Every Town - Abduction Of Jayme Closs: 88 Day Captive - Barron, WI

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

Jayme Closs was abducted from her home, in Barron, Wisconsin in October of 2018. In just 4 minutes, Jake Patterson, the perpetrator killed Jayme's parents and he then took the 13 year old teen. For 88 days, Jayme Closs was held captive by Patterson, and her world was confined mostly under his bed. Then, on her 89th day of captivity, Jayme heroically escaped. Jayme Closs survived, and lived to tell her unforgettable torment while her captor willingly faced the grim consequences of his impulsive deeds.🥇 Watch This Episode on Youtube! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtft1ljmuf0&ab_channel=ScaryMysteries🎉 Patreon (videos too hot for youtube) -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJVtrLuIxoI🎧 More Podcasts, we got you - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579 Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between. With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Everytown. Thank you guys so much for tuning into our podcast. If you guys enjoy listening to Everytown, then I wanted to let you know that there are always a video component to each episode over on our YouTube channel called Scary Mysteries. They're really well put together and put faces to the names, so you can always head over to our Scary Mysteries YouTube channel if you want to view them. There's also two other videos that come out on our YouTube channel. each and every Monday and Wednesday, where we cover strange and creepy stories from all around the world. Those can also be listened to in podcast form on our other podcast channel called Scary Mysteries. We have tons of cool content for you all around. Thanks so much for the support and tuning in.

Hope you enjoy the episode. Every town has a dark side. Today, we're heading to Barron, Wisconsin, where we learn about the 88,000, day abduction and escape of Jamie Klaus. Jamie Klaus's ordeal started with an instant attraction that turned into a harrowing experience for her. It started when the man who desperately wanted her attacked her family's home and rural Barron, Wisconsin,

in October of 2018. Within just four minutes, he'd killed Jamie's parents and abducted the 13-year-old teen. Then for 88 days, Jamie suffered in her captor's hands, and her world was confined mostly under his bed. Then, on her 89th day of captivity, Jamie heroically escaped. She survived and lived to tell her unforgettable torment, while her captor willingly faced the grim consequences of his impulsive deeds. I'm Annavich Gerald, and welcome to another episode. of every town.

This week's podcast will highlight the story of Jamie Ling Klaus, who witnessed the deaths of her parents and was forced to spend 88 days held against her will in the cabin of an unstable stranger. For a 13-year-old rural girl, it was too much of a trauma to even fathom. But Jamie strengthened courage, pushed her through the end,

and freed her from the clutches of her captor. The case of Jamie Klaus was considered a targeted attack on a child by a total stranger, a case that's exceedingly rare according to experts, in a situation every parent definitely counts as a nightmare. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children disclosed that cases in which strangers abducted children are very atypical. In 2018, of the more than 25,000 reports of missing children that the group received, only 77 were abductions enacted by non-family members. This makes the kidnapping of Jamie a part of those statistics,

and her case are one of a kind, especially in the rural town of Baron, Wisconsin, which has just about 3,400 residents. Barron is the kind of town where screen doors are left open in the summer, and very few would even lock their doors during the winter. Those days are over, though, after the appalling tragedy befell the Kloss family in October of 2018. James Klaus and his 46-year-old wife Denise had lived for decades in Barron,

where cows in cornstalks and silence stretch out on either side of Highway 8 beyond the Genie O Turkey plant and 10 churches that served the town's population. They had worked for 27 years at the turkey hatchery and processing plant, which enabled them to give a good life to their only child Jamie, who was born on July 13, 2005. Their neighbors have known James as a huge fan of the Green Bay Packers and the Wisconsin Badgers, their conversations mostly centered on the glory days of James's high school sports career. Outside work, Denise spent her time working with her flowers, feeding the birds and teaching religion at St. Peter's Catholic Church and Cameron.

which was a nearby town. She loved angels and she tried to be one by helping everyone any way that she could. As the family's nurturing figure, Denise planned and made sure every family occasion was celebrated. Naturally, Jamie was closer to her mother. In fact, as far as character is concerned, she took after her. They were both described as quiet, kind, religious, and giving. Denise lovingly reached. raise Jamie to develop a set of values that they both shared would strengthen their mother-daughter bond. Family friend, Melissa Salmanson, referred to Denise and Jamie as two peas in a pod, describing them as almost inseparable. Although Jamie was pretty quiet and shy, she engaged in activities like jazz dancing, ice skating, and playing volleyball at Riverview Middle School,

where she was an eighth grader. And just like most typical adolescent, She also enjoyed shopping and getting a kick out of drinking Starbucks, at least said her aunt Jennifer Smith. It came then as a tremendous shock with a blue-eyed, strawberry-colored-haired girl, became the random target of a total stranger, 21-year-old Jake Patterson. Surprisingly, he had no previous criminal records and his crimes against James, Denise, and Jamie

