Cops: Sara Packer cashed in after daughter's killing

Authorities have filed additional charges against Sara Packer — the Abington woman accused of conspiring to rape and murder her 14-year-old adopted daughter — alleging that she continued to cash monthly government checks for the girl's care after her killing.

Packer, 42, allegedly carried out a rape-murder fantasy with her boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan, against Grace Packer in July. The pair is accused of bringing her from their Abington home to Quakertown, where, after Sullivan allegedly raped her, they drugged her and left her to die in the hot attic. The next day, they found Grace alive, and Sullivan strangled her.

The couple allegedly stored her body, packed in cat litter, in the attic for four months; reported her missing; and in October dismembered her body and dumped the parts in Luzerne County, Pa. Both have been charged with homicide and remain jailed in Bucks County.

In new court filings on Thursday, Packer was charged with theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, tampering with public records, and misapplication of entrusted property, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said Friday.

The new charges allege that Packer collected adoption subsidies payments from Berks County and Social Security benefits to be used for Grace's care for months after the girl's death. She was required by law to give notice if Grace died.

Instead, Packer — a former adoptions supervisor — continued to collect the payments from July to November, authorities say, receiving $3,560 in Social Security. In August, more than a month after Grace's killing, Packer filled out a required review for the Social Security Administration and did not report Grace's death, according to an affidavit of probable cause released by authorities Friday.

Packer wrote in the report that Grace "needs constant supervision" and is "argumentative, sexually inappropriate, lies often, manipulative, steals." In another form, she said Grace was in counseling, claimed she was "impulsive and makes dangerous decisions," and alleged that the girl "sexually acts out with peers, younger children and older men," according to the affidavit.

From Berks County, Packer collected $873 in subsidies in July, August and September, authorities said, and did not report the death.

On Thursday, Packer's attorney filed to waive her preliminary hearing, according to court records. Sullivan was still set to appear at the hearing, scheduled for Feb. 24.