Left In The Attic To Die- The Story of Grace Packer
Her husband had been arrested a few years ago, and she had been left alone with her adopted children. But recently, she had found a new man that she quickly brought into her life, and she was willing to do anything for this man—absolutely anything.
Welcome, or welcome back. I’m Cassie, and this is A Wicked World. Now, I know I’ve been focusing primarily on child cases, but if there’s any other type of cases that you’d like me to do, then just let me know. So, the story I have for you today is about a young girl who was mistreated pretty much the entire 14 years that she was on this Earth, yet she still somehow maintained her happy and bubbly personality. She deserved so much more than she got. This is the story of Grace Packer.
Grace’s Early Years
Grace Packer was born on August 14th, 2001, to her mother, Rose Hunsicker, and her father, Rodney Hunsicker. She also had a brother named Josh, who was three years younger than she was. Grace was a warm and caring girl who would always try to befriend the kids in school who didn’t have any friends. Grace loved the colors purple and pink, and she also loved flowers and butterflies. Grace had a passion for animals of all kinds, and she loved being outdoors. Some of her favorite music was country and hip-hop. Now, it’s said that Grace had a learning disability, but there’s no more information on it besides that, so I’m not sure exactly what her disability entailed or how it affected her.
Sadly, soon after Grace was born, her parents lost custody of her, and she went into state custody. Grace’s parents had lost custody of her because they were unable to provide a safe home. This was in part due to her mother’s mental illness and her father’s intellectual challenges. It’s also said that she was sexually abused by other family members. Shortly after her little brother was born in 2004, Grace and Josh were sent to live with their new foster family, Sarah and David Packer.
At the time, the couple lived in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour away from Philadelphia. The couple had cared for dozens of foster children in the past, and Sarah actually worked as an adoption supervisor. Three years after they were brought into their new foster home, in March of 2007, when Grace was six and Josh was three, the Packers decided to adopt the children.
Life in the Packer Household
So now Grace and Josh were part of the Packer family. But unfortunately, the way that they doted on Josh was not at all like how they treated Grace. In fact, Sarah would often scream at Grace, hit her, mentally and physically abuse her, confine her to either her bedroom or the basement, and just generally mistreat her. Also, Sarah, knowing that Grace had some learning disabilities, would always yell at her to just “be normal.” Many of the other foster children that the Packers had in their home at the time noticed that Grace was being treated much differently from her brother. A few of these foster children had actually reported this back to Child Services—that Grace was being abused—but I guess clearly nothing was done.
In September of 2010, the police showed up at the Packers’ house. They were responding to a call that they had received saying that David had been sexually abusing Grace, along with another one of her foster siblings. He was arrested for his crimes. Grace’s foster sister—David’s other victim—would come out and talk about the abuse that she had suffered at the hands of David. She would say that he made her wear revealing clothes, and he would force her to sleep in the bedroom that was directly across from his. Sometimes he would even tether her or chain her to his bed for long periods of time, and the assaults were going on for years, so there’s no way that Sarah didn’t know about it.
Now, the reason the police finally caught on to this was because the Packers had fostered a new foster child. While the girl was in the home, she got kind of a weird vibe from David—hmm, wonder why? So, she decided to look into his cell phone. When she did this, she saw pictures as well as videos of David abusing the foster children and Grace. She quickly alerted other family members, and the police were called. A year after his arrest, David Packer would admit to abusing Grace from the time that she had come into the home when she was only three.
Now, you’re probably wondering, “Well, what about Sarah? Did she get arrested?” Nope. Sarah was simply indicated by ChildLine, meaning that she had been investigated as a perpetrator of child abuse and that she had known it was going on in the Packer household. But for some reason, she was never charged in relation to any of her husband’s crimes. And despite all this, Grace and Josh were allowed to remain in the home with Sarah. Unbelievably, she was not allowed to foster any more children after that, but still… After this, Sarah also lost her job as a Northampton County adoption supervisor.
