The Kidnapping of Jayme Closs

Jayme Closs was a thirteen-year-old Wisconsin girl whose parents were murdered in their Barron County home in the early morning hours of October 15, 2018. Her father James was shot at the door and her mother Denise was shot inside. Jayme was stuffed under a bed, taped and bound, and taken in the family car by the killer, Jake Patterson. Patterson, a 21-year-old man with no prior connection to the Closs family, had seen Jayme briefly on a school bus and become fixated on abducting her. He held her captive in his remote cabin in Gordon, Wisconsin, for 88 days.

Patterson kept Jayme imprisoned under his bed for hours at a time, emerging only when he permitted. She was kept isolated, cold, and powerless. On January 10, 2019, while Patterson was away from the cabin, Jayme managed to escape and encountered a woman walking her dog in the nearby woods — who immediately recognized her from news coverage and called 911. Patterson was arrested within hours of Jayme's escape. His capture was one of the most emotionally charged news events of the year.

Patterson pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, one count of kidnapping, and one count of armed robbery. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 40 years. The Barron County community, which had mounted an extraordinary 88-day search effort, celebrated Jayme's return with extraordinary emotion.

Jayme Closs went to live with a family member and has maintained a private life since her return. The case demonstrated both the terrifying randomness of certain violent crimes — Patterson had no motive beyond a fixation formed from a single glimpse — and the resilience of a teenager who survived months of captivity and found the right moment to escape. The Wisconsin community's sustained search effort in the months of her captivity was cited as a model for community engagement in missing children cases.