BARRON COUNTY, Wis. — Jake Thomas Patterson, the man charged with killing a couple in Wisconsin before holding their 13-year-old daughter captive for three months, pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Authorities said Patterson, 21, killed James Closs, 56, and Denise Closs, 46, before abducting their daughter, Jayme Closs, in the early morning hours of Oct. 15.
He pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping, The Associated Press reported.
BREAKING: A Wisconsin man pleads guilty to kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents. https://t.co/k6qoRQtBYg
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 27, 2019
Authorities said Patterson admitted to targeting Jayme after watching her get on a school bus while he was driving home from work one day. He said he did know the Closses before the attack.
Patterson had indicated his intent to plead guilty last month in a letter sent to KARE-TV.
"I knew when I was caught (which I thought would happen a lot sooner) I wouldn't fight anything," Patterson wrote in the letter. "I tried to give them everything ... so they didn't have to interview Jayme."
He told KARE-TV he planned to plead guilty so Jayme's family wouldn't have to go through the stress of a trial.
"I can't believe I did this," he wrote.
Jayme told authorities she woke early on the morning of Oct. 15 to the sound of her dog barking, only to find a car coming up the driveway to her family's home. She told investigators she woke her parents. Her father went to check who was at the door and, after they realized the person was armed, Jayme said she and her mother hid in a bathroom.
Authorities said Patterson killed Jayme's father before he broke down the door to the bathroom, shot and killed Jayme's mother and then taped the 13-year-old's hands and feet and dragged her to his car. Jayme told investigators that she was in the trunk of the car for about two hours while Patterson drove her to what would turn out to be his home.
There, he made Jayme hide under the bed in his bedroom, stacking totes and laundry bins around the bed with weights stacked against them "so she could not move them without his being able to detect it if she did," authorities said.
Jayme told investigators Patterson made her stay under his bed for as many as 12 hours at a time without food, water or bathroom breaks.
Patterson was arrested Jan. 10 after Jayme managed to escape from the cabin. She was held captive for 88 days.
Cox Media Group
