Man On Death Row For Child Rape, Murder Dies: Bucks Co. DA

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — A Bucks County man on death row for the gruesome rape and murder of a 14-year-old Montgomery County girl died Thursday of cardiac-related health issues, the Bucks County District Attorney has confirmed.

Jacob P. Sullivan, 47, was pronounced dead Thursday afternoon at Einstein Medical Center in Montgomery County, where he had been hospitalized since the middle of the week. Sullivan had been on death row at SCI Phoenix for a year for the rape and murder of Grace Packer.

“This defendant’s crimes remain the worst I have seen in my decades in law enforcement, and for those crimes there is no doubt in my mind he deserved the death penalty,” said Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub. “I view this as Sullivan’s sentence being carried out sooner than we could have hoped, and I take solace in knowing Grace’s family will not have to endure the pain of the appeals process.”

Sullivan, 46, admitted he and his girlfriend Sara Packer, the girl's adoptive mother, strangled the teen after beating, raping, and poisoning her in Richland Township over an 18-hour period in July 2016.

According to authorities, Packer and Sullivan then preserved the girl's corpse for weeks in cat litter before dismembering and dumping it in a remote area of north central Pennsylvania.
Grace had been reported missing out of Abington, Montgomery County. Her remains were found by hunters three months later in a wooded area in Bear Creek Township, Luzerne County.

Sullivan told investigators Grace's death was something he and Packer plotted in late 2015.
Sullivan told detectives he and Packer drove Grace from their residence in Abington to a new home in Richland Township, where the crimes were committed.

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