Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen Grace Packer's "Rape Fantasy" Murder: Mom & Boyfriend Charged

Episode Date: January 17, 2017

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. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to give accurate information to the police. The identity of the remains was that of Grace Packer, age 14. But who killed her? This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The state took Packer from her biological parents when she was just three. Sarah and David Packer adopted her, but David Packer would later be charged with sexual abuse of children. Sources say Grace was one of his victims. She was so cheerful. She lit up everybody's day.

Prosecutors say Sullivan beat and raped Grace as Sarah Packer watched as part of some sort of rape fantasy. She was allegedly then poisoned and eventually strangled. A little girl just 14 years old dies at the hand of her own mother and, as is so often, the mother's boyfriend. I can't tell you how disheartening this is for me. All the years I prosecuted in inner city Atlanta, I saw one atrocious act on a child after the next. I would say the majority of the times children were attacked, and this is anecdotal based on what I saw in court and the literally thousands of cases I investigated, the perp typically was someone within the home, a relative, a friend of the family's families and very often the boyfriend or

the live-in or the husband or the ex of the mother and what always shocked me so much was that typically very often the mothers went along with it they went along with abuse sex abuse on their own children and never said a word. I always wondered, is it because he brings in the money? Is the house in his name? Do you need a man that much that you're willing to put up with abuse on your own child in order to keep one? And here, I'm talking, of course, you know, about little Grace Packer, now dead from Bucks County. I can really hardly get the words out. I'm so distraught about this. The mother and her boyfriend compromised to beat, poison, strangle, and molest this little girl. Sarah Packer, the mother, Jacob Sullivan, then allegedly

preserved the little girl's body for weeks in cat litter. Now, you know, I'm no shrink. I'm just a trial lawyer, but I can tell you putting your child's body in cat litter, I mean, Freud would do a backflip over analyzing that. Putting your little girl in cat litter before dismembering her and dumping her remains in a remote area in north central Pennsylvania. These aren't just alleged facts. These are statements by law enforcement. The child had been reported missing last July in Montgomery County. So they stand by all this time, the mom and her live-in. They stand by while everybody's looking for grace.

Looking, looking, canines, ATVs, by foot, by air. Everybody's looking for grace and they've carried on this charade since July. Law enforcement looking for her. We have all been on pins and needles hoping for the best regarding Grace Packer. Joining me right now, investigative reporter Alan Duke. Alan, this is one of the most atrocious cases I've ever seen. Complicated on several levels. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I said atrocious. What's complicated about it? The mother stands by and lets her boyfriend abuse.

And how many years had the abuse on this child been going on? And the mother knew about it. This is how complicated it is. When this child was three years old, we're talking about Grace Packer. When she was three years old, she was taken from her biological mom and dad because the biological mom and dad who were deemed to be unfit parents because they hadn't protected her or her siblings, two siblings, from some abuse by other adults. I don't know the details of that abuse, but I do know it resulted in the court taking this child away and putting her into

foster care, where she was eventually adopted by Sarah Packer, who changed the child's name at age three. Now, this is what's crazy about it. Sarah Packer worked for the state of Pennsylvania in the foster care system. Oh, dear Lord in heaven. You know what? I can't believe that that makes it even so much worse. But another thing, if these allegations can be proven to be true, this district attorney must, must seek the death penalty about the abuse and the torture this child lived through. And not only for the boyfriend. The mother, too. You know what, Alan?

So many times I have seen prosecutors, they want to get justice, okay? And they equate that with the maximum penalty on the man who is probably more responsible for the sex abuse. But in my mind, the mother is just as responsible. They don't need her testimony. They do not need her testimony to make a case against him. They should both get the death penalty for what they did to this little girl. And what's so upsetting, I wonder, how many people knew what was going on? I mean, wasn't there any follow-up after she was adopted? Well, yes. And guess what kind of things happened? What? This

child was adopted. And when this child was about 10 years old, this child's adopted father, meaning Sarah Packer's husband, was convicted of abusing children in the home. And now they're saying that Sarah was being abused by the adopted father and he is now in prison. Well, then, you know, I hear you, but he's in prison. The boyfriend is the one that's responsible for, we know of, 18 hours of assaulting, sexually assaulting and beating this child. 18 hours. I'm not making that up or pontificating or estimating. This is according to a probable cause affidavit.

