Found Alive WI - Jayme Closs, 13, Barron, missing after parents found shot, 15 Oct 2018 *Arrest* #42

[Julia966]

All Patterson's major life failures & disappointments, occurred in the fall:

-Oct. 30, 2007: The couple file jointly for divorce, saying in a hand-written petition their union is “irretrievably broken.” They agree to split the cost of raising the kids, and Patrick agrees to insure them with a plan he has through his employer, an electrical supply company.

-Oct. 13, 2012: Erik Patterson is accused of fourth-degree sexual assault. He pleads no contest; a Buffalo County judge sentences him to a year's probation.

-Oct. 28, 2013: Erik Patterson is arrested in Douglas County on charges including two low-level felonies accusing him of manufacturing or delivering THC, as well as a bail-jumping misdemeanor. He later pleads no contest and is convicted. His Buffalo County probation is revoked; he's given an eight-month jail sentence.

-Oct. 20, 2015: The Marine Corps kicks Patterson out of basic training five weeks into a 13-week program.

-Early October, 2018: Patterson continues to live at South Eau Claire Acres. His father has moved out.

Yeah, not only the fall, specifically in October. Weird!

 

[tnith]

WOW/ OMG/ HOLY SH*TSVILLE/ BRILLIANT CATCH!

The month of OCTOBER is the trigger. Like SAD, seasonal affective disorder, linked to prior timing of adverse events.

Likewise, the approach of Summer brought birthdays (family gathering) & reminders of former life from Spider Lake/Black Widow lane which he came to reject soon after the divorce (finalized in spring- mother moved out to Minong).

Theory:
Older siblings are slightly closer due to age, JTP becomes unwanted tag-along tattletale that parents dote on/expect to play the part of 'distraction' glue holding appearances together (pressure to maintain or repeat earlier identity to family?) Furthermore, expect the sister & brother to watch him after while they bicker over whatever frivolous nonsense it was eating at their relationship.
JTP was coddled as the 'baby' of the family and had neither skills nor patience to adjust from the prized darling to harsh reality of his parents' split.
Resents school & by proxy children his mother ferries to school, as an extension of family he feels he must compete with for Mother.

Once caught, JTP's Parents of course take this opportune instance to engage in hysterics centering themselves (mom can't leave house, father sobbing in court).

If there isn't significant connections/events within the former neighborhood triggering the undoing of this family, I'll be shocked.

 

[Seattle1]

Jake Patterson, accused of abducting Jayme Closs, isolated himself after high school
The gatherings were typical of what takes place when teenagers get together at the holidays after high school graduation.

Friendships stretched by distance, experiences or both are renewed. College life is compared with work life which is compared with military life. Contact information is updated and shared.

That was true when recent graduates of the Northwood School of Minong got together toward the end of 2015 — except for Jake Patterson.

Even with the guys with whom he'd been closest in the group of 34 students, Patterson wasn't interested in staying in touch, a friend's mother recalled. He didn't give out his email address, didn't want anyone's phone number.

Some schoolmates thought Patterson was serving in the Marine Corps, probably as an infantryman as he'd vowed he would via a message in their 2015 yearbooks. Others, if they bumped into him at one of the handful of jobs he cycled through after graduation, assumed he'd begun a career at a local meat-packing plant or a wood-pellet factory.

His increasing isolation continued until late 2018 when Patterson, four months after his 21st birthday, was so far off people's radar that he was able to avoid being a suspect in the shotgun murders of a Barron County couple and the kidnapping of their 13-year-old daughter, Jayme Closs. That's despite, as prosecutors now allege, having held Jayme captive for nearly three months in the house where he'd lived since 2006.

MUCH more at the link...

Thanks @PommyMommy - the most thorough account of JP and family life thus far including birth, sibling trouble, family finances, and divorce.

By all appearances, no traumatic events, and seemingly raised in stable environment. Although isolated from community members, JP was reportedly still maintaining contact with his immediate family members. Also, take note there's been zero report here or elsewhere of alleged foster care --as provided earlier by unnamed neighbor.

Seems the consensus of his community remains unchanged --they saw no warnings of JP's atrocities.

Now, his classmates and their families struggle to make sense of the news.

"He isn't the person I would've guessed out of my class to do something like this," said a woman who attended Northwood with Patterson for 12 years; like several other classmates, she asked that her name not be used. "It makes all of us who knew him sad … but it also makes a lot of us angry.

"We trusted this classmate and friend," she said, "and he did something horrible."

