Facebook Jayme Closs (l) and her mother Denise Closs (r)
James Closs and Denise Closs, the parents of missing Barron, Wisconsin teenager Jayme Closs, were shot to death, and the deaths have been ruled homicides, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald revealed in an October 17, 2018 news conference.
“Her parents died from gunshot wounds. That’s why we are ruling this a homicide. There was no gun found on the scene,” Fitzgerald said. “We believe Jayme was home based on the evidence in our case. Some of it from that 911 call and some of it is part of the active investigation, and we’re not able to comment on why we believe that.”
Asked whether the murders were targeted or random, he said: “I wish I was closer to that question….I don’t know that answer.”
CNN later obtained dispatch logs that revealed these additional details: The 911 call was made with the phone of Denise Closs, and the dispatcher could “hear a lot of yelling”; the front door of the home was kicked in; James Closs had answered the door; multiple rounds were “spent”; no gun was found at the scene; and the family’s dog was alive inside the residence when deputies responded.
If you drive past the home in Barron, you can see that the front door to the family’s residence is now missing. A police and volunteer search of the ditches along the highway from Barron to Turtle Lake, Wis., didn’t turn up anything of value to the investigation.
You can watch video of the sheriff’s press conference here:
For days after Jayme mysteriously vanished – and her parents were found dead in their family home in northern Wisconsin – the sheriff had remained tight-lipped on how James and Denise Closs died, saying an autopsy needed to be conducted. Those autopsies are now complete.
He called the investigation a “24-7 operation.”
“We all know that these things just don’t happen here,” Fitzgerald said, adding that there will be an extra presence of law enforcement officers in town. “I just want to bring Jayme home. Every second does count.”
However, the parents’ cause of death only compounded the mystery about who did it and what happened to the teenager, who has been described as a middle school cross country runner who wanted to help the poor and loved dance. Jayme Closs has seemingly vanished into thin air.
Authorities Believe Jayme Was in the House When Her Parents Were Slain
FacebookJayme Closs
In the news conference, the sheriff also revealed for the first time that evidence shows Jayme was at the home at the time of the slayings, but he did not reveal that evidence beyond mentioning the 911 call. The 911 call was placed with a cell phone around 1 a.m. on Monday morning (October 15, 2018), the sheriff said previously, but no one spoke, although unspecified noise was heard in the background. The sheriff has said authorities know whose cell phone made that call, but they have not released that information. He said cars were in the yard, but he didn’t know who they listed to.
Fitzgerald said Wednesday that the sheriff’s deputies arrived at the family’s home only four minutes after that call was placed.
FacebookJayme Closs, a 13-year-old girl from Barron, Wisconsin, is missing.
The sheriff demanded that the news media not “hound” the School District, and he said he was holding a town hall on Wednesday evening to communicate further with Barron County residents. The media are not invited. He said law enforcement officers will be flooding the small Wisconsin community of 3,300 people.
The sheriff said it was possible that Jayme was still alive. Authorities have stopped short of classifying her disappearance as an abduction, saying only that it’s a possibility, although an Amber Alert was issued. They have already used drones and infrared technology to look for her around the house to no avail. The sheriff has said previously that authorities consider Jayme to be an endangered missing person and not a suspect, and he’s indicated that finding Jayme is his goal.
He said there are no suspects at this time.