Sheila Anne von Weiss was born on June 10th, 1952 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was the kind of woman who could work for Ted Kennedy one year and study under a Nobel Prizewinning novelist the next. And she literally did both of these things. She studied political science at Simmons College in Boston.
After graduation, she worked for Ted Kennedy during his time as a senator. She described the job as doing research and lots of miscellaneous jobs the political life requires. I even poured tea for Rose Kennedy a time or two. Afterwards, she got an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and worked at an advertising agency before landing at the publisher Double Day.
It was there she met Jacqueline Kennedy Onasses who was working as an editor. She said she was a serious person, not just a public figure. Later, Sheila moved to Chicago to pursue a master’s in social work and picked up work editing interviews for writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster Studs Turkl. One day, he told her to talk to writer Saul Bellow about the University of Chicago’s doctoral program in the Committee on Social Thought.
She went and Saul took her on. She spent the next 10 years studying under one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th century. Sheila eventually married James Mack, a jazz musician and composer who worked on more than 60 albums over the course of his career. She met him at the University of Chicago where he served as the director of music at Rockefeller Chapel.
He was described as a jack of all genres, referring to his proficiency with many different genres of music, not just jazz. He was described as someone who was at home in front of a symphony orchestra, a jazz big band, or an R&B group. James was born in 1929 and was more than 20 years older than Sheila. He settled in Oak Park, Illinois, an affluent suburb just west of Chicago.
The age of 43, Sheila became a mother. In October of 1995, she gave birth to her daughter, Heather Lois Mack. By all accounts, Sheila had great expectations for her. Took her to museums, to the symphony, to the theater. She wanted her to absorb all of it. Friends said Sheila’s love for Heather was fierce and consuming.
She poured every bit of herself into her. In 2001, the family went on a Royal Caribbean Mediterranean cruise. During that trip, James cut his foot and the ship’s doctor did not treat it properly, which later led to him being partially paralyzed. Filed a lawsuit against Royal Caribbean and that case would drag on for years.
In 2006, the family took another trip, this time to Greece. On that trip, James died unexpectedly in his hotel room on August 6th from a pulmonary embolism. He was 76 years old. Sheila was now a widow with a pending lawsuit. She’s also dealing with a young daughter whose behavior was starting to worry everyone.
Friends said the loss of James hit Heather very hard. The relationship between mother and daughter, which had always been intense, was now starting to break down. According to Sheila’s friend Mark Bakarok, she tried to hope when it came to Heather. That was my friend’s most outstanding characteristic. Diana Ellis, Sheila’s closest friend and Heather’s godmother, would later say that Sheila began having difficulty with Heather when she was just 6 years old.
She said, “Sheila would tell me about her frustrations with Heather’s boundless energy and contrarian personality.” February of 2011, a Cook County judge signed off on a $ 1.5 million settlement with Royal Caribbean. After fees, Sheila walked away with $340,667. Another 500,000 went to James Max’s estate.
James had signed a will 5 days before he died, leaving everything to Heather. But in 2012, a judge awarded Sheila the 500,000. Anyways, she leaves some of the money to set up a trust for Heather worth about 1.5 to 1.6 million with small annual payments until Heather turned 30. From there on, Heather was raised solely by a mother who adored her and enrolled her in the best schools.
But Heather claimed that she was controlling and suffocating. Heather later claimed that her mother would demand she sleep in her bed rather than her own room. Shared that she never wanted to be separated from me. And yet she also hated everything about me. And it was complicated. By the time Heather was in her early teens, the Oak Park police were showing up at the family home regularly.
Between January of 2004 and June of 2013, they responded to the address 86 times. All were incidents between Heather and Sheila. January of 2010, Heather punched Sheila in her already broken ankle and was also accused of stealing $1,000. February of 2011, she broke Sheila’s arm and then removed the phone cord to stop her from calling 911.
5 months later, in July, she threatened her mother again. November of 2012, she attacked and bit Sheila. Not only did Sheila not let the police photograph her wounds, she never once pressed charges against her daughter. Friend Mark later told NBC News, “At least four or five of us would say to kick her out. She was hanging out with a bad crowd, but Sheila always took her back.
She could be as charming and self-efficacingly sweet one minute and then a vicious little monster the next.” Another friend told People magazine that the two were quote locked in a dysfunctional codependent relationship from which neither could break free. >> Heather attended Oak Park in River Forest High School starting in 2010. Sometime during her senior year, she began dating Tommy Schaefer, a 21-year-old from Oak Park who went by the nickname Tommy Exx.
Tommy was unemployed, and Sheila did not approve of him. Sheila hated the relationship enough to sell the house and move them both to the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, hoping to put some distance between Heather and Tommy. But it didn’t work. By the spring of 2014, Heather had dropped out of college, moved out of the house, and was living in a hotel.
She had been gone for roughly a month before Sheila was able to track her down. But when she finally found her, she barely recognized her daughter, and she was pregnant with Tommy’s baby. Heather claimed later that Sheila had forced her into having two previous pregnancies terminated, and now she allegedly was pushing for a third.
