Police: Mother helped man rape, kill, dismember teen daughter

A man from Horsham, Pennsylvania was charged Saturday with raping and then killing a teen girl and the victim's mother is accused of helping him dismember her body.

Police charged Jacob Sullivan, 44, with sexually assaulting 14-year-old Grace Packer and then killing her in the attic of a home near in Pennsylvania. Police also say Sara Packer, 41, Grace's adoptive mother, aided Sullivan in the crime by helping him dispose of the teen's body and then attempted to undergo a suicide pact.

According to NBC10, Sullivan's girlfriend contacted authorities after finding him barely conscious and unresponsive inside their home, telling the dispatcher she believed he had overdosed on pills.

She then told the dispatcher that "Someone we were involved with was recently...It's a big mess. It's a big mess and I don't really know how to explain it. But oh my God."

When medics arrived and took Sullivan to the hospital to be treated for a drug overdose, police found a handwritten suicide note at the home, which according to the affidavit police believe was written by Sullivan.

"Dear babies,

I love you all so much. You are the only people that I have always been able to count on. I'm sorry that I am taking the coward's way out, but I don't have any strength left in me.

People want to judge and lie and break me down. They have.

I can't exist with Sara in jail and those f------ lying pigs and the whore media have made it impossible for us to live.

They don't care how many lives or laws they break. I know you will always know that we had nothing to do with this no matter what lies they tell. I'm sorry to leave you. Remember all I've taught you. Be brave, stand tall and do your best to be stronger than I was.

I love you.

Daddy"

Sullivan's girlfriend called 911 again that same night after she found Sara Packer unresponsive inside the bathroom of the home.

While being treated at Abington Memorial Hospital, Sullivan confessed to staffers that he was responsible for Sara Packer's 14-year-old adopted daughter's murder. He also claimed Sara Packer was an accomplice in the crime and that they started planning the murder in the fall of 2015.

Officials said on July 8, 2016, Sullivan and Sara Packer allegedly drover Grace Packer to their new home and upon arriving Sullivan struck Grace in the face multiple times before taking her into the attic where Sullivan reportedly raped the teen girl while Packer watched. Sullivan also allegedly admitted to investigators to previously sexually assaulting Grace on two other occasions.

Sullivan and Packer then gave pills to Grace, telling her it would help deal with the pain, according to the affidavit. Grace was then allegedly tied up, gagged, and left to die in the hot attic of the house, investigators said. Sullivan and Packer left and returned at 3 a.m., expecting to find Grace dead, however the teen girl was still alive. Sullivan then allegedly strangled her to death, according to the affidavit. The duo then left the body in kitty litter in the attic for three months.

After growing weary that investigators would find the body, the duo then allegedly used a saw to dismember her limbs and stored her remains in plastic totes. They then put the totes inside the trunk of Sullivan's vehicle and drove to a wooded area near Luzerne County, Pennsylvania to leave Grace's remains.

On October 31, around 5:30 p.m., hunters in the woods found the remains and alerted police.

Following his arrest Saturday, Sullivan was charged with murder, rape, kidnapping, abuse of corpse, simple assault and other related offenses. He was denied bail.

Sullivan is currently being held in the Bucks County Correctional Facility and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on January 20.

Officials say more charges against Sara Packer in relation to her daughter's death are expected.