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

0:07
Speaker 1: After reporting the girl mission, Investigators say her mother would
0:10
Speaker 1: not provide a picture of Grace until two months later.
0:14
Speaker 1: Sarah Packer failed to give accurate information to the police.
0:19
Speaker 1: The identity of the remains was that of Brace Packer,
0:22
Speaker 1: age fourteen, But who killed her? This is crime stories
0:27
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. The state took Packer from a biological
0:30
Speaker 1: parents when she was just three. Sarah and David Packer
0:33
Speaker 1: adopted her, but David Packer would later be charged with
0:36
Speaker 1: sexual abuse of children. Sources say Grace was one of
0:40
Speaker 1: his victims. She was so cheerful she lit up everybody's day.
0:45
Speaker 1: Prosecutors say Sullivan beat and rape Grace, as Sarah Packer
0:49
Speaker 1: washed as part of some sort of rape fantasy. She
0:53
Speaker 1: was allegedly then poisoned and eventually strangled. A little girl
0:58
Speaker 1: just fourteen years years old, dies at the hand of
1:02
Speaker 1: her own mother, and as is so often, the mother's boyfriend.
1:09
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how disheartening this is for me.
1:12
Speaker 1: All the years I prosecuted in Inner City Atlanta, I
1:16
Speaker 1: saw one atrocious act on a child after the next.
1:20
Speaker 1: I would say the majority of the times children were attacked.
1:25
Speaker 1: And this is anecdotal based on what I saw in
1:28
Speaker 1: court and the literally thousands of cases I investigated, the
1:32
Speaker 1: purple typically was someone within the home, a relative, a
1:38
Speaker 1: friend of the families, and very often the boyfriend or
1:42
Speaker 1: the living or the husband or the ex of the mother.
1:47
Speaker 1: And what always shocked me so much was that typically,
1:51
Speaker 1: very often the mothers went along with it. They went
1:56
Speaker 1: along with abuse, set abuse on their own children, and
2:03
Speaker 1: never said a word. I always wondered, is because he
2:06
Speaker 1: brings in the money as the house in his name?
2:09
Speaker 1: Do anit a man that much that you're willing to
2:12
Speaker 1: put up with abuse on your own child in order
2:15
Speaker 1: to keep one? And here I'm talking, of course, you
2:19
Speaker 1: know about little Grace Packer. Now, dad from Bucks County,
2:24
Speaker 1: I can really hardly get the words out. I'm so
2:27
Speaker 1: distraught about this. The mother and her boyfriend compromised to beat, poison, strangle,
2:36
Speaker 1: and molest this little girl, Sarah Packer. The mother Jacob Sullivan,
2:44
Speaker 1: then allegedly preserve the little girl's body for weeks in
2:51
Speaker 1: cat litter. Now you know, I'm no shrink, I'm just
2:54
Speaker 1: a trial lawyer, but I can tell you putting your
2:57
Speaker 1: child's body in cat litter, I mean, Freud would do
3:00
Speaker 1: a backflip over analyzing that putting your little girl in
3:04
Speaker 1: cat litter before dismembering her and dumping her remains in
3:08
Speaker 1: a remote area in north central Pennsylvania. These aren't just
3:13
Speaker 1: alleged facts. These are statements by law enforcement. The child
3:18
Speaker 1: had been reported missing last July in Montgomery County, so
3:22
Speaker 1: they stand by all this time, the mom and I
3:25
Speaker 1: live in They stand by while everybody's looking for Grace,
3:30
Speaker 1: looking looking canines, a t V. S, by foot, by air.
3:35
Speaker 1: Everybody's looking for Grace. And they've carried on this charade
3:39
Speaker 1: since July, law enforcement looking for her. We have all
3:44
Speaker 1: been on pins and needles, hoping for the best regarding
3:48
Speaker 1: Grace Packer. Joining me right now, Investigative reporter Alan Duke, Alan,
3:54
Speaker 1: this is one of the most atrocious cases I've ever seen,
3:57
Speaker 1: complicated on several levels. Well what what what I said? Atrocious?
