PA - Grace Packer, 14, murdered, Abington, 4 July 2016 *Killer died*

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...pe-death-foster-mom-30-kids-article-1.2946111
Just came across this article and it explains my question above... after her husband was found guilty, she was barred from having any more foster kids, but she was allowed to keep Grace and her brother because they were adopted.
"Sara Packer was barred from taking in any more foster children, but kept the two children she had adopted — Grace and her biological younger brother. She also lost her $44,000-a-year job as a Northampton County adoption supervisor. No agencies would have checked on the family afterward unless a child welfare complaint was filed, Martin said."

"Grace, who was subsequently raped and murdered, was an adopted child. That adoption was already a fait accompli," he said. "It's a horrific story, but I don't know what else my office or the Allentown Police Department could have done at the time."

Huh, then it goes on to say that "Within a few years, Sara Packer and the two children were living with Sullivan, a draftsman, in Glenside, Montgomery County. In the fall of 2015, they sent Grace to live with a relative in North Carolina, where she spent several happy months, prosecutors say. "

What???? They sent her away to relatives? I thought she was removed... ugh. At least she had several happy months there. RIP Grace. You deserved better.
 
It certainly would be nice to hear from family who loved her. Neighbors have talked about her. Teachers have talked about her. Her bio family have talked about her. Why no family? I just feel sad.
 
The Grace Packer case: What we know so far

Timeline at link.

*snip*

January 2015:*Grace moves to North Carolina to live with David Packer's cousin. She attends eighth and part of ninth grade there.

Feb. 19, 2015:*David Packer is paroled from prison.

April 2015:*Sara Packer moves to Abington Township, Montgomery County.

November 2015:*Grace returns to Pennsylvania. Sara Packer and her boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan, start planning her homicide, according to court records.

More at link...

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-grace-packer-what-we-know-20170114-story.html

I have been curious about the NC situation. They sent her to DPs cousin in January - a month before DP was released - and she came back in November. Was this related to DPs release? Hmm...

It's really hard to make friends and keep up with school when you get shuttled back and forth so much. Obviously her needs were never a priority. At all. Poor Grace.
 
I wonder if it's safe to assume her time in NC was happy after all. I'm not confident any of the adults in her life did anything but fail her!
 
:sigh: Thinking about poor Grace. She did everything within her power to survive her hell on earth. They knew she was a fighter. They knew she could have survived even with the horrors she had endured at so many hands. Two losers couldn't have that now could they... So they stripped Grace of every dignity she had and even after her death they continued their abuse. I'm wondering if "Daddy" Sullivan, Packer and self-described INTJ Allbright were hoping that Grace would get pregnant and then they would have a completely undocumented child to call their own? Grace Packer was doomed from the moment she was placed in the hands of Sara and David Packer.

How is a child, who survives the horrors that Grace Packer did not, rehabilitated?
 
SUNDAY JAN 15 2017 PHOTOS OF GRACE PACKER CASE LOCATIONS

I took these photos from the street outside locations listed on Grace Packer charging documents available at https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3258309/Criminal-complaint-charging-Sara-Packer-with.pdf

I believe these photos may be of interest to the WEBSLEUTHS community. I believe these photos are appropriate as per community guidelines... if not, please advise. David

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...pe-death-foster-mom-30-kids-article-1.2946111
Just came across this article and it explains my question above... after her husband was found guilty, she was barred from having any more foster kids, but she was allowed to keep Grace and her brother because they were adopted.
"Sara Packer was barred from taking in any more foster children, but kept the two children she had adopted — Grace and her biological younger brother. She also lost her $44,000-a-year job as a Northampton County adoption supervisor. No agencies would have checked on the family afterward unless a child welfare complaint was filed, Martin said."

"Grace, who was subsequently raped and murdered, was an adopted child. That adoption was already a fait accompli," he said. "It's a horrific story, but I don't know what else my office or the Allentown Police Department could have done at the time."

Huh, then it goes on to say that "Within a few years, Sara Packer and the two children were living with Sullivan, a draftsman, in Glenside, Montgomery County. In the fall of 2015, they sent Grace to live with a relative in North Carolina, where she spent several happy months, prosecutors say. "

What???? They sent her away to relatives? I thought she was removed... ugh. At least she had several happy months there. RIP Grace. You deserved better.

Thanks, theirmommy. I suspected Sullivan had kids based on the suicide note but this article seems to confirm it. Wish we knew more details about that situation. Sullivan is a disgusting sub-human monster and I can only hope that he had minimal contact throughout the years with his children. (We can also only hope that the mother of his children does not share one iota of Sara Packer's disturbing predilections.)

EDIT: I meant to reply to the Daily Mail article that you posted. This was also helpful too though, thanks.
 
It certainly would be nice to hear from family who loved her. Neighbors have talked about her. Teachers have talked about her. Her bio family have talked about her. Why no family? I just feel sad.

Agree! Last time I was on Sara Packer's FB page I peeked at the pages of family members and saw no tributes to Grace or mention at all of her (which could absolutely have been done without bringing up the crime if that's what they wanted to avoid.) Makes me think there's even more to the story that we don't yet know.
 
