Suspect Allegedly Told Police How He Chose Jayme Closs

Criminal complaint says Jake Thomas Patterson saw her get on a school bus
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 14, 2019 1:39 PM CST
Updated Jan 14, 2019 2:36 PM CST
Suspect Allegedly Told Police How He Chose Jayme Closs
Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald holds up the booking photo of Jake Thomas Patterson, who allegedly kidnapped Jayme Closs, during a news conference, Friday, Jan. 11, 2018, in Barron, Wis. Closs, a 13-year-old northwestern Wisconsin girl who went missing in October after her parents were killed,...   (Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune via AP)

Jayme Closs told police she didn't know Jake Thomas Patterson in the slightest. A criminal complaint filed Monday details how the man accused of kidnapping the 13-year-old allegedly knew her. The AP reports the complaint states that Patterson told investigators that he had to stop behind a school bus one day while driving to work at a cheese factory near Almena, Wisconsin. Per the complaint, he said he saw Jayme get on the bus and "he knew that was the girl he was going to take." More:

  • WKOW reports he allegedly told investigators that he did not know who she was or who else lived at her home. He didn't know her name until after he had taken her.
  • Patterson worked at Saputo Cheese Factory for just two days before quitting.
  • The complaint states that Patterson went to the Closs home on two prior occasions intending to take the teen, but found too many people around each time.

  • Patterson was charged Monday with Jayme's kidnapping and two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the Oct. 15 murder of her parents, James and Denise Closs.
  • The complaint says Jayme woke that night upon hearing her dog barking; she saw a car coming up the driveway and went and woke up her parents. Seeing a man at the door with a gun, she and her mother hid in the bathroom and her father went to the door. She said that after hearing a gunshot she knew her dad had been killed. Investigators say Patterson used a shotgun to blast open the front door.
  • Per the complaint, Patterson broke down the bathroom door and told Denise Closs, who had called 911, to hang up the phone. He then allegedly told Denise to put tape over her daughter's mouth. Denise did, then Jayme says Patterson shot her mother. She says he then bound the teen's hands and ankles with tape and put her in his trunk. He had removed "what he described as a glow-in-the-dark kidnapping cord ... so that no one could pull the trunk release once inside."
  • He allegedly held her at a remote cabin near Gordon. Jayme told investigators she was forced to stay under a twin bed for hours at a time and was told by Patterson that "bad things could happen" if anyone discovered her. He allegedly arranged totes and bins around the bed and anchored them in place using dumbbell weights, both to make it difficult for her to move and so he could detect if she tried to do so. Jayme said he had visitors to the house; Patterson said that included his father.

  • Per the complaint, he said that he twice thought she had tried to move and screamed at her "to the point where he knew that she was scared and she knew that she better never try that again."
  • The complaint says she escaped Thursday after Patterson told her he'd be gone for a number of hours; she pushed the bins away, took a pair of his shoes, and left.
  • Per the complaint: "He basically assumed he had gotten away with killing James and Denise and kidnapping [Jayme] since he hadn't been caught for the first two weeks. ... The defendant stated he never would have been caught if he would have planned everything perfectly."
  • The Green Bay Press-Gazette reports that upon being pulled over by Douglas County sheriff's deputies after Jayme escaped, Patterson said, "I know what this is about. I did it."
(Police say the kidnapping was well planned.)

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