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Daughter Stuffs Mom's Body in Pricey Luggage at 5-Star Resort · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: A gorgeous young brunette beauty Heather Mac, age twenty five,
0:10
Speaker 1: says she is afraid to come back to the US
0:15
Speaker 1: from Bolly because of what her daughter, her little girl,
0:20
Speaker 1: might find out about mommy's reputation, what it might say
0:24
Speaker 1: about her online. Well, you know what, Heather Mac, You
0:27
Speaker 1: should have thought about that before you murdered your mother
0:33
Speaker 1: and stuffed her oozing body into a suitcase. Says nobody asked.
0:38
Speaker 1: That's my advice. Don't worry about your reputation. Now it's
0:43
Speaker 1: too late for that, Heather Mack, you better be worried
0:46
Speaker 1: about hopefully getting out of jail someday from your Bolly
0:51
Speaker 1: prison cell. Well, I'm afraid to tell you. Heather Mac
1:04
Speaker 1: is set to walk free after brutally murdering her own mother,
1:10
Speaker 1: who had done nothing but take care of her, doting
1:13
Speaker 1: on her, spoiling her her whole life, murders her, stuffs
1:18
Speaker 1: her in a suitcase, leaves her out in front of
1:21
Speaker 1: a hotel for the bellboy to find, and now she's
1:25
Speaker 1: worried about her reputation. Okay, how did this whole thing
1:30
Speaker 1: get started? Take a listen to this. Two neighbors who
1:33
Speaker 1: did not want to go on camera, tell me that
1:35
Speaker 1: Sheila von weis Mac lived inside this oak park Holm
1:39
Speaker 1: for many, many years, but she moved about a year ago,
1:42
Speaker 1: selling it to a developer. While this morning, neighbors here
1:46
Speaker 1: are horrified to hear of her murder. Police officials say
1:50
Speaker 1: the remains were stuff into a suitcase and found on
1:53
Speaker 1: the Indonesian resort island of Bali. The discovery was made Tuesday.
1:57
Speaker 1: The body was inside the trunk of a taxi parked
2:00
Speaker 1: in front of the upscale Saint Regis Hotel. She was
2:03
Speaker 1: half naked with wounds to her head, according to police,
2:07
Speaker 1: half naked, beaten about the head. Her bloody bodies crammed
2:12
Speaker 1: into a suitcase and left outside of a hotel about
2:15
Speaker 1: the Saint Regis. Wasn't too happy to see a suitcase
2:18
Speaker 1: with blood easing out. You were just hearing reporter Jessica
2:21
Speaker 1: Dnofrio ABC seven. We're talking about the murdered victim. But
2:27
Speaker 1: who was the murdered victim in life? Sheila Vanuis Mack.
2:35
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at crime Online. Friends
2:37
Speaker 1: describe she live on weiss Mack as a lovely and
2:39
Speaker 1: cultured woman, well connected politically. Before her marriage, she was
2:43
Speaker 1: a political science student at Simmons College in Boston. She
2:46
Speaker 1: took a job working for Senator Ted Kennedy doing research
2:50
Speaker 1: and other odd jobs. She told friends she even poured
2:53
Speaker 1: tea for Rose Kennedy a time or two. After leaving
2:56
Speaker 1: Senator Kennedy's camp, Sheila went to work for Jackie Kennedy.
3:00
Speaker 1: While studying for a PhD at the University of Chicago,
3:03
Speaker 1: she was friends with famed novelist Saul Bellow, who was
3:06
Speaker 1: awarded a Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and
3:10
Speaker 1: the National Medal of Arts. Wow, that's pretty impressive. So
3:16
Speaker 1: that's the mom has found stuffed in a suitcase. But
3:20
Speaker 1: who is Heather Mack's father? Listen to this? James Mack
3:24
Speaker 1: was a well known educator, composer, and arranger. He first
3:28
Speaker 1: taught jazz studies at Crane Junior College, Chicago's oldest city college.
3:33
Speaker 1: Mac is credited for teaching a generation of up and
3:35
Speaker 1: coming musicians who would go on to become internationally famous,
3:39
Speaker 1: including some of the founding members of Earth Wind and
3:42
Speaker 1: Fire and others who were longtime session players for Muddy Waters,
3:46
Speaker 1: BB King, Phil Collins, and others. He also moonlighted as
3:50
Speaker 1: an arranger and producer for record labels including Chess Capital
3:54
Speaker 1: and Columbia, and served as a guest conductor for the
3:57
Speaker 1: Chicago Synthhon New Orchestra. Mac already had a son and
4:01
Speaker 1: four daughters by two previous marriages when he married Sheila
4:05
Speaker 1: von Weiss, twenty two years his junior, at the age
4:08
Speaker 1: of sixty six, despite having health problems, Mac became a
4:12
Speaker 1: new dad. Wow, so both parents brilliant in their own way.
4:17
Speaker 1: She a very cultured, sophisticated, educated woman married too, a
4:23
Speaker 1: jazz star, a composer and arranger. You know, before I
4:28
Speaker 1: introduced the whole panel, I just got to ask, is
4:30
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Restarch Institute and
4:34
Speaker 1: forensics expert, how can two such wonderful, brilliant parents have
4:41
Speaker 1: a devil spawn like Heather Mack? How does that happen?
4:46
Speaker 1: This is a very unusual case. It's a very unusual situation.
