# Kidnapping Suspect Targeted Girl After Seeing Her Get On Bus



## Leeda.the.Paladin (Jan 16, 2019)

AMY FORLITI and TODD RICHMONDJanuary 14, 2019





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In this image made from a pool video by KSTP-TV, Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, who is accused of abducting 13-year-old Jayme Closs and holding her captive for three months, makes his initial court appearance Monday, Jan 14, 2019, via video feed from the Barron County jail during his bond hearing in Barron, Wis. Judge James Babler set his bail at $5 million. (KSTP-TV via AP, Pool)
BARRON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man accused of abducting 13-year-old Jayme Closs and holding her captive for three months made up his mind to take her when he spotted the teenager getting on a school bus near her home, authorities said Monday.

Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, told detectives that “he knew that was the girl he was going to take,” and he made two aborted trips to her family’s home before finally carrying out an attack in which he fatally shot Jayme’s mother in front of her, according to a criminal complaint filed hours before Patterson’s first court appearance.


Prosecutors charged him with kidnapping Jayme and killing her parents Oct. 15 near Barron, about 90 miles northeast of Minneapolis. He was also charged with armed robbery.

Investigators believe Patterson hid Jayme in a remote cabin before she escaped on Thursday. Police have said the two did not know each other.

Patterson sat expressionless during the court appearance, which he made via video feed from the county jail. He spoke only to acknowledge that his name and address were correct on paperwork and that he agreed to waive a speedy preliminary hearing. The judge set bail at $5 million.

Patterson went to the home twice intending to kidnap Jayme, but broke off one attempt because too many cars were in the driveway and called off another because the house was too active, the complaint said.

On the night she was abducted, Jayme told police, she was asleep in her room when the family dog started barking. She woke her parents as a car came up the driveway.

She and her mother, Denise, hid in the bathroom, clutching one another in the bathtub with the shower curtain pulled shut. Her father, James, went to the front door. They heard a gunshot, and Jayme knew that James had just been killed, according to the complaint.

Denise Closs started to call 911. Patterson broke down the bathroom door. Jayme said he was dressed in black, wearing a face mask and gloves and carrying a shotgun, the complaint said.

Patterson told her mother to hang up and ordered her to tape Jayme’s mouth shut. He told detectives that Denise Closs struggled with the tape so he wrapped the tape himself around Jayme’s mouth and head. He then taped her hands behind her back and taped her ankles together before pulling her out of the bathtub and shooting her mother in the head.


He dragged Jayme outside, nearly slipping in blood pooled on the floor. He threw her in the trunk and drove off, pausing to yield to three squad cars speeding toward the house with flashing lights, the complaint said.

Patterson took her to a cabin that he said was his, ordered her into a bedroom and told her to take off her clothes and get dressed in his sister’s pajamas. He then threw her clothes into a fireplace in the cabin’s basement, according to the complaint.

Whenever he had friends over, he made clear that no one could know she was there or “bad things could happen to her,” so she had to hide under the bed. He sealed her under the bed with tote boxes and weights so she could not crawl out, according to the complaint. She had to stay under the bed whenever he left the house, sometimes going for hours without food, water or bathroom breaks.

When his father visited, Patterson told investigators, he turned up the radio in the bedroom to cover any noise she might make.

He said he assumed he had gotten away with the slayings and kidnappings after two weeks went by. He told detectives that on the night of the kidnapping he put stolen license plates on his car and removed an anti-kidnapping release cord from his trunk. He also shaved his head so he would not leave any hair behind and chose his father’s Mossberg shotgun because he thought it was a common model that would be hard to trace.

Patterson, who has no criminal history in Wisconsin, was described by people who knew him as a quiet and good student who participated in quiz bowl in high school. He wrote in his high school yearbook of wanting to join the Marines. On Monday, a spokeswoman for the Marines said Patterson lasted just a little more than month in the corps before washing out in October 2015.

Patterson told detectives he worked at the Saputo Cheese Factory near Almena for just two days before quitting. The company did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press.

His defense attorneys, Charles Glynn and Richard Jones, said they believe Patterson can get a fair trial, but they are not sure where.

“It’s been an emotional time for this community and a difficult time for this community. We don’t take that lightly. But we have a job to do in protecting our client,” Jones said.

Patterson’s relatives, including his father, Patrick, declined to comment after the hearing.

After Jayme’s disappearance, police collected more than 3,500 tips, but no hard leads emerged.

Then on Thursday, according to the complaint, Patterson made Jayme go under the bed at the cabin and told her that he would be gone five or six hours. Jayme pushed the tote boxes away, crawled out, put on a pair of Patterson’s shoes and fled the house.

A woman walking her dog spotted Jayme along a road near Gordon, a town about an hour’s drive north of Barron. The woman said the girl begged her for help, saying Patterson had been hiding her in a nearby cabin and that she had escaped when he left her alone.

Neighbors called 911, and officers arrested Patterson within minutes.

The New York Post published photos of the cabin Monday. The images showed a shabby living area with a couch, refrigerator, an old television set and an unfinished ceiling. Exterior photographs show a lean-to loaded with firewood, a three-car garage and an empty box of adult female diapers in a trash can. A sign over the cabin’s front door reads “Patterson’s Retreat.”

Authorities have not said whether Jayme was sexually assaulted. The complaint does not charge Patterson with any form of sexual assault. The narrative in the document does not say what Patterson did with her.

Prosecutors said they expect to release more information on the case before Patterson’s next hearing on Feb. 6 and that additional charges could be brought in the county where Jayme was held. They gave no details.

Barron County District Attorney Brian Wright declined to say any more about Patterson’s motive after the hearing. But he praised Jayme for surviving.

“She’s 13 years old, and if you read the criminal complaint, you can see the amount of control that he was exerting over her. And at some point, she found it within herself at 13 years old to say, ‘I’m going to get myself out of this situation.’ I think it’s incredible.”

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Associated Press investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.

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For the latest updates on the story: https://bit.ly/2D9VEkM

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For more stories on Jayme’s abduction and her parents’ deaths: https://apnews.com/JaymeCloss

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Richmond reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1


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## Bette Davis Eyes (Jan 16, 2019)

I've been following this case.

Smh.


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## Transformer (Jan 16, 2019)

I guess he didn't want to be alone anymore.  Not shocked that he selected the Marines out of all the branches of services.


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## Bette Davis Eyes (Jan 16, 2019)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jayme-...isconsin-girl-family-update-today-2019-01-14/


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## Leeda.the.Paladin (Jan 16, 2019)

Transformer said:


> I guess he didn't want to be alone anymore.  Not shocked that he selected the Marines out of all the branches of services.


Do marines have a bad rep?


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## moneychaser (Jan 16, 2019)

Why did he have to murder her parents!?!


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## Leeda.the.Paladin (Jan 16, 2019)

moneychaser said:


> Why did he have to murder her parents!?!


I know, so sad. He probably didnt think he’d be able to get her any other way and didnt want any witnesses. 

Him keeping her hid under the bed makes me think that he knew he was going to get caught pretty soon. There was no way that was going to be a long term situation.


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## Transformer (Jan 16, 2019)

Leeda.the.Paladin said:


> Do marines have a bad rep?



Oh God, yes....Yes.  I've only met a hand full of sane ones in my entire life.


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## Makenzie (Jan 18, 2019)

This poor child!  Thank goodness she had some fight in her to even try and escape after watching her parents be killed.


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## nysister (Jan 18, 2019)

Why do so many subs look like subs?
That poor child. I hope WI has the death penalty because that was pure evil.


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## GreenEyedJen (Jan 18, 2019)

nysister said:


> Why do so many subs look like subs?
> That poor child. I hope WI has the death penalty because that was pure evil.



Wisconsin doesn't. I don't know if you watch _Making A Murderer_, but the subject of that documentary would most surely have already been executed if it did. 

I agree that this is one of the most heinous crimes I've heard of in a long time--and it's amazing that girl had enough wherewithal to get through those months and make it out alive. She has some heart.


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## Leeda.the.Paladin (Mar 8, 2019)

*'I can't believe I did this,' Jayme Closs' alleged kidnapper writes in letter from jail*

The man accused of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents reportedly expressed his remorse and detailed his plans for trial in a letter from jail.

Nearly two months after his arrest, Jake Patterson sent a letter postmarked February 28 to ajournalist for KARE-TV, the station reported Thursday. In the purported letter, the kidnapping suspect talked about his remorse for what he did and said he plans to plead guilty to murder and kidnapping charges during his court appearance this month.

Authorities say Patterson, 21, held Jayme captive for 88 days inside his cabin in the remote town of Gordon, Wisconsin. She escaped January 10 and asked for help from a woman walking her dog, who took her to a nearby home and called the police. Patterson was arrested shortly afterward. 
*'I tried to give them everything'*


The letter addressed to reporter Lou Raguse was in a white envelope stamped with the words "Mailed from the Polk County jail" and the suspect's name on the top left. It was in response to two previous letters the reporter said he sent to Patterson in jail last month with questions. CNN could not independently verify the authenticity of the letter. Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said he was aware Patterson had sent a letter to Raguse, KARE reported.




The Jayme Closs case: A chilling tale of murder, kidnapping and escape in rural America
In the purported letter, Patterson said he had planned to come clean all along after he was arrested.

"I knew when I was caught (which I thought would happen a lot sooner), I wouldn't fight anything," the letter says. "I tried to give them everything ... so they didn't have to interview Jayme. They did anyways and hurt her more for no reason."

*'Don't want them to worry about a trial'*
He added that he plans to plead guilty to avoid a lengthy trial.
"I want Jayme and her relatives to know that. Don't want them to worry about a trial," the letter says.

Under a question of whether he's remorseful, he describes "huge amounts" of remorse and adds, "I can't believe I did this ... It was really stupid though looking back."




911 dispatcher describes Jayme Closs call: 'It's definitely going to be one that you never forget'
While he was allegedly holding Jayme hostage, the letter says, the suspect followed news updates on the kidnapping on his phone but would change the channel if it appeared on television.
"Would tell Jayme, 'I'm sorry, I can't watch this.' IDK (I Don't Know) what she knew," the letter says.

*'I'm Sorry Jayme! For everything'*
In the letter, the suspect says he did not tell anyone about kidnapping Jayme and whenever his father visited him Saturdays, he would hide her in his room. Patterson says he does "not think like a serial killer," and the kidnapping was "mostly done on impulse" and is not something he planned for a long time.
"The reason I did this is complicated," it says followed by an apology in big letters. 
"No one will believe or can even imagine how sorry I am for hurting Jayme this much. Can't express it. I'm Sorry Jayme! For everything. I know it doesn't mean much," the letter says.

Law enforcement officers went to the Closs residence near Barron in rural northwest Wisconsin on October 15 after receiving a 911 call from Jayme's mother. They found the parents, James and Denise Closs, shot to death and Jayme missing.




Jayme Closs to get $25K reward money after saving herself
Despite widespread searches, Jayme was nowhere to be found for 88 days. When a dog walker found her walking down a road about 70 miles from her home, she was without a coat and gloves frigid weather. 

She said she'd fled the home where she was being held, according to a criminal complaint released by the Barron County District Attorney.

Patterson was arrested moments later and charged with two counts of intentional homicide and a count of kidnapping and armed burglary. Prosecutors said he confessed in detail during an interview after his arrest. He's being held in the Polk County Jail on a $5 million bond. His arraignment is set for March 27.


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## HappilyLiberal (Mar 8, 2019)

I was just coming in to check if he had (a) committed suicide or (b) received prison justice...  carry on!


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## SpiritJunkie (Mar 10, 2019)

Wow!  Just hearing about this.  Some crazy people out there.

*Side story:*
My daughter used to got to night school and take the bus home...same routine twice a week.  A young man noticed the pattern and followed her via his vehicle off the bus, lights low. She called me saying someone is watching/following her...i said i'm coming. I don't know how i got in my car so fast no shoes..to get to my daughter and then find the car & get this guys license plate...we called the police...long story short...he fled...for a few weeks was MIA...police found him...trial...his family members cussing us at court that my daughter is not his type etc etc...he got charged...had previous assault charges...got sentenced in jail for this & other outstanding charges...I sold my house and moved from the area..

It's sick world out there....

happy this young girl was found alive!!


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## Leeda.the.Paladin (Mar 10, 2019)

SpiritJunkie said:


> Wow!  Just hearing about this.  Some crazy people out there.
> 
> *Side story:*
> My daughter used to got to night school and take the bus home...same routine twice a week.  A young man noticed the pattern and followed her via his vehicle off the bus, lights low. She called me saying someone is watching/following her...i said i'm coming. I don't know how i got in my car so fast no shoes..to get to my daughter and then find the car & get this guys license plate...we called the police...long story short...he fled...for a few weeks was MIA...police found him...trial...his family members cussing us at court that my daughter is not his type etc etc...he got charged...had previous assault charges...got sentenced in jail for this & other outstanding charges...I sold my house and moved from the area..
> ...


So happy your daughter is safe!


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## SpiritJunkie (Mar 12, 2019)

Thank you!


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## intellectualuva (Mar 13, 2019)

So glad that girl was able to escape and good on you @SpiritJunkie for acting quickly AND even moving...very happy your daughter is safe. It's a sick world.


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## firecracker (Mar 13, 2019)

OMGoodness this is so horrible.  He is a monster.  What is this world coming to?


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