Jayme Closs kidnapper said teen was 'terrified of me'

The Wisconsin man serving life in prison for kidnapping Jayme Closs and killing her parents believed the teen would not attempt to escape because she was "terrified" of him, he said.

Jayme, 13 at the time, was able to flee from Jake Patterson’s remote cabin in January, three months after she was abducted from her Barron home. Patterson was arrested and would later plead guilty to homicide and kidnapping.

The 22-year-old Patterson admitted to breaking into Jayme’s home on Oct. 15, 2018 and killing James and Denise Closs. He dragged Jayme away and kept her under a bed for 88 days.

“I just trusted her and that, she wouldn’t try to get out," he told cops following his arrest.

The transcript of his interview with police and other investigative documents were released by the Wisconsin Department of Justice on Friday. Patterson said he was counting on “mind things” to keep Jayme from running, and forced her to be quiet when people came over, including his father.

“Like at first I would say that, you know you have it really good here, I’m treating you good, and she’d be like yeah okay. ... I was like you could have it a lot worse here," he said.

He said he acted “pretty impulsive-ish” when he broke into her family’s home, admitting that “I’m really good at just not thinking about stuff.”

Patterson indicated at one point he was drunk and feeling guilty so he let Jayme write a letter to her aunt. He told police that the letter was still in the cabin when he was arrested.

He said that she would not try to leave because “I know that she was just (expletive) terrified of me."

“He thought that he could own me but he was wrong. I was smarter," Jayme said in a statement through her lawyer at Patterson’s sentencing. “I was brave and he was not. ... He thought he could make me like him, but he was wrong."

With News Wire Services