American freed after 11 years for Bali 'suitcase murder'

Thursday, 26 February 2026 14:26

Tommy Schaefer still has a legal battle ahead of him that could but him back in prison.

Indonesia has freed and deported an American man after he spent 11 years in prison for the premeditated murder of his then-girlfriend’s mother in Bali.

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.

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The badly beaten body of wealthy Chicago socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack, was found in a suitcase.

The couple was trying to gain access to a $US1.5 million ($2.1 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 yesterday back to the United States after serving his sentence and receiving a number of remissions for good behaviour, said Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Bali Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration, in a statement.

Tommy Schaefer has now returned to the United States, but faces another legal battle in Chicago.

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

Schaefer is still on the hook for federal charges back home, however.

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

Heather Mack, left, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer. Heather was jailed for over 20 years when she returned to the United States,

Schaefer's lawyer in the US case, Chicago-based Thomas Durkin, died last year. Court records 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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