Heather claimed that Sheila went so far as to try to get power of attorney over Heather to make that happen. >> We’ll be back in just one minute. Please stick around for the following ad. It not only supports the channel, but it also supports charities in our area. Ready to be your best self this summer? Well, good news.
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Now, let’s talk about Tommy Schaefer. Tommy was born on July 13th, 1993, making him 21 at the time of the events of today’s story. He went to Oak Park in River Forest High School. That’s where he and Heather crossed paths. He was unemployed and was the cousin of a man named Robert Ryan Bibs. The months leading up to August of 2014, Tommy and Heather exchanged messages with Robert about killing Sheila.
Heather had offered Tommy $50,000 to do it, and Robert gave them both advice on how to carry out the killing in exchange for a cut of what they were expecting to inherit from Sheila. Sheila had used her travel points to book two first class tickets to Bali, Indonesia. Chose the St. Regis Bali Resort in New Sadua, one of the most expensive hotels on the island with rooms at the time starting at around $800 a night.
She and Heather arrived on August 4th for what was supposed to be a 10day vacation. Multiple friends of Sheila’s begged her not to go. What Sheila didn’t know was that while she was booking that first class trip, her daughter was using her credit card to book Tommy a business class flight to meet them there. Tommy arrived in Bali on the night of August 11th, 2014 and checked into the resort.
He later said he had come to Bali to tell Sheila about the pregnancy, but Sheila already knew about the pregnancy, so that was a lie. The same evening, security footage at the resort showed Sheila arguing with Tommy in the hotel lobby. At some point after that, Tommy went to Sheila’s room. The exact timeline of events is unknown, but according to official sources, here is what we do know.
Sheila was standing when the attack began, and Tommy beat her with the metal handle of a fruit bowl. Heather held her hand over her mother’s mouth as Tommy struck her repeatedly. The blows fractured Sheila’s nasal bone and jaw. She had defensive wounds on both of her forearms and a broken left fingernail, but the injuries to her face blocked her airway, and she suffocated as blood from her broken nose filled her lungs.
After she was dead, Heather and Tommy stuffed her body into a large suitcase, loaded it into the trunk of a waiting taxi, and told the driver they were going back inside to check out of the hotel. They told him that they would be right back, but they didn’t come back. Instead, they fled on foot and decided to leave the suitcase with Sheila’s body inside of the taxi.
After about 2 hours, hotel security noticed blood seeping from the suitcase in the taxi. They flagged down the taxi driver and told him to take it to the police station. It was there that officers opened the suitcase and found Sheila’s body battered half naked with her neck broken inside. It’s presumed her neck was broken from being forced into the suitcase.
Heather and Tommy were found the following day at a budget hotel in the Cuda area about 6 miles from the St. Reges. They were asleep when they were apprehended. They had used Sheila’s credit card to pay for the room. They were brought in for questioning. and they told police Sheila had been killed by robbers and that they had managed to get away, but the police obviously didn’t buy it.
On August 15th of 2014, they were formally arrested while the investigation continued. September 19th, Tommy admitted to killing Sheila and Heather admitted to helping stuff her body into the suitcase. They later claimed that Sheila had provoked Tommy, claiming that Sheila had threatened to kill the baby, said a racial slur to Tommy, and choked him for about 30 seconds before he grabbed the fruit bowl and hit her with it.
But thankfully, nobody bought that story. Heather and Tommy were charged with premeditated murder on January 14th, 2015. Under article 340 of Indonesia’s criminal code, premeditated murder can carry the death penalty, including death by firing squad. Their trials were held separately, but in the same courtroom before the same judges and prosecutors.
In April of 2015, both were convicted. Tommy received 18 years in prison, while Heather received only 10. The judges noted that they had been lenient with Heather in part because she had given birth to a baby girl on March 17th, 2015 while in Caraboken prison. As she is a surviving minor and is still a minor as of the date of this recording, we will not be naming her.
Meanwhile, back in Chicago, a separate legal fight was playing out. Sheila’s brother, Bill Weiss, an administrator of her estate, had approved up to $150,000 from Heather’s trust fund to cover her legal expenses in Indonesia, plus smaller payments for food and personal costs. At one point, Heather’s Indonesian lawyer demanded an additional $200,000 lump sum payment.
Bill expressed concern in court that the money was being used to cover bribes. A Cook County judge rejected the demand, telling Heather’s attorneys that he would not be emotionally blackmailed into releasing more trust money. Tommy’s cousin, Robert Bibs, was arrested on September 23rd, 2015 on federal conspiracy charges.
He plead guilty in December of 2016 to one count of conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a United States national. In 2017, a federal indictment was quietly filed against both Heather and Tommy and sealed. In 2018, a Cook County settlement decided the fate of Sheila’s trust fund. The money would now be going to Heather’s daughter.
Heather served seven of her 10-year sentence. It was trimmed down through a series of remissions, including six months granted by Indonesian President Jako Widodto. She was released from prison on October 29th, 2021. She wanted to stay in Indonesia with her daughter, but both of them were deported. When Heather Max stepped off the plane at O’Hare International Airport on November 3rd, 2021, the FBI were waiting for her.
