Last week, a 13-year-old girl was discovered after going missing for 88 days, following the death of her parents. Her captor, the same man responsible for the murder of her mother and father, was caught soon afterwards - and both their statements on the crimes committed are absolutely chilling.
Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, was driving to work when he stopped behind a school bus on the highway in rural Wisconsin. He saw Jayme Closs get on, and despite not knowing who she was, he "knew that was the girl he was going to take," according to a criminal complaint released on Monday.
He has since confessed that on October 15, he killed Jayme's parents, James and Denise Closs, before kidnapping her and keeping her captive for three months afterwards. He appeared in Barron County Circuit Court on Monday via a video feed from prison, where he was charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, one count of kidnapping, and one count of armed burglary.
Patterson explained that he planned to abduct her from her home after the first glimpse he'd had, following her home without knowing her or her parents' names. He shaved his face and head so that he would not leave any hair at the scene of the crime, and took his father's shotgun.
The family dog's barks alerted them to someone driving up to their house, and her father went to see who was there. When they saw Patterson standing outside with a shotgun, Denise took her daughter to hide in a bathtub with the door to the room locked. It was here that Jayme said she heard the gunshot that killed her father.
As Denise was calling 911, the culprit broke down the bathroom door, finding them both and demanding that Denise tape her daughter's mouth shut. When she failed to do this, he did it himself, wrapping Jayme's mouth and head, and taping her wrists and ankles together. With Jayme standing next to him in the bathroom, he shot Denise in the head, before dragging her outside to the trunk of his car.
As he left, he reportedly passed squad cars heading to the Closs residence but was not stopped. He later told authorities he would have shot the police if they had interfered in the kidnapping. From there, he took her to his cabin in a remote area outside of Gordon, Wisconsin, where she was kept for 88 days.
He reportedly forced her to hide under his bed for up to 12 hours at a time, with little food, water, or bathroom breaks. He warned her that "bad things" would happen to her if she tried to escape, and stacked the bed with "plastic totes that had weights pushed against them" to keep her from moving.
During her captivity, she said that he hit her "really hard" when he was mad, and even had family and friends over to the cabin, warning her to stay quiet and playing music loudly so that no one could hear her. His rage-fuelled outbursts left her fearful to leave when he wasn't at home, but eventually she found the courage to attempt an escape.
On January 10, he told her that he was going to be out of the house for five to six hours, and that she was to stay underneath the bed for that time. However, when he left, she managed to push the totes and weights away from the bed and crawl away.
She took his shoes and walked out of the cabin, eventually stumbling across Jeanne Nutter, a former social worker who was walking her dog at the time. Nutter took her to a neighbour's home where they called 911.
Authorities soon found Patterson as he was driving around the area looking for his victim. When he was caught, he allegedly told the officer that he knew what this was about, saying "I did it."
On Monday, the judge set the bail in the case at $5 million. The next hearing is set for February 6.
