DENPASAR, Indonesia (WBBM NEWSRADIO/AP) -- An Oak Park woman convicted of helping her boyfriend kill her mother in Indonesia in 2014 was freed from prison Friday after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence and will be deported to the United States.
Heather Mack, 26, served seven years in prison for her part in killing her mother. In August 2014, Sheila Von Wiese Mack, 62, was beaten to death and stuffed in a suitcase while on a trip in Bali. Her body was found inside the trunk of a taxi parked at the upscale St. Regis Bali Resort.
Heather Mack, who was almost 19 and a few weeks pregnant at the time, and her then-21-year-old boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were arrested a day later after they were found at a hotel about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the St. Regis.
Police said the hotel’s CCTV showed the couple had argued with the girl’s mother in the lobby of the hotel shortly before the killing, which is alleged to have taken place inside a room in the hotel.
An Indonesian court sentenced Mack to 10 years in prison for assisting Schaefer in her mother’s murder and stuffing the body in a suitcase. Schaefer received an 18-year sentence.
Their daughter, Stella Schaefer, was born shortly before her parents were convicted in 2015. Under Indonesian law, she was allowed to live with her mother in her cell in Kerobokan female prison until she turned 2-years old, and Mack gave custody of her young daughter to an Australian woman until her release from prison.
Heather Mack was set to be deported to the United States on Friday for good behavior; but the child she gave birth to while behind bars apparently will not be with her, for now. Her attorney said Mack has asked that the foster family her daughter has been living with stay there to avoid media attention.
Mack’s boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, remains behind bars for the murder.
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(WBBM Newsradio and The Associated Press contributed to this copy.)