Jake Patterson, the man who kidnapped 13-year-old Jayme Closs after killing her parents, will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Patterson was sentenced Friday in a Barron County, Wisconsin, courthouse to two life sentences for two homicides, and another 25 years for kidnapping.
Patterson pleaded guilty in March to kidnapping Jayme in October 2018, killing her parents and holding her captive in a cabin for three months. Jayme escaped from the cabin in January. She managed to flag down a woman who was walking a dog, and Patterson was arrested minutes later.
Jayme, who was not in court, said in a statement that Patterson “took a lot of things that I love away from me.”
“It makes me the most sad that he took away my mom and my dad,” she said in her statement, which was read by her attorney in court. “I used to love to go out with my friends. I love to go to school. I love to dance. He took all of those things away from me, too. It’s too hard for me to go out in public.”
Patterson told police he decided Jayme “was the girl he was going to take” after he saw her getting on a school bus near her home, according to a criminal complaint.
“This high-profile sentencing event will bring a true finality to yet another dramatic reminder of this crime that brought tragedy to the family and this community,” Diane Tremblay, the Barron Area School District superintendent, told USA Today in a statement.