MOO

https://www.greenbaypressgazette.co...marine-corps-murder-barron-gordon/2632527002/

 

[Rhenish]

Likewise, the approach of Summer brought birthdays (family gathering) & reminders of former life from Spider lake/Black Widow lane which he came to reject soon after the divorce (finalized in spring-mother moving out to Minong.

Theory: Older siblings are slightly closer due to age, JTP becomes unwanted tag-along tattletale that parents dote on/expect to play the part of 'distraction' glue holding appearances together. Furthermore, expect the sister & brother to watch him after while they bicker over whatever frivolous nonsense it was eating at their relationship.
JTP was coddled as the 'baby' of the family and had neither skills nor patience to adjust from the prized darling to harsh reality of his parents' split.
Resents school & by proxy children his mother ferries to school, as an extension of family he feels he must compete with for Mother.
Parents of course take this opportune instance to engage in hysterics centering themselves (mom can't leave house, father sobbing in court).

If there isn't significant connections/events within the former neighborhood triggering the undoing of this family, I'll be shocked.

Good Theory, I think if Jake wasn't the coddled one he was the ignored one. His parents first split in 2005 when Jake was 8 so there had to have been some, maybe a lot or maybe a little, stress between the parents, perhaps for years, before the split (just guessing), that took attention away from the wants and needs of the children while the marriage was falling apart.

 

[kkdj]

Good Theory, I think if Jake wasn't the coddled one he was the ignored one. His parents first split in 2005 when Jake was 8 so there had to have been some, maybe a lot or maybe a little, stress between the parents, perhaps for years, before the split (just guessing), that took attention away from the wants and needs of the children while the marriage was falling apart.

It certainly sounds like the parents had a troubled marriage that they kept trying to work at. Children can sense the tensions in the home and I wonder if this caused some inner thoughts and feelings of rage in him from a young age and for many years. jmo

 

[ilovechili]

Good Theory, I think if Jake wasn't the coddled one he was the ignored one. His parents first split in 2005 when Jake was 8 so there had to have been some, maybe a lot or maybe a little, stress between the parents, perhaps for years, before the split (just guessing), that took attention away from the wants and needs of the children while the marriage was falling apart.

If he wanted his parents' attention, he certainly got it in a big way. I do not think it will have the best results for him but they sure have him on their minds these days....

 

[Seattle1]

I would add that the early October, 2018 entry says his dad has moved out--does that mean I wonder that he just moved out then...? If so, that changes some of my thoughts. This kid was not alone at all--well maybe while dad worked, etc. Kind of hard to know how they mean it or where it came from.

It was long ago reported that while living at Gordon, WI family home, PP had to leave at 4am to commute to work. I seriously doubt he's continued that practice up to Oct 2018. Also, neighbors have stated PP moved from Gordon some time ago. I believe the OP used Oct 2018 as this was verified date PP satisfied the mortgage in full. MOO

 

[Julia966]

Good Theory, I think if Jake wasn't the coddled one he was the ignored one. His parents first split in 2005 when Jake was 8 so there had to have been some, maybe a lot or maybe a little, stress between the parents, perhaps for years, before the split (just guessing), that took attention away from the wants and needs of the children while the marriage was falling apart.

Good point. I tend to think it's an odd combination of the two. I have a hunch he was largely ignored growing up because he rarely did anything that drew attention to himself, and his family was busy with other things that did draw their attention. Later he was coddled in the sense that he was allowed to live in the house, apparently rent-free, with little pressure put on him to do anything.

 

[Julia966]

It was long ago reported that while living at Gordon, WI family home, PP had to leave at 4am to commute to work. I seriously doubt he's continued that practice up to Oct 2018. Also, neighbors have stated PP moved from Gordon some time ago. I believe the OP used Oct 2018 as this was verified date PP satisfied the mortgage in full. MOO

Right. The news story I recall is that the two boys were living there alone as teenagers (another odd ignored/coddled thing). So it had to be some time ago.

 

[Seattle1]

It certainly sounds like the parents had a troubled marriage that they kept trying to work at. Children can sense the tensions in the home and I wonder if this caused some inner thoughts and feelings of rage in him from a young age and for many years. jmo

If statistics are correct, 50% of children experience divorce, and eventually come to terms with the resultant rage -- and don't go on to massacre and kidnap.

IMO, JP's actions are about his brain: psychopath's brains show differences in structure and function.

Good study of prisoner's brains led by Univ of Wisconsin researchers:

"This is the first study to show both structural and functional differences in the brains of people diagnosed with psychopathy," says Michael Koenigs, assistant professor of psychiatry in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. "Those two structures in the brain, which are believed to regulate emotion and social behavior, seem to not be communicating as they should."

