Indonesia has released and deported an American man convicted in the notorious 2014 Bali "suitcase murder," sending him back to the United States after he served 11 years in an Indonesian prison.
Indonesian immigration officials said Tommy Schaefer, who was sentenced to 18 years for the premeditated killing of his then-girlfriend's mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, was formally freed and placed in immigration custody before his removal from the country.
He was put on a flight from Bali's international airport on Tuesday evening after receiving multiple sentence reductions for good behavior, according to the Bali office of the Directorate General of Immigration, according to CBS News.
Authorities in the United States confirmed that Schaefer arrived on American soil and was taken into custody upon landing in Illinois, where federal officials are now handling his transfer and detention status. A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service said he is in federal custody, while the FBI coordinated aspects of his transport from Indonesia.
The case drew global attention in August 2014 when the badly beaten body of 62-year-old von Wiese-Mack, a wealthy Chicago socialite, was found stuffed in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi parked outside the luxury St. Regis resort in Bali.
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Investigators said Schaefer and his then-girlfriend, Heather Mack, von Wiese-Mack's teenage daughter, had argued with her during the vacation before Schaefer killed her in a hotel room, Star Tribune reported.
Schaefer and Mack were arrested soon after the body was discovered and later convicted in an Indonesian court, with Schaefer receiving an 18-year sentence and Mack a 10-year term for her role in the killing.
Mack, who was pregnant at the time of her arrest and later gave birth in custody, was released from an Indonesian prison in 2021 after sentence remissions and deported to the United States, where she subsequently faced federal charges related to the murder.
Indonesian officials stressed that Schaefer's release followed completion of his adjusted term and standard remission policies, saying his deportation was mandatory because he no longer had a legal basis to remain in the country. The Bali "suitcase murder" remains one of Indonesia's most widely reported tourist-crime cases, as per the Associated Press.