4:03
Speaker 1: What's complicated about it? The mother stands by and lets
4:07
Speaker 1: her boyfriend abuse And how many years had the abuse
4:13
Speaker 1: of this child been going on and the mother knew
4:16
Speaker 1: about it? This is how complicated it is. When this
4:20
Speaker 1: child was three years old, when we're talking about Grace Packer,
4:24
Speaker 1: when she was three years old, she was taken from
4:26
Speaker 1: her biological mom and dad because the biological mom and dad,
4:30
Speaker 1: who were deemed to be unfit parents because they hadn't
4:33
Speaker 1: protected her or her siblings to siblings from some abuse
4:39
Speaker 1: by other adults. I don't know the details of that abuse,
4:42
Speaker 1: but I do know it resulted in the court taking
4:45
Speaker 1: this child away and putting her into foster care, where
4:48
Speaker 1: she was eventually adopted by Sarah Packer, who changed the
4:53
Speaker 1: child's name at age three. Now, this is what's crazy
4:56
Speaker 1: about it. Sarah Packer worked for the state of Pennsylvania
5:01
Speaker 1: in the foster care system. Dear Lord in Heaven, you
5:06
Speaker 1: know what, I can't believe that that makes it even
5:08
Speaker 1: so much worse. But another thing, if these allegations can
5:13
Speaker 1: be proven to be true, this district attorney must must
5:17
Speaker 1: seek the death penalty about the abuse and the torture
5:21
Speaker 1: this child lived through. And not only for the boyfriend,
5:26
Speaker 1: the mother too. You know what, Alan, So many times
5:30
Speaker 1: I have seen prosecutors that they want to get justice, okay,
5:36
Speaker 1: and they equate that with the maximum penalty on the man,
5:41
Speaker 1: who is probably more responsible for the sex abuse. But
5:46
Speaker 1: in my mind, the mother is just as responsible. They
5:50
Speaker 1: don't need her testimony. They do not need her testimony
5:54
Speaker 1: to make a case against him. They should both get
5:57
Speaker 1: the death penalty for what they did to this little girl.
6:00
Speaker 1: And what's so upsetting. I wonder how many people knew
6:03
Speaker 1: what was going on. I mean, wasn't there any follow
6:07
Speaker 1: up after she was adopted? Well? Yes, and guess what
6:10
Speaker 1: kind of things happened. This child was adopted and when
6:16
Speaker 1: this child was about ten years old, this child's adopted father,
6:20
Speaker 1: meaning Sarah Packer's husband, was convicted of abusing children in
6:25
Speaker 1: the home. And now they're saying that Sarah was being
6:29
Speaker 1: abused by the adopted father and he is now in prison.
6:34
Speaker 1: Well then that you know, I hear you. But he's
6:37
Speaker 1: in prison. The boyfriend is the one that's responsible for
6:42
Speaker 1: we know of eighteen hours of assaulting, sexually assaulting and
6:47
Speaker 1: beating this child. Eighteen hours. I'm not making that up
6:53
Speaker 1: or pontificating or estimating. This is according to a probable
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Speaker 1: cause affidavit the PC Alfid David says eighteen hours they
7:03
Speaker 1: abused this child. And I know some details. I don't
7:07
Speaker 1: even want to speak them. They're on the paper. We've
7:09
Speaker 1: got them in this news release from the d A.
7:11
Speaker 1: But they're just so unspeakable. Well, I know it says
7:14
Speaker 1: involuntary deviant intercourse restraint, kidnapping, possessing instruments of crime, abuse
7:24
Speaker 1: of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence. You know, he says,
7:29
Speaker 1: I'm sorry for what I did. He told reporters. Well,
7:31
Speaker 1: he's sorry now. He wasn't sorry then, and he has
7:35
Speaker 1: let this child lay severed in after being dismembered and
7:40
Speaker 1: letting all of us pray for her, letting police look
7:43
Speaker 1: for her. Since July. What has he been sorry since July? Well,
7:48
Speaker 1: he tried to kill himself. Apparently on December, Sarah Packer,
7:52
Speaker 1: the mom, and Jacob Sullivan, the boyfriend, were hospitalized after
7:56
Speaker 1: taking an overdose of drugs, and in fact, while he
8:00
Speaker 1: was in the hospital, apparently that's when he saw this
8:03
Speaker 1: remorse come into being. He told workers at the hospital
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Speaker 1: what he had done to his girlfriend's adopted daughter, and
8:13
Speaker 1: then he talked to police and he gave this detailed
8:16
Speaker 1: outline of this what happened over eighteen hours. You know what,
8:20
Speaker 1: I appreciate him acting like he's sorry, but let's let's
8:24
Speaker 1: don't forget that he told people at the hospital he
8:28
Speaker 1: and his girlfriend planned the entire murder and the whole
8:34
Speaker 1: sex assault for months before they did it. They planned it.