The study, which took place in a medium-security prison in Wisconsin, is a unique collaborative between three laboratories, UW-Madison psychology Professor Joseph Newman has had a long term interest in studying and diagnosing those with psychopathy and has worked extensively in the Wisconsin corrections system.

https://www.med.wisc.edu/news-and-e...opaths-brains-differences-structure-function/

 

[tnith]

Yeah, not only the fall, specifically in October. Weird!

There's a polarized dynamic in this fractured household, in which we watch stress factors build in both spring/summer (children's births/mother's split, and again midfall at father's household as festivity looms).

-It appears that JTP's mother finally moved out when the second divorce was filed in Oct 2007. He was 10.

-March 31, 2008: A judge grants the divorce. The couple agrees to share physical custody every other week; Patrick is expected pay Deborah $800 a month in child support until Jake turns 18. Patrick agrees to buy Deborah's share of the house for $40,000. (debt? Incentive for father to chase dollars/neglect offspring post separation in basic survival mode? Something missing here)

-At 14, JTP starts Northwood in Minong fall of 2011 (could he have been transferred in from another district?)
First year following junior high, we easily suppose that he was intended to attend this school but where were his siblings? Did their attendance follow a straight path or were they also juggled about from one site to another. Had we worked out what the living arrangement post divorce, pre-Northwood? Clinging to mom but made to stay weekends with dad? I sense something specific in aspect, supported by subsequent unraveling within the Patterson siblings world.

-Only 1 year later, his brother is charged with sexual assault on OCTOBER 13 2012 (probabation-unable to leave dad's place?) Doubtless all this leaves an impression on a 15 year old JTP.

-Summer 2013: Jake Patterson begins wearing his hair extremely short.

-October 28th 2013 JTP's brother charged with assorted felonies, bail jumping= 8 months incarceration. Dad's place must have seemed pretty empty. At 16, does JTP have a hand me down vehicle or drive himself?

-Late May, 2015: Jake Patterson and 33 classmates graduate from Northwood. He skips the senior class trip, prom and class photo (rejection of 'family', outwardly)

-Sept. 14, 2015: Patterson arrives at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, after enlisting in a recruiting office in Rice Lake.

-Oct. 20, 2015: The Marine Corps kicks Patterson out of basic training five weeks into a 13-week program

Nothing left to tether JTP to the functional world at large, we see a spate of halfazzed attempts at either income or parental placation as his father finally 'gives up the ghost' of familial responsibility & bails for a new life of his own.

Good Theory, I think if Jake wasn't the coddled one he was the ignored one. His parents first split in 2005 when Jake was 8 so there had to have been some, maybe a lot or maybe a little, stress between the parents, perhaps for years, before the split (just guessing), that took attention away from the wants and needs of the children while the marriage was falling apart.

Regardless 'which one' was neglected, there is a deep pattern set showing JTP the way, and with nothing standing between himself and his fantasies, opted to erase the boundary between them.

 

[Rubiconbob]

Good point. I tend to think it's an odd combination of the two. I have a hunch he was largely ignored growing up because he rarely did anything that drew attention to himself, and his family was busy with other things that did draw their attention. Later he was coddled in the sense that he was allowed to live in the house, apparently rent-free, with little pressure put on him to do anything.

Completely agree
coddling you could almost change to abandonment...

Coddling is let me cook u dinner do your homework skip school go to packers game

Abandonment is your 14 do whatever
house is yours I don’t care...

Likely something closer to latter, I don’t know if he makes through marines and this whole story changes.... also likely changes if divorce is 17 vs 11....

Don’t read anything today that gets u to nightmare unleashed 3 months ago...

You talk to dad Saturday...10 days earlier you had a job... then kill 2 to kidnap child..
I’m baffled... check the head post Mortem.
Hundreds of thousand divorce kids/marine flunkies..
seems like Ed Geins inspired nut... more then one event here or there..

 

[Rubiconbob]

It was long ago reported that while living at Gordon, WI family home, PP had to leave at 4am to commute to work. I seriously doubt he's continued that practice up to Oct 2018. Also, neighbors have stated PP moved from Gordon some time ago. I believe the OP used Oct 2018 as this was verified date PP satisfied the mortgage in full. MOO

It would be interesting to know the date he was no longer there full time. He could have been there mainly just on weekends early on.. 14/17 yr old living alone on weekdays sounds insane... can’t really see that being case....

