Jayme Closs, the 13-year-old Wisconsin girl missing since Oct. 15, the day her parents were discovered brutally murdered in their home, made a remarkable escape Jan. 10 from the man holding her captive in the woods ever since!
Deputies from the Barron County Sheriff’s Dept. in Wisconsin announced Jan. 11 that 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson from Gordon, Wisconsin was taken into custody minutes after Jayme’s dramatic rescue.
Officials charged Patterson with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide for the murder of Jayme Closs’ parents and one count of kidnapping. The Barron County District Attorney’s office is reviewing the case before considering additional charges.
As RadarOnline.com reported exclusively Jan. 10, the emaciated Jayme managed to escape Patterson’s remote cabin that afternoon, wearing a too-large pair of men’s shoes, and flagged down Jeanne Nutter, a woman walking her dog.
The two ran to a nearby home where Jeanne pounded on the door and shouted “This is Jayme Closs! Call 911!,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
The cabin is located in a heavily wooded area of Gordon in Douglas County, about an hour’s drive from where Patterson allegedly killed Jayme’s parents and kidnapped her.
Patterson allegedly held Jayme in a neighborhood where he was “hiding in plain sight,” a source told Radar. “He went about his day — nothing changed, according to neighbors.”
Despite her weakened condition, the tortured teen gave deputies a description of Patterson and his car.
“A short time later,” Douglas County Sheriff Thomas Dalbec told reporters, “we happened to find a vehicle that matched the description that Jayme gave of suspect, and we pulled the suspect over.”
Elizabeth Smart — whose abduction and nine-month imprisonment by religious zealots in 2002 had a similarly dramatic climax — hailed Jayme’s escape as a “miracle” in an Instagram post.
Smart, who was 14 at the time she was kidnapped in Salt Lake City, wished Jayme’s family well on this “happy occasion,” and saidd they needed “space and privacy on their road to finding a new sense of normal and moving forward.”
Meanwhile, “Jayme Closs is in the comforting embrace of law enforcement as we continue our investigation,” Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald told reporters.
