In a significant development, Indonesia has released and deported an American man who served 11 years for the premeditated murder of his girlfriend’s mother on Bali, a case that drew international attention. Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years for the 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, known in media circles as the “suitcase murder” due to the grim discovery of her body.
The murder took place during what was supposed to be a luxury vacation on the famed tourist island. Schaefer’s release came after he received remissions for good behavior, and he was deported back to the United States from Bali International Airport on Tuesday evening. This was confirmed by Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Bali Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration, in an official statement.
The chilling crime scene was discovered when the 62-year-old von Wiese-Mack’s battered body was found inside a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi at the high-end St. Regis Bali Resort in August 2014. Her daughter, Heather Mack, who was nearly 19 at the time and pregnant, was involved in the crime alongside Schaefer, her then-boyfriend. The couple was apprehended the day after the body was found.
Heather Mack was sentenced to 10 years for her involvement in the murder and served seven years before being deported in October 2021. The case, particularly because of its violent nature and the socio-economic background of the victim, attracted widespread media coverage.
Heather Mack, who was almost 19 and a few weeks pregnant at the time of the killing, and her then-21-year-old boyfriend, Schaefer, were arrested on the island a day after the body was found.
Mack served seven years of a 10-year prison sentence in Bali for helping to kill her mother and was deported in October 2021.
She was also sentenced to 26 years in prison in Chicago in January 2024, after she pleaded guilty to helping kill her mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during their vacation.
