Tommy Schaefer, the former Oak Park resident who was convicted by an Indonesian court in April 2015 of the murder of former Oak Park resident Sheila Mack, was released from Kerobokan prison on the island of Bali yesterday and is in the process of being deported to the United States.
Journalist Andrea Dixon, who has been reporting on the Mack case for years in preparation for a book on the murder, filed a story in The Sun newspaper and confirmed to the Chronicle that Schaefer has been released.
“Tommy was released today,” Hudi Ismono, the head of Kerobokan Prison told Dixon. “He was sentenced to 18 years and received a sentence cut of 75 months and 120 days.”
Ismono said Schaefer was handed over to Indonesian immigration for deportation.
Schaefer, now 32, reportedly put on a happy face to a reporter as he left the prison, saying, “I’m feeling good and I’m happy. I can enjoy life. God is good.”
However, there will be little to enjoy for Schaefer upon his return to the United States. Like his former girlfriend and purported co-conspirator Heather Mack before him, Schaefer can expect to be arrested by federal authorities after he steps off his plane at O’Hare Airport in the next day or two. He will most likely be held at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Dixon said a source told her that Schaefer was “terrified” at being released from the Bali prison, where’s he’s spent the past 11 1/2 years.
“He’s known since the end of last year that he was going to be leaving,” Dixon said. “But it happened really suddenly. He was really scared about leaving.”
Chronicle Media reported in July 2023 that Schaefer “could be released from Indonesian custody and return to the United States as early as spring of 2026. Australian journalist Dave Smith noted on the news.com website, in June 2023, “Schaefer has already had four years and two months shaved off his sentence and was set to receive another six-month reduction that August. With effectively 18 months off his sentence annually, Schaefer can expect release as early as April of 2026, and possibly earlier.”
The Indonesian government routinely issues annual sentence “remissions” to most prisoners for good behavior. They usually are granted on Indonesian Independence Day in August. Additional remissions can be granted on other significant days, such as the end of the observance of Ramadan.
Mack was arrested by the FBI on November 3, 2021, as she stepped off the jet bridge at O’Hare Airport upon her return from Bali. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison in January 2025 and is currently being incarcerated at the Hazelton Correctional facility in West Virginia.
In the translated wording of the Indonesian judges, Schaefer received an 18 year sentence for “deliberatively and with premeditation, taking the life of another person. … Sheila Ann Von Weise.”
The Bali court found Heather Mack guilty of “deliberatively providing assistance, at the time the crime was committed, to Tommy Schaefer” during the killing of her mother.
A daunting array of texts and other evidence recovered by federal investigators strongly indicates Schaefer was a willing participant in the conspiracy, took the lead role in the killing, and relished the prospect of a rich payoff for killing von Wiese.
