Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore - She Found Her Own Way Out: The Abduction of Jayme Closs

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

Around 1 a.m. on October 15, 2018, a 911 call came from a house on a rural stretch outside Barron, Wisconsin. Deputies arrived four minutes later to a kicked-in front door and found James and Denise Closs shot dead inside. But their 13-year-old daughter Jayme was gone. Thousands of tips and volunteer searchers turned up nothing. Until, 88 days later and 70 miles north, a woman walking her dog found a girl who told her to call the police. This week, Morgan and Kaelyn unpack the crime, the 88 days Jayme spent in a stranger's home, and what happened after she escaped. Head over to our Clues YouTube channel to WATCH this episode: https://www.youtube.com/@CluesPodIf you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Clues to never miss a case! To hear episodes ad-free and released a day early, subscribe to Crime House+. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Clues is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to other Crime House Originals including Crime House 24/7, Crimes Of Reddit, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts!Follow us on SocialYouTube: @CluesPod | @crimehousestudiosInstagram: @cluespodcast | @CrimehouseTikTok: @CrimehouseFacebook: @crimehousestudiosX: @crimehousemediaClues is hosted by Morgan Absher & Kaelyn Moore Instagram: @morgsyabsher | @itskaelynmooreTikTok: @twohottakes | @heartstartspoundingEpisode Sponsors:Apply to Year Up United today, and take the first step toward achieving the career you want. Visit https://www.YearUp.org to learn more.Get started now at ⁠⁠https://www.HelloAlma.com/CLUES MasterClass keeps adding new classes, so there’s never been a better time to get in. Right now, as a listener of this show, you get at least 15% off any annual membership at https://www.Masterclass.com/CLUES. Get started today at https://www.StitchFix.com/CLUES to get $20 off your first order. Save up to 52% off with code CLUES at

On Reddit, true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves. Every Tuesday on Crimes of Reddit, we read these posts out loud. I'm Sabrina DeAnna Roga. And I'm Alexis Linkletter. One of us brings the story, the other goes in blind, reacting in real time just like you. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Subscribe on YouTube at Crimes. of Reddit pod for video episodes. This is Crime House. A man watches a 13-year-old girl get on her school bus. He doesn't know her name. He doesn't know her family. But he decides right then and there that he's going to take her. And he does, but not before murdering both of her parents right in front of her.

For 88 days, the entire state searches for her, questioning, will Jamie Clause make it home alive? Hi, guys. Welcome back to Clues, where we sneak past the crime scene. tape to explore the key evidence behind some of the most gripping true crime cases. I'm Kila Moore, and I'm going to be the one digging deeper into the timelines, the backstories, and the court files released on these cases. And I'm your internet sleuth, Morgan Apshur. I'm the one who's diving into the Reddit forums and anything else I can find online

to talk about the lesser known details and pull the threads that just don't add up. Don't forget to share your thoughts on social, want ad-free and early access to clues, and the rest of the crimehouse lineup? Subscribe to Crimehouse Plus and get at least two bonus episodes from across Crimehouse every month. To join, go to Crimehouseplus.com, or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap, try free at the top of the clues page.

Now, let's get into Jamie Kloss's case and the clues that defined it. Do you remember this one happening? Because this is a more recent case. You know, I actually, it didn't hit the headlines. We just, you know, covered the case of Ario Castro as well. And this one definitely was not in the headlines in the same way.

I think for me, being from Minnesota, it really was. Like, all of my family was talking about. it because I've got family that live in Wisconsin, you know, close to Madison and O'Clair and things like that. So this one, I feel like my family was talking about nonstop and just, I mean, how insane it is where someone kills two people to kidnap another. It's just, it's kind of unimaginable. Yeah, it's also, it taps into that fear of that any, at any point someone can be watching you and becoming obsessed with you that you just don't know about. Yeah. And that to me is really,

really scary. It is. No, definitely is. Yeah. And it's, this is a heavy one. And so we're going to have some content warnings before we dive into it. But as a quick reminder, if you're watching this on YouTube, we're going to have pictures, videos, maps, stuff that's going to help you visualize the case. And if you're just listening, you can find all that same stuff on our Instagram. That's at Clues podcast on Instagram. And a warning before we begin. This episode does contain discussions of murder, kidnapping, assault. So please listen with care. This story starts just past midnight on October 15, 2018. In a small house just outside of Baron Wisconsin, 13-year-old Jamie Klaus is asleep in her bedroom. When suddenly, her dog Molly starts barking loudly. Jamie startles awake and she

looks out of her window and she sees that there's a car moving slowly into the end of her driveway. It's pretty late. No one should be there. The family's not expecting anyone. So she goes to her parents' room to wake them up. Her dad, James, gets up and he agrees that it's pretty unsettling what his car is doing. So he heads towards the front door and he shines a flashlight through the window. He sees that there's someone approaching the house. And at first he thinks that it might be a police officer. So he asks the guy to show his badge. And then all of a sudden there's screams. Someone is telling James to open the fucking door. When James asks again for some ID, a shot is fired through the door. And that's when Jamie's mother, Denise, grabs her cell phone, takes James.

me into the main floor bathroom and closes the door. The two of them climb into the bathtub together and pull the shower curtain close. From the tub, Denise is able to quietly call 911. The dispatcher picks up and hears nothing but muffled voices and the sound of a disturbance on the other end. It's really hard to tell in this 911 call what's going on and then all of a sudden the line goes dead. Yeah, it's honestly, when you listen to the call, to me it sounds like it's being recorded from underwater. Yeah, it's horrifying. So difficult to understand anything. Yes. Denise and Jamie, stare at each other as a few horrifying seconds past. At this point, they don't know what's going on out there,

but they hear footsteps. And then someone starts pounding on the bathroom door. The pounds become heavy punches, and then all at once the intruder burst through the door with his shoulder. And standing there is a man in a black coat and ski mask, and he orders Denise to hang up the phone, so she does. And then this man shoots Denise at point-blink range, takes Jamie and leaves.

