When missing teenager Jayme Closs came to the door Thursday with a neighbor, Kristin Kasinskas called 911 and got right to the point: We’ve found the girl that virtually the whole of Wisconsin has been looking for.
Jayme had just walked up to Kasinskas’ neighbor, Jeanne Nutter, in a remote northwestern Wisconsin community and said she’d escaped from her captor.
For 30 minutes, Kasinskas and Nutter gave police the first insights about how Jayme had been found, about who allegedly killed her parents and abducted her, and about how she’d been held captive for nearly three months.
Here is a transcript of that 911 call:
Dispatcher: “Douglas County 911.”
Kristin Kasinskas: “Hi. I have a young lady at my house right now, and she has said her name is Jayme Closs.”
Dispatcher: “OK. What’s your address?”
(Kasinskas provides her address.)
Dispatcher: “OK, have you seen her photo, ma’am?”
Kasinskas: “Yes. It is her. I 100% think it is her.”
Dispatcher: “Are you? – OK.”
Kasinskas: “100%.”
Dispatcher: “Does it look like she’s going to run?”
Kasinskas: “No. She’s sitting down. She’s relaxing.”
Dispatcher: “OK. Hang on just a second. What’s your name?”
Kasinskas: “Yep.”
Dispatcher: “What’s your name, ma’am?”
Kasinskas: “Kristin Kasinskas.”
Dispatcher: “Kristin. How do you spell the last name?”
(Kasinskas spells it.)
Dispatcher: “OK. Did she show up walking?”
Kasinskas: “A neighbor just walked up with her to our house and asked us to call 911.”
Dispatcher: “OK, hang on just a second.”
(Kasinskas asks someone in the home, apparently Jayme, whether she is cold or needs a blanket or anything to drink.)
Dispatcher: “Kristin, I’m going to keep you on the line, OK?
Kasinskas: “OK. Yep, sounds good.”
(People in the house talk among themselves.)
Dispatcher: “Kristin, is the neighbor that walked her up, is she still there?”
Kasinskas: “Yes, she is.”
Dispatcher: “OK. … Can you ask the neighbor, did the female just walk up to her house, or how did she come across her?”
(Kasinskas relays the question to Jeanne Nutter, and hands the phone to her.)
Jeanne Nutter: “OK, hey. My name is Jeanne Nutter. We have a cabin up here in Gordon on. …”
Dispatcher: “OK, ma’am. Can I just get your name?”
(Nutter provides her name and spells it.)
Dispatcher: “OK. Can, do you have a cabin address?”
(Nutter provides her address.)
Nutter: “I’m not up here very often in the winter. I just happened to come up today.”
Dispatcher is told of an alleged abductor
Dispatcher: “So how did she come up upon your cabin?
Nutter: “I was walking my dog, and we were almost home and she was walking toward me, crying, saying, ‘You got to help me, you got to help me.’ So I didn’t want to go into my cabin because it’s too close to Patterson’s house.” (This is Nutter’s first reference to Jake Thomas Patterson, the man now accused of having abducted Jayme.)
Dispatcher: “And she said her name is Jayme Closs?”
Nutter: “Yep. And when I walked into this house, they recognized her immediately from the poster.”
Dispatcher: “OK.”
(Nutter asks Jayme whether she knows when “he” is coming back.)
Nutter: “He thought he was going to come back home (unintelligible crosstalk).”
Dispatcher: “Who is going to come back?”
Nutter: “His name is Jake Patterson. Jake Thomas Patterson, she said.”
Dispatcher: OK. Hold on.”
Nutter: “And apparently … a few doors down from our cabin.”
‘We’re kind of scared’
(There’s some talk in the house about a dog. “Why don’t you hang on to him, Jayme?” Nutter says. “It would be good for you to pet a dog.”)
Nutter: “So we’re kind of scared because he might come.”
Dispatcher: “Yep.”
Nutter: “So if the cops could get here soon, we would. …”
Dispatcher: “I have many deputies coming that way. I’m going to keep you on the line.”
Nutter: “OK.”
‘He killed my parents. I want to go home.’
Dispatcher: “And she said, ‘I am Jayme Closs’?”
Nutter: “Yes. She said, ‘He killed my parents. I want to go home. Help me.’ “
Dispatcher: “And what was the male’s name?”
