JAKARTA, Indonesia (Journos News) – An American man convicted in Indonesia over the 2014 killing of his girlfriend’s mother on the resort island of Bali has been released after serving 11 years in prison and deported to the United States, where he now faces federal charges linked to the same case.
Tommy Schaefer, who was sentenced in 2015 to 18 years behind bars for the premeditated murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, arrived in Illinois this week in U.S. custody, according to American authorities. The case drew international attention more than a decade ago after the victim’s body was discovered inside a suitcase in a taxi at a luxury Bali resort.
The developments mark a new legal chapter in a case that spanned two continents and raised complex jurisdictional questions between Indonesia and the United States.
Bali sentence completed, deportation confirmed
Indonesian immigration authorities said Schaefer was deported Tuesday evening from Bali’s main international airport after completing his prison term, which included sentence reductions granted for good behavior under Indonesia’s remission system.
Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Bali Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration, confirmed the deportation in a statement. Indonesia routinely deports foreign nationals following completion of criminal sentences rather than allowing them to remain in the country.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed Schaefer was in U.S. custody and arrived in Illinois on Wednesday. The spokesperson said the Federal Bureau of Investigation handled his transfer.
Schaefer is scheduled to appear in federal court in Chicago on charges including conspiracy to kill someone in a foreign country, conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with a victim. The charges stem from U.S. prosecutors’ long-running case related to the killing.
A killing that shocked Bali and Chicago
The victim, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, a 62-year-old Chicago socialite, was killed in August 2014 while on vacation in Bali with her daughter, Heather Mack, and Schaefer, who was Mack’s boyfriend at the time.
Indonesian prosecutors said the couple planned the killing to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund. Court proceedings in Bali concluded that Mack held her mother’s mouth shut while Schaefer fatally struck her with a fruit bowl in a hotel room.
The crime became widely known as the “Bali suitcase murder” after von Wiese-Mack’s body was found stuffed inside a suitcase placed in the trunk of a taxi outside an upscale resort in Bali. The discovery triggered an investigation by Indonesian police that quickly led to the arrest of Mack, then nearly 19 and pregnant, and Schaefer, who was 21 at the time.
The case drew sustained media attention in both Indonesia and the United States, in part because of the circumstances of the killing and the international legal implications.
Separate U.S. prosecutions
While Indonesia prosecuted and imprisoned both defendants for murder under its criminal code, U.S. authorities later pursued their own case under federal statutes that allow prosecution of American citizens for certain crimes committed abroad, including conspiracy to kill a U.S. national.
Heather Mack was sentenced in Bali to 10 years in prison for assisting in the killing but was released in 2021 after serving seven years, also receiving sentence reductions for good behavior. She was deported to the United States in October 2021.
In January 2024, a federal judge in Chicago sentenced Mack to 26 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill her mother and to obstruction-related charges connected to concealing the body in the suitcase. The U.S. case focused on the alleged planning of the killing and financial motives tied to the trust fund.
Schaefer’s federal case had been pending while he served his Indonesian sentence. His previous U.S. attorney, Thomas Durkin, died last year. Court records show Chicago-based attorney Matthew Madden has since been appointed to represent him. Madden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Legal and diplomatic dimensions
Cases involving crimes committed abroad by American citizens often require coordination between governments. Indonesia exercised primary jurisdiction over the murder because it occurred on its territory. The subsequent U.S. prosecution reflects the reach of federal law in cases involving U.S. nationals and alleged conspiracies formed, at least in part, within the United States.
Legal experts note that serving a sentence in one country does not necessarily preclude prosecution in another if separate charges are brought under different legal frameworks. In this instance, U.S. authorities allege distinct federal offenses tied to conspiracy and tampering, rather than retrying the Indonesian murder conviction itself.
For the family of the victim and for observers who followed the case since 2014, Schaefer’s return to the United States closes one chapter but opens another in a case that has moved between Bali’s resort hotels and Chicago’s federal courthouse.
As Schaefer prepares to make his initial appearance in Chicago, the proceedings are expected to revisit events that have already been examined in an Indonesian courtroom but will now be assessed under U.S. federal law.
Source: AP News – American is freed after 11 years for Bali ‘suitcase murder,’ but a US case awaits