Just four minutes later, detectives arrive on the scene to see what looks like a bloody hellscape and Jamie not there. But before I talk about the rest of that night and also what came after that, I want to talk a little bit more about who Jamie was before this event happened. So Jamie had spent her entire life in this town, Barron. It's a small, tight-knit Wisconsin town of just 4,000 people. It's pretty low on crime, very big on community. In 2018, she was in the eighth grade at Riverview Middle School. She was known for having bright eyes, a big sparkling smile. She loved to dance.

She also loved things like ice skating and playing volleyball. And everyone who knew her knew that she was obsessed with Starbucks Rappuccino's, like most 13-year-old girls. She spent a lot of her free time with her friends, her dog Molly. And she was, as everyone describes her and in the best way possible, a very typical happy teenager. She was also very empathetic. When her middle school asked students what they would do with a million dollars, Jamie actually said that she would use it. to feed the hungry and then give the rest to the poor. She also was an only child, the center of her parents' world. Her dad was James. He was 56 years old. Her mom, Denise, was

46. Both had worked in supervisory roles at the Jenny O. Turkey Store processing plant in Barron. They'd worked there for 27 years. James was also this proud Wisconsin sports fan. He loved the Green Bay Packers, the University of Wisconsin Badgers, all of it. And Denise was really known for her green thumb and for her faith. She spent most of her free. time at the St. Peter's Catholic Church and nearby Cameron. And from what we know, family was everything to the classes. All of Jamie's grandparents lived within an hour's drive of them, and so did many of her aunts and uncles. Denise's older sister, Jennifer, was particularly close with Jamie. She was her aunt and her godmother, and she provided daycare for Jamie when she was little.

The day before the break in occurred on Sunday, October 14th, 2018, James went to work while Jamie and Denise went to Jennifer's for a birthday party. Jamie was pretty quiet all day. It's not really unusual for her at a big gathering. She was pretty naturally shy around crowds. Denise and Jennifer had a great time, and it was a very normal Sunday for the whole family. Neither of them knew what was about to happen that night. Which brings us back to the early morning of October 15th, 2018, and it's our first clue, which is the crime scene itself. It started at 12.53 a.m. when the Barron County Dispatch Center received that 911 call. on the line, they heard only muffled voices in the background that escalated into yelling and then a man's voice.

And we're going to play a clip of that call for you guys now. 29-11, where's your... After that, somebody at you want to come from? After that, silence. After that, silence. The caller hung up. Deputies were immediately dispatched and arrived, like you said, Kaelin, just four minutes after this phone call. It was such a tight window for this person to come in, do this, take Jamie and go. I mean, we hear so many, like, worst cases of that, too, but for a 911 call where they couldn't even hear what was being said, and they got there immediately. And they got there, and they got there. And they got there. And as they arrived, like, rural community. Yeah, yeah. And it was, like, snowy and icy that night, too, and they just, yeah, immediately got there.

Yeah, they kind of hauled ass. And as they arrive, the outside of the house looked pretty normal. Like, there's no lights. There's no one screaming still. But as a deputy, shown his flashlight towards the front of the house. He saw that the glass storm door was propped open by a rug that got caught underneath it. The wooden inner door was open, too. The doorknob had been shot out and then forced open from the outside.

And through the gap, the deputy was able to see legs on the floor. Inside, they found James Klaus, lying dead near the front door. He had significant trauma to his head, consistent with a gunshot wound. There was a spent 12-gauge shotgun shell laying next to him. Another was found on the concrete steps outside, and a third lay in the hallway in front of the bathroom. There are bloody treadmarks that looked like they came from tactical-style boots, and those were visible, like, all near the entryway. deputies also found a small, scared dog wearing a collar that read Molly.

They put her somewhere safe and moved towards the main floor bathroom. The door had been kicked in and shouldered so many times that it had split horizontally, straight down the middle. Inside, the shower curtain was ripped off the rod and laying on the floor, and in the bathtub was Denise Kloss. She was also dead from a gunshot wound to her head. Her cell phone lay face down on the floor nearby, and deputies just began searching the rest of the house after that. They discovered there was no one else inside.

But they did note a teenage girl's bedroom, and in the kitchen, a girl's cell phone sitting on the charging dock. So where was that girl? This wasn't a robbery. Nothing appeared to be stolen, which was why the initial assumption was that James and Denise were the targets. Like this clearly was just almost looking like a hit. Yeah, someone came to kill the parents. Yeah, they'd come for this family specifically. But investigators had no theory as to why the teenager wasn't there

or whether she'd even been home that night. About 45 minutes later, Detective Jeff Nelson arrived, a longtime member of the Barron County Sheriff's Department, who had been a detective since 2002 and worked several big cases. As he walked through the scene, he received a call from the station. James and Denise had a 13-year-old daughter named Jamie, who lived with them, and she had been home.

