Jayme Closs submitted a powerful statement to the court for the sentencing Friday of the man who admitted to killing her parents and holding her captive for 88 days.
Closs, 13, was not present for the hearing for 21-year-old Jake Patterson, but her family’s attorney read the statement to the court.
In it, she recalled the day in October that Patterson kidnapped her and murdered her parents, James and Denise Closs, at their Barron, Wisconsin home. Patterson then brought Closs to his cabin near the town of Gordon, which is about 60 miles from her house. She said she is still living with the emotional scars of her ordeal.
“But there’s some things that Jake Patterson can never take from me,” the statement said. “He can’t take my freedom. He thought that he could own me but he was wrong. I was smarter. I watched his routine and I took back my freedom. I will always have my freedom and he will not.”
Closs managed to escape the cabin while Patterson was away on Jan. 10. She reached out to a woman who was out walking her dog. Patterson was arrested soon afterward.
Patterson pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced Friday to life in prison on two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping.
Read Closs’ full statement below.
“Last October, Jake Patterson took a lot of things that I loved away from me. It makes me the most sad that he took away my Mom and my Dad. I loved my Mom and Dad very much and they loved me very much. They did all they could to make me happy and protect me. He took them away from me forever.
“I felt safe in my home, and I loved my room and all of my belongings. He took all of that too. I don’t want to even see my home or my stuff because of the memory of that night. My parents and my home were the most important things in my life. He took them away from me in a way that will always leave me with a horrifying memory.
“I have to have an alarm in the house now just so I can sleep. I used to love to go out with my friends. I loved to go to school. I loved to do dance. He took all of those things away from me too. It’s too hard for me to go out in public. I get scared and I get anxious. These are just ordinary things that anyone like me should be able to do, but I can’t because he took them away from me.
“But there’s some things that Jake Patterson can never take from me. He can’t take my freedom. He thought that he could own me but he was wrong. I was smarter. I watched his routine and I took back my freedom. I will always have my freedom and he will not.
“Jake Patterson can never take away my courage. He thought he could control me, but he couldn’t. I feel like what he did is what a coward would do. I was brave, he was not. He can never take away my spirit. He thought that he could make me like him, but he was wrong. He can’t ever change me, or take away who I am. He can’t stop me from being happy and moving forward with my life. I will go on to do great things in my life, and he will not.
“Jake Patterson will never have any power over me. I feel like I have some power over him, because I get to tell the judge what I think should happen to him. He stole my parents from me. He stole almost everything I loved from me. For 88 days he tried to steal me, and he didn’t care who he hurt or who he killed to do that.
“He should stay locked up forever.”
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