The PC affidavit says 18 hours they abused this child. And I know some details. I don't even want to speak them. They're on the paper. We've got them in this news release from the DA, but they're just so unspeakable. Well, I know it says involuntary deviant intercourse, restraint, kidnapping, possessing instruments of crime, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence. You know, he says, I'm sorry for what I did.

He told reporters, well, he's sorry now. Well, he wasn't sorry then. And he has let this child lay severed after being dismembered and letting all of us pray for her, letting police look for her since July. What, has he been sorry since July? Well, he tried to kill himself, apparently. On December 30th, Sarah Packer, the mom,

and Jacob Sullivan, the boyfriend, were hospitalized after taking an overdose of drugs. And in fact, while he was in the hospital, apparently that's when he saw this remorse come into being. He told workers at the hospital what he had done to his girlfriend's adopted daughter. And then he talked to police and he gave this detailed outline of this, what happened over 18 hours. You know what? I appreciate him acting like he's sorry. But don't forget that he told people at the hospital, he and his girlfriend planned the entire murder and the whole sex assault

for months before they did it. They planned it. They are plotting it since Grace, little Grace, comes home from a stay with relatives in North Carolina in late 2015. They planned it this whole time. So, I mean, it's fine and well for him to jump up and say he's sorry now, but he plotted it for months. As a matter of fact, back on July 8th of 2016,

he told detectives that he and the mother drove the little girl, I can just see this, still sleepy and wearing her pajamas, from their home to a new home in Richland Township in Bucks County. After they entered, he struck Grace several times in the face, splitting her lip. There she is in her little PJs. Then they took her up to the third floor where the mother watched as he assaulted her own daughter. Nancy, what's really sick about this is that he told the investigators that the scenario that they played out was part of a sexual, well, a rape murder fantasy that he shared with the mother, that they had been thinking and fantasizing about doing this for some time. Why didn't they do it to each other? I'm not kidding. Why pick on this

little girl still in her little PJs? And not only that, they leave to go buy Tylenol, PM, and other drugs to sedate her, telling the girl it would minimize the pain from all the assault that they had done. They gave her an OD of the pills. Then they bind and gag her and leave her to die up in a hot attic. They left her up there. They go about their business with her up there dying after After all she endured, then they leave the house. Leave her up there to die. They come back around 3 a.m. July 9 and they find the girl still alive. She had endured and what do they do? Are they sorry then? Do they save her and take her to the hospital? No. They strangle her and suffocate her until she did die. Pack her body in cat litter to mask the odor and leave her in the attic for three months. Alan Duke, don't bring up to me their remorse.

They had time after time after time to turn back on this thing to save her. And they did not. I don't want to hear about them being sorry now. Well, you're right. It's absolutely too late. Well, you said it. I didn't. No, Nancy, you're putting words in my mouth.

You brought it up. Oh, they're sorry. They're sorry in the hospital. No. Nancy. You did. You did. He didn't begin.

I don't care what they say now. They do all this to the girl. They leave the home, bring back Tylenol. You know, they left the home. They should have been in the car going, what have we done? Let's take her to the hospital. I don't care what happens. Let's save her.

Let's take her to the hospital. No, they come back and assault. They bind her and gag her and leave her to die. Then they come back days later. She's still alive. And what do they do then? They go ahead and suffocate and strangle her and put her body in cat litter. Okay, just give me one good reason why they should not get the death penalty.

I don't have any, Nancy. I don't. You're not going to find one from me. This is the most appalling thing. Then after a few, well, she was still missing. They had her up in the attic. And then the investigators started to get suspicious about Sarah Packer's report of a missing child because this woman was not acting like her child was missing. What do you mean by that?

She didn't even bother to take a photo of the child to the police to help in the search. When the police investigators tried to contact her later after the missing child report, they couldn't find her. This mother was missing. So finally, months later, they're starting to investigate and they end up making a case against the mom for reckless endangerment. Well, wait a minute. What about her shopping spree? What about that? You know what I'm talking about? Where she goes and buys saws. Yeah. She buys blades, saws. She goes and buys, I think it was called a bow saw. At a tractor supply store. Yes. Two weeks before the body was finally found, its arms and legs removed. Severed. That's a nice way to say dismembered, severed. Sarah Packer, her mother was caught on video buying a bow saw and two extra blades.

