Sara Packer: Guilty Plea, Life Sentence, and System Failures

Sara Packer is a former Pennsylvania adoption supervisor who is serving life in prison plus 52 to 104 years for planning the 2016 rape and murder of her 14-year-old adopted daughter, Grace Packer. Packer pleaded guilty in Bucks County in 2019 to 19 charges, including first-degree murder, rape of a child, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse, after admitting she helped her boyfriend Jacob Sullivan carry out what prosecutors described as a shared “rape-murder fantasy.” Her case drew national attention because Packer had spent years working inside the child welfare system she used her knowledge of to evade.

Who Sara Packer Is

Packer was hired as a caseworker by the Northampton County Department of Human Services, Children, Youth and Families Division, in January 2003 and was promoted to adoption supervisor in July 2007.¹ She and her then-husband David Packer fostered dozens of children over the years and formally adopted Grace and her brother Josh in 2007, three years after the siblings were first placed with them through The Impact Project, a Berks County–contracted foster agency.²

Her career ended after her husband was arrested in 2010 for sexually assaulting Grace and another foster child. David Packer pleaded guilty in June 2011 to indecent assault and statutory sexual assault, was classified as a sexually violent predator, and received 18 months to five years in prison.² Sara Packer was suspended without pay in January 2010 and formally terminated in April 2010.¹ She was also barred from taking in additional foster children, and in June 2011 she was “indicated” in a child abuse case, placing her name on Childline, Pennsylvania’s clearinghouse for individuals involved in abuse cases.

She kept custody of Grace and Josh. A later state investigation found Sara Packer had admitted to a forensic evaluator that she had engaged in sexual activity with her husband and an older foster daughter, and that Lehigh County social services knew about that admission before returning Grace to her care.³ Investigators later learned that The Impact Project had received reports more than a decade before Grace’s death that Packer was potentially “exhibiting abusive behaviors” as a foster parent.⁴

The Murder of Grace Packer

Prosecutors said Packer and Jacob Sullivan, her boyfriend, began planning Grace’s killing in November 2015. Authorities described the crime as part of a shared “rape-murder fantasy.”⁵

On July 8, 2016, Packer and Sullivan took 14-year-old Grace to a house in Richland Township, Bucks County. Sullivan raped Grace while Packer watched. They bound, gagged, and drugged the girl, then left her in a hot attic closet, expecting her to die. When Sullivan returned the following day and found Grace still alive, he strangled her.²

On July 11, 2016, Packer reported Grace missing to Abington Township police while she was moving between addresses. Grace’s body remained in the Richland Township attic for months. In October 2016, as police pressure grew, Packer and Sullivan dismembered the body and transported the remains to a secluded area in Bear Creek Township, Luzerne County. Hunters found the remains on October 31, 2016.⁶ During the months Grace was missing and then dead, Packer continued collecting $6,179 in social security benefits and adoption subsidies in her name.²

How the Case Was Uncovered

The investigation broke open after Sullivan and Packer attempted suicide together. On December 30, 2016, Sullivan confessed to hospital staff following his suicide attempt and then gave detailed statements to Bucks County detectives.⁷ On January 8, 2017, both were arrested and charged with criminal homicide, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse. Sullivan was additionally charged with rape; Packer was charged with conspiracy to commit rape. A theft charge was added against her in February 2017 for the subsidies she had continued to collect.²

Guilty Plea and Life Sentence

Packer pleaded guilty to 19 charges, including first-degree murder, rape of a child, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and theft of government funds.⁸ She accepted a plea agreement for a life sentence. Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub agreed to the deal because the physical evidence tying her directly to the killing was considered weak and her specific crimes did not qualify for the death penalty under Pennsylvania law.⁹

On March 29, 2019, Common Pleas Judge Diane Gibbons sentenced Packer to life in prison plus 52 to 104 years. From the bench, Gibbons told her: “There is no cure for people like you. Evil attracts evil. In Jacob Sullivan, you found one of your own.” The judge added, “You were never a parent to Grace. You never wanted to be a parent. The use of the word mother, out of your mouth, is a profanity.”⁸

Grace’s cousin, Karie Heisserer, told the court: “It sickens me to know that Grace was abused, tortured and literally thrown away like she was a piece of trash.” Grace’s brother, Josh Packer, submitted a written statement, read aloud by a detective, urging adults to “watch out for all the kids so that a loss like Grace’s loss never happens again.”⁹

