Who is Heather Mack’s father and did Mack have a baby? The ‘Suitcase Killer’ case, explained

In early 2024, American Heather Mack was back in the headlines when federal prosecutors announced they would seek a 28-year prison sentence on murder conspiracy stemming from the murder of Mack’s mother in Indonesia a decade earlier. Mack had already served a seven-year prison sentence overseas for the crime.

In 2014, Mack and her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, flew to a luxury resort in Indonesia. Mack secretly flew her then-boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, to meet her there. Schaefer and Mack had conspired to have Schaefer sneak into Sheila’s hotel room, where he would brutally beat and kill Mack’s mother. Mack and Schaefer then hid Sheila’s body in a suitcase, which they then placed in the back of a taxi. Blood was found in the trunk of the vehicle, and the police were notified.

According to the prosecution, Mack planned to murder her mother to collect on a $1.6 million trust fund. Mack’s defense, however, said there was a history of domestic violence and abuse in Mack’s home. In 2015, Mack received a 10-year prison sentence in Indonesia for conspiring to murder her mother, and Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years for killing her. After serving seven years of her sentence, Mack was paroled and deported to the US, where she was once more arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Did Heather Mack have a baby?

When Heather Mack’s mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, was murdered in 2014, Mack was pregnant. Mack’s then 6-year-old daughter, Stella Schaefer, was with her mother on the flight back to Chicago after her deportation from Indonesia, AP News reported. In his defense, Stella’s father, Tommy Schaefer, said Sheila threatened his unborn child and attacked him first. After Mack’s parole, Schaefer remained imprisoned in Indonesia.

In 2022, The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Mack’s daughter, Stella, was placed in the custody of Sheila’s cousin in Colorado. Stella lived with her mother in an Indonesian prison until the age of 2, at which time she was placed in the care of a foster mother, Oshar Suartama, and Suartama’s husband. Referring to Stella, Cook County Judge Stephanie Miller, who ruled in 2022 on the child’s custody, said, “The fact that Stella is doing as well as she is is a credit to [Stella] … Dare I say, not to the adults,” (via The Chicago Sun-Times).

Who is Heather Mack’s father?

According to The New York Times, Heather Mack’s father, the noted jazz musician James L. Mack, died in 2006, and Mack’s relationship with her mother deteriorated after that point. It was Mack’s father who left the sizable trust fund that the prosecution claims motivated Mack and Tommy Schaefer to conspire in Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s murder.

In June 2023, in a plea deal, Mack pleaded guilty in a US court to one count of conspiring to kill her mom, Sheila. As well as 28 years in prison, Mack could be ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and $262,708 in restitution. Mack’s attorneys asked for a 15-year sentence with credit for time already served in Indonesia. Mack would also be credited with the two years spent in custody after her arrest in Chicago, AP News reported