were his first that would destroy his life and many others forever. According to Adam Wilson, a neighbor of Jake Patterson's family in Gordon, a Wisconsin town with less than 700 people, the Patterson family was low-key, super nice, and very generous. Patrick and Deborah Patterson divorced in 2007 when Jake was just 10 years old. He and his sister Katie and brother Eric became products of a broken family then. In 2015, Jake graduated high school from Northwood School and Minon. another small town not far from Gordon, where Jake's mother settled in after the divorce and became Mrs. Deborah Frey. He enlisted in the U.S. Marines but was discharged after one month at MCRD. San Diego.

Jake was described by his grandfather as shy and quiet, someone who avoided crowds, but a nice and polite boy otherwise. He preferred computer games over social interaction among the Patterson siblings its 24-year-old Eric, who has a criminal history, for fourth degree sexual assault and felony drug dealing as per Wisconsin court records. So it didn't make sense and certainly wasn't right that Jake pulled off heinous criminal stunts in the fall of 2018. To say that it was shocking is an understatement. So what really went on in Jake Patterson's criminal mind? The young man had some hard luck in finding a job in 2017. But Jake soon landed one as a temporary employee at the Saputo Cheese factory near Elmina, a village in Barron. But it proved to be a short stint that lasted only

for two days. The reason? Jake's chance encounter with Jamie Claus in early October 2017 drastically changed his plan. On October 5th, as he was driving his old Ford tourist to the cheese factory, he'd stop behind a school bus on U.S. Highway 8. There, he watched Jamie as she emerged from a ranch-style house with beige siding, set back from the rural Wisconsin road by a cluster of trees shedding golden leaves until she made her way on the bus. That fleeting, chance encounter, provides.

had Jake his first glimpse of Jamie, whom he didn't know it all, or who he was living with, nor had he had any prior interactions with her on social media. It was like an apparition that struck Jake and took over his inner core. In his mind, he knew for certain that she was the girl he was going to take, and nobody could hinder him from having Jamie as he would confess to investigators later on. Behind the wheel of his car, and facing the taillights of the idling bus, Jake's elaborate plot began to take shape. And the plan was to take Jamie at all costs.

By his own admission, Jake said he put quite a bit of thought into every detail of a sinister plan. He immediately went to a Walmart in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, where he purchased items, like a black-colored ski mask, to conceal his identity. Jake went as far as stealing the plate. from a parked car, then switched them with his own. He disconnected his car's dome light in order to conceal his appearance, and he cut a cord that could unlock the trunk from the inside. Then he was all set to take Jamie from her home, but it took three tries before he succeeded.

His first attempt happened on October 5th, just days after first seeing Jamie. He drove to the Kloss home, but froze up upon seeing cars parked in the driveway. and people awake inside the house. He backed off out of fear of leaving witnesses to his plan, but two days later, Jake once again tried to kidnap Jamie, this time aborting his plan for the same reason. It took him one week to muster more guts in pursuing his kidnapped Jamie scheme,

and October 15, 2018, proved to be his lucky night, while it was the Klaus family's most tragic. This time, Jake armed himself with his father, 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun. It was a careful and deliberate choice, based on his research about the weapon. He knew that the Mossberg was one of the most heavily manufactured

or owned shotguns and assumed it would be more difficult to trace. He also felt that a 12-gauge slug would inflict the most damage on someone, making it the best murder weapon. Before leaving his house that October 15th night, Jake altered his looks by shaving his head and facial hair, and in that way, he'd leave no forensic evidence.

His get-up that evening was well thought out, too. Brown, steel-toed work boots, blue jeans, a black jacket, work gloves, and the black ski mask. Then, Jake headed to the Kloss's home with his A-game to kidnap the girl he was going to take. But the night worsened in more than a case of Jamie's abduction because, The poor girl was left an orphan that night with the double murder of her parents. On October 15th, Jake coasted his car to the Kloss's driveway shortly before 12.53 a.m. with its headlights off. He then parked his car, stepped out quietly, and headed up the red brick stairs of the Kloss's home, which was surrounded by scattered autumn leaves, decorative pumpkins, and a pair of blue lawn chairs.

The mask concealed Jake's face, while the glove. gloves covered his hands that gripped the shotgun. Meanwhile, an asleep, Jamie was awakened by the barking of her dog Molly, so she got up and saw a car parked in the driveway. She rushed to her parents' bedroom to rouse them from their sleep, and that's when her father James headed for the front door carrying a flashlight. He shone a light on Jake through a glass portion of the front door, and thinking the unknown man was a police officer, asked him to show his badge. Jake said,

Open the fucking door. When James refused to unlock the door, Jake started pounding it and yelling at the homeowner. Fear enveloped Jamie and her mom, Denise, as the chaos downstairs escalated, so they took refuge inside the bathroom, locking and barricading the door with a cabinet drawer, and hid in the bathtub.

