American who spent 11 years in jail for infamous “suitcase homicide” in Bali is freed and deported by Indonesia

Indonesia freed and deported an American man Tuesday after he spent 11 years in jail for the premeditated homicide of his then-girlfriend’s mom on the vacationer island of Bali.

Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in jail for the 2014 homicide of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, the mom of Heather Mack, throughout a luxurious trip in a case often known as the Bali “suitcase homicide.”

Schaefer was deported again to america from Bali Worldwide Airport on Tuesday night after serving his sentence and receiving plenty of remissions for good conduct, stated Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Bali Regional Workplace of the Directorate Normal of Immigration, in an announcement.

The badly battered physique of the 62-year-old von Wiese-Mack, a rich Chicago socialite, was discovered contained in the trunk of a taxi parked on the upscale St. Regis Bali Resort in August 2014.

Heather Mack, who was nearly 19 and some weeks pregnant on the time of the killing, and her then-21-year-old boyfriend, Schaefer, have been arrested on the island a day after the physique was discovered.

Mack served seven years of a 10-year jail sentence in Bali for serving to to kill her mom and was deported in October 2021.

She was additionally sentenced to 26 years in jail in Chicago in January 2024, after she pleaded responsible to serving to kill her mom and stuffing the physique in a suitcase throughout their trip, CBS Information Chicago reported.

“This was a brutal and premeditated crime,” U.S. District Choose Matthew Kennelly stated in handing down the sentence.  

Earlier than she was sentenced, Mack apologized for killing her mom, saying there was “No excuse for attempting to hurt her.”

Whereas her personal protection attorneys had argued Mack suffered emotional and bodily abuse from her mom for years earlier than the homicide, she stated, “It doesn’t matter what my relationship was with my mom.”

Prosecutors argued that Mack confirmed little regret for killing her mom, and has even sought to revenue from her crime by attempting to promote her story to the media.

“Mack’s revenue potential is kind of excessive. The story of her crime is world well-known, and he or she has seemingly already entered right into a media contract that’s anticipated to earn Mack a big amount of cash. The cash generated on account of this heinous crime ought to go to the sufferer’s property reasonably than the defendant,” prosecutors wrote of their sentencing suggestion.