Jayme Closs' Alleged Abductor Immediately Confessed When Stopped by Police: 'I Did It,' He Said
Jake Patterson assumed he’d gotten away with kidnapping Wisconsin teen Jayme Closs since he hadn’t been caught within the first two weeks of snatching her from her home in the middle of the night, he allegedly told investigators, according to court records obtained by PEOPLE.
But when a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office sergeant pulled him over on Jan. 10 shortly after Jayme escaped his captivity, he immediately confessed, the criminal complaint states.
“I did it,” the 21-year-old unemployed man allegedly told the sergeant after being stopped just down the road from the remote Gordon, Wisconsin, cabin where he’d held the 13-year-old since Oct. 15 and told to step out of his vehicle, the complaint says.
RELATED: Suspect in Jayme Closs Case Targeted Her After Seeing Her Board School Bus: Court Docs
Jayme’s dramatic rescue followed by Patterson’s Jan. 10 arrest ended the teen’s 88-day ordeal that began when the suspect described to PEOPLE as a “loner” allegedly shot and killed her parents in their home before forcing her into the trunk of his car and driving her to his cabin, 70 miles north of her hometown of Barron, the complaint says.
• For more on Jayme Closs’s horrific abduction and amazing rescue, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
During her nearly three-month captivity, Patterson allegedly hit her and threatened her and made her go without food, water – or bathroom breaks, for up to 12 hours at a time, according to the complaint.
Details about the horrors Jayme endured emerged Monday when the criminal complaint was released just hours before Patterson appeared from jail via video at a court hearing in Barron County Circuit Court.
During the hearing, Patterson kept nervously touching his face and chin as prosecutors charged him with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, kidnapping, and armed burglary.
He answered questions posed to him calmly and with a strong voice.
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He is charged with killing James Closs, 56, and Denise Closs, 46, after shooting his way into their home, say police.
The brief hearing ended shortly after the judge ordered him held on $5 million bail.
Patterson could face additional charges in Douglas County, where the cabin is located.
One of the most chilling details to emerge from the complaint is that Patterson allegedly revealed that he first became aware of Jayme when he spotted the eighth-grader boarding the school bus outside her home one morning while waiting in traffic on his way to a two-day job at a cheese plant, the complaint states.
RELATED: Amazing Escape: Inside Jayme Closs’ Harrowing Run to Freedom After 88 Days in Captivity
He allegedly told investigators “when he saw [Jayme], he knew that was the girl he was going to take.”
Patterson went to great lengths to abduct Jayme and then to hide her, prosecutors allege in the document.
Patterson ordered Jayme “to remain under the bed whenever he left the house” and, to ensure she didn’t leave, had “stacked totes and laundry bins around the bed with weights stacked against them so she could not move them without his being able to detect if she did,” the complaint says.
RELATED: Jayme Closs Case: Timeline of Murder, Abduction and Her Miraculous Escape
Calls for comment to Patterson’s public defenders were not returned.
“This is a very tragic situation,” Patterson’s lawyers said in a joint statement, according to local media reports. “There is a substantial amount of information, interest, and emotion involved in this case. Mr. Patterson’s legal team will be relying on the integrity of our judicial system to ensure that everyone’s rights are protected and respected.”
Patterson is scheduled to return to court for his next hearing on Feb. 6 at 11 a.m. local time.
