The Barron Wisconsin Murders and Jayme Closs’s Escape

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You're listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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October 15, 2018.

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A 911 call comes from a rural Wisconsin home.

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When deputies arrive, four minutes later,

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they find two parents shot dead,

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and their 13-year-old daughter had gone.

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The killer was 20 seconds down the road

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when police flew past him.

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20 seconds.

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Jamie Kloss would spend 88 days in hell

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before she decided she was going to need to save herself.

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October 15, 2018 in Baron, Wisconsin.

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It's about 12.53 in the morning.

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Most people are asleep.

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Jamie Kloss is asleep.

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Her parents, James and Denise,

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are asleep in their home just outside of town on Highway 8.

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Somebody starts banging on the front door.

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James Kloss goes to see who it is.

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He probably thinks it's an emergency.

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Maybe a neighbor.

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Maybe someone with car trouble.

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When he opens the door,

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a shotgun blast comes through the window.

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He's dead before he can understand what's happening.

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Denise hears the shot.

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She grabs 13-year-old Jamie and they run to the bathroom.

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They climb into the tub,

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and Denise calls 911.

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She doesn't say anything on the call.

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The dispatcher hears noise, movement, chaos.

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But the call stays connected.

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The man with the shotgun is Jake Patterson.

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He finds them in the bathroom.

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He orders Denise to tape Jamie's mouth shut.

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After that, he shoots Denise right in front of her daughter.

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He tapes Jamie's hands and ankles,

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drags her outside, shoves her in the trunk of his car,

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and drives away.

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The whole thing takes less than 10 minutes.

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Deputies get there four minutes after the 911 call-ins.

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They're fast, really fast.

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They find James and Denise dead.

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They find no sign of Jamie.

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An amber alert goes out immediately

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because everyone understands what just happened.

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This was a targeted abduction.

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Someone killed two people in order to take a 13-year-old girl.

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Patterson later told police something that still bothers me.

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When he left the house with Jamie in his trunk,

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he pulled over about 20 seconds down the road.

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He watched three patrol cars with sirens fly past him

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toward the cross house.

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20 seconds.

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That is how close police came to stopping this whole thing.

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Jamie told investigators later that she heard the sirens

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from inside the trunk as they drove past.

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Patterson also said that if the cops had pulled him over,

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he would have shot them.

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So, even in that moment, 20 seconds from the scene,

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he was ready to kill again.

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Jake Patterson had no connection to this family.

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What so ever?

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Jamie's grandfather confirmed they'd never even heard of Jake Patterson.

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He was a complete stranger.

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So how does a stranger decide to do this?

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Patterson worked at a cheese factory near Almina, Wisconsin.

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One morning, he's driving to work

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and he gets stuck behind a school bus.

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The bus stops and a girl gets on.

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That girl is Jamie Claus.

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Patterson told the police that the moment he saw her, he knew.

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Those were his words.

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He knew that was the girl he was going to take.

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That's the entire reason.

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He saw a kid getting on a school bus

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and decided to destroy her life.

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Jake Patterson went to the class house twice before October 15.

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Both times, he turned around because he saw too many people

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or too many cars.

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He was waiting for the right moment.

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He shaved his head before the attack

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to avoid leaving DNA evidence.

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These are actions of someone who planned every detail.

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A forensic psychologist who analyzed the case said that the reconnaissance trips,

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the DNA countermeasures and the readiness to kill all pointed to careful, deliberate planning.

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So on October 15th, Patterson shows up wearing all black, carrying a shotgun,

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ready to execute.

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And he does.

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After Patterson drives away with Jamie, he takes her to his cabin in Gordon, Wisconsin.

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It's about 70 miles north of Barron, remote, and isolated, where you can scream and nobody hears you.

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When they get there, Patterson makes Jamie change into different pajamas.

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After that, he shows her where she's going to spend most of the next 88 days.

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Under his bed.

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Patterson's bed is a twin size.

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He puts Jamie underneath it and stacks things on top to keep her trapped.

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Baskets, bins, workout weights.

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She can't move.

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Can't get out.

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Sometimes he keeps her there for 12 hours at a time with no food, no water, no bathroom.

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During those 88 days, Patterson has people over.

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His dad visits.

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His sister visits.

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There's apparently a Christmas party at some point.

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Jamie is under the bed a few feet away from his family.

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And nobody knows she's there.

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Patterson is having holiday gatherings while a child is trapped under his bedroom furniture.

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That level of compartmentalization is absolutely terrifying.

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He's living two completely separate realities.

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And one, he's a regular guy hosting Christmas.

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In the other, he's a murderer holding a child captive.

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Meanwhile, the search for Jamie is massive.

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The Barron County Sheriff's Department, the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation,

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the FBI, they're all involved.

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Over 4,000 tips come in.

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The FBI offers a reward.

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Genio Turkey store, where James and Denise both worked, doubles it to $50,000.

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Investigators are chasing leads about vehicles seen near the house.