that night. And so now, there was officially an unaccounted child. And just like that, this wasn't just a double homicide. It was also a kidnapping. A Wisconsin crime alert and an Amber alert were issued that morning. And with that, the nationwide search for Jamie Clause begun. Now, just to rewind a little bit to before the police even reached the house, there is a second clue. And it passed deputies by before they even had any idea what they were dealing with, and it's a car. As deputies raced west on Highway 8 towards the Klaus home to respond to the scene, one of them noticed a vehicle heading the opposite direction. It was the only eastbound car on that stretch of road at that hour. And when it saw police speeding by, it pulled over to let

them pass. The deputy noted that it appeared to be an older model vehicle, possibly a Ford tourists or something similar, maroon in color, no front license plate. just a black bracket where a plate should have been. Their dash cams were rolling, and so they actually had footage of this vehicle. But with no plate, no suspect description, and no reason to think a random car on a dark highway was anything other than that, they couldn't exactly call it a lead. But it was odd for these deputies driving by because in Wisconsin, same with Minnesota, like, you have to have a front plate and a rear plate. I guess I didn't even realize that there's places where you don't have to have, because they're really

strict about that in California. Yeah, California, you do. Yeah. I don't have one on my car. Oh, don't telling yourself, cut that. There's going to be people in the comments like, ready to ticket you. I know, but that's why I was standing out to them. Yeah, yeah. And so investigators are later reviewing this footage from the dash cam and comparing it with other cameras that captured traffic along the same route that night, but at first, it really wasn't leading anywhere for them. And what no one knew at the time, Jamie was inside the trunk of that car. This episode is brought to you by Masterclass. Did you know that when you're negotiating for yourself, there are little techniques you can use that can help you have the upper hand in a negotiation.

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Or if you can't wait, the entire series is streaming now. Add free for subscribers to 2020 True Crime Plus. Find 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcast. to start your free trial today. So within hours of the nationwide Amber Alert, tips started pouring in from across the country. Investigators interviewed neighbors, family members, coworkers.

Baron is a small town and both James and Denise had worked those supervisory roles at Jenny O for 27 years. So maybe someone had a grudge against them. Like that's kind of what they're thinking of to start. They figured that they would find whoever did this close to home. So they also requested the names of every employee who had lost their job while they worked under James or Denise in the past two years. They interviewed dozens of current workers they collected DNA from nearly everyone they spoke to,

and that turned out to be a dead end. Which, that does feel a little shir-lucky, though, to, like, be so quick on it at that point from early on, interviewing all of these people for the past two years that have been let go. Yeah, getting the list. And getting DNA from them. Yeah. We can definitely mark that. It feels a little shir-lucky.

Yeah, it's good. Like, I'm always interested what investigators got react. to crimes are because I, you know, when I first heard this case, I was honestly surprised that when they found the two parents dead in the house and a 13 year old missing, they didn't initially assume that the kid had killed their parents and ran away. I was thinking that too. They immediately were like, no, this is a kidnapping. And we think that it was probably someone who had a vengeance against the, or some sort of vendetta against the parents. So the scene at the Kloss's home hadn't yielded any foreign DNA, only the bloody bootprints and the spent shells. So investigators also turned

their attention to registered sex offenders and anyone with a violent history in the area. Social media accounts, computers, and devices were being scoured. Cell phone traffic from the area on the night of October 15th was also analyzed. But most of all, they were still trying to find a motive. And they really couldn't find one. Because I guess to them, they're still thinking it must have been something against the parents. So their working theory stayed focused on the parents, who would have wanted to kill them. But without a grudge, there was no debts, there was no prior threats. Every single lead they had went cold. So they started setting traps. So at some point in the weeks after the murders, investigators quietly installed covert cameras around the Kloss's home in case whoever did this came back. On October 18th, that's three days after the murders, the FBI also publicly appealed for tips. And then the next day, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources led a citizen search along Highway 8. 86 volunteers walked the year.

area, they looked for anything that could have been left behind. And they did find a couple of things, actually. So there was a flashlight that was found. There were latex gloves, a Mickey Mouse hat, and five shell casings. However, they did determine that none of these were connected to the case. On October 22nd, officials released surveillance images of two vehicles that were seen near the Kloss's home around the time of the murders. There was a red or orange Dodge Challenger and a black black SUV, either a Ford Edge or an Accura MDX. Anyone who had seen either vehicle in the area was urged to call the tip line. And that same morning, Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald put out a call for volunteers to cover five

square miles around the Kloss's home. Roughly 2,000 people came from Barron, Minneapolis, and other towns, some over an hour away, all walking in-line formations through the woods, streams, and cornfields. It was a huge outpouring of support. But again, they didn't find anything they deemed to be connected to the case. On October 24th, nine days after the kidnapping, the FBI announced a $25,000 reward for information about Jamie's whereabouts. But that reward would soon grow. Genio Turkey brand contributed to the fund, bringing the total to $50,000.

By October 27th, more than 1,400 leads had been cleared. And that same day, James and Denise Kloss were laid to rest, attended by Lerner. loved ones and strangers alike. And then the following morning, police finally detected something. Just before 2.30 a.m. on October 27th, the covert cameras that were installed at the Kloss's house triggered an alert, which is our third clue. On one of these cameras, they were able to see a man wearing a large, puffy, dark coat, glasses, and a stocking hat, and they saw that he was entering the east patio door of the home. It's not unheard of for a criminal to return to a crime scene. I mean, we've talked about this kind of extensively and like the psychology

behind it. So if this was the killer coming back, investigators felt like they might finally have their break. An officer from the Barron County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene, again, in just about four minutes. He blacked out his squad car, parked down the road on Highway 8, and approached the property on foot. DCI, which is the Division of Criminal Investigation, their agents actually established a perimeter around the outside while the intruder inside had no idea. When the agents ordered him to put his hands up and walk out, he didn't fight or run. He complied and exited through the patio door with both of his hands raised. Agents searched him on the spot and found a black, skull-faced mask, and black gloves.

