Heather Mack, a Chicago woman who served more than seven years in an Indonesian prison for killing her mother at a luxury resort on the island of Bali, had a court appearance Tuesday for an update in her case, and her attorney was granted more time to sift through evidence.
Mack was deported from Indonesia after her prison sentence was completed in November. Upon her return to the United States, she was immediately arrested on federal conspiracy and obstruction charges in connection to the 2014 murder of her mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack.Mack pleaded not guilty in Chicago court last year after being indicted on murder conspiracy charges in the United States and taken into federal custody.
According to the indictment, Mack flew from Chicago to Indonesia on Aug. 2, 2014, and Schaefer arrived on a flight from Chicago eight days later. On Aug. 11, Schaefer communicated in messages with Robert Ryan Justin Bibbs in Chicago about “different ways to kill Von Weise." The next day, according to the indictment, Schaefer and Mack exchanged messages about “how and when to kill Von Weise.”
In 2016, Bibbs, who was identified as a cousin of Schaefer, pleaded guilty to helping to plan the killing in exchange for $50,000 from Mack’s expected inheritance. That cousin was sentenced the next year to nine years in prison. In 2017, the Chicago Tribune reported that court documents revealed the FBI was investigating whether others were involved in the the conspiracy.