Nutter: “Jake. … Jake Patterson.”
Dispatcher: “And she said he killed her parents and she wants to go home?”
Nutter: “Yes. She didn’t know where she was. When I saw her, she was saying, ‘Where am I? Where am I?’ I said, ‘You’re in Wisconsin.’ “
Dispatcher: “And did she say he’s gone right now?”
Nutter: “Yes.”
Dispatcher: “(Were) they at a cabin?
Nutter: “Well, I think … he lives there year-round.”
Dispatcher: “And he’s supposed to be back at midnight?”
Nutter: “Yes.”
Dispatcher: “OK, hang on.”
(After a pause, the dispatcher asks for Nutter’s phone number, which Nutter provides. The dispatcher places her on hold.
(Someone, presumably a law enforcement officer, asks the dispatcher questions, including whether Jayme was with the woman who made the call. Eventually the dispatcher starts talking to Nutter again.)
Dispatcher: “I’ve got multiple deputies headed out there so I just want you to stay on the line with me, OK?”
Nutter: “OK.”
‘Shock and cold’
Dispatcher: Does she seem like she is going to need medical attention at all?”
Nutter: “I would think yes. I was a social worker for 30 years. …”
Dispatcher: “OK. What do you think of her medical condition right now?”
Nutter: “I think shock and cold. And shock.”
(Pause. Nutter eventually tells someone in the house that “a good thing happened here.”)
Dispatcher: “Yep. Just try and speak very calm. If she feels … just don’t try to push her too much.”
Nutter: “No. We’re not.”
(Pause)
Dispatcher: “OK, ma’am. Just stay on the line with me. … Can you tell me how many people are in the house right now?”
(Nutter tells the dispatcher who is there: Kasinskas and her husband, two children, some dogs, as well as herself and Jayme.)
‘He has hidden her under a bed’
Dispatcher: “Ma’am, my deputy, she just wants you to lock the doors … and don’t let the dogs out or anything. Just everybody stay inside until I can get deputies there.”
(Nutter relays the instructions.)
Dispatcher: “And I’m just going to paging out medical. I’m going to have them stage in the area, because I don’t want anybody to come up into the house until the deputies get there. But I want them in the area, OK?
Nutter: “OK.”
Dispatcher: “OK, just one moment.”
(Pause. The dispatcher asks whether Nutter is on a cell phone. Nutter responds it is a landline and then tells someone inside the house that it’s going to be OK.)
Dispatcher: “Jeanne, did she state how far away the house or the cabin is that she was at? … Did she say where Jake is?”
(Nutter relays the question.)
Nutter: “She has no idea where he is. She told me that when he leaves her, she doesn’t know that he’s gone. He turns the music up real loud. … He has hidden her under a bed. … He’s the only one that lives there.”
Dispatcher: “OK. Does she remember how far she was walking before she met up with you?”
(Nutter relays the question.)
Nutter: “She was like, maybe, 100 yards from my cabin.”
‘We have her wrapped up in a blanket’
Dispatcher: “OK. (Pause) Does she seem comfortable right now?”
Nutter: “Yeah. We have her wrapped up in a blanket.”
Dispatcher: “OK, perfect. (Pause) Do we know what type of vehicle or if he works anywhere?”
(Nutter relays the question.)
Nutter: “He doesn’t work, and I asked her what kind of car it was. It’s red – he used to be in the military – it’s a red car.”
Dispatcher: “I’m sorry – he used to be in the military?”
Nutter: “There’s a bunch of cars in the driveway. I’ve walked by that place, I can’t tell you how many times this year.”
Dispatcher: “Oh, you know where it is?”
Nutter: “I know right where it is. … I walk around the block. My husband walks around the block. …”
Dispatcher: “Do you know what road it’s on?”
(Nutter describes the location and notes that Patterson lives on the same road as her property.)
Dispatcher: “Do you know Jake?”
Nutter: “No. He’s never really said – I mean, we only come up here, it’s a cabin, so we only come up here periodically, but he’s never been friendly or talked to me, and we’ve been here four years.”
Dispatcher: “OK, have you seen him, though?”
Nutter: “No.”
Dispatcher: “OK.”
Nutter: “I don’t even know what he looks like.”
(The dispatcher asks about the address to Nutter’s cabin again, and Nutter provides it.)
