Missing 13-year-old Jayme Closs found alive

The months-long search for a Wisconsin 13-year-old came to a dramatic end when the young teen turned up -- hungry and bedraggled -- pleading for aid from inhabitants of Gordon, a remote town in a rural, northwestern part of the state.

Jayme Closs, who went missing three months ago after her parents were killed in their Wisconsin home, appeared Thursday in the town, which is located approximately 70 miles from where she vanished, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Her story made national headlines when she disappeared on October 15, the same date her parents were found dead in their home -- shot to death -- in the town of Barron, Wisconsin.

13-year-old Jayme Closs was found on Thursday, January 10 after missing for three months Photo: Instagram/find_jayme_closs

One of those Gordon inhabitants, local schoolteacher Kristin Kasinkas, spoke with the Star Tribune and described hearing a harrowing sound coming from a neighbor at around 4 p.m. Thursday. It turned out to be an unimaginably serendipitous knock at her door. “This is Jayme Closs! Call 911!” the neighbor, with a disheveled and malnourished Jayme in tow, said.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the missing girl had been found alive in Gordon. The Sheriff’s Office also indicated that a suspect had been taken into custody. Jayme’s family has already come forward to express their relief at the news. “There was rumors earlier today, and I prayed and prayed that they were true,” Jayme’s aunt Sue Ballard told CNN affiliate WCCO. “And I just shut myself totally down. I thought today was going to be the day, and then I find out two hours later that she’s found and I just cannot believe this.”

The teen's relatives weren't the only ones comforted by the announcement that Jayme had been found alive and well. Residents of the Barron County teen’s hometown also received the happy news with an outpouring of joyous support. According to the Star Tribune, a Dairy Queen in the town flashed a sign expressing residents’ sentiments: Relief and gratitude. “Welcome home Jayme. Thank you for bringing her home,” the sign’s message read.