Heather Mack to plead guilty to federal charges in mother's murder in Indonesia
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Heather Mack plans to plead guilty to federal charges in the 2014 murder of her mother in Indonesia.
Federal prosecutors confirmed Thursday that they have made significant progress in plea negotiations with Mack and her attorneys. A change of plea hearing has been set for June 15, when the terms of a potential plea deal could be made public. Her trial had been set to begin on Aug. 1.
Mack, 27, was arrested in November 2021 when she returned to Chicago from Indonesia, after she had been released from prison after serving 7 years of her 10-year sentence for helping her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, kill her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, in August 2014. A 2017 federal indictment against Mack and Schaefer was unsealed as she arrived at O'Hare International Airport, after being deported from Indonesia. The indictment charges them with federal conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges, and Mack faced a potential life sentence in the case.
The indictment accuses Mack and Schaefer of conspiring to kill von Wiese Mack in her hotel room at a Bali resort on Aug. 12, 2014.
The indictment specifically says the couple, while in the United States, "conspired with each other" to kill Mack's mother. It says, "on or about August 2, 2014, Mack boarded an airplane at O'Hare" and "arranged for Schaefer to travel from Chicago, Illinois to Bali, Indonesia."
According to the indictment, they also "corruptly destroyed, mutilated and concealed objects, and attempted to do so, with intent to impair the object's integrity and availability for use in an official proceeding, by forcing the body of Sheila A. Von Wiese into a suitcase after she had been killed and removing the suitcase from the place of the murder, and by removing linens and items of clothing worn during the killing."
The indictment also accuses the couple of conspiring with Schaefer's cousin, Robert Ryan Justin Bibbs, who did not participate in the killing, but pleaded guilty to advising Schaefer with how to get away with the murder.
Prosecutors say Schaefer exchanged messages with Bibbs, "regarding different ways to kill Von Weise" and that Mack and Schaefer exchanged messages discussing "how and when to kill Von Weise."
Bibbs pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiracy to commit foreign murder of U.S. national, and later was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
Schaefer is still in prison in Indonesia, serving an 18-year prison sentence.
Mack's 7-year-old daughter, Stella, who was born while Mack was in prison in Bali, is now in the custody of a cousin, following an extended custody battle in Cook County court.