Then, what transpired next, sent Jamie cowering as she heard shots fired, and knew that her father was killed. Jake fired through a small decorative glass window James was looking out of and fatally hit the father of his target captive. He then aimed the shotgun at the doorknob and blasted his way inside,

checking every room to make sure no witnesses were left behind. Denise called 911 at 1253 a.m., but Jake found the bathroom door locked and couldn't kick it in. So he rammed it repeatedly with his shoulder It took about 10 to 15 blows from the upper half of a 6-foot 250-pound frame before it finally split in two. Denise comforted Jamie as the latter was crying loudly, wrapping her arms around her daughter in a bear hug. This was the scenario that greeted Jake when he ripped down the bathtub curtain. Denise wasn't able to speak to the 911 dispatcher who had heard a disturbance in yelling before the phone call got disconnected.

When the operator called the number back, they reached the voicemail of Denise Claus. Jake then ordered Denise to put tape over Jamie's mouth, but the mother struggled in doing so, so Jake took it and finished the task himself. He wrapped a black duct tape over Jamie's mouth and completely around her head. Then likewise secured Jamie's wrists and ankles together. Jamie witnessed the next shocking moment herself as Jake shot Denise. in the head. He later told investigators he aimed for the victim's head because he knew that it was the best way to kill a person. In a matter of four minutes, Jamie lost both her mother and father

in a senseless killing. But for Jake Patterson, he succeeded in finally having Jamie Clause all to himself. Before his grand plan of abducting Jamie could get foiled by authorities, Jake grabbed the five-foot, 100-pound teenage girl who nearly slipped on the bloodied floor on the way out. He dragged her across the yard, forced her into the trunk of his Ford Taurus, and sped away. Three Barron County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the Kloss's house, four minutes after Denise's 911 call, and they were painfully closed to catching Jake red-handed. Their paths actually crossed as Jake, only 20 seconds into his getaway, pulled over down the road from the house while the deputies sped by with emergency lights and blaring sirens. Inside the trunk, Jamie heard those sirens. Then they faded away, along with

their slim chances of getting rescued. Jake later told investigators, but had police stopped him, he was ready for a gunfight. At the Kloss family home, deputies discovered the blood-soaked bodies of James and Denise at 1 a.m. and determined that Jamie was missing. An Amber Alert soon issued that kept cell phones buzzing all across Wisconsin. When their neighbors were asked about the incident, they said that they dismissed the two gunshots they'd heard because hunting was common in the area. As the local police delved into the double murder and disappearance of the Klaus family members in the wee hours of October 15th, Jake had arrived at his domain.

A cabin owned by his father on South Euclair Acres Circle and the heavily forested town of Gorge, Above the front door of the beige and brown two-bedroom cabin was a sign that read Patterson's retreat. But it became a hell for Jamie during the next 88 days. The moment Jake stepped into his cabin, he brought Jamie into his bedroom and took off the tape that covered her mouth and untied her hands and legs. He then ordered her to take off all her clothes and change into a pair of pajamas owned by his sister. Warranting that he left no trace of his crimes, Jake burned Jamie's clothes, his gloves, and the duct tape in a fireplace at the cabin's basement. Jamie fell asleep on his bed and he felt sick about what he had done so he slipped on the couch instead.

During the investigation after his capture, Jake admitted having sexual thoughts about Jamie, but his guilt from killing her parents overwhelmed him and stopped him from acting out on those carnal thoughts. In the succeeding nights, they shared the same bed for sleeping, but for the most part of the day, Jake hid Jamie in a space he created under his twin-sized bed that sat about two and a half feet above the ground. He secured the bed by surrounding it with plastic totes, barbells, and free weights, so she couldn't escape. It was where Jamie stayed for as long as 12 hours without food, water, or access to a bathroom, when Jake had visitors or when he had to leave the cabin.