8:40
Speaker 1: They had plauding it's his grace. Little Grace comes home
8:44
Speaker 1: from a stay with relatives in North Carolina in late
8:48
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen. They planned it this whole time.
8:52
Speaker 1: So I mean, it's fine and well for him to
8:54
Speaker 1: jump up and say he's sorry now, but he plotted
8:57
Speaker 1: it for months. As a matter of fact, back on
8:59
Speaker 1: July of two thousand sixteen, he told detectives that he
9:04
Speaker 1: and the mother drove the little girl, I could just
9:07
Speaker 1: see this, still sleepy and wearing her pajamas from their
9:10
Speaker 1: home to a new home in Richland Township in Bucks County.
9:15
Speaker 1: After they entered, he struck Grace several times in the face,
9:19
Speaker 1: splitting her lip. There she isn't a little p j's.
9:22
Speaker 1: Then they took her up to the third floor, where
9:26
Speaker 1: the mother watched as he assaulted her own daughter, Nancy.
9:32
Speaker 1: What's really sick about this is that he told the
9:35
Speaker 1: investigators that the scenario that they played out was part
9:39
Speaker 1: of a sexual, well a rape murder fantasy that he
9:44
Speaker 1: shared with the mother. That they had been thinking and
9:47
Speaker 1: fantasizing about doing this for some time. Why didn't they
9:50
Speaker 1: do it to each other? I'm not kidding. Why pick
9:53
Speaker 1: on this little girl still in her little p j's.
9:56
Speaker 1: And not only that, they leave to go by tailing
9:59
Speaker 1: all PM and other drugs to sedate her, telling the
10:03
Speaker 1: girl it would minimize the pain from all the assault
10:06
Speaker 1: that they had done. They gave her an O D
10:08
Speaker 1: of the pills. Then they bind and gag her and
10:11
Speaker 1: leave her to die up in a hot attic. They
10:12
Speaker 1: left her up there. They go about their business with
10:15
Speaker 1: her up there dying, after all she endured. Then they
10:19
Speaker 1: leave the house, leave her up there to die. They
10:22
Speaker 1: come back around three a m. July nine, and they
10:25
Speaker 1: find the girl still alive. She had endured and what
10:29
Speaker 1: do they do? Are they sorry? Then? Do they save
10:33
Speaker 1: her and take her to the hospital. No, They strangle
10:35
Speaker 1: her and suffocate her until she did die, pack her
10:39
Speaker 1: body and cat litter to mask the odor, and leave
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Speaker 1: her in the attic for three months, Alan Duke, don't
10:47
Speaker 1: bring up to me their remorse. They had time after
10:52
Speaker 1: time after time to turn back on this thing to
10:56
Speaker 1: to save her, and they did not. I don't want
10:59
Speaker 1: to hear about and being sorry. Now you're right, it's
11:01
Speaker 1: absolutely too late. Well you said it. I didn't know, Nancy.
11:05
Speaker 1: You're putting words in my mouth. You brought it up.
11:07
Speaker 1: Oh they're sorry, they're sorry. In the hospital, did you
11:12
Speaker 1: did he didn't. I don't care what they say. Now
11:15
Speaker 1: they do all this to the girl, They leave the home,
11:17
Speaker 1: bring back time and all you know, they left the home.
11:20
Speaker 1: They should have been in the car going what have
11:22
Speaker 1: we done. Let's take her to the hospital. I don't
11:24
Speaker 1: care what happens. Let's save let's take her to the hospital. No,
11:27
Speaker 1: they come back and and I saw they bind her
11:30
Speaker 1: in gagger and leave her to die. Then they come
11:32
Speaker 1: back days later, she's still alive, and what do they do.
