Ten years ago this month, 14-year-old Grace Packer was taken to a home in Richland Township, where she became the victim of an unimaginable, premeditated crime carried out by her adoptive mother and the mother’s boyfriend.
Grace Packer was adopted as a toddler by Sara Packer, a county adoption worker, and her then-husband David.
At 14 years old, Grace was raped and murdered in Bucks County by her adoptive mother’s boyfriend, 47-year-old Jacob Sullivan, in 2016. Court documents say Sara and Jacob planned and carried out a rape-murder fantasy the two shared, then dismembered Grace’s body and dumped her remains in Luzerne County.
Sara Packer had worked at The Impact Project, a private foster care agency in Emmaus, from 1999 to 2002, and fostered dozens of children for over a decade. Packer then went on to work as an adoption supervisor for Northampton County until she was fired after her then-husband was charged with sexually abusing foster children, including Grace Packer. Northampton County announced it was cutting ties with The Impact Project in 2017, after learning the agency knew of alleged abuse complaints against Sara.
Police say Jacob Sullivan was sentenced to death for his role in the tragedy, but died in 2021 when a major blood vessel ruptured before the sentence could be carried out. Sara Packer was sentenced to life in prison.
On Thursday, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office posted on Facebook remembering Grace ten years after the tragedy.
The post says that the true legacy of Grace’s case remains in the painful lessons it left behind about the state’s child welfare system.
“A decade later, the fight to ensure no other child falls through the cracks continues in Pennsylvania. Grace’s tragedy sparked deep scrutiny of our child protective laws, leading to a statewide push to build unified databases and extend record retention so past patterns of abuse can never be hidden across county lines,” the DA’s Office says.
Two Pennsylvania legislators introduced three new bills in 2021 aimed at better protecting children in the state’s child welfare system.
“Beyond the courtroom, we must remember who Grace actually was: a vibrant teenager who loved art, music, and the outdoors. She brought genuine joy to those who truly cared for her,” the post reads.