A man suspected of killing a US couple, kidnapping their teenage daughter and holding her captive for three months decided to abduct her after spotting her getting on a school bus, acco
By Amy Forliti and Todd Richmond, Associated Press
January 14 2019 8:09 PM
A man suspected of killing a US couple, kidnapping their teenage daughter and holding her captive for three months decided to abduct her after spotting her getting on a school bus, according to a criminal complaint.
Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, told investigators he was driving to his job at a cheese factory when he stopped behind a school bus and watched 13-year-old Jayme Closs get on.
At that moment, he said, “he knew that was the girl he was going to take”, the complaint said. Police have said the two did not know each other.
Prosecutors formally charged Patterson on Monday in the murders and the abduction in Barron, Wisconsin. He was also charged with armed robbery and was scheduled to make his first court appearance later in the day.
Investigators believe he broke into the Closs home in October and then hid Jayme in a remote cabin before she escaped on Thursday.
He had gone to the home twice intending to kidnap her but was not able to do it because too many people were around, the complaint said.
On the night she was abducted, Jayme told police, she was asleep in her room when the family dog started barking. She woke her parents as a car came up the driveway.
She and her mother Denise hid in the bathroom. They heard a gunshot and she knew her father James had just been killed, according to the complaint.
Denise Closs started to call 911. Patterson broke down the bathroom door, told her to hang up and taped Jayme’s mouth shut. Ms Closs complied and then Patterson shot her, the complaint said.