When they searched his coat pockets, they found two of Jamie's tank tops, one of her dresses, and two pairs of her underwear. This man was identified as 32-year-old Kyle Jankiannis of Cameron, Wisconsin. He worked at the Jenny O. Turkey store plant in Barron, the same locations as James and Denise. But he said he didn't know the Klaus family. He claimed he was just morbidly curious about their case. And that's why you're stealing a 13-year-old's underwear. Yeah, yeah. It's my curiosity.

No. Disgusting. Kyle told investigators that he had ridden his bicycle from work to a laundromer. Matt and Barron, and then walked two and a half miles to the Kloss residence. He entered through the unlocked East patio door, went directly to what he believed was Jamie's bedroom, and found a closet full of her clothes. Then he took several items because he was, quote, curious what size Jamie was and figured they'd be things no one would miss. I am curious if anyone has any perspective on this, because you do hear about crime scenes that have 24-hour surveillance so that things

like this don't happen because, so I guess the police must have thought that they got everything they needed from the crime scene and it was just open for people like this to come in and totally contaminate it. Yeah. This is shocking to hear. I know. It's like clearly they had the covert cameras and were keeping surveillance on the place, but it feels like that door being unlocked is kind of just an oops. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. I imagine they didn't want anyone in there still, but like it had been processed enough likely. Yeah. No, it is just, yeah, it's curious. But still, like, also the audacity of this person. I know. You don't know them. and you're going into someone's home

after they've just been killed and stealing the missing daughter's underwear? Yeah. I mean, straight to jail for you too. Well, straight to jail for sure. For sure. Yeah, it is, I guess their goal is that this person will come back. So maybe they're just trying to watch it from afar

and not mess with it in hopes that they'll trap him. And honestly, maybe the door being unlocked was a tactic too to let them inside and then give them time to get there. Which if that's the case, Sherlock on them. We don't know. I was feeling like a botch, but now it's feeling like a Sherlock. It could be a Sherlock.

I'll make a note. It's a fine line between a botch and a Sherlock. It's a fine line. Ultimately, Kyle was a dead end for investigators. They cleared him of any connection to the murders or Jamie's disappearance, but a check of court records showed that he had been released from custody just two months earlier on a separate burglary charge with a condition that he not commit any new crimes. So with that, he was charged with burglary of a dwelling and felony bailed

jumping, meaning, yes, the cameras worked, as intended. Unfortunately, the man they caught wasn't the one they were looking for. So ever since the morning, Jamie vanished, October 15th, Barron County had been running a 24-7 emergency operation center. That was an around-the-clock command post built for the frantic early phase of a case like this. And then on November 1st, 18 days in, that changed. So the sheriff announced that they were shutting down the center and shifting from a reactive

operation to something that was more methodical and deliberate because what they were doing was not working and so they had to pivot. Tips had fallen from between $1,250 a day to about 25. The search was not over. It was just changing. So as deer hunting season opened in mid-November, officials put out a statewide ask to all hunters. Hey, if you see anything unusual out here, you should report it. And then December came around. There was still no leads. And that's when the Barron County Clerk of courts dedicated their Christmas tree to Jamie. Residents also lit a 16-foot tree of hope outside of Jamie's middle school. Then the holidays came and went. It turned from 2018 to 2019. And then around January 7th, the sheriff made another announcement. They were leaning

back into the search. And thank goodness they did because three days later, there was a big breakthrough. But not because of anything that law enforcement did. So, So on January 10, 2019, a little after 4 p.m., a retired trauma counselor named Jeannie Nutter was walking her dog near her home in Gordon, Wisconsin, which is about 70 miles north of Barron. It was bitterly cold that day, somewhere around 18 to 19 degrees, and there were inches of ice covering the roads. Now, Jeannie was walking her dog a little later than she normally did, so when she looked

up and saw a teenage girl standing at the edge of the road with no coat on, she immediately knew just something was wrong. Like this isn't normal. She's in light leggings, a sweatshirt, not prepared for the elements. Yeah. This is not a good sighting. And she also noticed that she was wearing a pair of oversized men shoes. And as she's looking more closely at this girl, Jeannie immediately recognizes her. And it's Jamie Klaus. I mean, her posters have been plastered all over town, small community. There's not a doubt in her mind that it's her. And Jamie's escape is our fourth clue. Jeannie runs over to Jamie, who basically fell in her and told her she didn't know where she was.

She said the man living in the cabin she'd escaped from had killed her parents and that she just desperately wanted to go home. Jeannie didn't know the neighbor personally, but his property did touch the back of her land. So she was worried on the off chance that if she took Jamie to her home, it wouldn't be safe either. So Jeannie brought Jamie to the home of Kristen and Peter Kaczynskis, which is just down the road. And in an interview too, Jeannie said that Jamie asked her, like, do you live here? Where are we going? Yeah. And she didn't want to tell her that she lived in the area because she thought Jamie would think like either she was working with the guy or the guy was going to come. So she goes, no, I don't live in this area. I'm just out walking my dog. Like, I'll take you to safety. Yeah. Yeah. She didn't want Jamie to get an idea that she was scared. Yeah. She's like, nope, we're good. All is good because she is a retired trauma.

trauma counselor. She's a social worker. So I'm making a note for everyday heroes. Every day. A hundred percent. Everyday hero. Or normal hero. Whatever we called it. Yeah. I think it's normal hero. But I've already wrote every day. So we're calling it an everyday hero today. Hey, it's a new thing for us. So when Kristen opened her front door, of course, she immediately recognizes Jamie. And Kristen panics. You know, Jeannie's trying to keep it calm of like, we've got to make sure this guy doesn't come here. here, but like, everyone can feel the tension and, like, time is of the essence. And so Kristen told her two young children to get away from the windows, go downstairs. Peter is loading a gun and, like, prepared by the front door just in case Jamie's captor is out there looking for her. And then Kristen calls 911. She tells the dispatcher that she is 100% certain it's Jamie and handed her the phone.

