email to the Associated Press.
The New York Post also reported that she plans to plead guilty.
The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported that prosecutors said they believed Mack would plead guilty but were still negotiating with the defense team, according to the Associated Press.
Before Mack left Indonesia, her Indonesia-based attorney, Yulius Benyamin Seran told in an email that she was looking forward to returning home.
“Heather already completed her sentence and now starts her new life,” Seran wrote.
“She learned a lot about life inside prison and she will dedicate her life for her daughter Stella,” he wrote. “From Bali, I wish [the] Chicago government protects [the] innocent child Stella and guarantees Stella gets her right to …. normal life” like every child.
Cab Driver Notified Police of Grisly Discovery
At the couple’s trial in Indonesia, Schaefer confessed to the killing.
He claimed that when von Wiese-Mack found out Mack was pregnant, she became enraged and threatened to kill the couple’s unborn baby — and then tried to strangle him for nearly 30 seconds.
After the slaying, the couple stuffed von Wiese-Mack’s body in a suitcase and, hours later, placed the suitcase in the trunk of a taxi outside the St. Regis Bali Resort. Then, they fled.
The driver notified police after he spotted blood leaking from the luggage.
Mack’s Lawyer Says U.S. Charges Amount to ‘Double Jeopardy’
Mack gave birth to her daughter in 2015, while behind bars. The girl was allowed to live with Mack in prison until she turned 2. Mack turned Stella over to a woman living in Bali who befriended Mack after her arrest.
Mack’s longtime attorney Brian Claypool said in a statement to that he will argue that U.S. authorities “will be guilty of engineering a double jeopardy case” and plans to fight the charges.
He is also worried about Mack’s daughter, saying in the statement that he is “concerned that Stella will end up being a pawn in this international legal scandal.”
He said he will fight to avoid having Stella placed into the custody of Child Protective Services (CPS) instead of releasing her to the foster mother who cared for her while Mack was in prison.
The Chicago Tribune reports a Cook County probate judge issued an emergency order appointing family attorney Vanessa Favia as Stella’s temporary guardian.
The girl’s paternal grandmother, Kia Walker, wants guardianship of Stella, and will file a legal claim for custody, ABC 7 reports. The outlet reports Walker came to the airport hoping to see Stella, but the girl was whisked away from her.
Three-Count Federal Indictment
The federal indictment filed in 2017 charges Mack and Schaefer with three counts.
Besides being charged with conspiring to kill von Wiese-Mack, they face an obstruction of justice charge, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Associated Press report.
They are also charged with destroying, mutilating and concealing objectsto impair the availability for an official proceeding “by forcing the body of [von Wiese-Mack] into a suitcase after she had been killed and removing the suitcase from the place of the murder,” the Chicago Sun-Times and the Associated Press report.