American is freed after 11 years for Bali ‘suitcase murder,’ but a U.S. case awaits

Heather Mack, left, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer are seen on March 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia freed and deported an American man Tuesday after he spent 11 years in prison for the premeditated murder of his then-girlfriend’s mother on the island of Bali, but he’s still on the hook for federal charges back home.

Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, a wealthy Chicago socialite, during a luxury vacation. The case became known as the Bali “ suitcase murder ” because her battered body was found in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi at an upscale resort.

The couple was trying to gain access to a US$1.5 million trust fund, prosecutors have said, with Heather Mack covering her 62-year-old mother’s mouth while Schaefer bludgeoned her with a fruit bowl. Police in Bali arrested Mack, nearly 19 at the time and a few weeks pregnant, and the then-21-year-old Schaefer a day later.

Schaefer was deported Tuesday evening back to the United States from Bali International Airport after serving his sentence and receiving a number of remissions for good behavior, said Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Bali Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration, in a statement.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service, which transports federal prisoners, confirmed Schaefer was in custody and arrived in Illinois on Wednesday. The spokesperson said the FBI handled his movement.

Schaefer was scheduled to make an initial court appearance in Chicago on Thursday morning on federal charges of conspiracy to kill someone in a foreign country, conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with a victim.

Schaefer’s lawyer in the U.S. case, Chicago-based Thomas Durkin, died last year. Court records on Wednesday showed a new attorney, Matthew Madden, also of Chicago, is now representing him. Madden did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

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 the suitcase.

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Edna Tarigan, The Associated Press

Associated Press writer Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.