A US woman accused of helping to kill her mother and stuff her body in a suitcase during a luxury Bali vacation nine years ago has changed her plea to guilty in a Chicago federal court.
Heather Mack, 27, was convicted in Indonesia in 2015 of being an accessory to the murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, with her then-boyfriend, in a bid to gain access to a $2.2 million trust fund.
Mack, who was then 18 and pregnant, covered her mother’s mouth in a hotel room while Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned Ms Wiese-Mack with a fruit bowl, prosecutors said.
Mack stood before US District Judge Matthew Kennelly in orange jail clothes and orange slippers as he asked her questions before she was set to enter a plea on Friday.
She spoke confidently and calmly as the judge asked her if she was giving up her rights to remain silent at the motion hearing.
“Yes, your honour,” she responded from a podium.
After the judge explained the charge against her, Mack pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a US citizen.
The change-of-plea hearing is the latest chapter in a story that garnered international attention in part because of photographs of the suitcase, which seemed too small to hold an adult woman’s body.
Mack’s Chicago trial on conspiracy to commit murder in another country and obstruction of justice had been set for August 1.
The judge set a December 18 sentencing date for Mack.Her plea deal calls for a sentence of no more than 28 years.
Mack, who lived with her mother in suburban Chicago’s Oak Park, served seven years of her 10-year Indonesian sentence.
She was then deported in 2021 and US agents arrested her immediately after she landed at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Mr Schaefer was convicted of murder and remains in Indonesia, where he is serving an 18-year sentence.
He is charged in the same US indictment. (ABC)
