State Investigation Launched Into Grace Packer's Rape, Murder

An investigation has been launched into how the state's child welfare system handled the case of a teen who was ultimately raped and killed.

Grace Packer, who died under horrific circumstances at the age of 14 in 2016, was cared for through the Department of Human Services (DHS) from a young age. Grace suffered abuse going back to when she was a toddler, per reports.

The independent investigation into the DHS's handling of the case will be spearheaded by the Office of Inspector General.

"It's disgusting what happened to her," said State Rep. Rob Kauffman (R-89), who requested the investigation. "The system victimized an already victimized little girl."

When she was 3, Grace's birth parents reportedly lost custody because other adults were sexually abusing Grace. When she was 9, her adoptive father David Packer was sent to prison for sexually abusing her. He has since been classified as a sexually violent predator, the Megan's Law Database states.

The lawyer for Grace's birth parents told the Associated Press that her birth parents were good people who simply did not have resources to care for Grace and her siblings. Thus, she went into the system, and ultimately wound up in the hands of Sara Packer.

Sara Packer, Grace's adoptive mother, was recently sentenced to life in prison for her involvement in Grace's death. Sara's boyfriend Jacob Sullivan had previously been sentenced to death.

Sara Packer worked for a private agency called the Impact Project that was licensed by the DHS. While there, she was the foster mother of some 20 children.

In their pleas, the couple admitted they had planned to kill Grace and agreed to act out a shared rape-murder fantasy with Packer's adopted daughter as their victim.

Yet, according to a fatality review report issued by the DHS itself, evidence of abuse was plain long before the plot was carried out. Grace Packer could have been removed from Sara Packer's care and saved.

The DHS is charged with "investigating allegations of child abuse when the perpetrator is suspected to be an employee of a county agency or an agent of a county agency," Rep. Kauffman and State Rep. Karen Boback (R-117) wrote in their letter to the Inspector General.

Sara Packer and Sullivan carried out their plan July 8, 2016. They drove Grace from their home in Abington to a residence in Richland Township. After they entered the house, Sullivan told investigators he struck Grace several times in her face, splitting her lip, authorities said. The two adults then took the teen to the third floor of the residence, where Packer watched as Sullivan raped her daughter, prosecutors said.

Packer then allegedly left to buy Tylenol PM and other drugs to sedate her daughter. The adults then gave her an overdose of pills, then bound and gagged her and left her to die in the hot attic, prosecutors said. When the pair returned the next day and Grace was still alive, prosecutors said Sullivan strangled and suffocated her, then packed Grace's body in cat litter to mask the odor and left it in the attic for three months.

There is no timetable for the Office of the Inspector General's investigation.