Jake Thomas Patterson, a 21-year-old man, has been identified as the suspect arrested in connection to the abduction of 13-year-old Jayme Closs and the murder of her parents, James, 56, and Denise Closs, 46. Patterson is facing several charges in connection to both crimes.
Patterson is currently being held on charges of first-degree intentional homicide and abduction.
Police are unsure whether Patterson knew Jayme, but he did have ties to Barron County, according to police authorities who addressed the media. The police did not mention the specific connection. Patterson does not have a criminal history.
Authorities have stated they are not in search of any additional suspects.
The Barron County Sheriff’s Department confirmed late Thursday that Closs, who was abducted from her home on October 15, 2018, which was the same day her parents were found shot dead inside of their home. Jayme was able to escape her captor and flagged down a dog walker.
The dogwalker accompanied Jayme to her neighbor’s home, belonging to Kristin and Peter Kasinskas, where they dialed 911 for help.
“I think we recognized Jayme immediately. I mean, her picture has been everywhere around here, billboards and things so we recognized her immediately. She seemed kind of in shock and kind of timid, but she did talk to us a little bit, and she came in and sat down in our living room and was able to have a conversation with us,” Kristin Kasinskas told the TODAY Show.
“She didn’t give us a ton of detail. I had asked her if she knew where Gordon, Wisconsin, was. She did not know where Gordon was, and she didn’t know where she was at the time. She was – she did state who she believed had her, and she did give us a little information about the person’s car. But other than that she didn’t give us a ton of detail about.”
Closs was located nearly 70 miles from her home in Gordon, Wisconsin.
