Profilers say Patterson case stands out
They say he has ‘no guilt, no remorse, no empathy’
BARRON – Jake Patterson is accused of a combination of violent outbursts and predatory behavior that even some of the nation’s seasoned criminal profilers have never seen before.
Patterson, who will be arraigned next month on charges of killing James and Denise Closs with shotgun blasts and kidnapping Jayme, their 13-year-old daughter, is narcissistic but also a loner with a spotty work record, criminologists and violent crime experts say.
Investigators, profilers and researchers who have interviewed or studied killers with multiple victims believe Patterson’s case is unusual in several other respects:
❚ Patterson told detectives that he carefully plotted the crimes, yet he was impulsive in some of his actions and decisions.
❚ While it was regarded as a crime against a stranger because Patterson, according to the complaint, had no relationship with the Closs family, it wasn’t completely random because he targeted Jayme after he saw her getting on a school bus near her Barron home weeks before attacking her family.
❚ Patterson unmercifully killed Jayme’s parents, prosecutors say, but he spared Jayme, drove her away from the murder scene and held her captive for three months before she escaped.
“This is outside the norm,” said Gregg McCrary, a former special agent with the FBI who had a long association with the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and was among the early criminal profilers.
Patterson’s case is being handled in Barron County Circuit Court, where he waived his preliminary hearing Wednesday. Arraignment is March 27.
Patterson was arrested Jan. 10 after Jayme escaped and was led to safety by neighbors. She told police she spent a portion of her 88 days in captivity hidden under a twin bed in the defendant’s childhood home in the northwestern Wisconsin town of Gordon.
McCrary, noting the brutality of the killings, said Patterson was determined to follow through on his plan to kidnap Jayme. He went to the Closs home twice before Oct. 15, but he saw several cars parked outside and the lights on inside the home and decided to wait, according to the criminal complaint.
“He saw her at the bus stop and then he engaged in predatory behavior. Then he began the hunt,” McCrary said, recounting the details in the complaint, which police say Patterson provided in a confession. “How do you conceptualize a guy like this? He’s impulsive on one side, but he is more ritualistic.
“He has no qualms about killing the parents; they were just obstacles in the way to have at this young girl.”
James and Denise Closs were victims of Patterson’s fantasy to take and keep Jayme, McCrary said.
“When guys do this sort of thing, anybody who gets between them and their target is in peril,” he said. “That’s his desire, and he is willing to kill. This is someone with no guilt, no remorse, no empathy.
“He killed these people with the empathy of lighting a cigarette.”
Patterson had no criminal record before his arrest, but McCrary said that’s not the unusual part about this crime or the man accused of committing it.
“Almost always those guys don’t have a criminal history. And it’s one big explosive event. This could be somewhat similar to that,” he said.
“(Multiple killers) are not that common, but this guy is even more uncommon — with his willingness to callously and unremorsefully (commit murder and kidnapping). It’s pretty striking, going in with a shotgun and blasting away.”
McCrary also sees signs of narcissism in Patterson. He noted that, when stopped by police Jan. 10, he said “I did it” and went on to say in his confession that he assumed he had gotten away with his crimes and claimed he never would have been caught if he had planned the abduction “perfectly,” the complaint said.
“He talks about being criminally sophisticated and his efforts at not being detected. He likes to brag about it, which is extremely pathological,” McCrary said. “He thinks he’s smarter than anybody else. He was just getting off on this. He had this secret, which reinforces his feelings. He has a captive in the house and appears to lead a normal life.
“It’s the narcissism that often is their vulnerability, such as the confidence to go out and leave (Jayme) alone. He got overconfident in his ability to maintain this.”
Patterson’s actions, outlined in the complaint, before the mayhem at the Closs residence were not typical of most killers, said Kim Rossmo, director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation in the Department of Criminal Justice at Texas State University.
“I think one of the unusual aspects was the fact that he didn’t kill his victim within 24 hours. That’s pretty standard,” said Rossmo, the former detective inspector in charge of the Vancouver Police Department’s Geographic Profiling Section.
Rossmo also noted that while authorities say Patterson plotted the crime, he changed course as circumstances arose.
“In a way it’s a complication more than a necessity,” he said of the murders of Jayme’s parents. “Given his planning, it was unusual to go into the home (without knowing who was there). Maybe he couldn’t wait.”
Patterson has been described by former classmates as isolated and quiet. He wasn’t a suspect before his arrest, but people with those characteristics “can fly under the radar,” said Christine Sarteschi, associate professor of social work and criminology at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.
“This is someone who was highly motivated,” Sarteschi said. “It wasn’t revenge; it wasn’t money. He had a goal and he did what he wanted. He wanted something, and he went and took it. A lot of people would not be willing to kill in this manner.”
“I think it’s very unique.” Although other major crimes share aspects of Patterson’s case — premeditating, planning, avoiding detection and erupting in deadly violence — the combination of these behaviors in the Jayme Closs abduction is outside the norm.