U.S. prosecutors in Chicago are seeking 28 years in prison and the maximum fine for a woman who brutally murdered her mother at a luxury Bali resort 10 years ago and served time in prison before pleading guilty to federal charges in Illinois. There is.
Heather Mack, 28, pleaded guilty in June to federal charges of conspiracy to commit murder of a U.S. citizen for killing her mother in 2014.
An Indonesian court has found Sheila von Wiese guilty of silencing Sheila von Wiese by her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer.
The two then stuffed her body into a bloody suitcase at the St. Regis Hotel and left her in a taxi.
American woman pleads guilty to murdering her mother during a trip to Bali by hiding her body in a suitcase
Heather Mack of Chicago is mobbed by reporters as she appears for her sentencing hearing at District Court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, on April 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, File)
“The murder of von Wiese at the hands of defendant and Schaefer was vicious,” federal prosecutors said in a sentencing memo earlier this week. “Evidence shows that von Wiese struggled to keep her alive, and this meant that in the final moments of her life, she blamed her daughter for her own death. It means that he realized that he was an only child.
“Mr. von Wiese feared that one day Mac would kill him. The physical and emotional pain that Mr. von Wiese endured in the final moments of his life was immeasurable.”
Mack's lawyer has proposed a maximum of 15 years in prison for jailing Mack in Indonesia, after co-conspirator Robert Bibbs was sentenced to nine years in prison for aiding and abetting the murder plot. He is asking for time served. .
Sheila von Wiese Mack's body was found stuffed into a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi in front of the five-star St. Regis Hotel on August 12, 2014. (Sonny Tamberaka/AFP via Getty Images)
Bali's 'suitcase killer' Heather Mack demands release and custody of her young daughter a year after returning to Chicago
Mr. Bibbs' cousin, Mr. Schaefer, is also accused of participating in the murder in order to get “rich” with money he thought he would inherit from Mr. von Wiese.
Prosecutors recovered text messages between Mack and Schaefer in which they planned the murder and fantasized about how the money would be spent.
Tommy Schaefer (left) and his girlfriend Heather Mack arrive at a courtroom in Denpasar on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali on February 2, 2015. (Reuters/Antara Photo/Nyoman Budhiana)
“I can't wait to get rich,” Schaefer wrote days before the murder. “I really can’t wait…I think I’m thinking about a luxurious lifestyle.”
“LOL,” Mac replied.
Read the government's sentencing memorandum against Heather Mack
Shortly before the murder, Mack texted Schaefer again, telling him:[g]According to court filings, he gave her a brief scare before bludgeoning her to death with a metal handle in her hotel room.
An autopsy found defensive wounds on Von Wiese's body and determined that she died from blunt force trauma that fractured her nose and jaw and obstructed her airway.
FBI arrests 'suitcase killer' Heather Mack at Chicago airport after returning from Bali
On August 13, 2014, during an investigation at a police station in the Indonesian resort island of Bali's Nusa Dua, police officers arrested Heather Mack, the suspect, after the battered body of an American tourist was discovered in a suitcase at a luxury hotel. 19) Escort. Bali, a resort island in Indonesia. (Sonny Tamberaka/AFP via Getty Images)
Prosecutors said the couple then hid the bloodstained sheets, replaced them with a clean set, stuffed Ms. von Wiese into a suitcase and threw her into the trunk of a taxi outside the hotel lobby.
When the taxi driver refused the fare, they left their suitcases in the trunk and went to another hotel, checking in under false names. Indonesian police arrested them the next morning.
A police officer escorts suspect Tommy Shafer (21 years old, right) during an investigation at a police station in Nusa Dua, Indonesia's resort island of Bali, on August 13, 2014. (Sonny Tamberaka/AFP via Getty Images)
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Mak was released after completing seven years of his 10-year sentence in Indonesia and was deported to the United States, where he was arrested by police upon arrival. Schaefer remains in prison overseas.
