Woman Files Suit To Access Her Victim’s Trust Fund

An American woman who is on trial in Indonesia for the murder of her mother has filed a lawsuit seeking money from a trust in the victim’s name to pay legal bills.

Heather Mack and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, could face the death penalty if found guilty of murdering Sheila von Wiese-Mack, whose body was found in a suitcase outside a luxury resort in Bali. 

To pay for her legal expenses, Mack filed a suit in Chicago to transfer $150,000 out of her mother’s $1.6 million trust fund to which she is the sole beneficiary.  The money would go to a bank to pay future billed expenditures.  A hearing on the matter is scheduled in Cook County circuit court on Friday.

See Reuters in Indonesia, Woman on Trial In Mother’s Murder In Bali Files Lawsuit to Access Trust Fund, The Guardian, Jan. 16, 2015.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.