Grace, who moved a lot and had a learning disability, looked out for the lonely kids at school. She befriended Jackie Horst’s autistic son, eating lunch with him at Abington Junior High.*

“She showed patience for him and kindness toward him, and he thought she was really pretty and so nice,” said Horst, whose son gave Grace flowers on Valentine’s Day. “(She) didn’t really mind about some of his quirks.”*
 
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Grace-Packer-Suffered--410682775.html

"Hopefully, they will get the appropriate treatment," Banach said, according to court transcripts obtained by NBC10. "Hopefully, they are resilient enough that they will just move beyond this. But you had the potential to have caused them significant trauma."


And yet Packer's foster daughter continued a sexual relationship with David Packer as an adult (no doubt due to the grooming David Packer had already put in place when she was fifteen) and Grace Packer suffered unspeakable horrors up to and including her murder at fourteen years old.

I know the judge couldn't forsee the future but "hopefully" was clearly ineffective as a ruling here. Treatment should have been mandatory - if the girls received therapy, they may have had felt they had a "safe space" which could have led to informing a trusted authority about who Sara Packer really was. And nobody can "just move beyond" sexual abuse in childhood, what sort of judge would even say such such a thing?

The "potential to have caused them significant trauma"? How is what he did to these girls not already significant trauma in and of itself?

This judge. Ugh.
 
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THE GRACE PACKER MEMORIAL:
MONDAY JAN 16 2017

I attended the Grace Packer Memorial on Mon 1-16-17 130PM at New Life Church, 467 N Easton Rd, Glenside, PA.

I plan to share a written journal of my impressions of the Memorial. The funeral displays, sermons, music performances, and the terrible public grief of Rose and Rodney Hunsicker were emotionally moving, beyond anything I have ever experienced.

In the meantime, below are Bucks County Courier Times video from the event, and the impressions of J.D. Mullane, BCCC editorial columnist. I sat directly behind Mullane at the event. David

Video: Hundreds turn out to honor life of Grace Packer
Tue 1-17-17 Bucks County Courier Times / Levittown, PA
http://www.buckscountycouriertimes....tml_26331fb8-1feb-533e-b5f7-a76a923fd75e.html

J.D. MULLANE: Searching for words to address a little girl's life and death
Tue 1-17-17 Bucks County Courier Times / Levittown, PA
http://www.buckscountycouriertimes....cle_a8d17862-dc09-11e6-8cb6-0f566d73bf0c.html
 

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This is truly the most abominably bizarre case I have come across. Anyone else feel the same?
 
“We know about this thing that has happened,” he said. “We have heard of some of the circumstances of her death. On some level, I expect some of us wish we could un-know it.


The people who packed the church, he said, had come “out of a sense of decency.”


They came to grieve her death, he said, to bear witness to her life, so “that Grace Anastasia Packer might not disappear.”

http://www.buckscountycouriertimes....cle_a8d17862-dc09-11e6-8cb6-0f566d73bf0c.html

and every time following one of these awful cases gets to be almost more than my soul can bear, I am reminded of the BBM and that is what keeps me here, case after case. Like so many members, I am compelled to bear witness to their suffering so that they might not disappear.

We see you Gracie. We see you and mourn the loss of you.
 
Do we know if a funeral, private or otherwise, was ever held for Grace? It's been verified that there is at minimum: a grandfather, an uncle (appears to be married with children so an aunt-by-marriage exists as well), and a cousin (the family member in NC is named in the criminal complaint and is described as David Packer's cousin). Did any of these people hold a family-attended funeral? If not, do we know if they showed up to the public memorial?

(My admiration to david.r.feeney for attending the memorial service. I can't begin to imagine how heartbreaking it must have been to attend in person. I look forward to reading your detailed account of the service.)
 
This is truly the most abominably bizarre case I have come across. Anyone else feel the same?

Between this case and poor Victoria Martens' case, which has parallels to this one in the worst possible way, I have spent a couple hours basically questioning the point of humanity, I can't lie. I'm no authority on horrific crimes, but speaking just personally -- I definitely do not recommend trying to take both in at once without spending some time hugging your kids or cuddling a fluffy puppy in the middle or something. What makes Grace's case ... not worse, by any means. But what makes Grace's case tragic to me in a different way from Victoria Martens' & what I struggle with reading these articles is just how MANY people failed her and for how long. I hope she knew love and safety at some point in her short life & that maybe that helped bring her some peace in her last moments. :(
 
Do we know if a funeral, private or otherwise, was ever held for Grace? It's been verified that there is at minimum: a grandfather, an uncle (appears to be married with children so an aunt-by-marriage exists as well), and a cousin (the family member in NC is named in the criminal complaint and is described as David Packer's cousin). Did any of these people hold a family-attended funeral? If not, do we know if they showed up to the public memorial?

(My admiration to david.r.feeney for attending the memorial service. I can't begin to imagine how heartbreaking it must have been to attend in person. I look forward to reading your detailed account of the service.)

Excellent questions! Another question I have: What is the disposition of Grace's remains? Absent a funeral and/or burial, what will happen to Grace's remains?

Rose and Rodney Hunsicker attended the memorial, with (I believe) Hunsicker relatives. Different media accounts list family members from North Carolina (if I am not mistaken) as having read excerpts at the Memorial, and I did see a young girl who read at the Memorial who fit that description. Very few participants and readers at the Memorial were introduced by name, except the pastors.

I am working to make time to write an essay about the event that does it some justice. I will share more photos (appropriate per community guidelines) as I get time as well.

Thank you MsMtOlympus for your kind comments. David
 

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