Tommy Schaefer's Cousin Accused of Conspiring to Kill Heather Mack's Mother

A cousin of Tommy Schaefer, who was convicted of the premeditated murder of his girlfriend’s mother in Bali, has been charged with conspiring in the murder.

Robert Ryan Justin Bibbs, 24, of Chicago, reportedly knew about Schaefer and Heather Mack’s plan to kill Mack’s mother, Sheila von Wiese Mack, and he allegedly advised them on how to do it and how to avoid law enforcement, according to a criminal complaint.

The complaint states Bibbs was motivated by the belief that Mack would inherit her mother’s estate, and Schaefer would share the inheritance with Bibbs and Schaefer’s other family members.

Bibbs was arrested Sept. 23 by federal authorities.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Chicago Division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bolling Haxall and Julie Porter of the Northern District of Illinois and Trial Attorneys Hope Olds and Christine Duey of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, according to the FBI.

Schaefer and Mack were both arrested Aug. 13, 2014, in Bali, and they were convicted in April 2015 of premeditated murder by an Indonesian court. Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in Indonesian prison, and Mack was sentenced to 10 years.

In March 2015, Schaefer described in an Indonesian court how he hid a metal fruit bowl in his shirt for protection before he and Mack met with von Wiese-Mack in the Bali resort to tell her Mack was pregnant.

During the argument, he used the bowl to hit von Wiese-Mack in the head, and after she died from the bludgeoning, he and Mack stuffed the body in a suitcase and left it in the trunk of a taxi outside the resort. The couple was tracked down a day later at another hotel.