11:36
Speaker 1: Then they go ahead and suffocated, strangle her, and put
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Speaker 1: her body in catlitter. Okay, just give me one good
11:42
Speaker 1: reason why they should not get the death penalty. I
11:45
Speaker 1: don't have any, Nancy, I don't don't. You're not going
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Speaker 1: to find one from me. This is the most appalling thing.
11:50
Speaker 1: Then after a few well she was still missing. They
11:53
Speaker 1: had her up in the attic, and then the investigators
11:56
Speaker 1: started to get suspicious about Sarah Packer's report of missing
12:01
Speaker 1: missing child because this woman was not acting like her
12:04
Speaker 1: child was missing. She didn't even bother to take a
12:08
Speaker 1: photo of the child to the police to help in
12:12
Speaker 1: the search. When they when the police investigators tried to
12:16
Speaker 1: contact her later after the missing child report, they couldn't
12:19
Speaker 1: find her. This mother was missing. So finally months later
12:25
Speaker 1: they're starting to investigate and they end up making a
12:28
Speaker 1: case against the mom for reckless endanger. Mink. Wait a minute,
12:32
Speaker 1: what about her shopping spree? What about that? You know
12:34
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about where she goes and buy saws,
12:38
Speaker 1: she buys blades, saws she goes and buys I think
12:43
Speaker 1: it was called a bow saw at Attractors supply store. Yes,
12:47
Speaker 1: two weeks before the body was finally found, its arms
12:51
Speaker 1: and legs removed. Severed has a nice way to say dismembered. Severed.
12:56
Speaker 1: Sarah Packer, her mother was caught on video buying a
13:00
Speaker 1: bow saw and two extra blades. I guess she knew
13:03
Speaker 1: should need extra blades at a try to supply store
13:06
Speaker 1: in Richland, Richland Township. Now that's on the problem cause affidavit,
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Speaker 1: which is public record. Anybody can look at it, and
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Speaker 1: that's what it says. And they have gone and matched
13:17
Speaker 1: that bow saw to a forensic cathropologist examined the saw
13:21
Speaker 1: in little Grace's body and determined that the scars and
13:25
Speaker 1: the tool marks on Grace's bones were made by an
13:29
Speaker 1: alternating tooth saw blade similar to a bow saw. So
13:36
Speaker 1: this happens in what was it July, and here it
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Speaker 1: is now and they're dismembering the body. Investigators are saying
13:42
Speaker 1: the reason that it wasn't until November that she bought
13:45
Speaker 1: the saws and they cut this child up because the
13:48
Speaker 1: mother was actually arrested in charges of endangering the welfare
13:53
Speaker 1: of a child and obstructing the administration of law because
13:56
Speaker 1: she was not helping and she she actually they caught
13:59
Speaker 1: her in some lies about her child being missing, and
14:02
Speaker 1: they became very suspicious, and so of course Sarah Packer
14:06
Speaker 1: and Jacob Sullivan decided that they better get rid of
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Speaker 1: the body that they had up in the cat litter
14:11
Speaker 1: in the attic of their home. I'm surprised it wasn't
14:14
Speaker 1: found up there. Maybe it had to do with her
14:16
Speaker 1: going missing, you know, between the two houses. But I
14:19
Speaker 1: know this. Detectives and books, Montgomery, Luzerne County, all of them,
14:24
Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania State Police, the Abington Township Police were all
14:28
Speaker 1: in on this, and I gotta tell you something, I'm
14:32
Speaker 1: just sick about it. I've prosecuted a lot of cases
14:35
Speaker 1: and it's a very rare case frankly that calls for
14:39
Speaker 1: the death penalty, although I somehow end up talking about
14:41
Speaker 1: it all the time. But this case, you do this
14:43
Speaker 1: to the child, to a child, there is no other
14:46
Speaker 1: sentence in my mind than the death penalty. To do
14:50
Speaker 1: this to a child still in her little p chas
14:53
Speaker 1: and sleepy, Oh no, no they need the death penalty
14:57
Speaker 1: is just a pit stop on their way to h
14:59
Speaker 1: G double L. They got a one way ticket, a
15:02
Speaker 1: one way ticket, Alan Duke, there are some aspects to
15:06
Speaker 1: this story that really make you ask other questions, even
15:10
Speaker 1: beyond the depravity and the horrendous crime of these two people.