Heather was arrested on arrival and charged with conspiracy to kill a United States national. She was locked up without bond at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. Her federal trial was scheduled for July of 2023. June of 2023, she plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a US national.
Under the terms of her plea agreement, she faced a maximum of 28 years in prison. If the judge went over 28 years, she could retract her plea. Assistant US Attorney Frank Regus stated at sentencing, “Mvon Weiss died a painful death. She suffocated after repeated blows to her face fractured her nasal bone and her jawbone, resulting in an obstructed airway.
” He added that in her final moments, Sheila was inhaling her own blood. On January 17th, 2024, Judge Matthew Kennaly sentenced Heather to 26 years in federal prison. She would not receive credit for the seven years she served in Indonesia. Under federal sentencing rules, she must serve a minimum of 85% of her sentence before being eligible for release.
With credit for just over two years already served in US custody by sentencing, she faces more than 19 years behind bars. Judge Kennaly also ordered her to pay $262,78 in restitution to her mother’s estate and a $50,000 fine. Prosecutors also noted in their sentencing recommendation that Heather had already signed a media deal and argued any money she made off her story should go to the estate and not to her.
Heather’s daughter’s courtappointed legal guardian, Lisa Helman, told the court that the then 8-year-old did not want to speak with her mother after a therapist had explained the truth of what Heather and Tommy had done to her grandmother, saying she does not want to be raised by Heather. Sheila’s brother, Bill, gave a victim impact statement.
He told his niece, “You’ve never shown any remorse for all of your actions since the murder. Thank goodness neither of your grandparents are here to see this.” He also said he was finally grateful to have real justice for Sheila, saying the world knew that justice was not served in Indonesia 9 years ago. We are relieved that the court today gave Sheila the justice she so rightly deserves.
Sheila’s sister, Debbie Curran, submitted a victim impact statement that was read in court by her daughter, Lindsay Loko. Debbie said she is still haunted by what happened to her sister and shared that I can’t look at a suitcase without imagining my sister’s body bludgeoned and stuffed into it. She said Sheila had viewed the Bali trip as the chance for a new beginning with her daughter.
Instead, it cost Sheila her life. Heather addressed the court before sentencing. She apologized to her family and said there was no excuse for trying to harm her mother. Told the court that becoming a mother herself had helped her understand who Sheila was. Her uncle said it was the first time he had ever heard her apologize.
Heather Mack is currently incarcerated at FCI Hazelton in West Virginia. Tommy served 11 years in Caribok in prison in Bali. Got his sentence cut down through a series of good behavior remissions, including reductions granted on Indonesian Independence Day. He was released on February 25th, 2026. Before boarding his flight, he told a reporter, “I’m feeling good and I’m happy.
I can enjoy life. God is good.” He also had a message for Sheila’s family. I was thrust into this situation, but I take full responsibility for everything I have done, and I hope Sheila’s family finds peace. He was arrested without incident in international airspace on his way home. Tommy, now 32, faces a threecount federal indictment in the Northern District of Illinois, including conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a US national, and obstruction of justice.
If convicted on the first two counts, he faces up to life in prison. The obstruction charge carries up to 20 years and fines up to $250,000. He was arraigned on February 26, 2026 before the very same judge who sentenced Heather, Matthew Kenny. His original attorney, Thomas Durkin, died in 2025. A new attorney, Matthew Madden, also of Chicago, has taken over his defense.
At his arraignment, Tommy told the judge he would rather represent himself, saying, “Where my life is on the line, I’d rather speak for myself.” Judge Kennaly set a trial date of January 11th, 2027. Sheila’s murder hit Chicago’s community hard. People who knew her described a woman who moved easily between political offices, book clubs, and opera houses.
Elliot Jacobson delivered her eulogy in 2014 and stayed one of her loudest voices in the years after. When Heather was indicted in 2021, he went to the media to push for justice for Sheila and to fight for her granddaughter. He argued that she needed to be placed with a stable family, protected from being used as a pawn in a media deal.
Bill and Debbie, Sheila’s brother and sister, issued a joint statement in 2021 which read, “The last seven years have been incredibly long and stressful for us and our entire family. We’ve been simultaneously mourning the loss of her beautiful sister Sheila, keeping her spirit alive, assisting in the quest for justice, and advocating for the well-being of Sheila’s granddaughter.
” In 2022, Diana Ellis, who had been Sheila’s best friend for nearly 30 years, filed for custody of Heather’s daughter in Illinois probate court. She described her motivation plainly. I believe it is my obligation as Sheila’s best friend and Heather’s godmother to ensure that Heather’s daughter is the best possible home environment.
Sheila von Weiss Mack was cremated and her remains were interred at St. Christom’s columbarium in Chicago. She was 62 years old when she died. She had lived a life that would be hard to summarize on a headstone. A political aid who worked in a Kennedy orbit. A doctoral student who spent 10 years studying under Saul Bellow.
And a widow who raised a daughter alone in a city she loved. And right up to the end, she was trying to be a good mom.
