Indonesia deports US man convicted in grisly Bali 2014 ‘suitcase murder’ of girlfriend’s mother

Heather Mack and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer murdered Mack's mother and hid her body in a suitcase during their holiday in Bali. Photo / Getty Images

An American convicted of killing the mother of his then-pregnant teenage girlfriend at an Indonesian luxury hotel was deported on Tuesday after his early release from prison, 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 Friday.

He boarded a flight late on Tuesday (early today NZT) bound for the United States, a local immigration official confirmed to AFP.

A Bali court sentenced Schaefer in 2015 to 18 years in prison for the murder of 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 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, Schaefer apologised to the family of 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 von Wiese Mack, who was unhappy that her daughter was pregnant.

-Agence France-Presse