Jake T. Patterson, 21, was being held pending formal charges of murder and kidnapping, authorities announced Friday morning, as family members and neighbors of Jayme expressed shock and relief the girl had been found alive nearly three months after she had gone missing. The disappearance had set off a police hunt that ended Thursday afternoon when the girl escaped and was found wandering on a road by a passer-by near Gordon, about an hour north of her Barron County home.
Jayme, 13, was discovered by a woman walking her dog, authorities said, and the girl’s descriptions of her abductor’s car quickly led officials to locate and arrest the suspect. Authorities said Jayme had been taken against her will and had escaped from the home where she had been held.
“In cases like this we often need a big break, and it was Jayme herself who gave us that break,” said Justin Tolomeo, special agent in charge of the Milwaukee division of the FBI.
Patterson had no known criminal record in Wisconsin, authorities said.
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Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said, “The suspect planned his actions, and took many proactive steps to hide his identity from law enforcement.”
Jayme was hospitalized and was being evaluated, her uncle, Jeff Closs, said Thursday night. “We’re very happy that she is alive,” he wrote in a text message. “We don’t know much else.”
Jayme had been missing since Oct. 15, when authorities found her parents, James and Denise Closs, dead in their home; the front was door open, and Jayme was gone.
A couple who lives in the area, Kristin and Peter Kasinskas, told The Minneapolis Star Tribune that Jayme appeared on their doorstep about 4 p.m. Thursday, after she had been found by one of their neighbors. The neighbor pounded on the family’s door, the couple said. A skinny girl with matted hair stood by her side, wearing shoes too big for her feet.
“This is Jayme Closs!” the neighbor said. “Call 911!”
“It was like I was seeing a ghost,” Peter Kasinskas told The Star Tribune.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.