US: Woman who watched lover rape, kill her daughter was child welfare worker

Easton: A woman charged with killing and dismembering her adopted daughter as part of a rape-murder fantasy she and her boyfriend shared had previously worked as an adoption supervisor for a children's welfare agency, authorities said Monday.

Sara Packer worked as a supervisor for the Northampton County Children, Youth and Families Division for adoptions from 2003 to 2010, the county said.

Packer was arraigned on Sunday for charges including criminal homicide, rape and abuse of a corpse. Her boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan, was arraigned on similar charges.

Packer and Sullivan didn't enter pleas and were denied bail, and no attorney information was available for them. But Sullivan apologised as he was led into court, the Intelligencer newspaper reported.

"I'm sorry for what I did," he said adding that "It was wrong."

Officials say 14-year-old Grace Packer was beaten, raped as her mother watched, was poisoned and hours later was strangled in a stifling attic in July.

Investigators say the couple packed Grace's body with cat litter to mask decomposition odour and stored it in the attic. Officials allege the couple dismembered the body in October after being scared by a police visit.

The girl's torso was found by hunters in a Luzerne County park on Oct. 31, and K-9 teams found her legs and arms nearby, a criminal complaint said.

Bucks County prosecutors said the days and hours leading up to Grace's killing "were probably the most horrible and traumatic that any person should ever have had to experience."

Northampton County Controller Stephen Barron Jr. told Allentown's The Morning Call newspaper on Monday that Sara Packer's employment status with the county was listed as "suspended" in 2010. But Barron said he had no details on why she had been suspended.

According to court records, Packer's ex-husband, David Packer, was charged by Allentown police in two child sex abuse cases, in November 2010 and in January 2011. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months to five years in prison. Records show the couple divorced last June.

A phone call seeking comment from David Packer's lawyer wasn't immediately returned on Monday.