Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Sheriff: Missing Wisconsin teenager in danger, not a runaway

By: Associated Press//October 16, 2018//

Sheriff: Missing Wisconsin teenager in danger, not a runaway

By: Associated Press//October 16, 2018//

Listen to this article
This undated photo from the Barron County Sheriff’s Department, shows Jayme Closs. Authorities say that Closs, a missing teenage girl, could be in danger after two adults were found dead at a home in Barron on Monday.(Courtesy of Barron County Sheriff’s Department via AP)
This undated photo from the Barron County Sheriff’s Department, shows Jayme Closs. Authorities say that Closs, a missing teenage girl, could be in danger after her parents were found dead at their home in Barron on Monday.(Courtesy of Barron County Sheriff’s Department via AP)

BARRON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin teenager who has been missing since her parents were found dead in their home isn’t a runaway and investigators believe she’s in danger, a sheriff said Tuesday.

Authorities have been searching for 13-year-old Jayme Closs since deputies responding to a 911 call early on Monday found her parents , James and Denise Closs, dead in their home in Barron, a rural western Wisconsin community about 80 miles northeast of Minneapolis.

The call came from a cellphone inside the home, but the caller didn’t talk to the dispatcher, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said during a Tuesday news conference. He said gunshots had been fired at the home, but he declined to say whether the couple had been shot and said his office won’t disclose how they died until after the autopsies are completed.

Jayme was last seen at a family gathering on Sunday afternoon, said Fitzgerald, who saidon  Monday that investigators don’t consider her a suspect in her parents’ deaths. On Tuesday, he declined to elaborate about why investigators believe Jayme is not a runaway, saying that disclosing more information would compromise their investigation.

“I’m telling you, Jayme is missing and endangered,” Fitzgerald said.

A girl resembling Jayme was spotted at a gas station in south Florida on Monday afternoon, according to a tip Miami police officials say they received. But Fitzgerald wouldn’t comment about the validity of that report, saying only that authorities are “actively researching that tip.”

“If we think it’s key to the case where we need the public’s help, we will disseminate that information,” he said.

Miami is about 1,700 miles south of Barron.
Jayme is described as 5-feet tall and weighs about 100 pounds, and has strawberry-blond hair and green eyes.

The FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are helping in the search. An Amber Alert was issued without a description of a suspect or vehicle. Meanwhile, deputies used drones and infrared equipment to search the area around the family’s home and talked to Jayme’s friends and middle school classmates, hoping to develop some leads.

Fitzgerald urged the public to come forward with tips.

“Often, someone in the community will have knowledge of a crime and may not realize it,” he said. “Individuals who commit acts of violence may display changes in their behavior and individuals around that person may observe those changes.”

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests