Group of mothers honor Grace Packer; vow to help foster children

The murder of 14-year-old Grace Packer left an entire community in Abington overwhelmed by darkness. Now a group of strangers have come together to do something positive after the tragic death.

Authorities say the teen had been abused, neglected and molested as early as 9 years old in 3 different foster homes before being strangled, poisoned, sexually assaulted and murdered allegedly by her foster mother's boyfriend while she watched. It's such a sickening story that even strangers were moved to act.

"There would've been so much we could've done but now the only thing that we can do is remember Gracie in a good way," Nadine told FOX 29.

Gracie seemingly suffered in silence for years, wearing a smile at school but going home to alleged abuse. The group of mothers FOX 29's Bill Anderson met today only knew of Gracie because they are all from Abington but they've taken the lead to properly respect Gracie's life.

They raised funds for a burial, organized a memorial service in her honor and have now launched On Gracie's Wings, which is a non-profit to make sure that foster children have what they need and know that there are people there to help if they're ever in a situation.

"We want to help future foster kids who are in emergency situations that need clothes and don't have access to get any. And we also want to help people who are in domestic violence situations," Nadine explained.

The Abington moms have the organization up and running with the support of friends, family and their children, who are too young to understand Gracie's situation but not too young to be supportive of the friend they never got to meet.

The support of their family was expected but the overwhelming community support has been encouraging.

"If this happens again we know who to call and what we can do. And we want foster kids if they are in a bad situation to let us know and we can help them," Nadine said.

Grace Packer's death shouldn't have happened and no child should have to suffer what she went through and a group of parents from Abington are doing their best to protect others from ever facing similar situations... for goodness sake.