Two months have passed since Jayme Closs, 13, is believed to have been abducted from her Wisconsin home after her parents were shot dead.
It was an anniversary no one hoped to mark.
Two months have passed since Jayme Closs, 13, is believed to have been abducted from her Wisconsin home after her parents were shot dead.
Loved ones and friends gathered Saturday at Riverview Middle School in Barron, where Jayme is a student, to commit to finding her alive, ABC News reported.
“Jayme, grandpa wants you to know that we will never give up,” her grandfather, Robert Nailberg, said. “I want nothing more than to get my granddaughter back home to me and her family, where she belongs.”
The gathering took place around a 16-foot “tree of hope” that was dedicated to Jayme and decorated with green lights for Christmas, blue ribbons in honor of the teen’s favorite color, and others for all abducted children.
There, they released 200 green and blue balloons to let the community know the search for Jayme is not over. Speaking directly to his granddaughter, Nailberg, 72, hoped aloud that her captor would release her unharmed.
“I wish every day that whoever has you would just let you go or drop you off somewhere safe so I could pick you up,” he said.
Jayme went missing on Oct. 15, when a 911 dispatcher received a hang-up call that came from inside the Closs family home. Authorities said screams could be heard in the background, and when the dispatcher called back, it went to the cellphone voicemail of Jayme’s mother, Denise Closs.
Police arrived at the home about four minutes later. Denise Closs and Jayme’s father, James Closs, had both been fatally shot, and Jayme was gone.
A motive in the killings and the abduction has not been released. It is not clear if the killings and suspected kidnapping was targeted or random.
The Barron County Sheriff’s Department, the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the FBI are investigating every lead that has come in. A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the discovery of Jayme. Half was offered by the Jennie-O Turkey Store, where Jayme’s parents worked.
"It’s the Christmas season," Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald reportedly said at the vigil. "It’s time to believe and it’s time to bring hope so we can bring a 13-year-old girl home."
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