Two arrested in teen’s killing, dismemberment

BUCKS COUNTY >> A 44-year-old Horsham man was taken into custody Saturday night in connection with the gruesome killing of Abington teen Grace Packer, whose dismembered body was discovered in October months after being reported missing by her adoptive mother, and new details in the case alleged by Bucks County authorities Sunday were, in a word, horrific.

Jacob Patrick Sullivan, of the 400 block of Summit Avenue, was arraigned in Newtown district court in the early morning hours of Jan. 8 on 19 criminal counts, including homicide, rape, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy, then committed to Bucks County jail after bail was denied.

Investigators said that Sullivan has confessed to beating, raping, drugging, tying up and then suffocating the 14-year-old girl in July — all with the help of Packer’s mother, 41-year-old Sara Packer, with whom he was in a relationship, authorities said — as part of a rape-murder plot the pair had planned for nearly a year.

Sara Packer was also charged Saturday with 17 criminal counts, including homicide, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, several counts of conspiracy and other offenses, and was expected to be arraigned in district court on Sunday afternoon.

Sullivan and Packer allegedly concealed the slain girl’s body in the attic of their Quakertown home for several months before dismembering her and dumping the remains nearly 100 miles away in a wooded area in Luzerne County in October, where they were found by hunters on Oct. 31, authorities said.

Packer, who was declared a “person of interest” in the case at a Dec. 22 press conference held jointly by Bucks, Montgomery and Luzerne county authorities, had been jailed in November on child endangerment and misdemeanor obstruction charges filed by prosecutors who alleged she “withheld critical information and gave misleading statements to police after reporting her daughter missing, inhibiting efforts to locate her.”

However, Packer was freed from custody on Dec. 23 after

SUBMITTED PHOTOS — BUCKS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE Sara Packer, left, and Jacob Sullivan, are facing numerous charges in connection to the killing of teenager Grace Packer.