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Tommy Schaefer Deported From Bali Ahead of Chicago Arraignment in 2014 'Suitcase' Killing

He now faces a federal conspiracy case in Chicago following early release from his Indonesian murder sentence.

FILE - Tommy Schaefer of Chicago, Ill., who alongwith his girlfriend Heather Mack is accused of murdering Mack's mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack whose body was later found in a suitcase, arrives for his trial hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Jan. 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, File)
FILE - In this March 12, 2015 file photo, Heather Mack, left, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, both from Chicago, Ill., who are accused of of murdering Mack's mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack whose body was later found in a suitcase, enter the court room prior to the start of their trial hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, File)
Tommy Schaefer and Heather Mack, charged with premeditated murder in the August 2014 slaying in Bali, Indonesia, of Mack's mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, are escorted to a prison van in February 2015 in Bali, where they are on trial.
Heather Mack of Chicago, center, is escorted by immigration officers to the immigration detention center in Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia, on Oct. 29, 2021. Indonesian authorities on Nov. 2, 2021, announced that Mack, an American woman convicted of helping to kill her mother on Indonesia's tourist island of Bali in 2014, has left the island to be deported to the United States after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence.

Overview

  • He was released early for good behavior from an 18-year term in Bali and deported Tuesday, Indonesian immigration officials said.
  • He is set to appear Thursday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse before Judge Matthew Kennelly for arraignment on conspiracy charges.
  • Heather Mack previously pleaded guilty in the U.S. case and is serving a 26-year federal sentence after her 2021 arrest upon deportation.
  • Prosecutors allege the killing was part of a plan to access a $1.5 million trust, with texts cited as evidence and an autopsy detailing fatal blunt-force injuries.
  • Schaefer apologized before boarding the flight to the U.S., and court records note his former attorney died in 2025 with current counsel not yet listed.