And we're going to play a clip of that call here. Douglas County 911. Hi. I have a young lady at my house right now, and she says her name is Jamie Cros. Okay. Have you seen her photo, ma'am? Yes, it is her. I 100% think it is her.

Okay. 100%. Does it look like she's going to run? No, she's sitting down and she's relaxing. And she said her name is Jamie Clause? Yep. And when I walked into this house, they recognized her immediately from a police. The dispatcher's kind of questioning, have you seen a picture of Jamie Klaus?

Like, are you sure it's her? Yeah. And she is certain. And she says to her, yeah, I'm 100% sure that this is Jamie Klaus. And I will say this 911 operator is so calm and keeps them calm. Like, one of the best I think I've heard. Yeah. Really, really good.

And is like, I'm going to stay with you on the phone until they get there. Don't worry. I'm not hanging up. I'm going to be with you until they get there. Yeah. Man or woman. a woman. Yeah.

And this is a long period of time. Yeah. This is like 29 minutes from the time they make the call until police arrive. So again, he's by the front door with a gun and everyone is just sweating. They're just 30 minutes of probably the most hair you've ever felt in your life. Imagine. Like I literally just got the chills and granted AC is pumping in here. But like, it's just pins and needles.

And it's even scary because like now they have the kidnapper's name. Jamie shares it with them. And his name is Jake Patterson. Now, until that 911 call, 21-year-old Jake Patterson's name had never once come up during the investigation. He was so far off of anyone's radar. Jake grew up in Douglas County, Wisconsin, deep in the forest of the northwestern part of the state, about 70 miles north of Barron. He was the youngest of three kids. His parents, Patrick and Deborah, divorced in 2008 when Jake was about 10.

his sister Katie moved away with their mother, while Jake and his brother Eric stayed with their father at the family cabin in Gordon. Now, neighbors recalled the brothers getting into a lot of trouble after their parents split. They would steal things. They would siphon gas from nearby properties. At one point, both boys went on to spend time in foster care. But he knew what he wanted to do with his life after high school. He wanted to join the Marines. And he did, but he was prematurely discharged.

in 2015 after just one month of service. The reason, according to a spokesperson for the Marines, he was, quote, indicative of the fact that the character of his service was incongruent with the Marine Corps' expectations and standards. So obviously that is an incredibly vague kind of like PR statement coming from the Marines. So we don't really know why he was discharged. But something about his character was incongruent with the Marine Corps' expectations and standards. Yeah. And I will just add here, something interesting is that Kristen, the woman that makes the 911 call for Jamie, actually was Jake's middle school teacher. So she's hearing this name and she's like, what? Yeah. Like I, she even said, like, I would, would not have seen that coming. Like, despite him having just kind of some, I don't know, like personality traits in high school that people noted. And in high school, not middle school when she had him, but in high. school, he was voted like the quietest kid in class. And there's a lot of pictures I saw where like a bunch of students are taking group photos and he's just kind of in the back, like head down,

keeping him himself. Yeah. Seemingly wasn't, you know, socially connected with a lot of kids. Yes. So we don't really know exactly why he was let go from the Marines. But we know that around this time, his brother is starting to have a lot of issues. So his brother Eric racked up a significant criminal record. he had a fourth-degree sexual assault conviction in 2012, and then two felony charges for manufacturing and delivering marijuana, plus a bail-jumping charge. Eventually, Eric moved out of the cabin that they were all sharing, and their father Patrick did too,

but he would send Jake weekly cash payments just to keep food on the table. By October of 2018, Jake was 21 years old. He was living in the cabin completely alone, getting money from his dad. He had tried repeatedly to hold. down a job. He worked briefly at a building products company and at a cheese factory. And interestingly enough, about three years before the kidnapping, he worked one single day at the Jenny O. Turkey plant in Barron, where Jamie's parents worked. But he quit right after one day. There are no indications, though, that during that day, they crossed past, that he crossed past with Jamie's parents. In early October

of 2018, he was working at a cheese factory near Almena, about 10 miles away from the Klosses. And one day he was driving into work when he got stopped behind a school bus. It was Jamie Kloss's school bus. And that's when he saw her for the first time. He watched her get onto the bus. Other than that, Jake had no connection to the Kloss family. Literally. He also had no criminal record, even though he was discharged from the Marines.

He had nothing on file that would have alerted the police to him. He remained exactly what he had always been, and that is invisible, until the day that Jamie finally escaped. At approximately 4.43 p.m., deputies arrived at the Kaczynskas' home. Meanwhile, Jake had come home and found that Jamie was gone. He ran outside and he spotted her footprints in the snow. So he got in his car and he began driving around the area looking for her. All the while, deputies were taking Jamie to the hospital, and that's when they spotted a red vehicle turning onto the road ahead. The officer asked Jamie if that was Jake's car. Jamie, Jamie said she thought that he drove a Ford

but said he had other cars too so there was a chance it was. Either way, the deputy radioed it in and when they ran the plates, they saw that it was registered to his sister, Katie Patterson. So they went after it. Officers followed the red vehicle,

they pull it over, and Jake Patterson is inside. And before anyone says anything, Jake goes, I know what this is about, I did it. And then he was handcuffed and placed in the squad car.

And for the first time, In 88 days, Jamie Klaus was finally safe. This episode is brought to you by Alma. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to high quality, affordable mental health care. When you want to talk to a therapist, the last thing you want to do is fight with insurance, figure out if someone's available. Like, the process can be so long that it actually turns you off from doing it. But Alma has built a community of over 26,000 diverse therapists. Also, clients with insurance pay $20 on average.

