Heather Mack, Tommy Schaefer: ‘Snapped Killer Couples’–Spoiled Rich Girl Killed Wealthy Mommy During Bali Vacation
Heather Mack’s story is returning to television. Heather Mack is the spoiled rich girl who killed her mommy while visiting Bali, Indonesia, along with her troubled boyfriend. Tonight, Oxygen Network will recount her terrifying story in an episode of Snapped: Killer Couples. Authorities would agree that Heather Mack and her lover, Tommy Schaefer, fit that description perfectly after killing her rich socialite mother Sheila Von Wiese Mack and packing her dead body in a suitcase. It’s a tale so bizarre and so gruesome that it’s difficult to believe these baby-faced killers could do such a thing.
Heather Mack reportedly splits with boyfriend Tommy Schaefer in Bali jail: https://t.co/FMS77V184o pic.twitter.com/spvf5y7y4V
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) July 1, 2016
In 2014, Sheila Von Wiese Mack was desperate to repair her relationship with her 19-year-old daughter, Heather Mack. The mother and daughter were close, but they had a troubled and difficult relationship that would often turn violent. In fact, it became so violent that Sheila Von Wiese Mack’s friends tried to warn her to leave her daughter alone. Instead, the poor mother made one last attempt to save their relationship, the Daily Mail reported.
What Sheila didn’t know was that this trip to Bali wouldn’t include just the two of them. Tucked away back home was Heather Mack’s boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, who was waiting to board a plane headed for Bali. Sheila had wanted Heather Mack to end her relationship with Tommy, and now the deadly duo had plans to kill her and live off Heather’s trust fund money forever.
Authorities say that Heather Mack grew up privileged, and she often got anything she wanted since she was “daddy’s little girl.” But after her father’s death, she ran amok, and it seemed that her mother couldn’t do anything about it. This time, Heather Mack had met her handsome bad boy, and it would mean the death of Sheila Von Wiese Mack.
According to police, Heather Mack fell madly in love with Tommy Schaefer, a 21-year-old aspiring rapper. The sex was often fiery and spontaneous, and now adding murder to the equation was going to make it that much more toxic and sweet. To be together, she needed her mother out of the way for good. Step by step, Tommy and Heather planned just how they’d kill her.
Once Tommy Schaefer arrived in Bali, Indonesia, Heather Mack directed him to the hotel. After making sure that her mother was good and drunk, Heather Mack and Tommy Schaefer beat the 62-year-old woman to death. Then they took her bloody body and stuffed it inside of a suitcase. The suitcase was discovered by a taxi driver who called authorities. The investigation into the dead woman’s remains circled back to the luxurious resort hotel, where the victim was staying with her daughter, Heather Mack.
#Crime_amp_Courts_Murder_True_Crime Bali Suitcase Murder: Heather Mack Hospitalized… >>> https://t.co/6AgsFgaUKT pic.twitter.com/ZzJe92OiQx
— Get-Famous (@Who_is_Famous) April 7, 2016
Inside the room, detectives found blood and broken glass all over the floor. It was obvious that someone had struggled for their life. The two lovers carried out the vicious plan through text messages, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“Authorities allege Schaefer texted Mack a photo of the murder weapon — a metal fruit stand from his room — as he advised her with what to attack her mother. Between 8:35 and 8:40 a.m., authorities said, Schaefer is seen on hotel surveillance footage with something beneath his shirt as he walks on the third floor where the two women were staying. He then sneaked into a bathroom in their suite, and the couple continued to text.”
Body of Sheila von Wiese Mack, American woman slain in Bali, to be flown to US http://t.co/N1e8ZeIhCh pic.twitter.com/lX0jJRJ9sW
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) August 19, 2014
Heather Mack and Tommy Schaefer didn’t get far. They were eventually arrested and charged with the murder. They received the following sentences, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“Mack is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Indonesia. Her boyfriend,Tommy Schaefer, was sentenced to 18 years. Their daughter is in the prison with Mack and may remain there, per local custom, until she turns 2.”
Watch tonight’s Snapped Killer Couples to get even more inside knowledge of the case. It airs tonight at 9/8 p.m. Central on the Oxygen Network. Earlier this year, the Heather Mack story aired on ID’s Passport To Murder. You can see a photo of Heather Mack’s father here.
[Featured Image by Firdia Lisnawati/AP Images]