The Barron Wisconsin Murders and Jayme Closs’s Escape

October 15th, 2018. A 911 call comes in from a rural Wisconsin home. When deputies arrive four minutes later, they find two parents shot dead and their 13-year-old daughter gone. The killer was twenty seconds down the road when police flew past him. Twenty seconds. Jayme Closs would spend 88 days in hell before she decided to save herself.

The Night Everything Changed in Barron Wisconsin

Let’s talk about October 15th, 2018, in Barron, Wisconsin. It’s about 12:53 in the morning. Most people are asleep. Jayme Closs is asleep. Her parents, James and Denise, are asleep in their home just outside of town on Highway 8.

Somebody starts banging on the front door.

James Closs goes to see who it is. He probably thinks it’s an emergency, maybe a neighbor, maybe someone with car trouble. When he opens the door, a shotgun blast comes through the window. He’s dead before he understands what’s happening.

Denise hears the shot. She grabs 13-year-old Jayme and they run to the bathroom. They climb into the tub and Denise calls 911. She doesn’t say anything on the call. The dispatcher just hears noise, movement, chaos. But the call stays connected.

Jake Patterson Murders James and Denise Closs

The man with the shotgun is Jake Patterson. He finds them in the bathroom. He orders Denise to tape Jayme’s mouth shut. After that, he shoots Denise in front of her daughter. He tapes Jayme’s hands and ankles, drags her outside, shoves her in the trunk of his car, and drives away.

The whole thing takes maybe ten minutes.

Deputies get there four minutes after the 911 call ends. They’re fast. Really fast. They find James and Denise dead. They find no sign of Jayme. An Amber Alert goes out immediately because everyone understands what just happened. This was a targeted abduction. Someone killed two people to take a 13-year-old girl.

Twenty Seconds From Being Saved

Patterson later told police something that still bothers me. When he left the house with Jayme in the trunk, he pulled over about twenty seconds down the road. He watched three patrol cars with sirens and lights fly past him toward the Closs house. Twenty seconds. That’s how close police came to stopping this whole thing. Jayme told investigators later that she heard the sirens from inside the trunk as they drove past.

Patterson also said if the cops had pulled him over, he would have shot at them. So even in that moment, twenty seconds from the scene, he was ready to kill again.

The Stranger Who Chose Jayme Closs

Patterson had no connection to this family whatsoever. Jayme’s grandfather confirmed they’d never heard of Jake Patterson. He was a complete stranger.

So how does a stranger decide to do this?

Patterson worked at a cheese factory near Almena, Wisconsin. One morning he’s driving to work and he gets stuck behind a school bus. The bus stops and a girl gets on. That girl is Jayme Closs. Patterson told police that the moment he saw her, he knew. Those were his words. He knew that was the girl he was going to take.

That’s the entire reason. He saw a kid getting on a bus and decided to destroy her life.

How Jake Patterson Planned the Kidnapping

Patterson went to the Closs house twice before October 15th. Both times he turned around because he saw too many people or too many cars. He was waiting for the right moment. He shaved his head before the attack to avoid leaving DNA evidence. These are the actions of someone who planned every detail.

A forensic psychologist who analyzed the case said the reconnaissance trips, the DNA countermeasures, and the readiness to kill all pointed to careful, deliberate planning.

So on October 15th, Patterson shows up wearing all black, carrying a shotgun, ready to execute. And he does.

88 Days Hidden Under a Bed

After Patterson drives away with Jayme, he takes her to his cabin in Gordon, Wisconsin. It’s about 70 miles north of Barron. Remote and isolated, where you can scream and nobody hears you.

When they get there, Patterson makes Jayme change into different pajamas. After that, he shows her where she’s going to spend most of the next 88 days. Under his bed.

Patterson’s bed is a twin. He puts Jayme underneath it and stacks things on top to keep her trapped. Baskets, bins, workout weights. She can’t move. Can’t get out. Sometimes he keeps her there for twelve hours at a time with no food, no water, no bathroom.

Christmas Party While Jayme Closs Hid Captive

During those 88 days, Patterson has people over. His dad visits. His sister visits. There’s apparently a Christmas party at some point. Jayme is under the bed, a few feet away from his family, and nobody knows she’s there. Patterson is having holiday gatherings while a kidnapped teenager is hidden under furniture in the next room.

That level of compartmentalization is absolutely terrifying. He’s living two completely separate realities. In one, he’s a regular guy hosting Christmas. In the other, he’s a murderer holding a child captive.

The Massive Search That Went Nowhere

Meanwhile, the search for Jayme is massive. The Barron County Sheriff’s Department, the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, the FBI are all involved. Over 4,000 tips come in. The FBI offers a reward. Jennie-O Turkey Store, where James and Denise both worked, doubles it to $50,000.

