But in the end, it was Jayme herself who broke the case: She emerged along a wooded road Thursday afternoon about an hour from her home, her hair matted and wearing ill-fitting shoes, and asked for help from a passing stranger who was out walking a dog. The middle schooler had escaped from a captor who had been holding her for months, authorities said, bringing a sudden end to a mystery that had shaken this region of Wisconsin.
“Jayme is the hero in this case,” Chris Fitzgerald, sheriff of Barron County, said.
By Friday morning, officials announced they were holding a local man, Jake T. Patterson, 21, pending formal charges of kidnapping and murder. Jayme had directed authorities to him, they said, by providing a description of his car. He was found — in his car, apparently out searching for Jayme — not long after Jayme appeared along the road near Gordon, about 65 miles north of Barron, where the Closs family had lived.
But the discovery of Jayme, who went home with an aunt Friday after being examined in a hospital, and the arrest of Patterson, who had no known criminal record in Wisconsin, left many unanswered questions.
Fitzgerald said authorities believed Jayme had been targeted by her kidnapper, but that they so far knew of no connection or contact between Patterson and the Closs family. Patterson had once worked at the same turkey plant that Jayme’s parents, James and Denise Closs, worked at for years before their deaths. But Patterson’s stint there three years ago had lasted a day, officials said, and there was no hint of any contact with the Closses or their daughter.
“We’re very happy that she is alive,” Jayme’s uncle, Jeff Closs, said in a text message. Just when the family started to give up hope, Jeff Closs said, “we got the greatest news ever.”
Jayme had been missing since Oct. 15, when authorities found her parents dead in their home; the front door was open and Jayme was gone.
Authorities have said they do not have any additional suspects in the kidnapping or killings beyond Patterson, who is expected to face formal charges Monday.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.