Suitcase killer Heather Mack returns to Chicago with child who was born in prison as boyfriend hospitalised

The woman tried to leave her daughter in Bali to protect her from US media attention

(EPA)

An American woman convicted of killing her mother and stuffing her corpse in a suitcase at a Bali hotel has been deported from Indonesia back to the US. Heather Mack, who came to be known as the Suitcase Killer, left the country with her six-year-old daughter, Stella, who she gave birth to while incarcerated.

The pair walked hand-in-hand through Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali as a sizable security detail escorted them to their departure gate.

Mack, 26, and her ex-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer were convicted of killing Mack's wealthy socialite mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, and hiding her body in a suitcase in 2014. The suitcase was discovered in the trunk of a taxi that was parked outside the ritzy St Regis Bali Resort.

The murder generated headlines around the world.

At the time of the murder, Mack was 19 and pregnant with Stella. Her daughter spent her first two years of life in prison with her mother, until she was taken to be cared for by one of Mack's friends.

She was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison in Indonesia, but was released after seven years and two months for good behavior. Her ex-boyfriend, Schaefer, was sentenced to 18 years and remains incarcerated. He has since been hospitalised with Covid-19 and tuberculosis.

Stella was brought to meet her mother at the airport. She had been staying with a friend of Mack's until her release.

According to The Daily Mail, the head of Bali's Law and Human Rights Ministry, Jamaruli Manihuruk,claimed Mack wanted to try to leave her daughter in Bali, but her request was ultimately denied.

"She can't leave her daughter," he said.

According to Mack's attorney, she wanted to keep Mack in Indonesia to shield her from US media attention – and from her crime.

“I am fearful and nervous of returning to Chicago. I'm not worried about the idea that people cannot understand the tragedy for my sake. But I'm nervous for [my daughter] Stella,” she told The New York Post. “I'm scared that if she comes back to the States with me, she will be exposed to what happened.”

She said she did not want “anyone shoving a camera into Stella's face” and hoped to “protect Stella from that trauma”.

Despite her pleas, she was forced to take Stella due to requirements by Indonesian law.

“Minors must be accompanied by their mothers when their mothers are deported. There is no policy that allows a mother to leave her underage child here,” a senior Bali official said.

Mack will resettle in her hometown of Chicago.