Former Oak Park Mother Murdered on Vacation, Daughter and Boyfriend Charged
Indonesian police last Wednesday charged a, teenager and her boyfriend from Oak Park, Ill., with the premeditated murder in the death of the girl’s mother.
The death of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, captured national news headlines last week after her body was found, stuffed in a suitcase, with wounds to her head. The daughter and her boyfriend allegedly left the suitcase in the trunk of a taxi parked in front of St. Regis Bali Resort where the three were vacationing, according the Associated Press.
Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, were arrested last Wednesday in Bali.
Charges reportedly were based on witnesses and crime scene evidence, according to Bali deputy police chief Brigadier General Gusti Ngurah Raharja Subyakta.
According to Indonesian broadcaster Trans TV, police say the suspected couple was later found by police sleeping in a hotel room in Kuta, a town about 6 miles from the St. Regis and allegedly told police they were taken captive by an armed group whose gang members were the ones who killed von Wiese-Mack.
The taxi driver reportedly said the couple hailed him (last Tuesday) at the St. Regis, placed the suitcase in the trunk, and placed two bags in the backseat, then went back into the hotel and did not return, Trans TV reports.
After two hours, the taxi driver said he entered the hotel and spoke to employees, who went to the family's rooms and found them empty. When the taxi driver and a manager opened the trunk, they saw blood on the luggage and drove the car to a police station, where the woman's body was found inside a hard-sided grey piece of luggage, Trans TV reported.
Surveillance footage reportedly show the victim argued with Schaefer on Monday in the hotel's lobby.
Both Heather Mack and Schaefer attended Oak Park River Forest High, from which he graduated in 2011 and she withdrew during her junior year in 2013.
Described as a cultured woman with an MBA who worked for Sen. Ted Kennedy and Pulitzer Prize winning author, Studs Terkel at different points in her life, von Wiese-Mack reportedly moved from Oak Park to Chicago's Gold Coast about a year ago.
Heather Mack, von Wiese-Mack’s only child, has been described in published reports as “troubled” and that the Oak Park police were called to the Mack’s Oak Park home some 86 times between January 2004 and June 2013,for domestic troubles, theft, and missing person/possible runaway issues with both Heather and her mother calling the police on one another.
According to news report, the mother and daughter continued the family tradition of taking exotic vacations even after the death of von Wiese-Mack's husband, prominent jazz composer James Mack, who died while vacationing in Greece in 2006.
There allegedly were signs of tension shortly before the Bali trip, as von Wiese-Mack reported to police that her credit card was being used on July 23 without her permission at the Conrad Hotel in Chicago. Police arrived at the downtown hotel and discovered Heather Mack and Schaefer, allegedly had used the card to book a room and rang up nearly $1,000 in charges.
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