4:50
Speaker 1: Normally you do not see this in a homicide case
4:53
Speaker 1: of this magnitude. So we know about the mom, we
4:56
Speaker 1: know about the dad. What about the area here? Did
5:00
Speaker 1: this child who turns into a killer? Let me tell
5:02
Speaker 1: you match side killing her mother is very, very rares, parenthicide.
5:10
Speaker 1: Listen to this. The mac holme was well known by
5:13
Speaker 1: Oak Park Police. Between January two thousand and four and
5:16
Speaker 1: June twenty thirteen, officers responded to eighty six calls on
5:21
Speaker 1: a variety of charges, including domestic violence, theft, missing person,
5:25
Speaker 1: and nine hang ups. The relationship between mother and daughter
5:29
Speaker 1: was tenuous. Coo County juvenile records show that Heathermack was
5:33
Speaker 1: arrested in December two eleven on domestic battery, aggravated battery,
5:39
Speaker 1: and battery charges involving violence against her mother. Many of
5:42
Speaker 1: the calls before this incidents included alleged physical violence against
5:47
Speaker 1: she live on wis Mack, such as biting, punching, and hitting.
5:51
Speaker 1: Reports say one incident caused the mom to break her arm.
5:55
Speaker 1: A guilty verdict lended heathermac in mandatory counseling with a
5:58
Speaker 1: focus on your management. WHOA why did they call it
6:05
Speaker 1: a tenuous relationship between mother and daughter? This girl was
6:10
Speaker 1: beating the hdble l out of her own mother. Did
6:15
Speaker 1: you hear that? Eighty six calls to the home. And
6:18
Speaker 1: this is a very ritzy area. It's a mansion there,
6:21
Speaker 1: I said it beautiful area. No crime that we know
6:25
Speaker 1: of eighty six called. And when you hear domestic matter,
6:32
Speaker 1: you usually think it's the husband or the male partner
6:34
Speaker 1: beating up the wife. It's the daughter, Heather Mack beating
6:40
Speaker 1: on mom. Let me introduce you our all star panel.
6:44
Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags on Amazon.
6:49
Speaker 1: You can find her at Wendy Patrick PhD dot com
6:53
Speaker 1: or on Today with Doctor Wendy KCBQ in San Diego.
6:57
Speaker 1: Doctor Jory Cross in psychology, just Faculties, Saint Leo University,
7:02
Speaker 1: Research consultant, author of st Stop Officers Suicide. Cheryl McCollough,
7:09
Speaker 1: Founder Director, Coldcase Research Institute, forensics expert. You can find
7:13
Speaker 1: her at Coldcase Crimes dot org. Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics,
7:18
Speaker 1: Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon,
7:22
Speaker 1: and star of a brand new hit series Piketon Massacre
7:26
Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio. But first to Christie missouri Emmy Award winning
7:30
Speaker 1: investigative reporter joining us from Crime online dot com. Christy Missourich,
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Speaker 1: why wait, let me understand this. So there have been
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Speaker 1: eighty six nine one one calls to this mansion where
7:43
Speaker 1: the victim Sheilavon Wes Mac lives with the daughter, but
7:48
Speaker 1: the mom still wants to mend bridges with the devil
7:51
Speaker 1: daughter and take her on an all expense paid trip
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Speaker 1: to Bali. What it true, Christy, Missouri that Sheila's friends said,
8:03
Speaker 1: don't take her on a vacation, don't be alone with her.
8:07
Speaker 1: They were very concerned and family friends kept pleading with her,
8:13
Speaker 1: keep her here in the States, let her walk away.
8:17
Speaker 1: She was eighteen years old at the time. Heather always
8:20
Speaker 1: maintained it was her mother who created the dysfunctional, codependent
8:25
Speaker 1: love hate relationship. Really who had the broken arm? Right?
8:30
Speaker 1: She blamed her mom for what she claims was drunken
8:33
Speaker 1: squandering of her father's estate after he died from cancer
8:37
Speaker 1: when she was about ten years old. Oh because later
8:40
Speaker 1: on she claims her mother murdered her father. Correct, he
8:43
Speaker 1: died of cancer. Right. Take a listen to reporter Matt
8:48
Speaker 1: Doran and Chris Hansen at Crimewatch Daily. She was becoming
8:54
Speaker 1: very defiant and not wanting to listen to any rules.
8:58
Speaker 1: And Sheila and I had many, many talks, and you know,
9:02
Speaker 1: I said, you know, there's a reason the term trouble
9:05
Speaker 1: teen is out there. But did Heather's troubles go beyond
9:08
Speaker 1: that of a normal teen. She started skipping school, hanging
9:12
Speaker 1: out with a rougher crowd, and even began stealing large
9:15
Speaker 1: sums of money from her own mom. What did Sheila
9:18
Speaker 1: tell you about what was going on behind Clestals, Well,
9:21
Speaker 1: she told me that she was being abused by Heather.
9:24
Speaker 1: I mean she was constantly being attacked physically, and he
9:27
Speaker 1: had an explosive temper, I mean no question about that.
