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An individual from Chicago, previously found guilty in the notorious 2014 Bali suitcase murder case involving his girlfriend’s mother, has been apprehended mid-flight to the United States. He now faces serious federal charges of murder conspiracy.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Tommy Schaefer, aged 32, from Chicago, is under a three-count indictment issued by the Northern District of Illinois. The charges against him include conspiring to commit murder in a foreign land, plotting the foreign murder of a U.S. citizen, and obstruction of justice.
According to the prosecution, Schaefer collaborated with his girlfriend, Heather Mack, in the murder of her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, during a 2014 trip to Bali, Indonesia.
Legal documents reveal that Mack orchestrated Schaefer’s journey to Bali as part of their scheme. In the lead-up to the crime, Schaefer was in communication with his cousin, Ryan Bibbs, discussing the logistics of the planned murder.
The case of Tommy Schaefer, alongside Heather Mack, gained infamy after the body of Mack’s mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, was discovered stuffed in a suitcase in Bali. (Photo Credit: Firdia Lisnawati, File/AP Photo)
Bibbs pleaded guilty in December 2016 to conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a U.S. national after admitting he advised Schaefer on the killing. Court records show Mack also asked Bibbs whether he knew someone who would murder her mother for money.
Authorities allege Schaefer and Mack discussed the timing and details of the killing before carrying it out on Aug. 12, 2014, inside von Wiese-Mack’s hotel room. Afterward, investigators say they concealed her body in a suitcase and placed it in the trunk of a taxi.
In this April 21, 2015, photo, Heather Mack of Chicago, Ill., center, is mobbed by reporters as he arrives in the courtroom for her sentencing hearing at a district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, File)
Prosecutors have said the motive was financial, alleging the couple sought access to a $1.5 million trust fund, according to The Associated Press. In August 2014, von Wiese-Mack’s body was discovered inside a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi parked at the St. Regis Bali Resort.
Mack was 19 and several weeks pregnant at the time of the killing, while Schaefer was 21, the AP reported. Prosecutors said Mack covered her mother’s mouth as Schaefer struck her with a fruit bowl. The pair were arrested the day after the body was discovered.
In this March 12, 2015, photo, Heather Mack, left, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, both from Chicago, Ill., who are accused of murdering Mack’s mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack whose body was later found in a suitcase, enter the court room prior to the start of their trial hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. (Firdia Lisnawati, File/AP Photo)
The following year, both were convicted in Indonesia in connection with the murder. Mack received a 10-year prison sentence. After her release and return to the United States, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill a U.S. national and was sentenced in June 2023 to 26 years in federal prison.
Schaefer was sentenced in Indonesia to 18 years in prison. He was returned to the United States after completing his term, which Indonesian officials reduced through remissions and good behavior credits.
If convicted on the federal charges, Schaefer faces up to life in prison on the first two counts, up to 20 years on the obstruction charge and fines of up to $250,000.
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