The Chilling Prediction That Came True
'I think my daughter is going to kill me.' Sheila von Wiese-Mack uttered those devastating words through tears, her voice choked with unspeakable fear. Nineteen months later, her gut-wrenching prediction became a horrifying reality. On August 12, 2014, her pregnant 18-year-old daughter Heather Mack and Mack's 21-year-old boyfriend Tommy Schaefer brutally beat the 62-year-old socialite to death with a metal fruit bowl. They then stuffed her lifeless body inside a suitcase while on a luxury vacation at the five-star St Regis resort in Bali.
A Plot Months in the Making
This was no spontaneous act of violence but a calculated plot the young couple had schemed for months. In disturbing messages, they referred to themselves as Bonnie and Clyde, boasting about their future life together enjoying a $1.6 million inheritance from the slain socialite. Von Wiese-Mack was married to renowned jazz artist James Mack until his death in 2006 at age 76. The couple shared one child, who would ultimately become their matriarch's murderer.
Dubbed the Suitcase Killer case, the murder shocked the world—except for Oak Park Police Sgt Rasul Freelain. Dating back to when Mack was just 13, Freelain and his fellow officers had responded to von Wiese-Mack's $1.5 million mansion in the Chicago suburbs at least 35 times because of the teen's relentless abuse of her mother. Police reports document Mack biting, punching, shoving, and stealing from her mom, including one incident where she broke her arm.
A Detective's Haunting Fears
It was Freelain whom von Wiese-Mack confided in about her fears that her life was in danger. However, she repeatedly stopped cooperating when it came to pursuing charges against her daughter. So when news of her murder came over the local radio station while he was driving, the now-retired detective was devastated but not surprised. 'I knew it was going to happen—and she knew it was going to happen too,' Freelain told the Daily Mail. 'When I heard Heather was arrested, it was confirmation of everything we were afraid of.'
He remembered pulling over by the side of the road and pounding on the steering wheel of his car. But when he then heard the name of Mack's accomplice, Freelain gasped. He told the Daily Mail he 'could not believe Tommy was involved.' On Tuesday, Schaefer was deported from Indonesia and detained immediately upon touching down on American soil. He is expected to appear in court in Cook County, Illinois, on Thursday.
Justice Served Across Borders
The 32-year-old had walked free from Kerobokan Prison in Bali last week, telling reporters he was 'happy' and planned to 'enjoy life,' after serving 11 years of an 18-year sentence for von Wiese-Mack's murder. However, his freedom was short-lived. He was immediately handed over to immigration authorities for deportation to the US and further criminal charges. Schaefer can expect a similar fate to Mack, who was arrested on the jet bridge at Chicago O'Hare Airport in 2021 after serving seven years in Bali.
In 2023, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder a US national in a foreign country and was sentenced to 26 years in federal prison. 'Tommy's release is the closing of one chapter in Sheila's murder so that is welcomed. But the story is not done,' Freelain, who remains close to von Wiese-Mack's family, said. 'Justice still needs to be served.' Though he said Schaefer deserves US prison time, to Freelain, Mack shoulders greater responsibility for her mom's murder.
A Complex Web of Blame and Manipulation
'Tommy is fully responsible for what happened, but I don't think he should serve even one day longer than Heather,' he said. 'If it were up to me, Heather would spend the rest of her life in prison. Sheila was her mom. I think Tommy has the right to be free one day. He has to own his role in it, but I also think he was manipulated by Heather. I think of him as almost the second victim in the murder. Heather had a long track record of abusing her mom and of interventions. Tommy had nothing like that.'
Freelain told the Daily Mail he has 'mixed feelings' when it comes to Schaefer. As a detective specializing in youth and family issues, Freelain knew many kids in the Oak Park community. He had known Schaefer since eighth grade and—unlike Mack—believed he had a promising future ahead of him. 'I would see him out and about and would check in with him,' he said. 'I always thought he had something going for him. I really wanted him to do well.'
The Final Meeting Before Tragedy
It was January 2013—a year before the murder—when they last bumped into each other. At the time, Schaefer was attending music college in Chicago after graduating high school. He and Mack were not yet dating. Schaefer greeted the detective with a big hug. 'He had such genuine enthusiasm about his life. He wanted to tell me how he was growing up,' Freelain recalled. 'I said, "I'm proud of you. Keep up the good work." My mind always goes back to that moment. I don't know what point he crossed the line and morphed into someone willingly prepared to act out such an unthinkable act.'
That last meeting with Schaefer came at a time when the detective was dealing with a parallel situation with Mack. While Schaefer was moving forward in life, things had reached breaking point in the Mack household. That same month, von Wiese-Mack told Freelain she feared her daughter was going to kill her. But leading up to that moment, Oak Park Police records show officers first responded to von Wiese-Mack's home in 2008 when Mack, then 13, threatened her mom and locked her in a room.
A History of Escalating Violence
Two years later, in January 2010, police were called when Mack punched her mom's broken ankle. That November, Mack stole von Wiese-Mack's credit card and $1,060 in cash. That was the first time Freelain met the mother and daughter. While von Wiese-Mack declined to press charges, the incident 'planted the seed' in Freelain's mind that there was more going on inside the home. 'Sheila was torn about what to do about Heather. This was a woman who knew her child was mistreating her but also wanted to protect her child at all costs,' he told the Daily Mail.