9:31
Speaker 1: Tim erupted at the slightest propagation. In fact, over a
9:35
Speaker 1: ten year period, police were called here on reports of
9:38
Speaker 1: domestic violence more than eighty times. She would bite Sheila,
9:43
Speaker 1: she would hit her, and it was at the point
9:47
Speaker 1: of she was sustaining serious injury. Well, Heather pushed her
9:50
Speaker 1: one time in the bathroom and she fell and broke
9:53
Speaker 1: her arm. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. You know what
10:04
Speaker 1: that shows me, Doctor Jerry Cross and psychologist faculty Saint
10:08
Speaker 1: Leo University. It shows me there's really no end to
10:14
Speaker 1: a mother's love. We do whatever it takes to help
10:20
Speaker 1: our child. And here this poor mom was literally being
10:28
Speaker 1: beaten up by her daughter, Heather Mack. But instead of
10:33
Speaker 1: kicking her out, she decides to take her to mend
10:36
Speaker 1: Bridges on an all expense paid trip to BOLLI explain
10:42
Speaker 1: that to me, doctor Jory, Mother's love is unconditional, boy,
10:46
Speaker 1: that's for sure, and unfortunately is deadly. You know, She's
10:50
Speaker 1: trying to do the best she can as far as,
10:53
Speaker 1: like you say, mending that relationship and thinking, maybe if
10:57
Speaker 1: I can just get away with her and relax and
10:59
Speaker 1: spend some time with her and maybe talk things out.
11:03
Speaker 1: Following up on what doctor Joy Crossen just said, Mom,
11:08
Speaker 1: Sheila trying desperately to get her daughter to a different environment.
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Speaker 1: Some were beautiful, some are calming, relaxing, joyful. What's more
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Speaker 1: beautiful than boy? I mean, I've never been there, but
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Speaker 1: I've looked at pictures and it just seems like heaven
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Speaker 1: on earth. So she spends a ton of money to
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Speaker 1: take her daughter away, just the two of them, mother daughter,
11:36
Speaker 1: It would be a great environment to start mending and
11:39
Speaker 1: starting the healing process in that relationship. Exactly. Well, she
11:44
Speaker 1: sure got a surprise when she got there. Take a
11:47
Speaker 1: listen to Chris Hanson a Crime Watch daily, So Sheila's
11:51
Speaker 1: surprised less than two weeks into the trip. Tommy Shiver
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Speaker 1: there's boyfriend suddenly arrived on the twelve thousand dollars flight
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Speaker 1: from Chicago. Has no idea Tommy was coming. In fact,
12:02
Speaker 1: if anything, Sheila had wanted Heather to come on the
12:05
Speaker 1: trip to get her away from people she considered bad influences.
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Speaker 1: The last person in the world she wanted to say
12:11
Speaker 1: in Vali was him. And so then the question is, well,
12:15
Speaker 1: how did he get there? I mean just twelve thousand
12:17
Speaker 1: dollars for an airplane take. But Sheila would soon find
12:21
Speaker 1: out in addition to the room he had been saying,
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Speaker 1: and Tommy's entire trip was being financed by a credit
12:27
Speaker 1: card Heather had taken from her mom. All accounts Sheila
12:30
Speaker 1: was living and do you blame her? She was there
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Speaker 1: to reconnect with her daughter, and all of a sudden
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Speaker 1: this boyfriend who she doesn't like shows up on her dime.
12:41
Speaker 1: That must have been infuriating. Who is this guy? Chrissy
12:45
Speaker 1: Missourich joining us in crime online dot com. Who is
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Speaker 1: this guy? He is the love of Heather max life
12:52
Speaker 1: that would get her throne in jail. Tommy Schaeffer kind
12:56
Speaker 1: of a street fog from He's It's from an affluent family,
13:01
Speaker 1: but he like to hang kinda with some a foggy
13:04
Speaker 1: type of people in downtown Chicago. I don't get that.
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Speaker 1: What is that, Sheryl McCallum. You and I have seen
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Speaker 1: that many times. Let me go to Wendy Patrick, California
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Speaker 1: prosecutor or host, author of Red Flags and host of
13:16
Speaker 1: Today with Doctor Wendy. Wendy, I've seen that where teens
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Speaker 1: children are born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
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Speaker 1: Their parents bend over backwards to do everything they can
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Speaker 1: for them, but they want to hang out with thugs
13:29
Speaker 1: and go get in trouble. That's more fun than going
13:32
Speaker 1: to a recital or a prayer meeting. No, they want
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Speaker 1: to hang out with the bad guys. Yeah, bad boys
13:41
Speaker 1: and dark heroes and learning that bad company corrupts character,
13:45
Speaker 1: as we say, And you know, my parents used to say,
13:47
Speaker 1: show me your friends, and I'll show you your future.
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Speaker 1: I think we should still see that today because this
13:52
Speaker 1: kind of dynamic is very common, and it's not just
13:56
Speaker 1: common with young teens. You know, we wish that this
13:59
Speaker 1: would be something and somebody would grow out of. What
14:01
Speaker 1: cases like this illustrate is this permeates culture sometimes even
14:06
Speaker 1: when people are young adults and God forbid, even when
14:08
Speaker 1: we become adults, you mean, you gravitate toward that Bengali
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Speaker 1: type person, the life of the party, the dangerous one.
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Speaker 1: Is that something in human nature? You know, in human
14:21
Speaker 1: nature we tend to see that in some types of personalities.
