Bali suitcase murder: US woman Heather Mack gets 26 years in prison for helping kill her mother
- Mack was sentenced in Chicago, after completing a jail term in Indonesia then being deported to the US
- She pleaded guilty last June to conspiring to kill Sheila von Wiese-Mack with her then-boyfriend to gain access to a US$1.5 million trust fund
An American woman who pleaded guilty to helping kill her own mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during a luxury holiday in Bali was sentenced on Wednesday in Chicago to 26 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors had recommended a 28-year prison sentence for Heather Mack for conspiring with her boyfriend to kill Sheila von Wiese-Mack in 2014.
Mack’s lawyer Michael Leonard said he expects Mack, 28, will be locked up for roughly 20 years including good behaviour credits available to all federal prisoners. His estimate also accounts for the judge giving Mack credit for the two-plus years she spent in custody in Chicago after completing a jail term in Indonesia. She was deported to the US in 2021.
Before her sentence was read, Mack apologised to her mother’s brother and sister through tears.
“It breaks my heart hearing you cry,” she told Debbi Curran, her aunt and Wiese-Mack’s sister, who had audibly sobbed as her daughter read a victim impact statement on Curran’s behalf.
