Family killings: Teen girl’s kidnapper pleads guilty to murdering her parents
The man who kidnapped teen Jayme Closs and kept her captive for months after murdering her parents had two words for her in court today.
The man accused of kidnapping Jayme Closs, 13, and holding her captive in a remote cabin for three months after murdering her parents has pleaded guilty to the charges.
Jake Patterson, 21, from Wisconsin in the US, pleaded guilty Wednesday to kidnapping Jayme, intentionally killing her parents and holding her hostage for 88 days. One count of armed burglary was dropped.
Patterson, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, appeared in a Barron County Court on Wednesday afternoon and answered “yes” to a judge asking him if he wanted to plead guilty. As the judge read the charges, Patterson cried, NBC News reports.
“Mr. Patterson has wanted to enter a plea since the day we met him,” his lawyer told the court.
“He has always been consistent in his statements and belief that this is what he wants to do.”
The intentional homicide counts carry a sentence of life in prison. As Patterson was led away from court by officials, he uttered two words: “Bye Jayme,” he said.
The hearing lasted 17 minutes. As the judge walked #JakePatterson through the charges he seemed to sniffle. His attorney had his hand on his shoulder. Family and friends of #JaymeCloss had tears in their eyes as they left court and hurried out of the courthouse.
— Liz Collin (@lizcollin) March 27, 2019
Patterson had said he would plead guilty in a letter sent earlier this month to a Minneapolis TV station, saying he didn’t want the Closs family “to worry about a trial”.
Patterson admitted kidnapping Jayme after killing her parents, James and Denise Closs, on October 15 at the family’s home near Barron, about 145km northeast of Minneapolis. Jayme escaped in January, after 88 days in Patterson’s cabin near the small, isolated town of Gordon, some 97km from her home.
According to a criminal complaint, Patterson told authorities he decided Jayme “was the girl he was going to take” after he saw her getting on a school bus near her home.
Jayme told police on the night of the abduction, she was woken by the barking of her family’s dog and went to wake up her parents as a car came up the driveway. While her father went to the front door, Jayme and her mother hid in the bathroom, clutching each other in the bathtub, with the shower curtain pulled shut.
They heard Jayme’s father get shot. Patterson then found Jayme and her mother. He told detectives he wrapped tape around Jayme’s mouth and head, taped her hands behind her back and taped her ankles together, then shot her mother in the head. He told police he dragged Jayme outside, threw her in the boot of his car, and took her to his cabin, the complaint said.
During Jayme’s time in captivity, Patterson forced her to hide under a bed when he had friends over and penned her in with tote boxes and weights, warning that if she moved, “bad things could happen to her”. He also turned up the radio so visitors couldn’t hear her, according to the complaint.
Authorities searched for Jayme for months and collected more than 3500 tips. On January 10, Jayme escaped from the cabin while Patterson was away. She then flagged down a woman who was out walking a dog and pleaded for help. Patterson was arrested minutes later.
Officials with Saratoga Liquor Co in Superior, Wisconsin, previously said that they received an online job application from Patterson around midday on the day Jayme escaped.
According to the company, Patterson was trying to land a night position at the warehouse. Company officials said they wouldn’t have hired him due to his lack of experience.
On the resume Patterson submitted in his application, he described himself as an “honest and hardworking guy”.
“Not much work experience but I show up to work and am a quick learner,” he wrote.
Patterson also claimed he served in the US Marines for nine months from April 2017 to December 2017. Marine spokeswoman Yvonne Carlock told AP that Patterson did serve, but only for about five weeks in autumn 2015.
Ms Carlock said his early discharge indicated the “character of his service was incongruent with Marine Corps’ expectations and standards”.
In February, Jayme and her family released a statement saying the support she has received from everyone has “been a source of great comfort to her”.
— With AP
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