Lengthy article but well worth the read.
How did Jake Patterson's life lead to Jayme Closs?
Teachers and classmates at his small country school described him as smart and quick-witted — quiet, but not a loner. He had friends and was well-accepted among the 34 members of the Class of 2015 at Northwood School, most of whom had been together since kindergarten.
He played video games, board games — “Risk” was a favorite — and devoured Tom Clancy spy novels.
So what could possibly have transformed this lean, prematurely balding and reserved young man into the alleged perpetrator of a brutal crime that shocked a nation?
“Something just got stuck in his head,” said JM, Patterson’s maternal grandfather. “I can’t imagine anybody thinking about this, let alone doing it.”
In Haugen, a village of about 270 residents some 45 miles south of Gordon and home to Patterson’s mother, DF, few noticed Jake when he visited. “It’s a very close-knit town,” said one resident. “If you haven’t been here three generations, people don’t really know you.”
Frey, who drives a school bus for the nearby Rice Lake district, has lived in town only a short time, but locals know who she is by the bus that’s sometimes parked in front of her home.
“She’s friendly. She’d wave when she went by,” said JH, owner of the Village Grocery. Hill said last week that he didn’t see Jake often, but remembers him stopping in the store occasionally for cigarettes.
“Marlboros,” Hill said.
“It’s profoundly sad. It’s not ordinary sad,” Moyer said softly. “We lost our grandson, too. It’s like a death.”
Said Fisher, Patterson’s best friend: “I’ve been trying to figure it out, and I can’t.”
(names changed to initials by me)