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A red or orange Dodge Challenger.

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A black SUV.

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Nothing pans out.

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There are reported sightings that go nowhere.

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Someone even claims to see Jamie in Miami.

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It's chaos.

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But that's kind of what happens when there's a high dollar reward.

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Less than two weeks after the abduction, someone breaks into the cross-home and steals some of Jamie's clothing.

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Police catch the guy quickly and clear him as a suspect in the kidnapping.

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But it shows how much attention this case is getting.

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Even criminals are drawn to it.

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Despite thousands of tips and hundreds of officers working on the case, police admit they have no working theory.

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They don't know what happened.

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They don't know who took Jamie. They don't know why.

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The breakthrough comes from Jamie herself.

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On January 10th, 2019, Patterson tells Jamie he's going to be gone for five or six hours.

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That's longer than usual. It's an opportunity.

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Jamie waits until he leaves, frees herself from under the bed, and puts on Patterson's shoes because that's all she can find.

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She runs.

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It's January in Wisconsin.

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It's about 20 degrees outside.

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Jamie is wearing a sweatshirt, leggings, and slippers.

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She's running through the woods and rule Wisconsin trying to find help.

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She spots a woman walking her dog.

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The woman's name is Jeannie Nutter, and she happens to be a social worker and trauma counselor.

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Nutter sees this skinny, dishevelled girl in inadequate clothing stumbling toward her and knows immediately something is very, very wrong.

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Jamie's first words are, "I'm lost. I don't know where I am. I need help."

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Nutter tells her she's in Gordon, Wisconsin. "Jamae says the words that change everything. I'm Jamie. He killed my parents. I want to go home. Help me."

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Nutter takes Jamie to a neighbor's house, and they call 911.

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During that call, Jamie gives them the name of the kidnapper, Jake Patterson, Jake Thomas Patterson.

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She describes his car, a red Ford Taurus. She gives them everything they need.

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

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On the day Jamie escaped, or possibly the day before, Patterson submitted a job application to a liquor distribution company in Superior Wisconsin.

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In the application, he called himself, "honest and hardworking guy," who was a quick learner.

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He was trying to get a regular job. He actually thought he could just move on with his life, while believing he still had a child trapped under his bed.

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After the arrest, Patterson confessed to everything, admitting he kidnapped Jamie and murdered her parents.

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Police found his cell phone in his car and pulled the data from it. Call logs, location data, photos, videos, everything they needed to build a timeline.

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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.

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Patterson wrote a letter to the media claiming he felt huge amounts of remorse and wanted to plead guilty to spare Jamie a trial.

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A forensic psychologist pointed out that expressions of remorse usually show up after someone gets caught and they're often about reducing the sentence.

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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.

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The judge revealed something Patterson had said during the interviews. At one point, Patterson had fantasies about kidnapping multiple girls and killing multiple families.

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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.

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During sentencing, Jamie 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.

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"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."

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And she finished with this, "Jake Patterson will never have any power over me. I have some power over him because I got to tell the judge what I think should happen to him."

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Baring County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald sums up the case perfectly. Despite the thousands of tips, despite hundreds of officers working around the clock, despite the massive investigation, he said, "ultimately, Jamie rescued herself."

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

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This case changed Baring County forever. It's a reminder that violence can come from nowhere, from someone you've never met, for reasons that make no sense.

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But it's also a reminder that courage can come from unexpected places. From a 13-year-old who decided she wasn't going to be a victim anymore, from someone who waited for her moment, took it and saved herself.

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[Music]

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Thanks for listening to "10 Minute Murder," "Bingeable True Crime Stories." I'm Joe, I'm the host, and this email is "Subject," a question that has nothing to do with murder.

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Fair enough. Hey, Joe, I was reheating leftovers and started wondering something. If you had to eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

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I feel like you'd pick something practical, but I'm hoping you'll surprise me with chaos. Thanks for feeding my curiosity every week.

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Caleb in Owensboro, Kentucky. And Caleb, I hate the disappoint you, but I'm not chaotic when it comes to food.

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I wouldn't call myself picky, but there is a list of things that I don't eat or won't eat. I don't, first of all, don't like fish.

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I've just never liked the taste of it. I don't eat beef because cows are adorable.

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So if I had to eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would probably be tacos. That seems very specific, but it's also broad. You can put anything on those tacos.

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I was in Austin, Texas last year, and I went to this place for breakfast, and I got breakfast tacos, and they changed my life.

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They were so good, I think about them at least once a week.

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Alright, Caleb, thank you for the email, and I hope that answers your question. If you want to send me an email, you can go to "10minuteMurder.com" email me there.

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Also on the website, there's a "Murder" blog and a place for you to sign up for the newsletter.

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Be sure to follow the podcast and all the socials and you'll keep up with everything that's going on with the podcast.

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And if you're an OG listener, if you love the show, please share this with your friends and your family.

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That's gonna do it. That is your episode for today. Thank you so much for listening to "10minuteMurder." See you next time.