Probably the Jayme Closs case.
Jayme Closs was a 13-year-old girl who lived in Barron, Wisconsin, with her parents, James and Denise. On October 25, 2018, a 21-year-old named Jake Patterson showed up at the Closs home at just before 1am, waking the family, banged on the door, and shined a flashlight in the front window.
James, thinking perhaps Patterson was a police officer, asked to see his badge. Patterson fired a shotgun blast through the door, killing James instantly, and then searched the rest of the house until he found Denise and Jayme hiding in the bathroom. He bound Jayme’s hands and feet with duct tape, then fatally shot her mother at point blank range.
Patterson then forced Jayme into the trunk of his car and drove off, pulling over when police cruisers drove by, sirens and lights on, toward the Closs house (Denise had managed to call 911 before Jake broke down the bathroom door, and although she did not speak, the dispatcher heard a disturbance and sent officers to the location), but they drove right past him.
Patterson drove Jayme back to his home in Gordon, Wisconsin, made her change clothes, then forced her under his bed and barricaded her there.
And that’s it. He didn’t assault her. He didn’t torture her. He just left her under his bed, occasionally letting her out into the rest of the house. Jayme was so terrified of him after witnessing his murder of her parents that she didn’t try to escape.
At first.
On January 10, 2019, Patterson told Jayme he was leaving for a few hours, and as usual, barricaded her under his bed. After he left, Jayme forced her way out, put on a pair of his sneakers, and ran, until she encountered neighbor Jeanne Nutter, who recognized her from news reports and immediately took her to another neighbor’s house, where police were called. Patterson was apprehended that same day, and immediately admitted guilt.
This whole case just didn’t make any sense at all. Jake Patterson had no criminal record, and no red flags in his history; he was described as quiet, polite, and shy, a “nice boy”. He didn’t know Jayme or her parents; had never met them. He also had no motive — when the police asked, he couldn’t give them one. He just said he had seen Jayme getting off her school bus one day on his way home from work and decided “she was the girl he wanted to take”. He immediately began planning her abduction. Once he had her, he just… kept her, hidden under his bed, like a souvenir, for 88 days.
Patterson pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and one count of kidnapping, and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 40 years for the kidnapping. He was never charged in relation to Jayme’s captivity because the authorities did not want to subject Jayme to any more questioning than necessary. Patterson stated that he decided to plead guilty in order to spare Jayme and her family the trauma of a trial, and reportedly also tried to get a note of apology to her.
As for Jayme, she spent one night in the hospital before being released into the custody of her aunt, who would become her legal guardian. Today she is 17 and, according to her aunt, is doing well. At Patterson’s trial, her attorney read a powerful statement she had written, which included the below words:
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.
Jayme Closs:
Denise and James Closs:
Jake Patterson:
This case still gives me chills, because again: there was no motive. Jake Patterson just saw this pretty girl get off a school bus one day and decided to just take her as a possession.