The 13-year-old daughter of Denise and James Closs, who were found dead in their Wisconsin home in October last year, has been located.
The young woman was found about 100 km north of where she was last seen.
Announcing the news in a Facebook post, the Barron Country Sheriff’s Department wrote that they had located Jayme Closs alive, and that a suspect had been taken into custody shortly after.
“We want to especially thank the family for their support and patience while this case was ongoing. We promised to bring Jayme home and tonight we get to fulfill that promise,” they wrote in the post.
Jayme Closs has been missing since her parents Denise Closs, 46, and James, 56, were found dead in their home in Barron, Wisconsin on the night of October 15, 2018.
Based on a 911 call from a home, in which the operator heard struggle, alongside other evidence, it was believed the teenager was inside the home at the time of the murder.
According to the Washington Post, both of Jayme’s parents had gunshot wounds when they were found.
When the Sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene, just four minutes after the call, they found the bodies of Denise and James, but their 13-year-old daughter was missing.
She hadn’t been seen since.
At around 3:30pm that day in October, police issued a nationwide Amber Alert for Jayme. In the alert, she was described as 5-feet tall, 100 lbs (45 kilograms), with strawberry-blonde hair and green eyes.
Two days later, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald, told reporters Jayme is “missing and endangered”.
“I haven’t seen anything like this in rural western Wisconsin. We just don’t see this,” he said. “We want to bring Jayme home.”
“Every second counts in this case,” he added.
Fitzgerald later told Today that Jayme is not considered to be a suspect in the case. He “100 per cent” believes the teenager is alive.
On October 27, a funeral was held for Jayme’s parents.
While most of the community was attending the service, a man named Kyle Jaenke-Annis broke into the Closs home.
Police quickly arrived on scene and ordered the 32-year-old to come out of the house. According to NBC News, he had stuffed two tank tops, a girl’s dress and two pairs of girl’s underwear into his coat pocket.
Jaenke-Annis told police he took the items because he was “curious about what size Jayme was”.
The Wisconsin man said he did not know the Closs family, despite working at the same Jennie-O Turkey Store as Denise and James.
He has been cleared of any involvement in the disappearance of Jayme.
In October last year, Fitzgerald raised the reward for information on the case to $50,000.
In December, the Barron County Clerk of Courts Office dedicated its Christmas tree to Jayme, spelling her name out in glittery letters and ribbons.
Top Comments
Glad the poor girl has been found. Hopefully they’ll find out exactly what happened.