Heather Mack’s mother told police she feared her daughter would kill her. They were powerless to prevent it
The world first heard the story of American teenager Heather Mack and her mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack when the 62-year-old’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Indonesia.
But the story actually begins many years earlier.
Behind the headlines about the so-called “Suitcase Killer” is a tragic story of a mother who endured years of domestic violence at the hands of her child inside the home they shared in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago.
Abuse which ultimately escalated to that day in 2014 when the 18-year-old and her 21-year-old boyfriend bludgeoned her to death at a 5-star resort in Bali.
Rasul Freelain, a retired Oak Park Police sergeant who arrested Mack multiple times for allegedly abusing her mother, tells The Independent that the warning signs were there as soon as he met the pair for the first time back in 2010.
What he saw was a sadly typical case of a domestic abuse victim reluctant to speak out or take action against the abuser that she loved.
The violence grew progressively worse over the next few years until January 2013, when von Wiese-Mack made the chilling admission that she believed her daughter was going to kill her.
But – due to the current lack of laws around child to parent domestic abuse – Sgt Freelain and the Oak Park authorities were ultimately helpless to save von Wiese-Mack from her fate.
Nineteen months later, her tragic prediction became a reality.
“It was like watching a slow-moving train derailment – we can see it and we all look and see it falling off into a ravine,” says Sgt Freelain.
“I feel that on some level the entire criminal justice system failed Sheila.”
He adds: “Her daughter of course failed her the most. Her child who she loved and raised and doted on and did everything she could to win her affection and approval betrayed her in a way no one could match.”
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