Gordon, Wis. – In an era defined by social media, Jake Thomas Patterson has no online footprint.
The bartender at the roadhouse just down the highway from Patterson's home doesn't recognize him. Neither does the clerk at the only convenience store within 10 miles.
Even his neighbors in the backwoods of northern Wisconsin didn't know he was living among them.
Hours after authorities named Patterson as Jayme Closs' suspected captor and killer of her parents, little is publicly known about the 21-year-old who had no job, no criminal record and seemingly no public persona.
Patterson remains jailed in Barron County following his Thursday evening arrest on the heels of Jayme's dramatic escape from the cabin that once belonged to his family. He is expected to be charged next week with kidnapping and homicide.
In a strange coincidence, the woman who briefly took in Jayme after her escape had been Patterson's middle school science teacher. She remembered his name but had only vague recollections of his personality.
"When [Jayme] said the name, I said, 'I know him — I've had that student,' " said Kristin Kasinskas, who lived just a few doors down from Patterson in secluded Eau Claire Acres, a collection of about 30 cabins near the Eau Claire River in hilly, heavily wooded land about 8 miles east of Gordon.
But Kasinskas didn't have any strong memories of her former student. And she didn't realize that he was her neighbor.