A Deadly New Chapter
So, going forward a few years to 2013, Sarah met a new man and moved him into the house with her, Grace, and Josh. This man was named Jacob Sullivan. And just a side note: this was 2013, but she didn’t actually officially divorce David until 2016—just saying. When Sarah and Jacob had first met, Sarah said that he was originally Grace’s biggest advocate. But as she put it, she “educated” him, and that soon changed.
On July 11th, 2016, Sarah contacted her local police department and reported the now 14-year-old Grace as missing. She told them that she had stolen $300 from her and then ran away. She also made sure she told the police that Grace had done this in the past—which I don’t believe she actually did—and Sarah most likely told police this so that they wouldn’t take Grace’s case as seriously. I’m sure she was hoping that they probably wouldn’t look any further into it; just consider her a missing runaway teenager who will come back.
So, police began their search for Grace. But as the investigation progressed, Sarah had refused to answer their phone calls. When they showed up at the family’s home, which was located on Tennis Avenue, they found that it was now vacant. So, police made an appeal to the public for anyone to come forward if they had any information on Grace’s disappearance—and now what they were considering to likely be her murder.
Sarah also hid Grace’s disappearance from other family members; they ended up finding out through the media. Needless to say, Sarah was not acting like a mother who had a child that had just gone missing. In fact, an investigation would uncover that Grace and Josh had been pulled out of school, and only her brother had been re-enrolled at Quakertown Community School District. So while Grace was missing, Sarah had decided to move her family to Richland Township, and she hadn’t told police about this at all. She also refused to share any photos of Grace with the police for months after her disappearance.
The Gruesome Discovery
Then, three months after Grace disappeared, in October of 2016, a group of hunters would come across a dismembered body in a wooded area in Luzerne County. The body would later be identified as Grace Packer. The investigators on the case immediately announced that Sarah was now a suspect. Until they could prove that she had murdered Grace, though, she was to be charged with child endangerment and obstruction of administration of the law.
In the month after Grace’s body had been found, in November of 2016, it was discovered that Sarah had cashed over $3,600 worth of Social Security disability checks that were intended for Grace. At that time, investigators also came across a letter that had been amongst Grace’s school things. It was typed out, addressed to her family, and it was an apology saying, “I’m sorry for being a burden.” She then goes on to say that she’s leaving her family. But investigators knew that this letter was not written by a 14-year-old; it was clearly written by an adult.
Then, it was discovered that Jacob and Sarah had actually been in a polyamorous relationship with a woman by the name of Kathryn Albergotti. Authorities finally uncovered this because, in January of 2017, Kathryn had actually discovered Jacob and Sarah in the bedroom of their home. They had both overdosed in an attempted suicide pact. Later, when Jacob awoke in the hospital, he told staff that he was responsible for Grace’s murder, and he also implicated Sarah.
Jacob Sullivan was arrested and charged with 19 different crimes, including kidnapping, homicide, rape, and conspiracy. Sarah was also charged with 17 crimes, including homicide, kidnapping, conspiracy, and abuse of a corpse. They had confessed that Grace had been horrifically sexually abused by the couple before they had murdered her. Jacob would say that the sexual assault and murder of Grace had been planned by both him and Sarah, and the two had been planning it for over a year.
So back to this third party, Kathryn. Kathryn had actually been in a relationship with Jacob and Sarah for 18 months at this point, and she was also a social worker. She, however, was never charged with any crime, though it would be discovered that she had lived at the house. And later in court, it would also be revealed that Jacob, Sarah, and Kathryn had installed a sex swing in front of the closet that they had kept Grace’s body in. According to a neighbor, she didn’t even know that Sarah lived in the house—yes, Sarah—because apparently, Kathryn and Jacob were the two that seemed to be living in the house full-time. She didn’t even know about Sarah’s existence. So why Kathryn didn’t get charged with anything is beyond me.
The Bucks County District Attorney, Matthew Weintraub, would say, “The hours and days leading up to her murder were probably the most horrific and traumatic thing that any person should ever have to experience.”
