Man arrested over deaths as abducted teen turns up
AMAN has been detained over the deaths of a US couple he killed because he wanted to kidnap their teenage daughter, investigators said, a day after the girl approached a stranger on a rural road saying she had been abducted in October and held against her will.
Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, was taken into custody shortly after 13-year-old Jayme Closs sought help from a woman walking her dog in a rural, heavily wooded Wisconsin neighbourhood near the small town of Gordon, about 60 miles north of Barron.
Jayme disappeared from her family home in Barron when her parents were killed on October 15.
During a news conference, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said Jayme was taken against her will. He said investigators do not believe Patterson had any contact with the family.
Mr Fitzgerald said investigators believe Patterson killed Jayme’s parents because he wanted to abduct her, and that Patterson “planned his actions and took many steps to hide his identity”.
The sheriff said investigators believe the girl was “the only target”.
Mr Fitzgerald said Jayme was taken to hospital but has since been medically cleared and released. She was being interviewed by law enforcement officers, he added.
A woman said she was walking her dog along a rural road on Thursday afternoon when a dishevelled teenage girl called to her for help, grabbed her and told her she was lost. Only then did the girl reveal her name.
Jeanne Nutter said yesterday that Jayme told her she had walked away from a cabin where she had been held captive not far from Ms Nutter’s home.
“I was terrified, but I didn’t want to show her that,” said Ms Nutter, a social worker who spent years working in child protection. “She just yelled ‘please help me, I don’t know where I am. I’m lost’.”
Ms Nutter said: “My only thought was to get her to a safe place.”