Chicago Man Pleads Not Guilty to Bali Murder Charges

A Chicago man convicted in Indonesia for the 2014 murder of his girlfriend's mother during a vacation in Bali pleaded not guilty this week to federal conspiracy charges upon his return to the United States. Tommy Schaefer, 32, was arrested on a flight back from Indonesia and appeared Thursday before U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly in Chicago federal court.

Prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois charged Schaefer with one count of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, one count of conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a U.S. national and one count of obstruction of justice. The charges stem from the August 12, 2014, killing of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, a 62-year-old Chicago resident, at the St. Regis Bali Resort in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. If convicted, Schaefer faces a maximum of life in prison on the first two counts and up to 20 years on the obstruction charge.

According to federal court records and prosecutors, Schaefer and his then-girlfriend, Heather Mack, then 18 and pregnant, plotted the killing to gain access to von Wiese-Mack's approximately $1.5 million trust fund. Mack had used her mother's credit card to arrange Schaefer's travel to Bali, where von...