Investigators are chasing leads about vehicles seen near the house. A red or orange Dodge Challenger. A black SUV. Nothing pans out. There are reported sightings that go nowhere. Someone even claims to see Jayme in Miami. It’s chaos.

Less than two weeks after the abduction, someone breaks into the Closs house and steals some of Jayme’s clothing. Police catch the guy quickly and clear him as a suspect in the kidnapping, but it shows how much attention this case is getting. Even criminals are drawn to it.

Despite thousands of tips and hundreds of officers working the case, police admit they have no working theory. They don’t know what happened. They don’t know who took Jayme. They don’t know why.

How Jayme Closs Escaped Jake Patterson

The breakthrough comes from Jayme herself.

On January 10th, 2019, Patterson tells Jayme he’s going to be gone for five or six hours. That’s longer than usual. It’s an opportunity. Jayme waits until he leaves, frees herself from under the bed, and puts on Patterson’s shoes because that’s all she can find. She runs.

It’s January in Wisconsin. It’s about 20 degrees outside. Jayme is wearing a sweatshirt, leggings, and slippers. She’s running through the woods in rural Gordon trying to find help.

She spots a woman walking a dog. The woman’s name is Jeanne Nutter, and she’s a social worker and trauma counselor. Nutter sees this skinny, disheveled girl in inadequate clothing stumbling toward her and knows immediately something is very wrong.

Jayme’s first words are, “I’m lost, I don’t know where I am, I need help.”

Nutter tells her she’s in Gordon, Wisconsin. Jayme says the words that change everything.

“I’m Jayme. He killed my parents. I want to go home. Help me.”

Jayme Closs Identifies Her Kidnapper

Nutter takes Jayme to a neighbor’s house. Peter and Kristen Kasinskas call 911. During that call, Jayme gives them the name of her kidnapper. Jake Patterson. Jake Thomas Patterson. She describes his car, a red Ford Taurus. She gives them everything they need.

Police find Patterson within minutes. He’s driving back toward the cabin when they spot him and pull him over. He’s arrested immediately.

On the day Jayme escaped, or possibly the day before, Patterson submitted a job application to a liquor distribution company in Superior, Wisconsin. In the application, he called himself an “honest and hardworking guy” who was a “quick learner.” He was trying to get a regular job. He actually thought he could just move on with his life.

Jake Patterson Confesses and Pleads Guilty

After his arrest, Patterson confessed to everything. He admitted he kidnapped Jayme and murdered her parents. Police found his cellphone in his car and pulled all the data from it. Call logs, location data, photos, videos. Everything they needed to build a timeline.

Patterson pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. His lawyers argued that he was motivated by loneliness and isolation, describing him as a guy with no criminal history beyond a parking ticket.

Patterson wrote a letter to the media claiming he felt huge amounts of remorse and wanted to plead guilty to spare Jayme a trial. A forensic psychologist pointed out that expressions of remorse usually show up after someone gets caught, and they’re often about reducing the sentence.

Judge Calls Jake Patterson One of the Most Dangerous Men Alive

At sentencing, Judge James Babler had a different take on Patterson’s character. He called him “one of the most dangerous men to ever walk on this planet.” The judge revealed something Patterson had said during interviews. At one point, Patterson had fantasies about kidnapping multiple girls and killing multiple families. He wanted to play mind games with them.

Patterson got two consecutive life sentences without parole, plus an additional 40 years. The maximum possible sentence.

Jayme Closs Victim Impact Statement

During sentencing, Jayme delivered a victim impact statement through her attorney. She talked about losing her parents, James and Denise, who did everything they could to make her happy and protect her. She said something powerful.

“Jake Patterson can never take away my courage. He thought he could control me, but he couldn’t. What he did is what a coward would do.”

She finished with this: “Jake Patterson will never have any power over me. I have some power over him, because I get to tell the judge what I think should happen to him.”

Jayme Closs Rescued Herself

Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald summed up the case perfectly. Despite the thousands of tips, despite hundreds of officers working around the clock, despite the massive investigation, he said, “Ultimately, Jayme rescued herself.”

After her recovery, Jayme moved in with an aunt and uncle. She’s since become an advocate for other missing and exploited children. She took the worst thing that could happen to a person and turned it into a way to help others.

This case changed Barron County forever. It’s a reminder that violence can come from nowhere, from someone you’ve never met, for reasons that make no sense. But it’s also a reminder that courage can come from unexpected places. From a 13-year-old girl who decided she wasn’t going to be a victim anymore. From someone who waited for her moment, took it, and saved herself.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​