Facebook Jake Thomas Patterson with his mother and sister.
Jake Thomas Patterson, the 21-year-old Gordon, Wisconsin man accused of abducting Barron teenager Jayme Closs, took painstaking steps to avoid capture and to avoid leaving forensic evidence behind, the Barron County Sheriff revealed.
In a chilling 12-page criminal complaint released on January 14, 2019, authorities gave every indication that Jake Patterson allegedly acted alone. They accuse him of kidnapping Jayme after randomly seeing her getting on a school bus outside her family’s Barron home. He didn’t know her name or the names of her parents then but, the complaint alleges, “When he saw (Jayme) he knew that was the girl he was going to take.”
The complaint then paints a terrifying scene in which Patterson is accused of murdering Jayme’s father in the doorway, and then tracking down the girl and her mother, who were hiding behind the shower curtain in the bathroom tub – Denise Closs holding her daughter in a bear hug – before he used duct tape to restrain Jayme and then shot and killed Denise, who had tried in vain to call 911. The complaint alleges that Patterson then locked Jayme in a trunk, missing responding police squads by just a few minutes as they passed him on the highway. He is accused of taking her to his family’s remote cabin, where he hid her under his twin bed, even when family members – such as his father – came over to visit.
“On his drive to the cheese factory on one of the two mornings he worked there, he had stopped behind a school bus on U.S. Hwy. 8 where he watched (Jayme Closs) get on a school bus. The defendant stated he had no idea who she was nor did he know who lived at the house or how many people lived at the house.” They had no previous contact on social media, the complaint alleges.
According to Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald, Patterson is accused of taking steps to change his physical appearance to avoid leaving behind forensic clues at the Closs residence and that includes “things like not leaving trace evidence by changing his physical appearance, like shaving his head not to leave hair behind.” He took “great efforts to minimize his forensic fingerprint at the crime scene,” alleged Fitzgerald. Early on in the case, authorities had publicly expressed frustration at how quickly the suspect was apparently in and out of the residence, and how little he left behind.
In a second news conference on January 11, 2019, the sheriff contended: “Nothing in this case shows the suspect knew anyone in the Closs home..the suspect had specific intentions to kidnap Jayme.”
MugshotJake Patterson
A disturbing and mysterious picture was emerging of Patterson in the wake of Jayme’s dramatic escape into the arms of a dog walker in rural Gordon; he had no job. He had no obvious social media presence. No criminal history. He lived in a remote cabin buried in a wooded area. He left no deep impression with neighbors or his former school district, where the most unique detail about him to emerge was the fact he played on a quiz bowl team.
However, authorities allege: For 88 days, he managed to elude the FBI and Sheriff’s officials, amidst the glare of an Amber Alert and heavy news media attention that went national, and keep a traumatized 13-year-old girl hidden away in a northwoods cabin that he grew up in – in an unpopulated area where his neighbor was his former science teacher and other family members still lived.
FacebookJayme Closs
The lingering and most crucial question on many people’s minds was Why? Fitzgerald said in his second news conference that he didn’t have a good answer for that. However, he alleged that Jake Patterson was crafty enough to carefully avoid detection. And the criminal complaint provided those answers for the first time.
“This is a true mystery. We believe the first time they met was the night of the incident,” the sheriff told CBS. Fox News reported that Patterson “scrubbed his social media profiles from the internet” as part of his efforts to avoid capture.
He’s now accused of murdering Jayme’s parents – Denise and James Closs – and of taking Jayme. She was taken against her will and Jayme, not her parents, was his target, Fitzgerald alleged.
Jayme’s aunt shared this photo of Jayme, the aunt, and Jayme’s dog after their reunion.
On October 15, 2018, authorities had received a 48-second 911 call from Jayme’s mother’s phone but couldn’t hear anything but commotion, yelling and maybe a scream on the other end. They arrived four minutes later at the Closs residence in rural Barron only to discover Jayme’s dad, James Closs, shot dead in the door and her mother, Denise Closs, shot dead elsewhere in the house. Jayme was missing, and she remained missing until January 10, 2019 until she escaped and ran into the dog walker, who rushed her to help. Authorities then found the suspect in his car and arrested him.
Here’s what you need to know:
Authorities Say the ‘Why’ Answer Remains Elusive
MugshotJake Thomas Patterson
As for why Jayme became the suspect’s target, the sheriff told CBS: “Yeah, the million-dollar question,” Fitzgerald replied. “I’d love to know the answer to that.” He said that, at first, before Patterson’s arrest, authorities thought Jayme’s parents were probably the target. Now they think the target was Jayme but they aren’t sure how Patterson ever ran across her.
The Barron County Sheriff released the suspect’s name at a morning news conference on January 11, 2019. He lived in Gordon, Wisconsin, about an hour from Barron and is from a family with longstanding ties to the rural area in northern Wisconsin.
According to Fitzgerald, Jayme was the “only target” of the suspect, whom authorities alleged “planned his actions and took many proactive steps to hide his identity….Thank you to Jayme for having the will to survive.” Authorities added that “it appears that he concealed her from other people, such as his friends,” and the sheriff said the suspect was not previously on officials’ radar.