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On the morning of January 11th, 2019, Jamie Klaus was experiencing her first full day of freedom. But before she could see any of her family members, authorities sat her down with Bonnie Freeze, who was a child and adolescent forensic interviewer with the FBI. She wanted Jamie to tell her story. And that interview was audio and video recorded. And in it, Jamie goes back to the beginning. She describes the man bursting through the door, through the bathroom, dressed in all black from head to toe. Even though his face was covered, Jamie pretty much knew that she had never seen this guy before.

He handed her mom a roll of duct tape and told Denise to cover Jamie's mouth. And then, with Jamie right there, he killed her mother. Jake taped Jamie's wrist behind her back, bound her ankles together, and dragged her out of the house, past her father, who she saw laying in the front of the house, across her own front yard, to the car that he had driven there in. And then he put her in the trunk and he drove off. From inside the trunk, Jamie could hear the sirens of the squad cars

arriving to her home. But there was nothing that she could do to get their attention. That morning, when they got back to his cabin, Jake ordered Jamie to take off her clothes so he could burn them in a fireplace in the basement to destroy any evidence. And then Jamie described what the next 88 days were like.

She said that every time Jake left the cabin, he made her hide under the bed. It was a twin bed that he had raised just two and a half feet off the floor. He would then surround the bed with plastic storage containers that he would fill with weights so that she couldn't escape.

When you guys see the picture underneath this bed. Yeah. Like this was her jail. Yeah, for two and a half months. What is it? Yeah. Eighty days.

And it's like, how claustrophobic. After all of this trauma we just heard about. And then to just be alone, trapped, held hostage under this twin bed. Yes. And to add,

insult to injury, people were coming to visit this cabin. Mostly his father, who would visit about once a week, and he would do the same thing when his dad would come over. He would turn up the music loud, so no one would hear Jamie if she had made noise. Similar to Ariel Castro. During Christmas, Jamie was stuck under the bed for 12 hours without any food or water or bathroom breaks. And on at least two occasions, when he thought that she tried to move, he screamed at her and he slammed the walls until she was too scared to try again. One time, he hit her on the back with a tool that he was using to clean blinds, and he made it really clear to her. If she tried to move or escape, bad things would happen. Each night, he would make

her sleep in bed next to him. And Jake later said that he was kind to Jamie while he had her in his home. He said that when he was in the cabin, they would cook together and watch TV and play board games. On nice days, they would go out in the yard and they would play catch or badminton. Interestingly enough, too, after he's arrested, a reporter in Minneapolis actually sends him a letter. And he does call her. And we have a clip of it we're going to play. But he basically is describing this. And he's like, you know, we had these nice home-cooked meals.

And like when you hear him describe how his treatment of her went, you're just like the disconnect. It is absolutely insane. It is the same Ariel Castro mental illness of like, because even Ariel was like, they liked being there. They would ask me for things. Like, oh, they loved me. Yeah. What is wrong with you? Yeah.

No, the most disturbing part is in one point of this call to the reporter. He goes, I love her. Puk. Yeah. Yeah. Horrible. So, I mean, it doesn't sound like that's what was actually happening because Jamie knew the entire time that she had to escape. Yeah.

And finally, she got the opportunity to. on the morning of January 10th, 2019. So Jake told Jamie that he was going to go visit his mother, who lived about 45 minutes away, and that he was going to be gone for five or six hours. As he always did before he left, he made Jamie get under the bed. He shoved the plastic storage bins against the open side,

and he stacked barbell weights against them. He packed them tightly enough that she wouldn't be able to move without him knowing about it. And then he left. Jamie said that she waited a couple of hours, and when she was absolutely sure that he was gone, she started pushing. She shoved the bins and the weights aside, and she crawled out from under the bed. And there she found a pair of his shoes, and she put them on in such a hurry that they ended up being on the wrong feet.

And without a coat of any kind, she walked out of the cabin into 18-degree weather. She made her way through the trees towards what she hoped was the main road. She had no idea. She was not familiar with this area. And as luck would have it, she found it. She reached the edge of the forest, and she stood near the road and just waited for someone to find her. And that is when she ran into absolutely the most perfect person she could have run into, and that was Jeannie. Meanwhile, back at the Barron County Sheriff's Department, detective sat across from Jake Patterson and read him his Miranda rights.

Jake said he was willing to talk, though. His confession is our fifth clue. Jake told them that for about two years before October 15th, when he took Jamie and killed her parents, he had been thinking about kidnapping a girl, fantasizing in his own words, about, quote, keeping a young girl prisoner, torturing her, and totally controlling her, end quote. He was just waiting for the right opportunity. On one of his two mornings, just two mornings, driving to the Saputo cheese factory, he stopped behind a school bus on Highway 8 and watched a 13-year-old get on a bus. He didn't know her name, her parents, how many people even

lived in the house, he wouldn't learn any of that until after the abduction when he watched the news. But he told detectives the moment he saw her, he knew. She was the one that he was going to take. Just walking from the bus to the front door. Yeah. What is that? Like three seconds? It's insane. Yeah. Absolutely insane. He drove over to the Coloss Home twice before October 15th and turned back both times, once because there were too many cars in the driveway, and once because there were lights on and people were moving around inside. By the third trip, he was ready, though. He stole license plates off a random truck and put them on his car. He disconnected the dome light inside the car and removed both the trunk light and the trunk

safety release lever so no one could get out from the inside, which a lot of cars do have that. I don't know if you've ever practiced. I heard about that. Yeah, that if you do get thrown into a trunk, there is a way to... There's typically a lever. I don't know about like, my SUV. I'm thinking about my SUV and I don't think there's a release hatch. And a lot of cars now are electric. Yeah. So I'm curious, but I remember when I first got my license, I got a car and I was like, I'm so curious if I can get out. And I had one of my friends put me in the trunk and like tried to find the lever. Were you able to? Yeah. Oh, it's usually like, it feels like for me and the cars I've looked at. It's mostly along the walls and like kind of by the trunk. But if you think about how

trunks hinge on cars, sedans. Yeah. So it's kind of along the wall. Yeah. And it's just like it looks like an Allen wrench top. Like it's just like a pole. Yeah. Which that's sometimes what it, what the pole looks like to get the seats down to.

