Heather Mack set for trial next year on federal charges in the murder of her mother in Indonesia
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CHICAGO (CBS) -- Heather Mack, the Oak Park woman who spent seven years in prison for the murder of her mother in Indonesia, is set to face trial on federal charges here next year.
Mack was released from prison in Indonesia last year, after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence for helping her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, kill her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, in Bali in 2014, and stuffing her body in a suitcase.
Schaefer remains in an Indonesian prison for his role in the murder.
After she was released from prison in Indonesia, Mack was deported back to the U.S., and before landing back in Chicago, federal prosecutors unsealed a 2017 indictment against her and Schaefer, charging them with conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
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.
Mack has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle on Thursday scheduled Mack's trial to begin on July 31, 2023.
Federal prosecutors have said they expect the trial "will last no longer than three weeks."
While in prison, Mack gave birth to her daughter Stella. The child is now with a court-approved guardian, and four people are now battling over custody of Stella, including the girl's paternal grandmother, a cousin of Mack's, a onetime friend of Mack's mother, and the woman who cared for Stella while Mack was in prison.
The custody trial began earlier this week.