The Final Hours
In the many months leading up to Grace’s murder, Sarah had actually been grooming Jacob to sexually assault Grace. Sarah had also been putting sleeping medication into Grace’s pudding to make her groggy on occasion. So, three days before Sarah had reported Grace as missing—July 8th, 2016—Sarah and Jacob had driven with Grace to their new home in Quakertown. Once they arrived, Jacob struck Grace in the face quite a few times, leaving her with a cut lip.
The couple then took Grace up to the attic, where Jacob would sexually assault her while Sarah watched on. And when Grace would look to Sarah during this attack for help, Sarah said to her, “There’s nothing I can do. This is your life now.” Jacob would also tell detectives that he got off on the idea of Sarah not helping Grace, and he believes that Sarah also got off on it too.
After the couple had assaulted Grace, they bound her wrists and ankles with zip ties, silenced her with a ball gag, and then drugged her with sleeping pills. After this, they took her and put her in a closet that was up in the attic. They then left the house—which means they left Grace up in the attic, which was boiling hot as it was the middle of July.
Grace eventually managed to escape some of her bindings and spit out the ball gag, but unfortunately, she wasn’t able to make it out of the house before the couple returned back about 12 hours after they had initially left. So it was around 3:00 a.m. on July 9th when Jacob and Sarah discovered that Grace was still alive, and they decided to finish what they had started at this point. Jacob went up to the attic and strangled her.
Following this horrific act, Sarah and Jacob would drag Grace’s body to the bathtub. Then they went out and bought a saw so that they could start dismembering Grace’s body. For a few months, the couple tried to conceal the stench of decomposition with cat litter, but it didn’t really work. Eventually, they decided to stuff her body parts into two separate plastic totes and then dump the totes into the forest where they were later found.
The Trial and Verdicts
In March of 2019, the case against Sarah and Jacob would go to trial. The prosecution believed that for years, Sarah had tolerated the sexual abuse that was going on in the household, and she had even enjoyed watching it. The prosecution alleged that Sarah had been the driving force in all of this since she had been the one that groomed Jacob into assaulting Grace. They had also found Facebook messages from Sarah to another man altogether, talking about how she could get him a “virgin” to assault.
When the details of the crime were read out in court, they were so horrific that afterwards, the judge urged the jurors to get counseling. And while these horrific details were being read out, Sarah and Jacob were seen smiling and smirking.
The Bucks County District Attorney told jurors that he had agreed to a life sentence for Sarah Packer in exchange for her confession and a guilty plea. He had done this because the physical evidence against Sarah was weak—Jacob had been the one who physically assaulted and murdered Grace—and he also did this because Sarah’s crimes did not technically qualify for the death penalty, and that’s what he wanted.
In keeping her end of the deal, Sarah went up to the witness stand. After she told her version of what had happened to Grace that day in July, she also then told the courtroom that Grace had a “discipline problem” and was a very difficult child. She admitted that she actually hated Grace and wanted her dead for a while. She also told the courtroom how she and Jacob had shared the same rape-murder fantasy, and that they had originally had other plans for Grace: they were going to keep her and just sexually assault her whenever they felt like it. Sarah would also say that she participated in these acts against her daughter because she didn’t want to lose Jacob, and she “got carried away.”
Jacob would state that Gracie was a “nightmare” and the couple just wanted her gone, but they still wanted to receive the monthly checks that she was getting—of course they did. While he had been in custody, Jacob Sullivan asked that he be put in protective custody because he was fearful of the other inmates—oh no. Though it’s not said if this request was actually granted—I don’t think it was—the judge pointed out that Jacob was now living in fear of the very same torture and abuse that he had put Grace through. The judge also could not help but tell Jacob that he had no soul.
Sarah pled guilty to Grace’s murder and was given the agreed-upon life sentence. Jacob pled guilty to first-degree murder, sexual assault, and a few other smaller offenses related to Grace’s death. The prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for Jacob; the defense, of course, just wanted life in prison. But after deliberating, a Philadelphia jury gave Jacob the death penalty. He had zero reaction when this was being read out.
Impact on the Family and Community
Grace’s relatives would also testify about the impact of her murder. Her cousin, Carrie, would say: “It sickens me to know that Grace was abused, tortured, and literally thrown away like she was a piece of trash. Grace is in a better place now, free from evil and pain.”
