FILE - This combination of file photos provided on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, by the Bucks County District Attorney shows Sara Packer, left, and Jacob Sullivan. Sullivan pleaded guilty Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, to first-degree murder in the 2016 death of 14-year-old Grace Packer. (Bucks County District Attorney via AP, File)
A Pennsylvania mother of a girl who was raped, murdered and dismembered testified in court Wednesday she helped plot the attack and carry it out, but said it was her boyfriend’s idea to rape her daughter.
Sara Packer recalled in a Doylestown courtroom how she watched Jacob Sullivan sexually assault her 14-year-old daughter Grace Parker and then strangle her inside a hot attic at their home. Packer made the comments during a sentencing hearing for Sullivan, who had already pleaded guilty to rape, first-degree murder and other crimes in the teen’s death.
“I got wrapped up in Jake’s fantasy. I didn’t think I could tell him 'no' without losing him,” Packer told the court, according to the Allentown Morning Call.
Packer, who already agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a life sentence, said her daughter looked at her as she was being choked to death and Packer told her it was “OK to go.”
“Grace had become, for lack of a better word, a non-entity,” Packer said. “She just didn’t exist anymore. I wanted her to go away.”
Packer also said that killing the girl wasn’t part of the plan, according to the Morning Call. She said she and Sullivan planned to imprison the teen in their home so Sullivan could “rape her whenever he wanted." But she said she thinks Sullivan “panicked.”
“The reality of what he had done set in, and there was no going back. So, he decided that it was time for her to die,” she said.
Grace asked for help when Sullivan began to rape her, Packer said.
“I can’t help you anymore,” Packer said, according to the Morning Call. “This is your life now.”
Packer also testified that she and Sullivan attempted to kill the teen with an overdose of over-the-counter medicine, thinking the combination of pills and the heat would kill her. Packer admitted to helping bind the child with zip ties and stuffing a ball gag in her mouth as she and her boyfriend left her to die.
Grace attempted to escape the house before the couple returned, but it was too late, and she was strangled. The pair then stored her body in a cat litter for months before dismembering it and dumping it in a remote area. Hunters found the remains in October 2016.
Sara Packer and her then-husband David Packer adopted Grace and her younger brother Josh in 2007. The couple cared for dozens of foster children before David Packer was jailed for sexually assaulting Grace and another 15-year-old foster daughter at their home.
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Sara Packer was let go from her job as an adoptions supervisor in 2010 and was prohibited from taking in more children, but Grace was allowed to stay in the home despite evidence of abuse.
Packer faces life in prison in her plea deal while Sullivan may get the death penalty.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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