Three months later, his concerns proved correct when von Wiese-Mack turned up at the police precinct with a broken arm. Freelain said von Wiese-Mack spoke about Mack being a 'defiant child,' but refused to say what had happened to her arm. When he broached the abuse, she ran out of the station. But the next day, von Wiese-Mack returned and asked to speak to Freelain again. Mack had attacked her that night almost as soon as she left the police station. 'That was the first time she opened up and admitted she needed help to keep herself safe,' he said.
The Final Warning Before Murder
The mother admitted that Mack, her only child, had broken her arm. Freelain arrested the teen for domestic battery for the first time. She was convicted in juvenile court, sent to juvenile offender facilities, and given court-ordered mental health support. But the violence continued to escalate. One night in January 2013, von Wiese-Mack requested Freelain be dispatched to her home. 'She didn't look ok. Her face broke. I asked her what had happened and she started crying,' he told the Daily Mail.
What she said next gave him chills: 'Heather will not stop hurting me. She won't stop. I'm afraid she is going to kill me.' 'When someone says that, I believe them,' Freelain said. 'It solidified the fears already in the back of my mind—fears I didn't want to give words to but that I had been afraid of for some time.' Freelain immediately contacted Mack's probation officer, whose response added to the gravity. 'I agree. I'm afraid she's going to kill her too,' Freelain recalled the officer saying.
The Cold Calculation of a Killer
When he interviewed Mack that night, she was 'remorseless, callous and cruel.' 'It was the coldest and cruelest I have ever heard someone talk,' he said. 'She admitted she was harming her mother and justified it by how much she hated her. I investigated a lot of domestic violence cases including young people abusing their parents, but Heather was so cold, smart and manipulative—a terrifying combination of intelligence and venom toward her mom.'
Freelain arrested Mack that night and tried to present a case that she be jailed for violating her court supervision order to stop harming her mother. But the case fell apart when von Wiese-Mack stopped cooperating again. Soon after, she moved with Mack to Chicago—out of Oak Park's jurisdiction. It wasn't long before Mack and Schaefer began planning her murder. For months before the doomed Bali trip, the couple mulled various methods with their co-conspirator, Schaefer's cousin Ryan Bibbs, including drowning or suffocation, and boasted about how 'rich' they would become when their plot came to fruition.
The Bali Murder Unfolds
In early August 2014, Mack and her mom jetted off to Bali for a vacation that von Wiese-Mack hoped might repair their troubled relationship. Court documents show Schaefer texted Mack that day: 'I can't wait to be rich… Its crazy af Like Money Nothing rules the world.' 'Keep your head up… trips going as planned baby… faith,' Mack replied. In other messages, Mack described herself as 'Bonnie' of Bonnie and Clyde and said she had been 'watching' her 'witch' mother for years.
On August 12, Mack bought a $12,000 business-class ticket with her mom's credit card, and Schaefer flew out to Bali. It was time for their plot to unfold. Inside the luxury hotel suite, Mack held her hand over her mother's mouth while Schaefer bludgeoned her to death with the metal handle of a fruit bowl. They then stuffed her body inside a small, gray suitcase. When the couple tried to check out of the hotel and load the bloody suitcase into a taxi, they were stopped. They fled, leaving the suitcase—and von Wiese-Mack's body—behind.
Aftermath and Ongoing Justice
Their arrests prompted an international spectacle where they were both facing the possibility of death by firing squad in Indonesia—prosecutors eventually took the maximum penalty off the table. Ultimately, Schaefer and Mack were both convicted of murder. Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years, Mack to 10 years. Bibbs pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit the foreign murder of a US national in 2016 and was sentenced to nine years in US federal prison.
Mack gave birth to her daughter, Stella, behind bars in Bali and raised her for the first two years of her life in prison. She was then placed in the care of a woman Mack befriended in prison, before they were briefly reunited upon her release. Following a custody battle, the little girl is now being raised by von Wiese-Mack's relatives. After returning to the US, Mack was allegedly sexually abused by a female prison guard inside Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center. She is now serving her sentence at Hazelton women's facility in West Virginia.
Could This Tragedy Have Been Prevented?
Freelain struggles with the thought that von Wiese-Mack's murder could have been prevented. 'I can't say with certainty it could have been. But I believe not enough was done by the entire justice system to try to prevent it,' he told the Daily Mail. He believes he did everything within his power to protect von Wiese-Mack and get help for Mack. But, like many domestic abuse cases, it was a cycle where von Wiese-Mack withdrew her cooperation and refused to press charges.
Mack being a juvenile at the time of the arrests, and the lack of laws around child to parent abuse (CPA), also restricted what action police could take, Freelain suspected. He now spends his retirement training law enforcement about CPA and is calling to get a CPA law passed in Illinois. 'The hard thing about her murder was that me and other officers were afraid something was going to happen but weren't able to prevent it,' he said. 'Sheila wasn't ok and she knew she wasn't ok. It was an environment where she knew she was trapped in a burning building with Heather and wanted to get out, but she knew that leaving the burning building meant leaving her child behind. But she also couldn't accept that her child was the one who kept pouring gasoline on the fire.'
