commentary by Patrick H. Moore
It’s somewhat of a mystery why one child will consent to live a more or less conventional lifestyle, while his or her brother or sister (with the same parents) will go hog-wild. In my own family, I was the only kid to truly “take a walk on the wild side”, a walk so wild that it’s somewhat miraculous that I’m sitting here today in a pleasant air-conditioned office in L.A. knocking out a post about Heather Mack, a rich and clearly spoiled girl who now finds herself facing possible charges for possibly (probably?) murdering her mother on the island of Bali where, if she is convicted, according to some reports, she could be facing the firing squad.
At the risk of being flippant, the firing squad is probably superior to the “needle” or “Old Sparky”, and is certainly a step up from the hangman’s noose.
It’s bad enough being arrested and charged with a capital crime here in the U.S., but it must be even worse in a foreign country where due process may be more or less non-existent. Therefore, if you’re a “walk on the wild side” teenager and feel compelled to murder your mom (or if your mom is murdered in a way which makes you look guilty), I suggest you do it right here at home… Or better yet, eat a few skittles instead, take a few selfies and send out a few Instagrams. Distract yourself with social media. In short, don’t be a fool.
Heather Mack has a great name but she appears to have been very foolish and now finds herself in serious trouble.
She and her boyfriend, 21-year-old hip-hopper Tommy Schaefer, were arrested by Balinese authorities on Wednesday after her mother, Sheila von Weise-Mack, was found half-naked, bloody and quite dead, stuffed inside a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi at the swanky St. Regis Bali resort where Heather and her mother had been staying for the past eight days.
Sheila and Heather have reportedly had a tempestuous relationship for years, which reportedly worsened markedly after Heather’s father, respected jazz musician and composer James Mack, died in 2006.
Rheana Murray of Good Morning America reports that according to the authorities, “closed-circuit TV footage shows von Weise-Mack arguing with her daughter’s boyfriend in the hotel lobby on Monday, the day before she was found dead.”
Ms. Murray writes:
“Once she became 18, her mother couldn’t control her anymore,” said Willie Nance, a music producer in Chicago who was close friends with James Mack, also a well-known producer and composer.
“Sheila was always concerned about the kind of people [Heather] was hanging out with,” Nance said. “She was on the wild side. And that was hard on Sheila.”
Heather was reportedly so hard to control that according to the Oak Park, Illinois police, they came out to the former Mack residence 86 times for domestic disturbances in less than 10 years (which may be a world).
Willie Nance reports that Heather often vanished without a word and wouldn’t tell her mother where she was going. Nance last spoke to von Weise-Mack about two weeks before her death.
“She was sad,” he said. “She was going through a few things with her daughter, and she was upset. Her daughter had left home and had been gone for like a month. She told me, ‘I just don’t know what to do –- it’s killing me.’ She loved that girl so much. And she loved her husband. And she was a beautiful person.”
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Damien Gayle, Richard Shears, Helen Pow and Martin Gould report for MailOnline:
The day after Tommy Schaefer and Heather’s mother reportedly had the heated argument in the St. Regis Bali lobby, the young couple decided to check out of the hotel and sent several suitcases down to a taxi waiting in front of the resort. One of the suitcases allegedly included Sheila von Weise-Mack bloody remains.
Unsurprisingly, Heather and Tommy chose not to follow Ms. Von Weise-Mack’s remains down to the taxi stand in front of the resort. Instead, the exited out the back via a stretch of beach and headed for the town of Kuta where they were apprehended by Balinese law enforcement on Wednesday morning. They were seen leaving the St Regis Bali by surveillance cameras.
CNN reports that at the time of their arrest, Heather and Tommy told police they had been taken captive at the resort by an armed gang whose members killed Ms. Von Wiese-Mack, but that they had later managed to escape. (I guess the gang must have left Heather’s mother’s body there in the hotel suite so that Heather and Tommy could pack it up and send it down to the taxi stand on Tuesday morning.)
The taxi driver with the body in the trunk of his cab is reported to have waited patiently for Heather and Tammy for around two hours before he consulted with the hotel staff who advised him to report the matter to the police. Very likely, the suitcase was leaking blood by that point.
The taxi driver then reportedly drove to the Kuta Police Station, where officers opened the suitcase and found Ms. von Weise-Mack’s remains.
‘The body was wrapped in a hotel bedsheet and tied up with duct tape,’ said Inspector Djoko (of the Balinese police). ‘There were blood stains all over the sheet.’
According to the Chicago Tribune, Hery Wiyanto, a Bali police spokesman has stated that no charges have been announced but ‘the couple are now being detained and interrogated.’
Michael Elkin, a Chicago attorney, has been retained to help Heather find legal representation in Bali. Elkin told ABC News he spoke to the teen on the phone:
“Heather was denied the right to speak with an attorney after being detained, until a few hours ago, which is quite disconcerting,” Elkin said in a statement. “During my brief conversation with Heather, I was made aware that a police guard was present in the room, even after I requested that I be able to speak to Heather without anyone being present.”
Elkin also said that any allegations that Mack is connected to her mother’s murder are false.
It’s unclear if Tommy Schaefer, 21, has legal representation at this point. Elkin said that at present, he is unaware of any plans to extradite them to the U.S.
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Is this another case of two immature and self-absorbed young people murdering a well-meaning, though perhaps somewhat unrealistic mother, because she was in the way and got on their nerves?
Of course, it would be a great thing for Heather and Tommy if they could prove that they really had been taken captive by an armed gang who killed Ms. Von Wiese-Mack, but this theory seems singularly far-fetched.
On balance, this is a very troubling case. Heather’s mother appears to have been unable to let go and let her daughter simply run wild, which is what she was bound and determined to do, while no doubt expecting Mom to foot the bill. Ms. von Wiese-Mack was in an impossible position which has led to her demise.
Should Ms. Von Wiese-Mack simply have stepped into the shadows and let Heather be Heather? Would Heather have grown-up before she destroyed herself completely? Who knows but I do know this. When a teenager (or young person) is determined to “take a walk on the wild side”, there is only one person on earth who can stop them and that one person is the teenager.
Note: Because this is a big story, all of the images available on Google appear to be stringently copyrighted. Therefore, if you would like to see images of the players in this disturbing tale, go to Google images and type in “Heather Mack Bali” and you will be richly rewarded.