Photo: Getty; Find Jayme Closs/Facebook
Elizabeth Smartwas “thrilled” to hear that missing teenJayme Closshas beenfound.
“What a miracle!!!” Smart, 31, whoendured nine months in captivityafter being abducted from her Salt Lake City home in 2002, wrote on Instagram.
“What has been such a heart-wrenching tragedy finally has some happiness in the story,” Smart continued. “I’m praying for Jayme and all her family that they can have a joyous reunion and as the rest of the country celebrates alongside this happy occasion we are all mindful to give the family their space and privacy on their road to finding a new sense of normal and moving forward.”
“I have no doubt Jayme and her family will forever appreciate the efforts and prayers of the many thousands of people who contributed and kept them in their thoughts and prayers!”
“What a brave, strong, and powerful survivor!!!! No matter what may unfold in her story let’s all try to remember that this young woman has SURVIVED and whatever other details may surface the most important will still remain that she is alive,” Smart added.
Patterson has been charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and one of kidnapping.
Abducted - Find Jayme Closs/Facebook
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“When she got near me and I could see who she was, she told me, ‘I’m Jayme,'” Nutter said.
“I just held onto her and I said, ‘We’re going to find somebody who’s home, we’re going to call the police. You’re going to be okay, you’re going to be safe, you’re going to be fine, you’re going to be fine,'” Nutter remembered telling Jayme.
According to Baron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald, Jayme was cleared medically Friday morning and was reunited with her relatives late Friday. The teen will live with her aunt, Jennifer Smith — Jayme’s mother’s sister and legal guardian — a close friend of Jayme Closs‘ aunttold PEOPLEon Friday.
Investigators continue to speak to Jayme, and are still learning more about her harrowing ordeal, Fitzgerald said.
“Jayme is a complete badass,” Jodie Arnold, who is first cousins with Jayme’s late mother Denise,told PEOPLE. “As far as I’m concerned she saved herself,” said Arnold, who credits Jayme’s “perseverance and will to live” for her freedom.
At Friday’s morning press conference, Fitzgerald alleged the suspect planned the crime and that “Jayme was the only target,” and that Patterson allegedly went to the home for the purpose of kidnapping Jayme.
Fitzgerald said the suspect had no prior contact with Jayme’s parents, but her parents were longtime employees of the Jennie-O Turkey Store, and the company confirms to PEOPLE that the suspect worked there for one day.
source: people.com