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Speaker 1: It is certainly not something universal that everybody needs to
14:28
Speaker 1: worry about. But when you see this kind of a pattern,
14:31
Speaker 1: and when you see this kind of a pattern dispite
14:33
Speaker 1: the upbringing that this young woman had, you have to
14:37
Speaker 1: wonder how did this start? What ll did you know
14:40
Speaker 1: the socialization process play in it? Or is this just
14:43
Speaker 1: somebody who preferred that kind of a dangerous, living on
14:47
Speaker 1: the edge lifestyle. Whatever the explanation is, we certainly know
14:50
Speaker 1: how it turned out here. You know, Schryl McCollum. You
14:53
Speaker 1: and I have been in court a lot of times together,
14:56
Speaker 1: and I have sayen where children, teens, adults, with every
15:04
Speaker 1: advantage in the world gravitate toward what is dark and
15:09
Speaker 1: evil and end up getting dragged down with it. No question,
15:14
Speaker 1: Sometimes that criminal element it's just sexier, it's a more
15:18
Speaker 1: interesting story. It's kind of living on the edge, and
15:21
Speaker 1: it's got this thrill to it. I mean, a lot
15:24
Speaker 1: of people get kind of sucked into that. But I
15:27
Speaker 1: think it's important to talk about the eighty six times
15:30
Speaker 1: police were involved. This has nothing to do with the boyfriend.
15:33
Speaker 1: This is her nancy. If you were talking about eighty
15:37
Speaker 1: six robberies or eighty six VUIs, we would be losing
15:40
Speaker 1: our mind. While this person was not in jail. I'll
15:44
Speaker 1: tell you why she wasn't in jail. The mother would
15:46
Speaker 1: never wanted her prosecuted. She would beat the mother up,
15:50
Speaker 1: This wealthy, cultured, educated mom. Her daughter would beat her
15:56
Speaker 1: to smithers, but she didn't want her daughter to have
15:59
Speaker 1: a jail record. Finally, the police insisted and she was
16:04
Speaker 1: found guilty of abusing her own mother. Oh, I'm not
16:10
Speaker 1: putting the onus on the boyfriend. She saw this out herself,
16:15
Speaker 1: and you're right, she had horns sprouting from day one
16:20
Speaker 1: before she met the boyfriend. But it is quite the
16:23
Speaker 1: Coinkie Dan right that just ten hours after the boyfriend's
16:29
Speaker 1: plane touches down, we got problems. Take a listen to
16:34
Speaker 1: Matt Doran and Chris Hansen Crime Watched Daily. Ten hours
16:40
Speaker 1: after the wheels of Tommy's plane hit the ground in Bali,
16:43
Speaker 1: surveillance cameras capfter him entering Sheila's hotel room with a
16:47
Speaker 1: handle of a middle fruit bowl stuffed under his shirt.
16:50
Speaker 1: About an hour after that, Heather and Tommy are seen
16:53
Speaker 1: heading to the lobby with a silver suitcase, which they
16:56
Speaker 1: placed in the back of attachee before running off. It's
16:59
Speaker 1: not all the driver takes the abandoned luggage to the
17:02
Speaker 1: police station that they find out what's inside the bloodied,
17:07
Speaker 1: half naked body of Sheila Vanui Smack. She had been
17:10
Speaker 1: blooded repeatedly before asphyxiating on her own blood. So where
17:17
Speaker 1: were Tommy and Heather? For just less than a day?
17:20
Speaker 1: The media painted this pair as a modern day Bonnie
17:22
Speaker 1: and Clyde, young American fugitives wanted for a particularly brutal murder,
17:27
Speaker 1: but their time on the run would end here at
17:30
Speaker 1: this budget motel less than a mile from the crime scene.
17:33
Speaker 1: Staff alerting police after becoming suspicious that the lovers had
17:36
Speaker 1: checked in without any luggage. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
17:51
Speaker 1: to Joscot Morgan, professor Forresick Shacksville State University and author
17:55
Speaker 1: of Blood Beneath My Feet Joscott, how did this loving
17:59
Speaker 1: mother who sacrificed so much, how does she actually die?
18:05
Speaker 1: And then I want to talk to you about the
18:06
Speaker 1: phenomena that you and I have encountered many times, if
18:09
Speaker 1: stuffing bodies in suitcases. Yeah, let me paint a picture
18:15
Speaker 1: for you, Nancy, in the report that was given forth
18:19
Speaker 1: by the forensic expert at the hospital. And keep in mind,
18:23
Speaker 1: this is not like being in America. They're in Bali, okay.
18:26
Speaker 1: But the report that came from there states that not
18:32
Speaker 1: only was she beaten about the head, Nancy, she's beaten
18:36
Speaker 1: about the face. And you want to know what that
18:38
Speaker 1: says to me? She saw this coming, she was looking.
18:43
Speaker 1: She was looking for as long as she could. She
18:45
Speaker 1: probably wound up being blinded, either by her own blood
18:49
Speaker 1: or maybe maybe her optic nerves became dislodged. But she
18:55
Speaker 1: had an awareness. Her facial bones were fractured, her skull
18:59
Speaker 1: has been fractured. And Nancy, I'll tell you how else.
19:02
Speaker 1: I know that she had an awareness. She had fractures
19:07
Speaker 1: on her arms and her hands, multiple contusions otherwise known
19:11
Speaker 1: as bruising. And her cause of death, remember what was
19:16
Speaker 1: just said, she actually suffocated, Nancy. When she suffocated, more
19:20
Speaker 1: than likely, and this is just MEO Pine in here.
