Where is Heather Mack's daughter? 'Suitcase Killer' doesn't want 6-year-old deported to US
An Illinois native, infamously called 'Suitcase Killer' and who was convicted of murdering her socialite mother before stuffing her body into a suitcase, was released after spending six years in a Bali prison. She will be deported back to the US reportedly without her six-year-old daughter, Stella, who will remain behind in Indonesia with her foster family.
Heather Mack, 25, was transported to the Immigration Detention Center from Denpasar Women's Prison in Bali after securing a three-year early release. Mack, who was almost 19 and a few weeks pregnant, and her then-21-year-old boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were arrested in August 2014, a day after the badly bruised body of her mother, Chicago socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, was found inside the trunk of a cab parked at the upscale St Regis Bali Resort. According to investigators, the hotel's CCTV showed the couple had argued with Sheila in the lobby of the hotel shortly before killing her. Some of the other convicted murderers who recently made headlines include Andrés Mendoza, William Davis, and Robert Durst.
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It was later found that Schaefer beat the 62-year-old victim to death with a fruit bowl during a heated argument before stuffing her into a suitcase and leaving her in the vehicle. The couple claimed that Wiese-Mack became violent after Mack revealed she was pregnant and Schaefer was trying to defend himself. In 2015, Mack was sentenced to 10 years in prison while her then-boyfriend was given 18 years for the murder. Mack, who was pregnant at the time of the crime with Stella, was found guilty on a lesser charge of assisting in the murder. Mack's sentence was reduced due to good behavior
Where is Heather's Mack's daughter?
Stella, who was born in prison shortly before sentencing, has not met her mother for about 20 months because authorities halted prison visits during the coronavirus pandemic, Mack's Indonesian attorney Yulius Benyamin Seran said. He also added that his client had asked Indonesian authorities to let the girl remain with her foster family to avoid media attention. "She doesn't want her daughter deported back to the US and hounded by the media," her lawyer said.
Since she was two, the child has been in the care of a foster family in Bali. Mack has reportedly wanted Stella to stay behind in Indonesia to limit the impact on the child. In an interview with New York Post in August, Mack said she was "fearful and nervous of returning to Chicago" and having her daughter subjected to media scrutiny. "I'm scared that if she comes back to the States with me, she will be exposed to what happened," Mack said. "I do not want anyone shoving a camera into Stella's face," Mack said. "I know that it will happen to me but I will do my best to protect Stella from that trauma. I could not have wished for a better family to raise her. However, it's hard not being with her, particularly when she is sick or for important moments like graduating kindergarten."
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Mack had limited visitation with Stalla due to her imprisonment. "Out of seven years in jail, the hardest part has been the past 18 months because I have not seen Stella," Mack said. "Video-calling Stella three times a week from the prison phone is my only option. I'm grateful I can do that." She has noted that Stella has a good life in that country. "My daughter is more Indonesian than American. She has a good life here," Mack told Daily Mail in 2019. "The people are nicer and it's better and safer than back home. Back there I was getting in with a bad crowd. It's violent, there are guns, drugs. To be honest I'm glad not to be there. It's actually better and safer here in prison."