Bali Murder Suspect Heather Mack Accused Of Killing Her Own Mother, Gives Birth In Prison

19-year-old Heather Mack, the U.S. teen accused of killing her own mother last summer in Bali, has herself become a mother. On Tuesday, Heather, who was pregnant from her boyfriend and co-accused Tommy Schaefer, gave birth to a 6-pound 1-ounce baby girl. The baby was delivered after doctors had to perform a cesarean operation, Heather’s attorney Anthony Scifo confirmed. According to the Chicago Tribune, both the newborn baby and Heather are doing fine and are healthy.

“To my knowledge, from what I’ve been told, everyone is healthy,” Scifo said.

According to the Chicago Tribune report, Heather has access to a telephone in the prison cell where she has been detained with other women prisoners. In recent interviews with the publication, Heather told she was having contractions and that she was in “active labor.” Mack was also concerned about the possibility of her giving birth inside a prison cell because she did not have enough money to pay a local hospital that demanded a partial down payment upfront. The issue was however resolved after Mack’s uncle, who controls her $1.5 million trust fund until she turns 30, sent her lawyer the required amount on time.

Meanwhile, NBC News reports that Heather’s baby will be named Stella Schaefer. She also hopes that she would be allowed to keep her baby with her in prison.

Heather Mack, who could be executed by a firing squad in Indonesia if convicted, has been charged with murder after authorities in Indonesia found a body in her suitcase. Authorities later found that the body in the suitcase was of Heather’s own mother. Her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer is a co-accused in the case and faces the death penalty as well.

It was back in August 2014 that the body of Heather Mack’s 62-year-old mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, was found stuffed inside a suitcase in the tropical island paradise of Bali. Heather and her mother were on a holiday to Indonesia. Mack’s boyfriend Tommy traveled to Bali separately and it is now thought that Sheila was killed by the couple due to her disapproval of Schaefer. According to Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s family and friends, she would have never agreed to Schaefer’s presence in Bali and would have been unwelcome there.

Last week, in a testimony to a three-judge panel, Schaefer told that he had traveled to Bali to inform Sheila about Heather’s pregnancy. An argument ensued at the end of which he repeatedly struck von Wiese-Mack with the metal handle of a fruit bowl. However, he claimed that his attack was in “self defense”. He also claimed that the fruit bowl was brought to the room by him as a precautionary measure. Prosecutors however allege that Sheila’s murder was premeditated and that the couple had earlier exchanged text messages that talked about them hiring a hit man for $50,000 to eliminate Sheila.

Heather Mack continues to deny her role in the murder and claims that soon after Tommy hit her mother, she ran into the bathroom to hide. She also denies helping Schaefer conceal the body inside the suitcase.

[Photo by Agung Parameswara/Getty Images]