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Suspect worked with teen's parents for a day

Posted at 2:35 PM, Jan 11, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-11 15:35:49-05

BARRON, Wis. (AP) — The Latest on a Wisconsin teenager who was found alive three months after disappearing following her parents' deaths (all times local):

1:45 p.m.

The company that employed the slain parents of a Wisconsin teen who was kidnapped says the man accused in the attack worked at the plant for one day nearly three years ago.

Steve Lykken, president of the Jennie-O Turkey Store in Barren, issued a statement Friday saying 21-year-old Jake Patterson was hired one day but quit the next, explaining that he was moving away from the area.

An obituary for James and Denise Closs says they worked at the turkey processing plant for 27 years.

Lykken says the company and the Hormel Foods family are "overjoyed at the news of Jayme's safe return."

Authorities say Jayme escaped from a cabin in the town of Gordon on Thursday and they arrested Patterson on homicide and kidnapping charges.
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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.

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.