An American woman, Heather Mack, who had previously pleaded guilty to assisting in the killing of her mother and concealing her body in a suitcase during a vacation in Bali in 2014, has been sentenced to 26 years in prison after a hearing on Wednesday (Jan 17). This recent sentence comes several years after her initial conviction in Indonesia.
Heather Mack, now 28, had pleaded guilty to aiding her boyfriend in killing her mother, Sheila Wiese-Mack, in 2014. Her first conviction occurred in Indonesia in 2015, resulting in a 10-year prison sentence. However, she was released after six years. Following her return to the United States in 2021, she was arrested again and has spent the last two years in custody in Chicago, Illinois, awaiting trial.
In the recent sentencing on January 17, Judge Matthew Kennelly ruled that Mack would receive credit for the time she has served, effectively reducing her formal sentence to approximately 23 years. Federal prosecutors had recommended a 28-year prison term for Mack, who pleaded guilty to conspiring with her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, to kill her mother in order to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund.
The government’s recommendation included five years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and restitution of $262,708. According to prosecutors, Mack, who was 18 at the time of the murder and pregnant, covered her mother’s mouth while Schaefer attacked Wiese-Mack with a fruit bowl in a hotel room.
US agents arrested Mack and her then-six-year-old daughter upon their arrival at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2021. Last June, the 28-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to kill Wiese-Mack.
The sentencing hearing began with testimonies from Bill Wiese, Wiese-Mack’s brother and Mack’s uncle. Heather Mack was present in court wearing an orange jumpsuit, slip-on shoes, and glasses.
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