Jayme Closs investigation: Records detail close calls, bum leads and an astrologer

MILWAUKEE – The ordeal of Jayme Closs began in the middle of the night, the sounds of screams heard on a desperate 911 call to authorities in Wisconsin.

When a Barron County sheriff's deputy arrived at the family home on Oct. 15, 2018, on the outskirts of the small city of Barron, they saw a front door blown open by a shotgun blast. Inside, the body of James Closs was discovered.

One officer on the scene mistakenly thought it was suicide.

But it was far worse, with authorities finding another body in a bathroom, Denise Closs.

And when they got to the basement they found the family dog, trembling in fear behind the washer and dryer.

The details of that horrible night, and Jayme's remarkable escape from captivity 88 days later, are contained in thousands of pages of documents and audio and video files released Friday by Wisconsin's Department of Justice. Some of the material was heavily redacted.

The records reveal a startling tale in the search for Jayme, including close calls, missed opportunities and bum leads. Dozens of investigators pursued things such as overheard conversations in bars, interviews with family members and co-workers, and an exhaustive effort to find surveillance footage at gas stations from Janesville to Superior.

Three Barron County sheriff's deputies unknowingly saw Jake Patterson drive off with Jayme after he murdered her parents.

The deputies reported seeing a vehicle driving eastbound as they drove the opposite direction toward the Closs home in response to a 911 call. The car would later be identified as belonging to Patterson, 22, who was convicted last spring of killing James and Denise Closs and kidnapping their only child, Jayme.

The documents showed authorities chased tips across the country, interviewing hundreds of people.

They even heard of what an astrologer thought might've happened.

A former Shawano County sheriff submitted a tip: He'd talked to an astrologer who he consulted on cases in the past. The astrologer, Sheriff Randy Wright said, believed Jayme was dead in a lake or pond near her home and even suggested a generic first name of a suspect. Investigators tracked down a Barron County sex offender with that name and searched nearby bodies of water, but – as was the case again and again in the investigation – they turned up nothing of value.

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Patterson didn't know the Closs family, nor did he have a prior criminal record in Wisconsin. But in the early hours of Oct. 15, he used his father's shotgun to fatally shoot James, 56, through a glass pane on the front door of their home and murdered Denise, 46, in front of Jayme. He then dragged Jayme to his car and drove her to his rural Gordon home, where he held her for 88 days.

Less than a minute after leaving Jayme’s house, Patterson drove his red Ford Taurus past several squad cars rushing there in response to the 911 call her mother made. Police saw him yield to their cars, records show, but did not pull him over.

Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald previously said police didn't pull the car over because they didn't know what they were getting into at the home.

During Jayme's captivity, Patterson forced her to hide under a twin bed surrounded by weighted bins when he had company or left the house. He threatened and yelled at her, once hitting her with a window blind cleaner. He also hosted a Christmas gathering for his relatives, who were unaware a scared girl was hiding in the other room.

Jayme escaped Jan. 10 and found a social worker out walking her dog, who took Jayme to another neighbor's house to call 911. Police arrested Patterson a short time later.

Patterson pleaded guilty to the murders and kidnapping in March and was sentenced to life in prison in May.

The 22-year-old said he decided to kidnap Jayme after watching her board a school bus. He then went to great lengths to plan the abduction: He shaved his head and face to avoid leaving DNA at the scene, and modified his car to minimize detection.

When police asked how Patterson met Jayme, he told them: "I didn’t. I just f------ saw her."

The documents provide new details about Patterson, who washed out of the Marines following high school and bounced around that corner of northwestern Wisconsin holding numerous jobs, sometimes for only days at a time at local factories and processing plants.

Patterson told police he began to entertain fantasies of taking a girl after his discharge from the Marines, noting he prefers younger girls to those his own age.

He said Jayme was scared when they arrived in Gordon and wouldn't eat or drink until after about a week had passed. Throughout her captivity, Patterson said the two watched TV, played board games together and even played badminton outside before the weather grew cold. He also offered her vodka and marijuana, he said, but she declined.

"I mean, we would just talk about anything," Patterson told authorities. "The only thing we didn’t talk about was, like, the situation we were in. Like I never mentioned it or anything. Like she talked about her parents as if they were still alive, and I couldn’t tell her that they weren’t."

He also said Jayme "basically complied" with him because of his outbursts.

But Jayme made a run for it while he was out on that Jan. 10 afternoon. She later said she thought Patterson would be gone until midnight.

After Jayme escaped Patterson's home and flagged down neighbor Jeanne Nutter as she was walking her dog, they rushed to the nearby home of Peter and Kristin Kasinskas. Nutter realized that Jayme's captor, Patterson, could be coming any moment.

"Call 911. This is Jayme Closs," Nutter told the Kasinskases.

After Kristin called 911, she sat with Jayme and told her about events like "Wear Green for Jayme" day.

She "sat with Jayme and told her about wearing green for her and other things to tell her that people hadn't forgot about her," a Douglas County Sheriff's Office report said.

Authorities noted that Jayme's hair was matted and looked like dreadlocks.

She was wearing Patterson's dirty and worn New Balance shoes.

As authorities took Jayme away from the scene, they passed Patterson driving a red car. Soon after, news of his arrest came through the squad radio.

"Jayme showed me a small smile and we continued," a Douglas County sheriff's deputy wrote in a report.

Jayme, now 14, lives with her aunt and uncle. The home she shared with her parents was demolished in August, and her family has asked for privacy as she continues to heal.

Contributing Lainey Seyler, Ashley Luthern, Bruce Vielmetti, Sophie Carson, James B. Nelson and Mary Spicuzza of the Journal Sentinel in Milwaukee, and Doug Schneider of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin in Green Bay.

Follow Haley BeMiller on Twitter: @haleybemiller.