Grandfather says Wisconsin teen Jayme Closs had no connection to kidnap suspect
The grandfather of a northwestern Wisconsin girl who authorities say was abducted during a home invasion that left her parents dead said Saturday that the family has no connection to the suspect and doesnât understand why he targeted her, deepening a months-long mystery.
Someone blasted open the door of James and Denise Clossâ home near Barron with a shotgun in October, gunned the couple down and took their 13-year-old daughter, Jayme Closs.
Jayme had been missing for nearly three months Thursday when she approached a stranger near the small, isolated north woods town of Gordon and pleaded for help. Officers arrested 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson minutes later based on Jaymeâs description of his vehicle. He was jailed on suspicion of kidnapping and homicide.
Investigators have said Pattersonâs goal was to kidnap Jayme, but he appears to have no connection to the family. Jaymeâs grandfather Robert Naiberg said in a telephone interview Saturday that the only thing the family knows is that no one knew Patterson. He said Jayme told FBI agents she didnât know him at all.
âHe didnât know Jayme, he didnât know Denise or Jim,â Naiberg said. â(Jayme) donât know him from Adam. (But) he knew what he was doing. We donât know if he was stalking her or what. Did he see her somewhere?â
Pattersonâs attorneys Charles Glynn and Richard Jones said in a statement they consider the situation âvery tragicâ and that they are relying on the court system to treat their client fairly. Charges are expected to be filed against Patterson on Monday, when he is scheduled to make his initial appearance in court.
The news that Jayme was safe set off joy and relief in her hometown of Barron, population 3,300 and about 60 miles from where she was found. The discovery ended a search that gripped the state, with many people fearing the worst the longer she was missing.
Jaymeâs aunt, Jennifer Smith, posted on Facebook on Saturday that Jayme was doing well.
âJayme had a pretty good night sleep it was great to know she was next to me all night what a great feeling to have her home. As a family we will get through all of the healing process Jayme has. It will be a long road but we are family strong and we love this little girl so much!!â
Another aunt, Sue Naiberg Allard, posted that Jayme got âthe most awaited hug everâ when she returned home.
Jayme told one of the neighbors in Gordon who took her in that she had walked away from a cabin where she had been held captive.
âShe said that this personâs name was Jake Patterson, âhe killed my parents and took me,ââ said another neighbor, Kristin Kasinskas. âShe did not talk about why or how. She said she did not know him.â
Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said investigators are trying to figure out what happened to Jayme during her captivity and why she was seized but gave no details on how she escaped except to say Patterson was not home at the time. He said there is no evidence Patterson knew Jayme or her family or had been in contact with her on social media.
Patterson took measures to avoid leaving evidence at the scene, including shaving his head beforehand, and a shotgun was recovered from the home where Jayme was believed held, Fitzgerald said.
Property records show that the cabin, nestled in dense evergreen forests popular with snowmobilers and ATV riders in the winter, belonged to Pattersonâs father at the time of Jaymeâs disappearance.
Patterson, who was unemployed, remained largely an enigma Saturday.
He has no criminal record, the sheriff said. He worked for one day in 2016 at the same Jennie-O turkey plant in Barron as Jaymeâs parents. But the sheriff said it did not appear Patterson interacted with the couple during his brief time there.
In November, the sheriff said he kept similar cases in the back of his mind as he worked to find Jayme, including the abduction of Elizabeth Smart, who was 14 when she was taken from her Salt Lake City home in 2002. Smart was rescued nine months later after witnesses recognized her abductors on an âAmericaâs Most Wantedâ episode.
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