Parents killed in Wisconsin in plot to kidnap their daughter, sheriff says
BARRON, Wis. — A 21-year-old unemployed man shot a Wisconsin couple to death in a scheme to kidnap their 13-year-old daughter, holding the girl captive for three months in an isolated north woods community before she managed to escape, authorities said Friday.
Jayme Closs was skinny, disheveled and wearing shoes too big for her when she approached a stranger to tell her story Thursday in the small town of Gordon, where police said Jake Thomas Patterson lived.
Her discovery brought joy and relief 60 miles away in her hometown of Barron, population 3,300, ending an all-out search that gripped the state, with many people fearing the worst the longer she was missing.
“My legs started to shake. It was awesome.