Yeah. It's like kind of similar. Yeah. So for him to take that out, like there was nothing she could have done as police were driving by her. Yeah. He then took his father's 12 gauge shotgun. Specifically because he'd researched it and believed that it would be harder to trace since

it was the most heavily manufactured shotgun in the country. He then selected 12 gauge. slug shells for maximum damage. And that night, he shaved his head and face entirely in an interview with one of the investigators. He basically implied that Jake thought he could outwit forensics. And so he's like, I'm going to shave my head at any. There's not going to be any hair that gets up behind.

Yeah. The one thing that tricks all forensics is hair. And if I get rid of mine. No hair. Yeah. Okay. He then showered dressed in all black, including a mask from Walmart. and had two pair of work gloves, every step, again, was designed to leave nothing behind. No DNA, no prints, no description.

But the plan for once he actually took Jamie wasn't very well thought out. He later said that he meant to let her go eventually, maybe in a year or so. And when asked why he'd picked Jamie specifically, he gave an answer that really, really just haunted people since they heard it. quote, if it wasn't Jamie, it would probably be someone else. And I believe that 100%. Yeah. Yeah, he was going to take someone. I honestly, don't think he cared who he took.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And that to me, I think, is probably the most insane part of this where, again, like, you killed two people, kidnapped one. Yeah. Like, I just. Well, there was that, did you ever hear, they did a study about walking like a victim? Did you hear this?

No. Which I don't want to ever put anything on victims, right? Absolutely. Yeah, no. You're not doing anything wrong. You're living your life. And it's an absolute mental person that comes in this. No victim blaming in this house. But they did say that like there are certain characteristics that perpetrators might look for that indicate someone would be an easier target than others.

That's interesting. I've heard that with like AirPods. Like a lot of us wear headphones as we're walking places now. Yeah. And like that is like a tell that like you're distracted. You might not hear someone coming up behind you. Yes. Yes.

Especially because so many of them are noise canceling now. Yeah. So you could hear absolutely. nothing as someone's coming up to you and a lot of people I see in my neighborhood even. So yeah, it's things like that that people are looking for. Like, are you small? Do you walk with your head down and you're not looking at your surroundings? Do you have your AirPods? Like, there's just so many things that they're looking for. It's insane. And just with this, like, Jake really, I think he kind of underestimated Jamie too because he even tells investigators like he figured that she was too

afraid to run away, never thought she would actually escape on her own. He never even put extra locks on the doors or windows because he was actually just so confident in that. Wild to me. And he really believed that he would get away with these crimes. But he did say he did need to talk himself into all of this. And Jake even tells investigators that before he left the cabin that night, he was psyching himself up with the shotgun. Putting it, pointing it at himself. Yeah.

Use your imagination there. and he told himself, quote, either I'm going to die or they are, end quote. So four days after Jake's arrest on January 14, 2019, prosecutors filed charges in Barron County. Two counts of first degree intentional homicide, one count of kidnapping, and one count of armed burglary. Jake appeared by a video link from the jail that same day showing little emotion as these charges were being read to him. bail was set at $5 million, and in March of 2019, Jake pleaded guilty to both counts of homicide and one count of kidnapping. And as part of his plea agreement, the armed burglary charge was dropped, though that's not really going to help you when it comes to sentencing. His sentencing was scheduled for May 24, 2019, and friends and family of the Klosses packed the Barron County Justice Center.

Jamie was notably not there, but several family members addressed the court in her defense. Jamie's cousin, Lindsay Smith, told Jake about the pain and the heartache he'd inflicted and how it was truly indescribable. Jamie's Aunt Kelly said that for 88 days they had to listen to people speculate about their family, and Jamie's uncle Mike spoke about what Jake had taken from them. Jamie wouldn't have her mom or her dad at her dance recitals or at her prom. He also spoke about Denise, how she didn't die in vain. She died protecting her daughter. and district attorney Brian Wright told the judge that if Jake were ever not in prison,

like if he was ever released, he would never stop trying to find Jamie and he would possibly kill her. Yeah. I mean, he's still telling people reporters from his jail cell, I love her. Yeah. Yeah. He's obsessed. He's definitely not someone who ever should be released back into society. The district attorney said that Jamie should not have to spend one more second of her life worrying about Jake being free,

the only way that she can heal from this is knowing that that person is not at risk of coming and getting her. The DA also revealed for the first time publicly that Jake had confessed in both written statements and investigator interviews that he fantasized about kidnapping multiple girls and killing multiple families. Jamie was not intended to be his only victim. Jake, during all of this, he spoke briefly. He said that he would do, he like cries and stuff too. It's so stupid to watch. I want to know what you guys think because the DA says something after it. Yeah.

But the clip of him giving this apology, I'm curious what you guys think. Yeah. For Patterson, is anything you wish to tell the court before I impose sentence? Yeah. I'll just say that I would do like absolutely anything to take back what I did, you know. I would die. I would do absolutely anything to bring them back. You know, I don't care about me.