19:24
Speaker 1: Her facial bones were fractured, so she would have literally
19:28
Speaker 1: inhalated the bone and the blood that we can normally,
19:33
Speaker 1: you know, we can normally process something that it might
19:36
Speaker 1: be in our mouth and our airway. We can. But
19:38
Speaker 1: she was so debilitated but still clinging to life. And
19:42
Speaker 1: so when they went to do the autopsy on her
19:45
Speaker 1: and they opened up her airway, Nancy, her lungs would
19:49
Speaker 1: not only have been filled with her own blood in
19:53
Speaker 1: the tiny little air sacks, you would have sent fragmented
19:56
Speaker 1: pieces of bone in there potentially as well. It would
19:59
Speaker 1: have been an excruciy, excruciating way to die. It is
20:04
Speaker 1: just beyond the pale. This gives an indication of the
20:08
Speaker 1: level of violence, and Nancy, I'm gonna I don't want
20:11
Speaker 1: to bury the lead here, but I gotta tell you
20:13
Speaker 1: I know where you're going with this. He came down
20:16
Speaker 1: there with specific intent. He flew down there. They had
20:19
Speaker 1: a plan. This was premeditated. He went down there as
20:22
Speaker 1: an assassin. He assassinated this poor little woman, Yes he did,
20:28
Speaker 1: with her own daughter leading the attack. And then the
20:35
Speaker 1: horror of you know what. I remember going to a
20:39
Speaker 1: circus with the twins, the big one Barnem Barnum and
20:47
Speaker 1: Bailey and there was a contortionist. There were two of them.
20:52
Speaker 1: I think they were sisters, and they could wrap their
20:55
Speaker 1: bodies like they would fold them up. They'd fold up
20:59
Speaker 1: their body and in a suitcase and close the suit
21:01
Speaker 1: It was a box, a suitcase, and we couldn't believe
21:04
Speaker 1: it because it's very small. And I remember thinking, how
21:11
Speaker 1: did she do that? And now I'm thinking about this
21:15
Speaker 1: mom her body being crunched and folded over and crammed
21:23
Speaker 1: into a suitcase. How did that happen? Listen to Alex
21:27
Speaker 1: Perez GMA. This morning, a gruesome discovery near the upscale
21:33
Speaker 1: Saint Regis Resorts in Bali is sending shockwaves from there
21:37
Speaker 1: all the way here to Chicago about the authorities finding
21:40
Speaker 1: the body of vacationing American at the Sheila Vanus Mack
21:43
Speaker 1: stuffed inside this silver suitcase. The luggage left in the
21:47
Speaker 1: trunk of this cab contained for questioning. Now came Mac's
21:52
Speaker 1: own nineteen year old daughter, Heather and her boyfriend Tommy Schaeffer. Heather,
21:56
Speaker 1: Mac and Shaeffer were arrested Wednesday at a hotel about
21:59
Speaker 1: six miles away from the resorts, telling investigators they had
22:02
Speaker 1: escaped after being kidnapped by armed gang members who murdered
22:06
Speaker 1: her mother, but investigators say surveillance video shows the mother
22:10
Speaker 1: and daughter arguing in the hours before the murderer. Later,
22:13
Speaker 1: police ate the young couple called for a taxi, placing
22:16
Speaker 1: several suitcases inside before going back in the hotel to
22:20
Speaker 1: check out. They said when they didn't return, hotel security
22:24
Speaker 1: discovered the suitcase, so they put their mom's body crunched up,
22:29
Speaker 1: folded up into a suitcase, stick it in, leave it
22:33
Speaker 1: out front for a taxi to put into the taxi,
22:35
Speaker 1: and then they go into check out and run. My
22:39
Speaker 1: understanding is I guess through the woods to get away
22:44
Speaker 1: out in the back door, literally running out the back
22:48
Speaker 1: door to get away to you. Cheryl McCollum, director of
22:53
Speaker 1: the Cold Case Research Institute. The way they treated her body,
22:58
Speaker 1: folding her up, literally folding her up and stuffing her
23:03
Speaker 1: into suitcase. I wonder if Heather Max sat on top
23:05
Speaker 1: of it while the boyfriend managed to close it. It
23:09
Speaker 1: is more grotesque than that. They used tape to wrap
23:13
Speaker 1: around her to hold her in place so that she
23:15
Speaker 1: would fit. So this took some time and it was bloody.
23:20
Speaker 1: It was a horrific scene. You can even see on
23:23
Speaker 1: the outside of the luggage when they take the garbage
23:26
Speaker 1: bag off, it's just saturated with her blood. You know,
23:32
Speaker 1: we're so used to analyzing evidence, Wendy Patrick, that when
23:39
Speaker 1: you hear a comment like that the suitcase was saturated
23:43
Speaker 1: with the mother's blood, a lot of times we just
23:47
Speaker 1: make a note of it because we're going to use
23:49
Speaker 1: that in a closing statement. Think about that for a moment, though, Wendy.
