The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 13-year-old Jayme Closs is over. Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, was taken into custody Thursday and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Jayme’s parents, Denise and James Closs, and one count of kidnapping.
On Thursday evening, a dog walker in Douglas County, Wisconsin spotted a skinny, dirty girl running toward her. The girl told the stranger her name was Jayme Closs. The dog walker, who wishes to remain anonymous, took the girl to a neighbor’s house and pounded on the door.
Kristin and Peter Kasinskas say their neighbor told them, “This is Jayme Closs! Call 911!” The Kasinskas recognized Jayme because her smiling face was on missing posters everywhere in the three months she was missing.
They described Jayme as skinny and dirty with matted hair, wearing shoes that were several sizes too big for her. They said Jayme declined an offer of food, but she appeared to be “outwardly okay.”
Jayme’s ordeal began on Oct. 15, when a man entered her family home in Barron County, shot her parents to death and abducted her.
Police said they had no evidence because the suspect only went a few feet into the house and shot Jayme’s parents. The Barron County Sheriff said Denise and James died instantly. Patterson was in the home for 4 minutes.
Law enforcement agencies and the FBI launched a massive manhunt for the killer. Hundreds of neighbors joined search parties looking for the little girl.
“She seemed kind of in shock and kind of timid, but she did talk to us a little bit,” Kristin Kasinskas, a teacher, told the Today Show. “She came in and sat down in our living room and was able to have a conversation with us.”
Kasinskas said Jayme looked thinner than her pictures – which were plastered all over Wisconsin. “She didn’t want anything to eat or drink,” Kasinskas said,
Jayme was reunited with her family who said she “is talking and doing well.”
Patterson has no criminal history. Police say he is a predator who targeted Jayme Closs.