(Crosstalk)
Nutter: “Just asked her. She said all the people that hang out at his house apparently do not know who she is.”
Dispatcher: “OK. (Pause) From the house that you’re at right now, where would that place be?”
(Nutter describes the location of Patterson’s house in relation to other houses. She says there were many cars in the driveway, and a plug-in snowman at the end of it.)
Nutter: “I tell you, we’ve been coming here four years; I’ve never seen his face.”
(Nutter and the dispatcher discuss again what’s in Patterson’s driveway.)
Nutter: “And the driveway, I just walk by it … and I just noticed he hasn’t really plowed his driveway. It was just kind of swept at the end, so.”
Dispatcher: “OK.”
(Nutter talks about a dog getting on someone’s lap.)
Nutter: “She doesn’t have any shoes. She’s wearing his tennis shoes.”
(Nutter asks Jayme what size of shoes she wears. Conversation follows in the house.)
Dispatcher: “OK, and all the doors are locked?”
Nutter: “Yes, all the doors are locked.”
Dispatcher: “OK. So I just want to let you know, when the deputies pull up, they’re going to give me instructions on, you know, if somebody would come to the door, how they’re going to handle it.”
‘Are they close? We’re nervous’
(Nutter warns that someone in the house might be expecting guests. The dispatcher says they need to call those people and tell them not to come.)
Dispatcher: “They (the deputies) are not far down the road, OK?”
Nutter: “OK.”
(After Nutter warns that some dogs might be barking, the dispatcher asks Nutter to have the dogs put in a closed room.)
Nutter: “Are they close? We’re nervous.”
Dispatcher: “They’re close. … Can you see the suspect’s house from where you’re at?”
Nutter: “No, ‘cause the road kind of curves. The road curves. … It’s just too curvy. It’s very woody here. They’ll see that when they get here. Because I can’t see his house from our cabin.”
(The dispatcher explains she doesn’t know yet how many deputies are going to which exact locations.
(People in the house talk among themselves. At one point, Nutter asks Jayme whether she is OK, and that she doesn’t want her to be scared.)
‘Doing a good job of keeping her comfortable’
Dispatcher: “What was she saying to you?”
Nutter: “I was just asking her if she was afraid, and she said no.”
Dispatcher: “OK, good. … You guys are doing a good job of keeping her comfortable.”
Nutter: “And you’re doing a good job of keeping us calm.”
Dispatcher: “(Laughs.) That’s why we’re here. … And you said the car that Jake drives, did she tell you it’s a red …”
Nutter: “It’s a red car.”
(Nutter asks Jayme for further details about the car.)
Nutter: “She has no idea (what kind). But it’s red. But there’s like, I don’t know, maybe eight cars in his driveway.”
Dispatcher: “OK.”
(There’s talk inside the house about Nutter’s dog.)
Dispatcher: “Are you guys all in, like, the living room? Or, where are you guys at in the house right now?”
Nutter: “… We’re all in the living room.”
(Nutter further describes the house where they’re at. Nutter asks whether Kasinskas’ husband should meet officers outside; the dispatcher asks that everyone stay inside.)
Nutter: “And saying that he’s (Patterson) going to be home at midnight is not a for-sure thing.
Dispatcher: “OK.”
Nutter: “She doesn’t know where he went or what he does.”
Dispatcher: “Right.”
(There’s more talk inside the house about Nutter’s dog. Eventually, someone says they see lights.)
Deputies arrive
Nutter: “OK, somebody’s here.
Dispatcher: “OK, wait a minute.”
Nutter: “It’s a police officer, though.
Dispatcher: “You can see?”
Nutter: “Yep, yep. … How are we to let them in? We need to let them in, right?”
Dispatcher: “Hang on, I’m asking them right now. … OK, was there a deputy that knocked on the door, or you just saw them in the driveway?”
Nutter: “They’re in the house. The cops are in the house.”
Dispatcher: “Oh, they’re in there with you?”
Nutter: “Yes, they just came in.”
Dispatcher: “OK, Jeanne, perfect. Then I can let you go as long as the deputies are with you guys.”
Nutter: “OK.”
Dispatcher: “OK, thank you. Good job.”
Nutter: “Thanks, bye.”
Dispatcher: “Bye-bye.”
CNN’s Jason Hanna and Travis Nichols contributed to this report.