US mum raising baby in Bali jail confesses to framing boyfriend for murder
An American woman who murdered her mother in Bali has made a jail-house confession, via YouTube, claiming full responsibility for the savage crime.
Heather Mack and Tommy Schaefer are both serving long sentences in Indonesia for the murder of Mack’s mother, Sheila von Wiese Mack, in August of 2014.
The pair was found guilty of killing the 62-year-old former wife of jazz composer James L. Mack, and stuffing her body into a suitcase after an argument in an upmarket Bali hotel.
Now, Heather Mack, 21, claims she acted alone and murdered her mother in retaliation for her murdering Mr Mack more than a decade ago; a version of events far removed from the official verdict.
"Two weeks before I came to Bali, I found out that she killed my father, and I made it up in my heart, in my mind, my soul, in my blood, in the oxygen running through my body, that I wanted to kill my mother," Heather Mack said in the videos
"I got this whole new savage idea in my head that I wanted to kill her in a hotel room, because she had killed my father in a hotel room. “
Mr Mack’s death in an Athens hotel in August of 2006 was officially recorded as the result of a pulmonary embolism.
Heather Mack said she had offered Schaefer $50,000 to kill her mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack but he had refused.
“We were going to Bali, so I began to plot," he video statement continued.
Once Ms von Wiese-Mack was dead, Heather Mack said she trapped Schaefer into helping her try to escape punishment and, once they were caught, into taking responsibility.
Mack said in her videos she told Schaefer she would pay police to frame him if he did not help her clear the crime scene.
Later, as the pair faced court for their crimes, Mack claims she and her lawyer told Schaefer he had to confess to the murder or risk the death penalty.
Mack was sentenced to 10 years. Schaefer will be in prison for 18.
As the videos roll on Mack, at times appearing tearful, jabs her index finger into her throat as she assumes responsibility for the crime, and apologises to Schaefer, whom she says she loves.
Her most recent version of events stands at odds with the official verdict, which said Ms von Wiese-Mack died after an argument with Schaefer spun out of control in the Bali’s five-star St Regis Hotel
Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s sister has told the Chicago Sun Tribune she does not believe a work of Heather Mack’s confession.
"Since the brutal murder of my dear sister, Sheila, two and a half years ago, our family has had to endure endless lies about what actually happened in Bali," Debbie Curran, of St. Louis, said in a statement published by the paper.
"Heather Mack's stories about her relationship with her mother and the events in Bali have changed so many times; it is impossible to discern truth from deception.
“However, her accusation about Sheila killing Jim is completely false. Sheila loved Jim very deeply and was devastated by his death.
“We are also struck by the utter lack of any remorse from Heather over her mother's murder."
Heather Mack and Tommy Schaefer’s case attracted world wide media attention, driven partially due to the savagery of the crime, the potential for death sentences and by the fact that Mack was pregnant, and then gave birth, behind bars.
She is now raising the baby, Stella, behind the walls of Keroboken prison.