When his father came on Saturdays, Jake turned up the bedroom radio to muffle her movements. He gave Jamie food and water, but she wouldn't eat it first. But she quickly learned that he would get angry over nothing, so she was nice to him to avoid getting hurt. The kidnapper initially thought he'd get caught, but as time went by, he believed he'd get away with it and didn't feel as bad. Jake knew Jamie was so scared of him that she urinated and got her clothing wet when she finally set foot in the kidnapper's house. This fear gave Jake the confidence that his captive was too

afraid to make any escape attempts. Thus, he never installed special locks on the cabin doors. He would rarely let Jamie out of the cabin except for brief walks on the lawn after checking for bystanders. But Jamie wasn't spared from some form of violence, notably, when he suspected she tried to get out from under the bed. He struck a wall and screamed so loud that it scared Jamie and made her realize never to try to do anything again. She later recalled that Jake once hit her really hard in the back with the handle of a tool, used to clean window bulbs when she tried to sneak out of her confined space. He then repeatedly warned her that bad things would happen to her if she tried to come out and the punishment would be much

worse. For some time, Jake kept the loaded shotgun outside the bedroom in case police raided his home. But two weeks after the kidnapping, he put the weapon away. He later told detectives he believed he had gotten away with his crimes when the ongoing investigation of the authorities yielded no lead, nor did they apprehend him. This, despite authorities, saying they had received more than 1,000 tips and it thoroughly investigated more than 800 of them in the desperate search for Jamie. In fact, 2,000 volunteers combed several miles of rural baron in the hopes of finding clues that could lead investigators to Jamie, but their efforts never paid off. The reward for information leading to Jamie's discovery had grown to $50,000 at this point,

with half of the amount coming from the FBI and the other half offered by the Genie-O turkey plant. To dissuade Jamie from attempting to run away, Jake played my mind. Jake played my games with her. He said, like at first, I would say that, you know, you have it really good here. I'm treating you good, and she'd be like, yeah, okay. I was like, you could have it a lot worse here. He also tried changing Jamie's appearance by cutting her hair short, but she cried and said she didn't want him to, so we stopped. This had been pretty much the life of Jamie in captivity, but it all changed on the 87th day. After three months, Jake Patterson's sense of confidence and accomplishment, led him to apply for a nighttime warehouse job at a liquor distributor. On the afternoon of January 10,

2019, he then told Jamie he would be away for around five hours. Before he left, he put her under his bed and boxed her inside with his belongings as he routinely did. In that instance, though, Jamie made a bold decision. She didn't want to be caged any longer. After Jake had left the house, Jamie mustered enough strength to push the bins and weights away from the bed and crawled out. She put on a pair of Jake's new balanced sneakers and sprinted her way to freedom into an unfamiliar snowy landscape wearing only pajamas. It proved to be providential, as Jamie was spotted by Gene Nutter, who was walking her dog at about 4 p.m. and said she doesn't usually visit her cabin in the winter. Gene thought Jamie either ran away or was dumped off by someone there, but she recognized her, maybe from news or TV or flyers distributed around.

I'm lost, and I don't know where I am and I need help. I'm Jamie Klaus, said the frightened but calm girl. Gene knew the name, and she held tightly this skinny girl with unkempt hair. She then brought Jamie to her neighbor, Kristen Kaczynskis, who called 911, and reported, reported that Jamie Klaus was with her and told her that a man named Jake Patterson had killed her parents and abducted her. So then, just before sunset at 4.43 p.m., Jamie was finally in the safe hands of the authorities and just a breath away from regaining her freedom. Jamie was nowhere to be found when Jake returned to his cabin, so he searched for her. Then, he found her footprints, and instinctively hopped back into his Ford Taurus, now with its original plates restored,

to hunt her down. Just then, a deputy ferrying Jamie away from the Kaczynski's house spotted a red vehicle approaching from the other direction, but Jamie couldn't say whether it was her abductor. The deputy alerted her colleagues who, upon checking the license plate, traced the vehicle to someone surnamed Patterson, two sergeants then stopped the vehicle, and one ordered the driver to put his hands up, then open the door. Jake, who knew to himself that his possession of Jamie had come to an end, told the authorities, I did it. His confession of kidnapping Jamie and killing her parents came easy, as his intention from the beginning, was to plead guilty in order to spare Jamie and her family the trauma

of the case going to trial. Jake was then charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, one count of kidnapping, and one count of armed burglary on January 14, 2019, of the bail set for $5 million. On March 27th, he pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional first-degree homicide and one count of kidnapping, while the armed burglary count was dismissed. On May 24th, Patterson was sentenced to a maximum of two consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders, plus an additional 40 years for the kidnapping. On June 20th, Jake was registered officially as a sex offender. And a month after, he was transferred from the Dodge Correctional Institution to an out-of-state

prison in New Mexico. During the sentencing of Jake, a statement from Jamie was read by a family attorney, part of which stated, He thought that he could own me, but he was wrong. I was smarter. I was brave and he was not. He thought he could make me like him, but he was wrong. One year after her abduction, Jamie released another statement, saying she felt strong and got back to activities she enjoyed doing especially with friends.

It's fair to say that Jamie was her own hero who saved herself, who would have thought that beyond her fragile, quiet, and passive demeanor was a complete badass. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Tune in next week for another one filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories, because who knows? Maybe your town will be next.