In a statement read by detectives, Grace’s younger brother Josh, who was 14 at the time, said the only way he can bear his loss is if adults know Grace’s story and then act to prevent child abuse. He said that if his big sister was told that she could save children’s lives by giving her own, she would have asked, “What do I have to do?” He went on to say: “Watch out for all the kids, so a loss like Grace’s loss never happens again. Do your best to help kids who can’t help themselves.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services said in a 2019 report in regards to Grace’s life and death that the state’s child welfare system was simply overwhelmed at the time and in need of more accountability—yeah, you think? Repeatedly, the report on Grace indicates that she was actually assaulted. The report also mentioned how Grace had been attending Behavioral Health Services; however, the main issues, such as things like her sexual abuse, had never been talked about during these sessions.
On January 16th, 2017, many people gathered to honor Grace Packer’s life—many people who never even knew her. The Abington community wanted to find a way not to lose sight of the person that Grace was, and not just all the horrible details that had been shared about the way that she had been murdered. The community had also raised more than $12,000 to put towards Grace’s memorial service, and it was held at the New Life Presbyterian Church. Attendees at the service said they felt drawn to know more about Grace Packer as a person.
Grace’s biological mother, Rose Hunsicker, also attended the memorial service. She was visibly upset the entire time and said:
“Her memory and smile will never fade away. I’m a mother. I will protect my children. And I feel very powerful and very, you know, mad at myself for not being able to protect Grace when she, you know, was in that hot attic dying by herself. She was alone taking her last breath. She was alone, you know, being raped. She was alone. You know, I could imagine—I couldn’t even imagine the feeling that that little girl was feeling. I can’t imagine any feeling that that little girl was feeling. Well, from my perspective, you know, as being a biological mother that lost her child, you know, it’s hard. I want people to realize that I’m not, you know, the bad parent person that Sarah—or excuse me, Miss Packer—put me out to be. I was young; I was a teenager, you know. I made mistakes as a parent. You know, there’s not one perfect parent out there; there’s not one perfect person out there. Everybody makes mistakes. And you know, if I could go back in time and have a time machine, I would fix those mistakes. I would do the same thing: I would fix every mistake that I made, you know what I mean? Just so my daughter would be here today. And that tears me up with guilt; it tears me up with anger at myself, you know. I feel that I’m a failure as a mother, as a woman, because I wasn’t able to protect my child from any harm, you know, like a mother should protect her children from any harm and any danger that comes their way. And I feel, you know, I feel guilt and I feel like I’m a failure for that. There’s a lot of, you know, deep-down emotions that I’m going through that I have to deal with to try to get through this. Like, I’ve been trying to stay behind her for everything; like, it’s hard for me to do it.”
Her biological father also spoke:
“So I’m the father of the child, and I’m going through the same thing. I just got to stay strong for her and all. Like, she cries and I see her cry; I try to back it off, like I try to keep it in. It’s hard for me to keep it in when she’s crying. It’s like… it’s hard for us to do everything. It’s just the saddest thing that I ever had to endure. I got through my mom’s death like a little champ, but this one I don’t think I’ll be able to get through. It’s going to take many, many, many years if I ever do get through this—many years.”
An $8.9 million settlement was reached on behalf of Grace’s estate. It was against three defendants who had provided foster, adoption, and behavioral health services to Grace throughout her life.
Conclusion
Oh, and a little bit of good news here at the end: in May of 2020, 47-year-old Jacob Sullivan died at a local hospital after a major blood vessel ruptured. That’s a little bit of karma.
Well, thank you for listening to all of Grace’s story today. I’m a little bit aggravated that the girlfriend, Kathryn, didn’t face any charges. She lived in that house. She had to have known about the abuse that was going on, and she lived in the house after Grace was murdered when her body was upstairs in the attic in the closet—a closet that she also used; I forgot to mention that. And she didn’t know? She definitely knew.
And poor Grace. All that she had to go through in her life, and she seemed like such a sweet young girl. And then after all the abuse that that poor girl had gone through, these psychopaths went and took her life, too.
