Jayme Closs: Teenage girl kidnapped for three months receives $25,000 reward after securing own release
Sum initially promised to anyone providing information leading to her return
A 13-year-old girl who escaped from her kidnapper after three months in captivity will be handed a $25,000 (£19,000) reward initially offered to members of the public for information leading to her release.
Jayme Closs was taken from her home in Wisconsin on 15 October and both of her parents were killed. The teenager escaped 88 days later.
Jennie-O, a company producing turkey products in the neighbouring state of Minnesota, said it would honour its promise to pay the reward money to anyone providing information leading to Jayme’s return – by handing the sum directly to the victim.
The FBI and Jennie-O – where both Jayme’s parents worked – contributed a total of $50,000 to the reward for information on Jayme’s whereabouts.
Jennie-O and its parent company, Hormel Foods, announced they were working with police to get their share of the reward to Jayme.
Steve Lykken, Jennie-O’s president, said he hoped a trust fund would be set up for Jayme’s current and future needs.
It is not clear what the FBI will do with the $25,000 it offered. Details on FBI rewards are generally not disclosed.
Jake Patterson, 21, was charged with kidnapping and homicide earlier this month.
A criminal complaint alleged he told investigators that on his drive to a job at a cheese factory in Almena, Wisconsin, he spotted Jayme get on the school bus and came up with the idea to abduct her.
Prosecutors believe Mr Patterson broke into Jayme’s home in the town of Barron by blasting the front door open with a shotgun.
They allege he shot her parents and then abducted the young girl.
Jayme escaped and was found by a woman out walking her dog on 10 January in northwest Wisconsin, about an hour’s drive north of Barron.