I just, I'm just so sorry. That's all. So in the video, he says that he would do anything to take back what he had done. He was very sorry for his actions. And the DA responded directly to him. Jake was not sorry for kidnapping Jamie and murdering her parents. He was sorry that he got caught, which truer words have never been spoken. And then the judge spoke. He called Jake one of the most

dangerous men to walk on this planet, and he said that the public could only be safe if he was incarcerated until he died. So while Jamie wasn't in the courtroom that day, her attorney read her words aloud, and here are some of the lines that hit the hardest. So quote, Jake Patterson took a lot of things that I loved away from me. My parents and my home were the most important things in my life. He took them away from me in a way that will always leave me with a horrifying memory. I have to have an alarm in my house now just so I can sleep. I used to love to go out with my friends.

I loved to go to school. I loved to do dance. He took all of those things away from me too. But Jake Patterson can never take away my courage. He will never have any power over me. I feel like I have some power over him because I get to tell the judge what I think should happen to him. He should stay locked up forever.

And you know what? She did have that power over him because the judge took Jamie's statement into account. And Jake was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, plus 40 consecutive years for the kidnapping. I also just want to, because I don't want it to get overlooked, but I want to make, because we're doing everyday heroes, like just a huge one for Jamie and all of this. Obviously, she's the hero of the story. She's just so strong for being so young and so well-spoken and articulate the way that she's like verbalizing things to the judge. And they really take that to heart in the trial.

And the community does too. She was given an award for being a hero. Yeah. Like, imagine this just trauma and she is able to save herself. Like, just such a remarkable young girl, young woman. Yeah. Even being that imaginable. That scared to know that she had to escape.

Yeah. In 2021, three years after her escape, Jamie's aunt Jennifer reported that Jamie, who was 16 years old at the time, was doing well. And remember the $50,000. reward that we talked about. Well, $25,000 of that reward was from the turkey processing plant that her parents worked at. And they, you know, they put up that reward for anyone who could help lead to Jamie's location. And because Jamie did it herself, they gave her the $25,000, which I thought was so sweet. Okay, Jenny. Oh. And Jamie, who is 21 years old at the time of this

recording, has largely stayed out of the public eye since her kidnapping. And we hope that she has gotten every opportunity to live her life on her. own terms. Yeah, I want to give another mark too for everyday heroes for Elizabeth Smart and J.C. Dugard. Yeah. Because they played, I think, a big part and like helping the community after this and, you know, offering their support to Jamie and making sure, like, Jamie, I know exactly what you've kind of been through. J.C. Dugard reached out to Jamie right after she was rescued. Right after. Elizabeth Smart went to the town and actually anyone from the town could come. And, and, you know, and, And she gave a speech of like, hey, you guys, like, this is how you support her.

Yeah. This is, you know, how I felt, blah, blah, blah. Like to do that, to take your own time and fly somewhere to offer support to an entire community, they both really, you know, and they didn't have to. They've gone through their own trauma. And so to offer that support to someone, I think is pretty remarkable. A beautiful community. Yeah.

Of, like, women supporting each other. Yeah. Yeah. But that is all we have for this case. So we do like to end these episodes, though, with a little bit of activism. And I wanted to bring up the fact that Jamie's case prompted the longest active Amber Alert in Wisconsin history.

Her case also renewed a national conversation about how stranger abductions are investigated differently from cases that have a known perpetrator. So when there's no relationship, no motive, and no digital trail, the investigation really has nothing to anchor itself to. And investigators just kind of have to point in every direction. And usually it's not the right one. And that's why public awareness and the organizations built around it matter so much in cases like this. So one of the leading resources for this is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Their website is missingkids.org and their tip line is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-843-6-7-8. They also run a program called Team Hope, which connects families of missing children with trained volunteers who have been through the same experience themselves. And if someone you know is living through a missing child case or, you know, if you're watching this and you are, that is a resource that exists. And with that, we do have a missing person that we want to highlight this week. Yeah. So the reason this person is actually on our radar and being highlighted is thanks to a listener. This is coming from Shana Alexis. And she wanted us to highlight the missing person case of Roxanne Paltoff. And Shana actually has a close connection. her sister is a mutual friend.

Roxanne was last seen from Austin, Texas. On July 7, 2006, she was last seen by her boyfriend. He said that they had rented a motel together, and after getting into an argument, Roxanne went to cool off, leaving behind her cell phone, purse, money, and she never returned.

Roxanne's family has long doubted the boyfriend's account. However, there have been no arrests made. Roxanne was last seen wearing a pink tank top, light blue shorts and sandals. She was 18 at the time of her disappearance, green eyes, blonde hair, a white female. She was 5'4 and weighed around 115 pounds at the time of her disappearance. If you have any information on Roxanne, please contact APD Missing Persons Unit at 512-9754-975. You can also contact crime stoppers at 512-472-8477. It's now been 20 years, so I know her family is still really hoping for some answers. Yeah. Well, that is all we have for this week's episode of Clues.

Now we turn it over to you guys, your thoughts, your feedback, anything you have to say about some of the clips we showed you from people's statements. Always, always interested to hear it. You can comment wherever you listen on YouTube, anywhere else. Yeah, chime in you guys. because again, at Crimehouse, we really value your support, share your thoughts on social media, and remember to rate, review, and follow clues to help others discover our show. And don't forget, for early ad-free access, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus at crimehouse.com, or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap Try Free at the top of the clues page. Thank you guys.

Bye. Bye. On Reddit, true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves. Every Tuesday on Crimes of Reddit, we read these posts out loud. I'm Sabrina DeAnna Roga. And I'm Alexis Linkletter. One of us brings the story, the other goes in blind, reacting in real time just like you.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribe on YouTube at Crimes of Reddit pod for video episodes.