A man convicted of killing a Chicago woman in Bali arrived on the island hours before the killing and checked into a resort using her credit card, according to Indonesian court documents.
The translated documents recently were made public in a Cook County court, where lawyers are preparing for a possible hearing about whether the woman's daughter is entitled to a $1.65 million trust.
Sheila von Wiese-Mack's body was found stuffed inside a suitcase in a taxi at the resort last August. Von Weise-Mack's daughter, Heather Mack, 19, and the daughter's boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, of Oak Park, have been convicted in her killing.
In the years prior to her murder, von Weise-Mack called Chicago-area police multiple times on her violent daughter.
NBC Chicago learned through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Wednesday Journal in Oak Park, that von Weis-Mack told police 18 months before her murder that she believed her daughter would kill her. The reporting officer at the time sent a memo to his supervisor documenting his concern.
Schaefer admitted to repeatedly striking von Wiese-Mack, 62, with a fruit bowl, claiming self-defense, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Mack is serving 10 years for assisting.
Stella, the couple's baby girl, was born in prison in March.
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The court filing details the written findings of a three-judge panel that oversaw Indonesian criminal proceedings in the case. It includes summaries of testimony from nearly two dozen witnesses, including Mack and Schaefer, and legal documents used to charge the couple.
The last time staff at the resort saw von Wiese-Mack alive was the early hours of Aug. 12, when she went to the lobby to report Mack was missing. When Mack appeared in the lobby, she and her mother began arguing. Von Wiese-Mack was "surprised and became angry" to learn that Schaefer had arrived uninvited and used her credit card to book a second hotel room, the manager said.
Mack claimed that when they returned to their suite, her mother found out Mack was pregnant and tried to find a knife to kill the baby, court documents said. But emails to friends show von Wiese-Mack was aware of her daughter's pregnancy before the trip.
The document doesn't contain verbatim witness testimonies or copies of text messages that prosecutors say the couple exchanged while planning the slaying.
In one text message, Mack asked Schaefer to find a hit man to kill her mother, according to authorities. In the hours leading up to the killing, the couple traded texts in which they discussed plans to smother von Wiese-Mack with a pillow and stage her death as if she committed suicide, prosecutors said.
