Heather Mack on her way into a courtroom in Denpasar in Bali, Indonesia on April 21, 2015. Photo: Firdia Lisnawati / AP / NTB
In the middle of a luxury vacation in Bali, Heather Mack and her boyfriend killed her mother and put her in a suitcase.
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The killing was revealed by Indonesian police. Mack, then 18 years old and pregnant, was arrested.
“This was a brutal and premeditated crime,” said Judge Matthew Kennelly before sentencing the now 29-year-old woman to 26 years in prison in a Chicago courtroom on Wednesday.
In June, Heather Mack confessed that she and her then-boyfriend had planned to kill her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack.
The aim was to gain access to over 1.5 million dollars the mother had in a fund, writes AP. This corresponds to around NOK 15.8 million.
Beaten to death
According to the US authorities, the murder had been planned for several months.
It happened while Mack and his mother were on vacation. She secretly booked a ticket to Bali for her boyfriend – with her mother’s credit card, writes CBS. At night, while the mother was sleeping, she is said to have smuggled him into the hotel room at the Bali resort.
Prosecutors believe Mack covered her mother’s mouth while her boyfriend hit her repeatedly with the metal handle of a fruit bowl. They are said to have put the mother’s body in a suitcase which they placed in the boot of a taxi.
The daughter was born while Heather Mack was imprisoned in Indonesia. Photo: Firdia Lisnawati / AP / NTB
Apologize
Heather Mack has already served several years in the case. In 2015, she was sentenced to ten years in prison in Indonesia, before being extradited to the United States in 2021.
The then six-year-old daughter was with her when she was arrested at O’Hare airport in Chicago. She is now being raised by another relative, writes CBS.
Mack’s then-boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, and is still in Indonesia.
The mother’s siblings Bill Wiese and Debbi Curran were present in court.
The late Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s siblings Bill Wiese and Debbi Curran speak to the press after the verdict in the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago on Wednesday. Photo: Claire Savage / AP / NTB
– It breaks my heart to hear you cry. There is no excuse for trying to hurt her. I miss and love my mother, Heather Mack told her aunt Debbi before she was sentenced.
Uncle Bill asked the judge to give her life in prison.
– If it was up to me, Heather would have spent the rest of her life behind bars, he said in court.
Mack’s defenders have claimed that she was subjected to both physical and psychological abuse by her mother for several years.
– The authorities want us to believe that Heather Mack just grew up to be a teenager who suddenly, at the age of 15-16, started attacking her mother. Doesn’t it seem unusual to people, that it can just happen completely unprovoked? said one of them, Jeffrey Steinback, in court.
Aunt Debbi Curran says according to CBS that her sister and daughter had struggled with their relationship for several years.
– She saw the trip to Bali as a chance to get a new start, she said in court.
Published:
Published: 18.01.24 at 00:55
Updated: 18.01.24 at 01:07
2024-01-17 23:55:01
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