US man Jacob Sullivan could get death penalty for rape, murder and dismemberment of girlfriend’s teenager daughter
- Prosecutors said victim’s adoptive mother watched her boyfriend act out a rape-murder fantasy they shared
- Couple kept her body in cat litter for months then chopped it up and dumped it in a remote area where it was found by hunters
A Pennsylvania jury will decide on life or death for a Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty in the 2016 rape, murder and dismemberment of his girlfriend’s teenage daughter.
Jacob Sullivan, 46, pleaded guilty to all charges last month in a case that raised questions about the child welfare system’s failure to protect 14-year-old Grace Packer, who spent years in an abusive home before she was sexually violated, drugged and then, finally, strangled in the attic of a suburban Philadelphia home.
Prosecutors said Grace’s adoptive mother, Sara Packer, watched Sullivan act out a rape-murder fantasy they shared. Sara Packer, a former foster parent and county adoptions supervisor, has agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence and could be called to testify at the penalty phase of Sullivan’s trial, which opens on Friday outside Philadelphia.
Sullivan’s lawyers plan to argue that Sara Packer masterminded the plot against Grace, and Sullivan should be sentenced to life.
Packer and her husband at the time, David Packer, adopted Grace and her brother in 2007. The couple cared for dozens of foster children before David Packer was arrested in 2010 and sent to prison for sexually assaulting Grace and a 15-year-old foster daughter at their home in Allentown, about an hour north of Philadelphia. Sara Packer lost her job as a Northampton County adoptions supervisor in 2010 and was barred from taking in any more foster children.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services launched an investigation after Grace Packer’s murder but its findings have not been made public.
Sullivan beat and raped Grace, who was tied up, drugged and left to die in a sweltering attic, authorities said. Returning the next day and finding Grace was still alive, Sullivan strangled her, court documents said. The couple kept her body in cat litter for months, then hacked it up and dumped it in a remote area where hunters found it in October 2016, police have said.