15:15
Speaker 1: And that's how did the system fail? The biological mother
15:18
Speaker 1: who lost the child unwillingly when the child was three,
15:21
Speaker 1: and lost a couple of the others, well, she wasn't
15:24
Speaker 1: being a good mother to the child either. They took
15:26
Speaker 1: her the children away. What I found out about him
15:30
Speaker 1: is they let's say they weren't the brightest people. Okay,
15:33
Speaker 1: they were under They were considered to be low intelligence
15:37
Speaker 1: parents that doesn't mean they didn't love their children. It
15:39
Speaker 1: just means that the court decided that the children would
15:43
Speaker 1: be better off elsewhere. The mom showed up at the
15:46
Speaker 1: memorial service that they finally had for Grace. Packer showed
15:49
Speaker 1: up a memorial service, and she was asking the questions.
15:51
Speaker 1: She says, I was hoping that my child would at
15:54
Speaker 1: this point be a thriving teenager, and then I find
15:57
Speaker 1: out this happened. Why did they even take him away,
16:00
Speaker 1: these children away from me if they gave them to
16:03
Speaker 1: this kind of of a mom. And that's a really
16:05
Speaker 1: good question. Well, David Packer was the was Sarah's husband.
16:09
Speaker 1: Now he's not responsible for this, but he played guilty
16:13
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven to indecent assault and statutory sex assault.
16:17
Speaker 1: That was in two thousand eleven. I mean, this woman
16:19
Speaker 1: has really picked quite the cast of characters to live
16:22
Speaker 1: with and exposed children too. The only thing that happened
16:25
Speaker 1: to Sarah Packer after that was she lost her job
16:28
Speaker 1: with the State of Pennsylvania. She didn't lose the children
16:31
Speaker 1: the State of Pennsylvania had given her to care for.
16:34
Speaker 1: From what I've found is she's been the foster mom
16:37
Speaker 1: to forty different children. You know, the Abington Township detectives.
16:41
Speaker 1: They discovered Sarah Packer's home was vacant when they went
16:44
Speaker 1: there in their search for Grace, and they find that
16:47
Speaker 1: Grace's brother is enrolled in Quaker Town Community School District,
16:51
Speaker 1: but Grace is not. That's a big tip off right there.
16:53
Speaker 1: Breaker Town is where the attict was right that new home. Well,
16:58
Speaker 1: this is what I know. I am aiding to find
17:00
Speaker 1: out what the district attorney is going to do. And
17:03
Speaker 1: I'm telling you the mother is no less responsible than
17:07
Speaker 1: for this than the living boyfriend. This is not a
17:11
Speaker 1: moral judgment. What they want to do in their own
17:13
Speaker 1: time away from children, that's their business. I could not
17:16
Speaker 1: care less, But you bring a child into your six scenario,
17:20
Speaker 1: you're going down. I do not think there's any reason
17:23
Speaker 1: she should get a lighter sentence than he did. He does. Really,
17:27
Speaker 1: is there any alternative that to seek the death penalty? Now?
17:29
Speaker 1: For jury says no, then that's within their wisdom. But
17:33
Speaker 1: I really believe that this d A must offer that
17:36
Speaker 1: to a jury on both defendants, man and woman, mother
17:41
Speaker 1: and boyfriend Alan. They'll be in court Friday is the
17:45
Speaker 1: court date. They'll both be in there together and we
17:48
Speaker 1: should learn more about what the District Attorney is planning,
17:52
Speaker 1: but the indications that he's giving right now is that
17:55
Speaker 1: he believes this is a death penalty case on both
17:59
Speaker 1: of them. But only I cannot affect what the d
18:01
Speaker 1: is going to do. The only thing I can do
18:03
Speaker 1: now is pray for this child and know God willing
18:07
Speaker 1: that she isn't rest and is in a better place
18:11
Speaker 1: than she has been her entire life on this earth.
18:16
Speaker 1: And God, I hope that's true. Everyone, Allen and I
18:19
Speaker 1: will stay on this and let you know the very
18:22
Speaker 1: latest in the case of Little Grace. Everyone, thank you
18:26
Speaker 1: for being with us. Goodbye friend.