MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The man who kidnapped Jayme Closs and killed her parents in northern Wisconsin has been moved to a prison in New Mexico.
Press-Gazette Media reports the New Mexico Corrections Department has confirmed Jake Patterson has been transferred to one of its prisons from the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun. Patterson’s location was also reported in a Tweet by a Minneapolis-based reporter.
But Ricardo Montoya, representative of New Mexico Corrections, declined to confirm Patterson’s specific location within their system.
“In the interest of inmate safety the New Mexico Corrections Department cannot confirm the location of Jake Patterson,” Montoya told Wausau Pilot and Review in an email. “Questions about the inmate’s status should be directed to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.”
Wisconsin corrections officials recommended that Patterson be sent to a maximum-security prison out of state due to security concerns because of the notoriety of the case. The 22-year-old convict was moved July 15. But, Wisconsin Department of Corrections officials refused to say where he was moved and removed him from its online inmate locator.
A judge sentenced Patterson to life in prison in May for fatally shooting James and Denise Closs in their Barron home and holding 13-year-old Jayme captive for 88 days.
