Indonesia deports US man convicted in Bali ‘suitcase murder’

DENPASAR, Indonesia – An American convicted of

killing the mother of his then-pregnant teenage girlfriend

at an Indonesian luxury hotel was deported on Feb 24 after his early release from prison, the immigration authorities said.

Tommy Schaefer, 32, was released last week from prison on the island of Bali and moved to an immigration detention facility there on Feb 20. He boarded a flight late on Feb 24 bound for the US, a local immigration official confirmed to AFP.

A Bali court sentenced Schaefer in 2015 to 18 years in prison for the murder of Mrs Sheila von Wiese Mack. He was released seven years early for good behaviour.

“After TS completed his sentence, our duty is to ensure that he is not within our sovereign territory, considering that the serious crime he committed has disturbed public order and prevailing legal norms,” local immigration agency head Felucia Sengky Ratna said, referring to Schaefer by his initials.

Heather Mack, Schaefer’s then-girlfriend, was given 10 years on a lesser charge of assisting what was dubbed the “suitcase murder”. She was deported in 2021, and according to the US Justice Department, is

currently serving a 26-year sentence in the US

for conspiracy to murder her mother.

Schaefer, the father of Mack’s child, beat the 62-year-old victim to death with a fruit bowl during an argument at the five-star St Regis resort on Bali.

The couple then stuffed the woman’s body into a suitcase and tried to flee with it in a taxi, but quickly abandoned the blood-soaked luggage.

Speaking ahead of his deportation late on Feb 24, Schaefer apologised to the family of Mrs von Wiese Mack.

“I’m sorry. I’ve always been sorry. I’ve always been apologetic,” he told AFP.

“I was pushed into the situation but I do take full responsibility for everything that I’ve done and I wish the family of Sheila peace.”

The 2014 murder shook the usually sedate holiday island, with details of the grisly killing emerging during the closely followed trial.

Schaefer confessed to the killing, but claimed he was defending himself during an argument with Mrs von Wiese Mack, who was unhappy that her daughter was pregnant.

Prosecutors alleged that Schaefer, who is black, “blindly hit” Mrs von Wiese Mack with the fruit bowl in a fit of rage after she hurled a racial slur at him. AFP