Three women who spent time in the same family as a 14-year-old girl who was beaten, raped and dismembered say it was an atmosphere of emotional, physical and sexual abuse

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This article tells about the horrific life Gracie suffered through in the environment provided by her adopted mother, Sara Packer.  Sara’s now ex-husband, David Packer, was convicted in 2010 for sexually abusing Gracie and a 15 year old foster daughter.  As Sara was not found to have been involved in the abuse perpetrated by her husband, she was allowed to keep her adopted children, Gracie and her brother, but was prohibited from fostering.  Another result of David Packer’s conviction was that Sara lost her job as a county adoptions supervisor.  Sara divorced David last year and has a new boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan.  Packard and Sullivan allegedly had a “rape-murder” fantasy that they acted out with Gracie as the real-life victim.  Gracie’s dismembered body was found in October by hunters in a remote area of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

This article has information from other victims of abuse during their time as foster daughters in the Packer’s home.  These now-women tell about the horrific treatment Gracie received from her adoptive mother that was particularly cruel, and how Gracie was such a sweet, fun girl with a learning disability that always seemed happy in spite of how she was treated and how much her brother was preferred by Sara. When the Packer household was investigated resulting from the abuse arrest of David Packer, Sara Packer was found to not have participated, but it is difficult to believe that she did not know what was happening.  How was the home investigated and evaluated?  Did Gracie’s sweet, friendly disposition serve to hide the magnitude of the abuse?  How much did Gracie’s learning disability factor in the investigation?  What about Sara’s employment connections to the child welfare system?  Did these connects serve to insulate Sara, or, did Sara’s position provide Sara the knowledge to “work” the system?  The system not only failed Gracie, but also failed the foster girls placed in the Packer home who were given a place of horror and abuse, not one of refuge and support – and this is before Jacob Sullivan came into the picture. 

Gracie did not stand a chance once Sullivan and Packer came up with a “rape-murder” fantasy scheme.  Gracie had been victimized repeatedly by Packer, her husband, and with the ultimate ending by Sullivan.  It is beyond horrible that these adults could look upon a child as something so utterly worthless and disposal.  It would be interesting and helpful to know exactly how the investigation of the Packer household was conducted and how the conclusion was reached that considered Gracie to be safe with Packer.  Was consideration given that because Gracie had a learning disability that she would be difficult to place if she was removed from her adoptive mother?  Were the other foster daughters questioned to explore the amount of Packer’s knowledge of and participation in the abuse of Gracie and the foster daughter? There are so many unanswered questions to try to understand why Packer was allowed to keep Gracie and her brother while being banned from taking in foster children and fired from her job.  Gracie’s fourteen short years of life had to be a life of utter hell.  To be so brutalized, cut up and thrown out into the woods is incomprehensible, but that was Gracie’s tragic end.  There was no justice for Gracie, and the arrest and prosecution of Packer and Sullivan cannot make up for what they did to Gracie.  Perhaps there will be a thorough investigation to understand every decision that was made that put and kept Gracie with this horrible woman and the sadistic men she chose to have involved in her life, and maybe change will be made to keep this from happening to another Gracie.