FacebookJayme Closs
Jayme’s escape was one of the most dramatic returns of a missing girl since Elizabeth Smart and the three young women held in Cleveland.
In his second press conference, Sheriff Fitzgerald revealed more details: Jayme was reunited her aunt. A shotgun was recovered that was consistent with one used to kill Closs’s parents but will be analyzed by the state Crime Lab.
Fitzgerald said a gun was also used to shoot open the door at the Closs home on the night of the incident. It was not kicked in as was previously reported in dispatch records.
The sheriff confirmed that the suspect worked at the Jennie-O turkey plant very briefly where Jayme’s parents were long-time workers. WISN-TV previously reported that Patterson worked there for less than a day and then quit, saying he was moving. However, the sheriff now says authorities have no evidence that he had contact with Jayme’s parents there. In fact, he says it’s not clear that he knew them whatsoever – and the same applies to Jayme.
He might have worked somewhere else in the Barron area too, Fitzgerald said without being specific, but authorities are still trying to confirm that.
The suspect was not home when Jayme escaped. “We believe the suspect was out looking for her,” the sheriff said, when authorities found him. “I know all of you are searching for the answer of why any of this happened…so are we,” said Fitzgerald.
Of Jayme and Patterson, he said: “We don’t believe there was a social media connection.” He said it wasn’t clear yet how the suspect even knew about Jayme, and that’s under investigation.
The girl’s escape was dramatic and the sheriff praised her courage. Before she escaped, Jake Patterson wasn’t on authorities radar, Fitzgerald says.
“I went to her and she just sort of grabbed onto me and she told me who she was,” Jeanne Nutter, the dog walker, told USA Today.
Elizabeth Smart posted a statement on Instagram that read in part, “What a miracle!!! Jayme Closs has been found!!!! I’m so thrilled to hear the news. What has been such a heart wrenching tragedy finally has some happiness in the story. I’m praying for Jayme and all her family that they can have a joyous reunion and as the rest of the country celebrates alongside this happy occasion we all are mindful to give the family their space and privacy on their road to finding a new sense of normal and moving forward…What a brave, strong, and powerful survivor!!!!”
Jayme Closs Ran Up to the Dog Walker in Too-Big Shoes & Looked Disheveled
MugshotJake Thomas Patterson
The sheriff praised the “will of a kid to survive” for Jayme’s escape.
“I can tell you the suspect planned his actions and took many proactive steps to hide his identity from law enforcement and the general public,” District Attorney Brian Wright said. “Jayme was taken against her will and escaped from the residence at which she was being held in. We also don’t believe at this time the suspect had any contact with the family. We do believe that Jayme was the only target,” Sheriff Fitzgerald alleged.
Google MapsThe area where Jayme Closs was found.
Property records reviewed by Heavy show that family members have property in the area of wooded cabins where Jayme was found. According to KARE 11, Jayme was found at Eau Claire Acres, “a small development about six miles east of Gordon, Wisconsin on Highway Y.” It’s a rural area clustered with cabins.
You can watch the press conference announcing Patterson’s name here:
There was only an 11-minute gap between when Jayme was located alive and the suspect was caught.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Department in Wisconsin also confirmed that she was found in the Town of Gordon, a community of 645 people, saying in a statement, “The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office confirms that Barron County missing person JAYME CLOSS was located alive in the Town of Gordon in Douglas County at 4:43pm and a suspect was taken into custody at 4:54pm, also in the Town of Gordon.”
Kristin Kasinskas, a teacher who lives nearby (and once taught Patterson in science, remembering him as quiet), told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that her neighbor walking a dog “frantically knocked” on Kasinskas’s door around 4 p.m. on January 10.
“Standing with her was a skinny, dirty girl with matted hair, wearing shoes too big for her feet,” the Star Tribune reported. “This is Jayme Closs! Call 911!” the neighbor said to Kasinskas, according to the newspaper, which said that Jayme was described as quiet with emotions that were “pretty flat.” The family tried to calm her with their puppy and offered her water and food, but she didn’t take it, the newspaper reported.
FacebookJayme Closs
The Daily Beast reported that Jeanne Nutter, the dog walker who found Jayme, owns a cabin with her husband, Forrest, in the area, and is a social worker.
“The girl just came out of the woods,” Forrest Nutter, her husband, and a retired law enforcement officer, told The Daily Beast. “She [Jeanne] kept her composure and took the girl to a safe place and called the sheriff’s department. She called and said they found Jayme and she was going to the hospital.” He added of his wife: “It was really very stressful for her and she is not up to talking about it.”
Jeanne Nutter spoke to the Star Tribune. She told the newspaper that Jayme “came up to me and said she wanted help.” She said she thought she knew who Jayme was, but then Jayme provided her name, the Star Tribune reported.
Court records do not show a previous criminal history in Wisconsin for Jake Thomas Patterson. The sheriff confirmed that Patterson has zero criminal history in Wisconsin or elsewhere.
Jake Patterson has now been booked into the Barron County Jail. That record gives the following information for him:
Sex: Male
Birth Year: 1997
Age: 21
Height: 6'00"
Weight: 215
Race: White
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Complexion: Fair
“It’s amazing. That comes from the hope and the prayers,” the sheriff said about Jayme’s escape.