Prosecutor: 14-Year-old Grace Packer killed by mom’s ‘rape-murder fantasy’

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace: Grace Packer’s dismembered body was found in Pennsylvania woods months after her adopted mother reported the 14-year-old missing. Investigators say the mom and her boyfriend killed the teen while acting out an 18-hour-long “rape-murder fantasy.” Nancy Grace discusses the gruesome and bizarre details with reporter Alan Duke.

Grace Packer’s adoptive mother and the mom’s boyfriend allegedly killed the 14-year-old as part of a “rape-murder fantasy” the couple shared, according to Pennsylvania prosecutors. The teen’s dismembered body was found in woods by hunters months after she was reported missing by her mother.

Investigators learned the shocking details of the teen’s gruesome death only after the boyfriend confessed to hospital workers who were treated him after his failed suicide attempt.

Grace was three when Sara Packer, who worked in the state foster care system, adopted her after a judge ruled her biological parents were unable to care for her and two siblings. Packer’s husband David also adopted the child, but he was sent to prison when she was 10 for sex abuse convictions.

What happened after Packer’s new boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan, moved in with the family is detailed in an affidavit filed in the murder case against the couple. Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub shared the details in a statement released to Crime Online. 

“Packer died at the hands of her own mother and her mother’s boyfriend, who conspired to beat, rape, poison and ultimately strangle the teen,” Weintraub said. “Sara Packer and Jacob Sullivan then preserved the girl’s corpse for weeks in cat litter before dismembering and dumping it in a remote area of north central Pennsylvania.”

“Unfortunately, Grace Packer was a disposable child to these people,” Weintraub said. “Who will now speak for Grace Packer? We will.” Weintraub said the alleged crimes was a potential death penalty case.

Sullivan appeared to confess even as he arrived at a court hearing. “I’m sorry for what I did,” he told reporters.

Here is an excerpt from the district attorney’s release:

“On the morning of July 8, 2016, Sullivan told detectives, he and Sara Packer drove Grace, still sleepy and in pajamas, from their residence in Abington to a new home in Richland Township, Bucks County. After they entered the house, Sullivan said, he struck Grace several times in her face, splitting her lip. The two adults then took the teen to the third floor of the residence, where Sara Packer watched as Sullivan raped her daughter. 

“Sara Packer then left to buy Tylenol PM and other drugs for sedating Grace. Telling her the drugs would help minimize her pain from the assaults, the adults gave her an overdose of pills, then bound and gagged her and left her to die in the hot attic. Packer and Sullivan left the house for the rest of the day. Upon returning at 3 a.m. on July 9 and finding Grace still alive, Sullivan said, he strangled and suffocated her until she died. Packer and Sullivan then packed Grace’s body in cat litter to mask the odor and left it in the attic for three months. Grace suffered terribly before dying, called her killing “a rape-murder fantasy that was shared by Jacob Sullivan and Sara Packer, and they acted it out.””

Packer was seen on security  cameras at a trucking supply store buying a bow saw and blades a forensic investigator concluded matched the cuts made to severe the child’s arms from her body, the prosecutor said.

[Feature Photo: Bucks County District Attorney]