Barron County, Wis. — A criminal complaint said a Wisconsin man accused of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs spotted her getting on a school bus one day and made up his mind to take her.
Prosecutors filed the criminal complaint Monday laying out the allegations against Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, who faces charges of two counts of intentional homicide, kidnapping and burglary. The complaint says Patterson admitted he broke into the Closs home near Barron, Wisconsin, in October 2018, killed Jayme’s parents and kidnapped her.
The criminal complaint said Patterson told investigators he was driving to his job at a cheese factory one day near Almena, Wisconsin, when he stopped behind a school bus and watched Jayme get on.
The complaint quotes Patterson as saying when he saw Jayme, “He knew that was the girl he was going to take.”
Patterson appeared in court via a video feed wearing an orange prison jumpsuit Monday afternoon as a judge read the charges against him. Barron County District Attorney Brian Wright said Patterson, of the northern Wisconsin town of Gordon, had no ties to Barron County, other than working at a local cheese factory for two days. He said the only reason Patterson came to the area was to abduct Jayme.
Wright asked for cash bail of $5 million, calling Patterson a flight risk and a danger to the public. A judge agreed to the bail amount.
The judge ordered a DNA sample collected from Patterson. When the judge asked if he had received a copy of the complaint, Patterson replied, “Yes, sir.” He showed no emotion.