New Details Revealed About Jake Patterson, The Man Who Kidnapped Jayme Closs And Murdered Her Parents
Not much is known about him.
Barron County Sheriff's Department The man suspected of kidnapping Jayme Closs, holding her captive in a cabin for three months, and murdering her parents appears to have led an uneventful life up until now.
Jake Patterson, 21, has no criminal past, almost no digital footprint, and no job. His neighbors didn't know who he was. Local stores were unaware of his existence. Living completely under the radar, Patterson was the perfect criminal.
Well, almost.
He was arrested just 10 minutes after police located Jayme, who disappeared after her parents were shot and killed in their home nearly three months ago, sparking an intense 87-day search for the 13-year-old police believed was in danger. They were right.
Patterson was charged with kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme, two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of James Closs, 56, and Denise, 46, and armed burglary.
Little information has been revealed about what went on while Jayme was held captive in Patterson's rural cabin in Gordon, Wisconsin.
According to prosecutors, Patterson taped Jayme's wrists and ankles together after he fatally shot her parents and threw her in the back of his truck, where she stayed for hours as he drove. He forced the terrified teen to hide under a bed for 12 hours at a time, providing her no food or water and not allowing her to use the restroom, prosecutors said. He surrounded the bed with laundry baskets and totes so that she could not get out without him hearing the movement of the makeshift blockades.
Patterson told Jayme he was going to be gone for five or six hours on Jan. 10 and the missing teen was able to free herself from his possession and seek help.
"Jayme was taken against her will and escaped from a residence in which she was being held and found help," Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said at a news conference Friday.
The teen came out of the woods and asked a woman walking her dog for help. The two went to a nearby house and called 9-1-1. She is safe and has since been reunited with her family.
So who is Jake Patterson, the man accused of kidnapping Jayme Closs and killing her parents?
1. He grew up in Gordon.
Patterson was born and raised in Gordon, Wisconsin, a rural town of 635 residents.
2. No one knew who he was.
Although Patterson grew up in Gordon, no one was aware of his existence, according to The Chippewa Herald.
He wasn't recognized by a local bartender or a clerk at the only convenience store for 10 miles. His neighbors didn't even know who he was.
3. He is unemployed.
Barron County Sheriff's Department
At Friday's press conference, Fitzgerald said Patterson did not have a job. He did, however, work for one day, three years ago at the same plant where Closs' parents were employed, authorities said. He was hired at Jennie-O Turkey Store in Barron, where James and Denise Closs worked for 27 years but quit the next day.
4. He intentionally lived under the radar.
According to Fitzgerald, Patterson took “great efforts to minimize his forensic footprint at the crime scene. The suspect had specific intentions to kidnap Jayme, and went to great lengths to prepare to take her.”
He made sure he scrubbed all social media platforms in order to prevent a digital footprint and had no criminal record. Patterson even shaved his head to avoid leaving hair follicles at the crime scene.
5. He targeted Jayme after seeing her on a bus once.
According to a criminal complaint, Patterson saw Jayme get onto a school bus and decided at that moment he was going to take her. He didn't know Jayme's name until after he kidnapped her.
6. His cabin was filled with trash.
The New York Post
The New York Post reported that the cabin Patterson lived in and held Jayme captive at was littered with trash. The yard was scattered with junk cars and rubbish and tangled in extension cords.
Inside was no better. Empty milk cartons and hard cider and seltzer cans decorated the floor as well as the garbage bin. An empty package of female adult diapers was found at the residence as well.
A book titled “U.S. Armed Forces Survival Guide" was found on a table.
7. The woman who helped Jayme had been his middle school teacher.
Kristin Kasinskas, whose door Jayme showed up at asking for help, had been Patterson's middle school science teacher. She was not aware she was his neighbor and said he didn't stand out as a student.
"When (Jayme) said the name, I said, 'I know him — I've had that student,'" she told The Chippewa Herald.
She remembered Patterson as a smart, quiet kid who "didn't speak out in class."
8. He and his brother were "troubled."
Barron County Sheriff's Department
According to court documents, Patterson's parents divorced in 2007 and moved away. Patterson and his brother, Erik, stayed at their family's cabin and were reportedly troublemakers.
One neighbor, Patricia Osborne, said the boys had been in foster care at some point and had previously been caught stealing. Another neighbor, Daphne Ronning, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said she and her husband caught the two siphoning gas before.
Erik has had his fair share of run-ins with the law and has been convicted of marijuana possession, sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, and jumping bail, court records show.
Sarah Gangraw writes about all things news, entertainment and crime. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.