Accused boyfriend in Grace Packer rape and killing waives hearing

Jacob Sullivan, accused of raping and killing 14-year-old Grace Packer in a scheme with her adoptive mother last summer, has waived a preliminary hearing that was scheduled for Friday.

Sullivan, 44, is to be arraigned on March 31.

The girl's mother, Sara Packer, 42, waived her hearing earlier this month. Her arraignment is scheduled for March 10. Late Wednesday, Sullivan waived his hearing, which was to take place at the Bucks County Justice Center in Doylestown.

Sara Packer and Sullivan are accused of conspiring to murder the girl last year. According to prosecutors, Sullivan raped Grace Packer in their attic in July as Sara Packer watched; then they gave Grace an overdose of drugs and left her in the sweltering attic to die. The next morning, she was still alive, so Sullivan allegedly strangled her.

The couple kept her body in the attic, packed in cat litter, for four months, prosecutors allege, until questions from police led them to dispose of it. They allegedly dismembered her body with a saw in the bathtub, then dumped the body parts in Luzerne County. The remains were found in October by hunters. Packer and Sullivan were arrested and charged on Jan. 8.