23:54
Speaker 1: The suitcase was saturated with her mother's blood. She bound
23:59
Speaker 1: her mother with a duct tape, her body folded over
24:03
Speaker 1: and contorted to fit into a suitcase. Yeah, you know
24:06
Speaker 1: what that tells me. And what you know, even as
24:09
Speaker 1: the human being haven't been a prosecutor for so many years,
24:11
Speaker 1: is the amount of time that the mother suffered. I
24:15
Speaker 1: don't think anyone can think through what happened here, even
24:19
Speaker 1: if you were just to hear about the injuries and
24:22
Speaker 1: not feel how long that mother suffered, and at the
24:27
Speaker 1: hands of her own daughter, who she loved enough to
24:31
Speaker 1: forgive all of those years of abuse, the eighty six
24:34
Speaker 1: calls to the house. You know, the mother's love, the
24:37
Speaker 1: family first mentality for this mother ended up being fatal
24:42
Speaker 1: to you. Doctor Joy cross In psychologist faculty Saint Leo author,
24:49
Speaker 1: doctor Joy. What does that tell you about how she
24:55
Speaker 1: considered her mother? But you know the level of violence,
24:59
Speaker 1: there's always the close relationship. I mean, you can just
25:02
Speaker 1: about there's been a lot of research to the show
25:04
Speaker 1: that you know, the more violence, the closer the relationship.
25:07
Speaker 1: I agree with Joe that you know, the boyfriend showed
25:11
Speaker 1: up over there with a plan to killer and when
25:15
Speaker 1: they got together, Heather and the boyfriend, you know, there's energy,
25:20
Speaker 1: but there's also what's called synergy. I mean, it just
25:22
Speaker 1: synergizes this level of violence, and it's documented in all
25:28
Speaker 1: the wounds to the body and how vicious the attack was.
25:34
Speaker 1: And I want to go to you, just Scott Morgan.
25:37
Speaker 1: Patricide is very very rare, actually, especially the murder of
25:42
Speaker 1: your own mother. Yeah, yeah, it is, and it's not
25:46
Speaker 1: something that you come across every day. I've worked cases
25:50
Speaker 1: in my career, and you know, Nancy, I've got to
25:52
Speaker 1: tell you those cases that I have worked when you
25:55
Speaker 1: begin to rate them, and this is only my little
25:58
Speaker 1: slice of the world, but from what I have observed,
26:02
Speaker 1: those were traditionally some of the most violent cases that
26:06
Speaker 1: I ever encountered, and I think a lot of it
26:09
Speaker 1: has to do with anger climb stories with Nancy Grace
26:24
Speaker 1: match aside, The murder of your own mother makes up
26:29
Speaker 1: a little less than two percent of all homicides. It
26:35
Speaker 1: is very very rare, even for people that's for some
26:40
Speaker 1: reason hate their mother. To kill your mother, very very rare.
26:47
Speaker 1: This with the shocking development that Heather mac is about
26:52
Speaker 1: to walk free. So how has she been spending her
26:56
Speaker 1: time behind bars? Take a list to our friends at
27:01
Speaker 1: Inside Edition. Not exactly hard time, is it? That's mom
27:08
Speaker 1: killer Heather Matt having fun dancing while she's in prison
27:12
Speaker 1: on the island paradise of Bali. Heather is wearing makeup
27:18
Speaker 1: and books Happy Go Lucky as she playfully sticks her
27:21
Speaker 1: tongue out. And here's the twenty year old Chicago raised
27:24
Speaker 1: Harris in trendy shades, a big smile on her face.
27:28
Speaker 1: Heather and her boyfriend Tommy Shaffer were convicted of murdering
27:31
Speaker 1: her mother and stuffing the body into a suitcase during
27:34
Speaker 1: a vacation in Bali last year. Japer is doing eighteen years,
27:38
Speaker 1: Heather got ten. The young lover's daughter, Stella, was born
27:42
Speaker 1: in prison and is now six months old. This video
27:46
Speaker 1: shows Shaeffer cradling Stella while mom was DANCINGO. The prison
27:57
Speaker 1: where Heather and her boyfriend are being held has been
27:59
Speaker 1: destroyed as a hell hole, but it sure doesn't look
28:03
Speaker 1: like that in this new video. Okay, I don't understand
28:06
Speaker 1: Christy Zurich. How is she wearing makeup and dancing and
28:12
Speaker 1: mugging at a camera with her baby behind bars? So
28:18
Speaker 1: in Indonesia, moms can stay with their kids behind bars
28:23
Speaker 1: for up to two years. Also, what I've heard from
28:26
Speaker 1: some of my sources is that Heather has taken some
28:30
Speaker 1: of her mom's money to pay off prison guards relaxed rules. Okay,
28:39
Speaker 1: you know, it reminds me of You're in Vandersleet Wendy Patrick,
28:42
Speaker 1: who somehow has drugs and booze and got someone pregnant
28:48
Speaker 1: behind bars after he murdered Natalie Holloway and Stephanie Tassiano
28:53
Speaker 1: Flores in Lima. Yeah, she's having a party. Yeah. You know,
28:59
Speaker 1: sometimes when we hear that somebody's in prison, the mental
29:02
Speaker 1: imagery that comes to mind is very far from reality,
29:05
Speaker 1: and that appears to be the case here. I have
29:08
Speaker 1: to tell you, Nancy, more and more frequently we are
29:10
Speaker 1: getting this glimpse unfortunately in a sense, into what goes
29:14
Speaker 1: on behind bars because of the amount of contraband phones
29:17
Speaker 1: that are behind bars. So every time I see footage
29:20
Speaker 1: somehow captured in a high security facility of wherever it
29:24
Speaker 1: is in the world, that also tells me the contraband
29:27
Speaker 1: issue that goes on, where all of these phones and
29:30
Speaker 1: waves to capture footage like this. If that's the way
29:33
Speaker 1: it was done, I don't know is even possible, but
29:36
Speaker 1: I suppose on the bright side, it gives us somewhat
29:39
Speaker 1: of an idea as to what prison life is like
29:42
Speaker 1: in order for us to make the corrections that we
29:44
Speaker 1: need to. Well, all I know is she is not
29:47
Speaker 1: roughing it behind bars at all. She's got makeup music,
29:53
Speaker 1: she's dancing, she's got contraband, she's got her daughter, And
29:57
Speaker 1: now she's worried about coming home to the US because
30:01
Speaker 1: her daughter might find out she's a murderer. First of all,
30:04
Speaker 1: why should she have the baby? How would you grow
30:08
Speaker 1: and flourish with Heather mac as your mother. Well that's
30:12
Speaker 1: not all. Take a listen to Less Trent from Inside Edition.
