Heather Mack now: How long heiress was jailed for murdering mother Sheila von Wiese ...Middle East

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A holiday in the idyllic surroundings of Bali was supposed to be a chance for a mother and daughter to reconnect after a troubled period but the trip turned into a deadly nightmare.

Wealthy widow Sheila von Wiese-Mack was brutally murdered and her body discovered in a suitcase inside the boot of a taxi.

Channel 5 documentary Killed by My Daughter: Murder in Paradise, which airs on Tuesday 22 April at 10pm, recounts the horrific case.

Police in Bali launched a murder investigation and the hunt began for Ms von Wises-Mack’s 18-year-old daughter Heather Mack and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer.

Sheila von Wiese grew up in suburban Detroit before moving to Milwaukee with her siblings.

A studious pupil at school who loved books, she would go on to study at college earning degrees in business and social work.

In the early 90s, she met and married composer and arranger James Mack

A music producer for such labels as Capitol, Columbia and Motown, Mr Mack was professor emeritus of music for the City Colleges in Chicago, had been a guest conductor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Ravinia Benefit and served as head of the Chicago chapter of the Grammy Awards.

He had been married twice before and had five children from those relationships. The couple went on to have a daughter Lois Heather Mack, known as Heather, in 1995.

Ms von Wiese-Mack was 43 at the time and her husband was 66.

In 2006, Mr Mack died while the family were on holiday in Greece and Ms von Wiese -Mack was left to bring up their then 10-year-old daughter alone.

Tommy Schaefer and Heather Mack in police custody in Indonesia ((Photo: Getty)

Why did Heather Mack kill her mother?

The relationship between Ms von Wiese-Mack and her daughter became strained after the death of James Mack.

Heather dropped out of high school two years early and stayed in two different facilities for juveniles with mental health problems.

Friends and neighbours said Ms von Wiese-Mack appeared to become overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for her troubled daughter.

The family lived in the Oak Park district of Chicago and between 2004 and 2013 the police said they made 86 calls to the home ranging from theft and 911 hang-ups to missing person and domestic violence.

Juvenile records obtained by the Chicago Tribune revealed Heather Mack was arrested in December 2011 on domestic battery, aggravated battery and battery charges involving violence against her mother.

She was found guilty of battery and ordered to attend mandatory counselling.

While Heather was at high school, she began dating Tommy Schaefer an unemployed rapper also known as Tommy EXX.

Ms von Wiese-Mack did not approve of this relationship and moved the family to another part of Chicago.

However, the relationship continued and Heather is understood to have had two abortions.

In August 2014, mother and daughter went on a luxury holiday to Bali, staying at the St Regis Hotel in Nusa Dua. At the time, they were reported to be awaiting blood test results to confirm if 18-year-old Heather was pregnant again.

While they were staying there, Tommy Schaefer turned up at the hotel. He and Ms von Wiese-Mack were seen on CCTV footage arguing in the lobby of the hotel on the day he arrived on 7 August.

On the evening of 12 August, Schaefer and Heather Mack killed the 62-year-old in the hotel room.

Mack is reported to have held a hand over her mother’s mouth while Schaefer hit her over the head with a metal fruit bowl.

The couple then stuffed her body into a suitcase and left it in the boot of a taxi before they fled.

When Ms von Wiese-Mack’s body was later found inside the suitcase, police began searching for Mack and boyfriend Schaefer and found them in a nearby hotel.

Both were arrested in connection with the killing.

On 19 September 2014, Schaefer admitted to killing Ms von Wiese-Mack and and Heather admitted to helping him stuff the body into the suitcase.

They were both charged with premeditated murder on 14 January 2015.

Schaefer claimed he had killed Ms Von Wiese-Mack after she had threatened to kill their unborn baby.

In April 2015, Mack was sentenced to 10 years in prison for being an accessory to murder and Schaefer was given an 18-year sentence for the murder.

Judges said during sentencing they had shown leniency to Mack because she had given birth to a baby daughter while in custody.

Heather Mack served seven years of her 10-year Indonesian sentence and then returned with her now six-year-old daughter to the USA.

However, she was arrested the moment she arrived back in the United States in 2021 for conspiring to kill Ms von Wiese-Mack.

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In September 2015, Schaefer’s cousin Robert Bibbs had been arrested in Chicago in connection with conspiracy to murder.

It emerged he had advised Schaefer how to kill Ms von Wiese-Mack, after Mack had offered her boyfriend $50,000 to kill her mother in a bid to get access to her £1.5m trust fund.

Bibbs was sentenced to nine years in prison on 2 June 2017, on one count of conspiracy to commit foreign murder.

As a result Mack was immediately held in custody when she set foot on US soil and then charged with conspiracy to kill.

She was due to stand trial in July 2023 but in June of that year she pleaded guilty and was finally sentenced in January 2024 to 26 years imprisonment.

Schaefer continues to serve his 18-year sentence in Indonesia but faces a similar charge to Mack when he returns to the US.

Their daughter Stella has now been placed with a relative after a custody battle.

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