BARRON, Wis. (AP) — The Latest on a Wisconsin teenager who was found alive three months after disappearing following her parents' deaths (all times local):
12:55 p.m.
Detectives are interviewing a 13-year-old Wisconsin girl who authorities say managed to escape from a cabin months after being abducted from her home.
Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said Friday at a news conference that investigators don't think Jayme Closs had ever interacted with 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson before they say he killed her parents and kidnapped her in October. He said he doesn't know if Jayme was abused by her captor and that detectives are interviewing her about her ordeal.
Authorities say Jayme escaped Thursday from a cabin near Gordon and they arrested Patterson on homicide and kidnapping charges.
Gordon is in Douglas County and about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of the Closs' home in Barron County. Fitzgerald said Patterson has a tie to Barron County, but he didn't specify except to say it wasn't a connection to the Jennie-O
Turkey Store in Barron where James and Denise Closs worked.
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11:05 a.m.
A woman who called 911 to report that a missing 13-year-old Wisconsin girl had been found says the girl told her that the man arrested in the case "killed my parents and took me."
Kristin Kasinskas told The Associated Press on Friday that Jayme Closs said she didn't know why she was targeted.
A 21-year-old Gordon man, Jake Thomas Patterson, was arrested Thursday on homicide and kidnapping charges. Authorities say Jayme managed to escape from a cabin in Gordon where Patterson was holding her and that she encountered a woman walking her dog, who knocked on Kasinskas' door.
Kasinskas says she doesn't really know Patterson even though he lives three doors down from her. She says she taught him middle school science but only remembers that he was quiet.
Kasinskas says she didn't see Patterson during the months that Jayme was missing.
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10:55 a.m.
Authorities say investigators are trying to learn more about what happened to a 13-year-old girl since her parents were killed and she was abducted during a home invasion in October.
Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said at a news conference Friday that Jayme Closs managed to escape from a cabin in the town of Gordon on Thursday. She found a woman walking her dog and the woman notified a neighbor, who called 911.
A 21-year-old Gordon man, Jake Thomas Patterson, was arrested on charges of first-degree homicide and kidnapping. Fitzgerald says investigators believe he killed Jayme's parents because he wanted to kidnap her.
Fitzgerald says detectives are speaking with Jayme and that she'll be reunited with her relatives when they're done. He says her relatives hugged and cried when told Thursday that Jayme was found alive.
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10:35 a.m.
A neighbor says she and her husband had problems years ago with the man suspected of kidnapping a Wisconsin teenager and killing her parents.
Authorities announced Friday that they arrested 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson on Thursday on suspicion of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents at their home near Barron in October. Investigators say Jayme escaped from a cabin in the town of Gordon where Patterson was holding her Thursday.
Patterson has no criminal history in Wisconsin. Daphne Ronning told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Patterson's parents moved to Gordon about 15 years ago.
She says the parents later moved away but Patterson and his brother continued to use the home. She says she and her husband once caught them siphoning gas. She says her husband spoke with them and they didn't have any further problems.
Ronning says she didn't know Patterson was living in the house and hadn't seen Jayme around.
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10:25 a.m.
Wisconsin authorities say they believe 13-year-old Jayme Closs was "the only target" of a man suspected of kidnapping her and killing her parents in October.
At a news conference Friday, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald identified 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson as the man suspected in the crimes.
He says Patterson "planned his actions and took many steps to hide his identity" and that Patterson had no prior criminal record.
Fitzgerald says Jayme managed to escape from a cabin on Thursday and approached a woman who was walking her dog. That woman alerted a nearby neighbor, who called 911.
Fitzgerald says Closs was medically cleared, is out of the hospital and is being interviewed by law enforcement.
