"He thought he could own me but he was wrong": Jayme Closs speaks as her kidnapper is jailed.

On the night of October 15 2018, 13-year-old Jayme Closs was kidnapped by Jake Patterson after she witnessed him murder her parents in their Wisconsin home.

Jayme was held captive in a remote cabin by the 21-year-old man for 88 days, kept trapped under Patterson’s bed for as long as 12 hours at a time.

After two failed attempts at escaping, Jayme was finally successful on January 10 this year when she fled the house while Patterson was out.

Jayme sought the help of a woman walking her dog on the street and Patterson was arrested minutes later. The 13 year old girl was finally safe.

On Friday, Patterson was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He received one life sentence each for the murders of James and Denise Closs and was given a 40-year sentence for kidnapping their daughter.

Jayme was not at the sentencing, but her family attorney, Chris Gramstrup, read out a statement that she wrote, delivering her powerful words to the courtroom:

"Last October, Jake 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. I love my mom and my dad very much and they love me very much. They did all they could to make me happy and protect me. He took them away from me forever.

"I felt safe in my home and I loved my room and all my belongings. He took all of that too. I don’t want to even see my home or my stuff because of the memory of that night. My parents and my home were the most important things in my life. He took them away from me in a way that will always leave me with a horrifying memory.

"I have to have an alarm in the house now just so I can sleep. I used to love to go out with my friends. I loved to go to school. I loved to dance. He took all of those things away from me too.

"It’s too hard for me to go out in public. I get scared and I get anxious. These are just ordinary things that anyone like me should be able to do but I can’t because he took them away from me.

"But there are some things that Jake Patterson can never take from me. He can’t take my freedom. He thought that he could own me but he was wrong. I was smarter. I watched his routine and I took back my freedom. I will always have my freedom and he will not.

"Jake Patterson can never take away my courage. 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 and he was not.

"He can’t ever take away my spirit. He thought that he could make me like him, but he was wrong. He can’t ever change me or take away who I am. He can’t stop me from being happy and moving forward with my life. I will go on to do great things in my life and he will not.

"Jake Patterson will never have any power over me. I feel like I have some power over him because I get to tell the judge what I think should happen to him.

"He stole my parents from me. He stole almost everything I love from me. For 88 days he tried to steal me and he didn’t care who he hurt or who he killed to do that. He should stay locked up forever."

A criminal complaint, released in January, revealed that Patterson had confessed to his crimes and told police he first saw the young teen getting on the bus last autumn and decided he wanted to take her.

What followed was weeks of planning, in which Patterson stole number plates to replace his own, checked out the Closs home twice, purchased a black ski mask and shaved his head to avoid leaving any hairs at the crime scene, police said.

He claimed he did not know Jayme's name until after her abduction and only learned the names of her parents after seeing stories about their murders on the news.

Jayme now lives with her aunt and uncle.

With AAP.