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'I Just Love Her': Jayme Closs' Alleged Kidnapper Says They Spent Time Cooking And Playing Board Games
Jake Patterson called up a local Minnesota reporter and offered new details on the teen's captivity.
The Wisconsin man accused of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs after killing her parents, then holding her captive for nearly three months has been in contact with a local news outlet again, reportedly claiming that he loves his victim.
Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, has been charged with two counts of first-degree homicide and one count each of kidnapping and armed burglary stemming from the Oct. 15 attack on the Closs home during which he allegedly gunned down James and Denise Closs before abducting their teen daughter.
Patterson called Jennifer Mayerle, a reporter at Minnesota station WCCO, on Friday to offer up new details on the case, saying he "of course" feels remorse about what he did.
He said that during Closs' captivity, “we were just like watching TV, playing board games, talking about stuff. We cooked a lot, everything we made was homemade, you know.”
Patterson said he wished he could talk to Closs.
"I just love her,” he said.
However, Closs' time in captivity wasn't as innocent as he's making it sound, according to the account give by law enforcement.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Oxygen.com, Patterson would force her to hide under his bed if he had friends or relatives over and he "made it clear that nobody was to know she was there or bad things would happen to her," according to the complaint. Closs said he once hit her over the back with an object used to clean window blinds.
Patterson's call came after Mayerle sent him a letter asking questions about the case and included her phone number. Earlier this month, he sent a letter to KARE11 in Minneapolis, expressing remorse and including an apology written in childlike bubble letters.
In that note, he allegedly said he planned to plead guilty and that he wants “Jayme and her relatives to know that. Don’t want them to worry about a trial.”
He also disputed the notion that Closs' abduction was well planned, as police laid out in a criminal complaint based on interviews with him.
“The cops say I planned this thoroughly, and that I said that,” Patterson wrote in the letter, according to KARE11. “They’re really good at twisting your words around, put them in different spots, straight up lie. Little mad about that. Trying to cover up their mistakes I guess. This was mostly on impulse.”
Patterson is due to be arraigned on March 27.