 

[Julia966]

From tnith's post: "Regardless 'which one' was neglected, there is a deep pattern set showing JTP the way, and with nothing standing between himself and his fantasies, opted to erase the boundary between them.[/QUOTE]"

This is something I've been trying to put words to. My sense is that while many young men/teenagers have violent fantasies (and some girls too, of course), the vast majority have boundaries and a mindset that come from some influence in their lives (most commonly, a decent upbringing), that gets them through that period without acting on the fantasies. For a small number, either through a failure to become adequately socialized, an organic deficit or both, there is nothing to stop them. JP's upbringing seems to have been in disarray, and being left at the house as a teenager may have amplified what was already a tenuous grasp on reality, and permitted his fantasies to loom large rather than retreat as he pursued other avenues in his life.

All of which is to say: I have no idea what is wrong with this guy, but there didn't seem to be much standing in the way of his hideous fantasies.

 

[Seattle1]

Nothing left to tether JTP to the functional world at large, we see a spate of halfazzed attempts at either income or parental placation as his father finally 'gives up the ghost' of familial responsibility & bails for a new life of his own.

Have to disagree. On what evidence is it that "...father (and/or a jointly responsible mother) 'gives up the ghost' of familial responsibility & bails for a new life of his own?" Again, let's not shift the blame on the parents, and direct it at JP, the grown man responsible . MOO

 

[Julia966]

Have to disagree. On what evidence is it that "...father (and/or a jointly responsible mother) 'gives up the ghost' of familial responsibility & bails for a new life of his own?" Again, let's not shift the blame on the parents, and direct it at JP, the grown man responsible . MOO

He left two teenaged boys in a house alone. So did the mother, for that matter, though she was in a different town some distance away. We don't know exactly what the arrangement was, or how often any parent came by to check on things, but personally, I would say that qualifies as giving up parental responsibility. I don't see it as blame, since we don't know that's what caused this to happen, but I think it's OK to look at the perp's past.

 

[tnith]

Have to disagree. On what evidence is it that "...father (and/or a jointly responsible mother) 'gives up the ghost' of familial responsibility & bails for a new life of his own?" Again, let's not shift the blame on the parents, and direct it at JP, the grown man responsible . MOO

Nobody is on a burn the parents witch hunt.

Go back to the article, look closely at the annual events recorded, and observe the overall cycle.

JTP's attack isn't random, unfathomable, accidental, or otherwise inconceivable, except to those who refuse to recognize major themes developed.

As far as I am concerned, this is simply another lesson for all of us to learn how to detect and take down the next one.

He left two teenaged boys in a house alone. So did the mother, for that matter, though she was in a different town some distance away. We don't know exactly what the arrangement was, or how often any parent came by to check on things, but personally, I would say that qualifies as giving up parental responsibility. I don't see it as blame, since we don't know that's what caused this to happen, but I think it's OK to look at the perp's past.

So we have a prolonged period between 2007-2012 in which it's unclear what is going on or guiding JTP.

Will be on the watch for anything else that surfaces there.

 

[BradB]

How do we take down the next one though? JP had no background and was off the radar.

I really do not see any answers. Another ironic thing is the guy most likely to do something like this probably would have been his brother who was on and will always be on the radar.

I don’t know. I will always stand pat you can’t predict future human behavior.

 

[Seattle1]

He left two teenaged boys in a house alone. So did the mother, for that matter, though she was in a different town some distance away. We don't know exactly what the arrangement was, or how often any parent came by to check on things, but personally, I would say that qualifies as giving up parental responsibility. I don't see it as blame, since we don't know that's what caused this to happen, but I think it's OK to look at the perp's past.

Respectfully, that's your assumption. Also, when your siblings are 4 and 5 years older, you certainly don't share many teen years. MOO

 

[cherrymeg]

Have to disagree. On what evidence is it that "...father (and/or a jointly responsible mother) 'gives up the ghost' of familial responsibility & bails for a new life of his own?" Again, let's not shift the blame on the parents, and direct it at JP, the grown man responsible . MOO

He is an adult. Were they supposed to watch him 24/7 for the rest of his life? He has issues I don't think most of us can understand. His parents might have just thought he was socially awkward and maybe immature and figured why not let him stay in the house if they have the means to. His brain doesn't work like everyone else's. He doesn't have a conscience or empathy. He knows right from wrong but he lacks the moral compass or whatever, to care. I highly doubt his parents suspected he was a sociopath or psychopath. and that once he was left alone he would kidnap someone and kill their family. I agree with you.