I guess she knew she'd need extra blades at a tractor supply store in Richland, Richland Township. Now, that's on the probable cause affidavit, which is public record. Anybody can look at it, and that's what it says, and they have gone and matched that bow saw to a forensic anthropologist, examined the saw and little Grace's body, and determined that the scars and the tool marks on Grace's bones were made by an alternating tooth saw blade similar to a bow saw. So this happens in, what was it, July? And here it is now, and they're dismembering the body. Investigators are saying the reason that it wasn't until November that she bought the saws and they cut this child up, because the mother was actually arrested in charges of endangering the welfare of a child and obstructing the administration of law,

because she was not helping. And she actually, they caught her in some lies about her child being missing. And they became very suspicious. And so, of course, Sarah Packer and Jacob Sullivan decided that they better get rid of the body that they had up in the cat litter in the attic of their home. I'm surprised it wasn't found up there. Maybe it had to do with her going missing, you know, between the two houses. But I know this. Detectives in Bucks, Montgomery, Luzerne County, all of them, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Abington Township Police, were all in on this.

And I've got to tell you something. I'm just sick about it. I've prosecuted a lot of cases, and it's a very rare case, frankly, that calls for the death penalty, although I somehow end up talking about it all the time. But this case, you do this to a child. There is no other sentence in my mind than the death penalty. To do this to a child still in her little PJs and sleepy? Oh, no, no.

They need the death penalty as just a pit stop on their way to H-E-double-L. They got a one-way ticket. A one-way ticket, Alan Duke. There are some aspects to this story that really make you ask other questions, even beyond the depravity and the horrendous crime of these two people. And that's, how did the system fail? The biological mother who lost the child unwillingly when the child was three and lost a couple of the others. Well, she wasn't being a good mother to the child either.

They took the children away. What I found out about them is they, let's say they weren't the brightest people. Okay. They were considered to be low intelligence parents. That doesn't mean they didn't love their children. It just means that the court decided that the children would be better off elsewhere. The mom showed up at the memorial service that they finally had for Grace Packer, showed up at the memorial service, and she was asking the question. She says, I was hoping that my child would at this point be a thriving

teenager. And then I find out this happened. Why did they even take these children away from me if they gave them to this kind of a mom? And that's a really good question. Well, David Packer was Sarah's husband. Now, he's not responsible for this, but he pled guilty in 2011 to indecent assault and statutory sex assault. That was in 2011. I mean, this woman has really picked quite the cast of characters to live with and expose sex assault. That was in 2011. I mean, this woman has really picked quite the cast of characters to live with and expose children to. The only thing that happened to Sarah Packer after that was she lost her job with the state of Pennsylvania. She didn't lose the children the state of Pennsylvania had given her to care for. From what I've found is she's been

the foster mom to 40 different children. You know, the Abington Township detectives, they discovered Sarah Packer's home was vacant when they went there in their search for Grace. And they find that Grace's brother is enrolled in Quakertown Community School District, but Grace is not. That's a big tip off right there. Quakertown is where the addict was. Right. That new home. Well, this is what I know. I am waiting to find out what the

district attorney is going to do. And I'm telling you, the mother is no less responsible for this than the live-in boyfriend. This is not a moral judgment. What they want to do in their own time, away from children, that's their business. I could not care less. But you bring a child into your sick scenario, you're going down. I do not think there's any reason she should get a lighter sentence than he does. Really, is there any alternative than to seek the death penalty? Now, if a jury says no, then that's within their wisdom. But I really believe that this DA must offer that to a jury on both defendants, man and woman, mother and boyfriend, Alan. They'll be in court. Friday is the court date. They'll both be in there together,

and we should learn more about what the district attorney is planning. But the indications that he's giving right now is that he believes this is a death penalty case. On both of them. But I cannot affect what the DA is going to do. The only thing I can do now is pray for this child and know, God willing, that she is at rest and is in a better place than she has been her entire life on this earth. And God, I hope that's true. Everyone, Ellen and I will stay on this and let you know the very latest in the case of Little Grace.

Everyone, thank you for being with us. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.