What Happened to Jacob Sullivan

Sullivan pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and related charges. After a two-week penalty-phase trial in March 2019, a Bucks County jury imposed the death penalty, and Judge Gibbons formally sentenced him to death plus additional prison time. During sentencing, Gibbons called Sullivan a “coward” for requesting police protection in prison and said, “The butchery in this case was beyond my ability to describe.”⁹

Sullivan died on April 30, 2020, from a ruptured aortic aneurysm while held at SCI Phoenix, a state prison in Collegeville. His death was ruled natural. Weintraub said he viewed it as Sullivan’s sentence “being carried out sooner than we could have hoped.”¹⁰

The System Failures Her Case Exposed

Because Packer had worked inside Pennsylvania’s child welfare system, investigators treated her case as a window into how a trained insider could evade it. A 30-page Pennsylvania Department of Human Services report found the system was “overwhelmed,” said services provided to Grace were often “not focused on the key issues” in her life, and noted that some of Grace’s cases had been handled by interns. The report called the state’s rule allowing 30 cases per social worker “outdated.”¹¹

County and state death reviews identified specific weaknesses Packer exploited:

County child welfare agencies could not share records across county lines. Packer moved Grace between Lehigh, Bucks, and Montgomery counties to avoid oversight.¹²
State law required destruction of unfounded or unsubstantiated abuse reports within 16 months of case closure, and counties had discretion to expunge records after one year, erasing earlier abuse allegations against the Packers.¹²
The Impact Project, the private agency that originally placed Grace, had received reports of abusive behavior by Packer more than a decade before Grace’s death but failed to act. Several counties later suspended foster care referrals to the agency.¹³

In September 2021, Pennsylvania State Representatives Craig Staats and Chris Quinn introduced a three-bill package in Grace’s memory, collectively called “Grace’s Law.” The bills proposed a statewide child welfare case management system for cross-county information sharing, an extension of record retention from one year to 30 years, and legal definitions for “valid” and “invalid” reports of suspected child abuse.¹² All three were referred to the House Children and Youth Committee; the research available does not indicate whether they were enacted.

Grace’s estate also sued three private social service agencies: The Impact Project, Pinebrook Family Answers, and Warwick Family Services (doing business as MCC Family Services). The 2018 wrongful death suit, filed by Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, alleged “carelessness and recklessness” in letting Grace remain in Packer’s custody.¹⁴ The case settled for $8.9 million, with agreements reached between 2020 and 2021 and finalized in 2022. The breakdown of the settlement has remained sealed. In October 2024, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled the sealed documents are “judicial records” and sent the matter back for review. On December 10, 2025, Common Pleas Judge Denis P. Cohen ruled the records would remain sealed, citing the privacy of Grace’s brother and potential “reputational harm” to the defendant agencies; the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said it would again appeal.¹⁵

1
Pocono Record. Packer Fostered Child Prior to County Employment
2
The Morning Call. Timeline of Events in Death of Grace Packer
3
The Morning Call. Unredacted Report: Even After Sara Packer Admitted to Three-Way Sex With Older Foster Daughter, Grace Was Returned to Her
4
LehighValleyLive.com. Sara Packer Child Abuse Claims
5
WHYY. Man Gets Death for Teen’s Rape, Murder, Dismemberment
6
Bucks County District Attorney’s Office. Grace Packer’s Killers Sentenced: Death, Life in Prison
7
CBS News. Sara Packer Charged in Teen Grace Packer’s Rape-Murder Fantasy Death
8
The Morning Call. Sara Packer Sentenced to Life and Then Some
9
NBC Philadelphia. Sara Packer Sentenced to Life Plus 52-102 Years in Adopted Daughter’s Rape and Murder
10
NBC Philadelphia. Man Who Dismembered Teen Dies From Ruptured Aortic Aneurysm
11
NBC Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Releases Grace Packer Report, Finds Problems in Child Welfare
12
Bucks County Courier Times. DA, Lawmakers Present Legislation in Honor of Grace Packer
13
Bucks County Courier Times. Records Show Embattled Agency Paid Sara Packer
14
Bucks County Courier Times. Grace Packer Murder Settlement Lawsuit
15
Bucks County Courier Times. Wrongful Death Settlement in Grace Packer Case