30:17
Speaker 1: Don't regret killing my mother, And as evil as that
30:19
Speaker 1: may sound, that's my reality. A chilling confession from behind
30:23
Speaker 1: bars by the American heiress who murdered her wealthy mother
30:27
Speaker 1: on vacation in Bali. I made it up in my heart,
30:32
Speaker 1: my mind, my soul, my blood, oxygen running through my body.
30:41
Speaker 1: But I wanted to kill my mother. Now listen to why.
30:44
Speaker 1: Twenty one year old Heather Mack says she beat her
30:47
Speaker 1: mom to death and stuffed her body in a suitcase.
30:50
Speaker 1: When I was ten, my mother killed my father in
30:53
Speaker 1: a hotel in Athens, Greece. Could Heather be making up
30:57
Speaker 1: the story? We spoke to family friend Elliott Jacobson, who
31:00
Speaker 1: says Heather's claims are nonsense. It's a kind of statement
31:04
Speaker 1: that doesn't even warrant the response. It's such an absurdity.
31:08
Speaker 1: He showed me this death certificate for Heather's father, Jane's Mack.
31:12
Speaker 1: It gives the cause of death as pulmonary embolism, a
31:16
Speaker 1: blood clot in the lungs. You were hearing not only
31:19
Speaker 1: our friend less trended Inside Edition, but you're hearing Heather
31:23
Speaker 1: Max saying she does not regret murdering her mother. She
31:26
Speaker 1: gives justification that her mother murdered her father when she
31:31
Speaker 1: was ten in Athens, Greece. That could not be further
31:34
Speaker 1: from the truth. You hear the family friend, Elliott Jacobson
31:38
Speaker 1: saying that that was not his cause of death. The
31:41
Speaker 1: father's cause of death was a pulmonary embolism, a blood
31:44
Speaker 1: clot in the lungs brought about through a battle with cancer.
31:50
Speaker 1: So even now she's fabricating stories to justify murdering her mother.
31:57
Speaker 1: It shows me that there is no remorse, no acceptance
32:03
Speaker 1: of her crime. But yet she's still going to walk free.
32:06
Speaker 1: Christy Masseric, that is what I'm hearing. She's expected to
32:10
Speaker 1: be released from the prison in Volley in October, three
32:13
Speaker 1: years early for good behavior. I mean, this is a
32:16
Speaker 1: woman facing death by firing squad. Okay, let's take a
32:22
Speaker 1: listen to more of what we've learned. Here's Matt Duran
32:24
Speaker 1: and Chris Hansen it Crime Watch Daily. Does the evidence
32:27
Speaker 1: support Heather is a version of events. It's one thing,
32:31
Speaker 1: in the heat of the moment, in a violent exchange,
32:35
Speaker 1: to kill your own mother, But it's another thing entirely
32:39
Speaker 1: to map it out and for this to have been premeditated.
32:42
Speaker 1: So which was it? In my head? I actually happen?
32:50
Speaker 1: The police say there's a series of text messages Heather
32:53
Speaker 1: which show that which go to that very motive premeditation.
33:05
Speaker 1: I'm sure, yes, of course you want to call me back.
33:10
Speaker 1: That call never came. We would lose contact with Heather
33:13
Speaker 1: after those final words. It shows premeditation. Cheryl McCullum the
33:19
Speaker 1: text message between her and her boyfriend, it's just like
33:22
Speaker 1: doctor Jory said, he came there as an assassin, and
33:26
Speaker 1: now she's going to walk free. I only worry about
33:29
Speaker 1: what's going to happen to the baby. Well, let's talk
33:31
Speaker 1: about that, Nancy, because I think that's a lot of
33:33
Speaker 1: her motivation. So she originally tried to ask her boyfriend, hey,
33:37
Speaker 1: do you know somebody that can kill my mother for
33:38
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars. Then I think the two of them decided, hey,
33:42
Speaker 1: we can say fifty grain and do it ourselves and
33:44
Speaker 1: collect everything all the inheritance. She right now she wants
33:49
Speaker 1: that baby back with her. She's lying when she says
33:53
Speaker 1: she's worried that the baby's going to find out why
33:55
Speaker 1: she's in prison. The baby visits both of her parents
33:59
Speaker 1: in separate prison for murder. The baby's gonna know while
34:02
Speaker 1: they were there. That's a given. And this is what.
