Wisconsin man due in court on charges of kidnapping Jayme Closs and murdering her parents

[February 06, 2019]  By Katharine Jackson

(Reuters) - The Wisconsin man charged with kidnapping a 13-year-old girl and murdering her parents, sparking a three-months-long search that ended only after Jayme Closs escaped captivity, is due in court on Wednesday.

Authorities have charged Jake Patterson, 21, with murder for shooting Closs' parents to death with a shotgun before kidnapping the girl he had targeted seemingly at random after spotting her boarding a school bus.

Patterson is due in Barron County Circuit Court for a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is probable cause for a trial. Wisconsin does not have a death penalty.

Police say Patterson admitted to dragging the teen into the trunk of his car and driving to his tiny cabin in Gordon, Wisconsin, about 112 miles (180 km) northeast of Minneapolis, where he held her hostage for months, sometimes under his bed.

The October discovery of the parents' bodies in their home in Barron, Wisconsin, with the door blasted open and their daughter gone, sparked a search by hundreds of police officers and thousands of volunteers.

After 88 days, Closs escaped on Jan. 10 and sought help from a woman walking her dog, according to court papers. Soon after, police arrested Patterson, who told investigators he had been looking for Closs.

Patterson is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of James and Denise Closs, as well as kidnapping and burglary counts. He has not yet entered a plea, a Wisconsin Department of Justice spokeswoman said.

Jake Patterson, 21, charged with kidnapping a 13-year-old girl and two counts of first-degree murder for murdering her parents, appears in a booking photo provided by the Barron County Sheriff's Department in Barron, Wisconsin, Jan. 11, 2019. Barron County Sheriff's Department /Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Additional charges related to Closs' captivity are not expected at this point, Douglas County District Attorney Mark Fruehauf said in a statement citing "the existence of other charges and victim-related concerns."

The decision not to bring new charges means details of how Closs was treated as Patterson's hostage may remain unknown.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Dan Grebler)

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