34:05
Speaker 1: I think she won't that baby back at Chicago with
34:08
Speaker 1: her because her daughter inherited her mother's estate. Guys, take
34:15
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends at NBC five Chicago. The
34:20
Speaker 1: twenty five year old Mac is due to be released
34:22
Speaker 1: three years early for good behavior. Saint Charles based attorney
34:25
Speaker 1: Vanessa Favia has represented Mac and Stella. She's definitely more
34:29
Speaker 1: mature now and being a mother has changed her drastically,
34:33
Speaker 1: So I think she's going to come back with a
34:36
Speaker 1: new lease on life and definitely a better person all around.
34:40
Speaker 1: Max's uncle Bill Weees tells NBC five he has not
34:43
Speaker 1: had contact with Heather and does not want to, and
34:45
Speaker 1: he says he believes Heather's original ten year sentence was
34:48
Speaker 1: a travesty of justice. Still, he says the family's hearts
34:51
Speaker 1: continue to go out to Stella and they hope she
34:54
Speaker 1: can be raised in a safe and loving environment. Meanwhile,
34:58
Speaker 1: Thavias says Mac is seriously considering bringing Stella to the US.
35:02
Speaker 1: I think the fear is related to just the unknown.
35:05
Speaker 1: She hasn't been here in so long, she doesn't know
35:08
Speaker 1: what to expect her who's really still here in supporting
35:12
Speaker 1: of her, So that's a big part of the fear.
35:16
Speaker 1: Everyone she would know in America now was friends with
35:19
Speaker 1: her mother that she murdered. I can't believe they're going
35:23
Speaker 1: to let her take this baby. She is a killer.
35:27
Speaker 1: We can't control what they do in Bali. And as
35:30
Speaker 1: far to you, Jessica Morgan, I don't know how she
35:34
Speaker 1: sleeps at night thinking back on the way she murdered
35:37
Speaker 1: her mother, duct taped her body into a ball to
35:40
Speaker 1: stick her into a suitcase. Why should she raise a
35:43
Speaker 1: baby girl. I have no idea because you know what,
35:46
Speaker 1: I'd see her cycling back into violence. This is not
35:49
Speaker 1: like something that just fell from lightning, like lightning from heaven.
35:54
Speaker 1: This is a premeditated event. This woman is evil. Nance Well,
35:59
Speaker 1: there were the eight six phone calls to police. Those
36:02
Speaker 1: were just the cost to police. How many other times
36:04
Speaker 1: did she batter her mother? And as far as maturing
36:07
Speaker 1: behind bars doctor Jerry Cross and she says, I don't
36:10
Speaker 1: regret murdering my mother, then makes up a story that
36:14
Speaker 1: her mom is a killer, that it's her mother's fault.
36:16
Speaker 1: She's dead in a suitcase. That's all. That's all justification
36:20
Speaker 1: for her, That's that's all that is. I mean, she
36:23
Speaker 1: is not mature, she's still lying about it. Why is
36:26
Speaker 1: she getting out three years early and taking this little,
36:29
Speaker 1: helpless baby with her. I think I think that has
36:35
Speaker 1: a lot to do with money and payoffs in the
36:37
Speaker 1: prison system and the whole legal system in Indonesia. Jump in, Cheryl.
36:42
Speaker 1: One way that prison is easy for people and enjoyable
36:45
Speaker 1: for you know people, is that they're the baddest soob
36:49
Speaker 1: in that place. I think her violence went with her
36:51
Speaker 1: into that prison. I think she's controlling an abusive to
36:54
Speaker 1: people there, and I think when she gets out, her
36:56
Speaker 1: lifestyle is not going to change at all. Take a
36:59
Speaker 1: listen into our longtime frim Jim Moray an inside edition.
37:03
Speaker 1: She looks like any other doting mom with her adorable child.
37:07
Speaker 1: But this is Heather mac the American heiress who killed
37:10
Speaker 1: her mother stuffed the body into a suitcase while vacationing
37:14
Speaker 1: at a ritzy resort in Bali. The new photos come
37:17
Speaker 1: as Heather learned she's being released from prison early. Forget
37:20
Speaker 1: this good behavior. She's excited, She's excited to know this.
37:24
Speaker 1: Journalist Andrea Dixon interviewed the so called suitcase killer, who
37:28
Speaker 1: said to be freed this October. She will be automatically deportioned.
37:33
Speaker 1: She doesn't have a choice in that. Weighing heavily on
37:36
Speaker 1: Heather's mind, she says, is whether to return to Chicago alone,
37:40
Speaker 1: leave her six year old daughter, Sella with the foster
37:42
Speaker 1: family who's been raising her since she was two years old.
37:45
Speaker 1: Heather is worried about the focus and the media attention
37:49
Speaker 1: that she and her adorshable get. She hasn't experienced any
37:53
Speaker 1: of that in Bali. People don't actually know who Stella is.
37:56
Speaker 1: She's just a normal key. Andrea Dixon says, Heather knows
37:59
Speaker 1: her return to the US will falls a big stir.
38:03
Speaker 1: She's prepared to face the music. Sounds like she's more
38:06
Speaker 1: concerned about herself than she is about her six year
38:10
Speaker 1: old little girl, Stella, but can only pray Stella, it's
38:15
Speaker 1: never in the clutches of her mother. Nancy Grace Crime
38:20
Speaker 1: Story signing off Goodbye frid