Elizabeth Smart offers advice to kidnapped teen Jayme Closs

‘She will never be able to just return to life before’: Elizabeth Smart offers advice to kidnapped teen Jayme Closs, saying she should try and build a ‘new normal’ after her horror ordeal

  • Elizabeth Smart spoke out on Monday about kidnapped Wisconsin 13-year-old Jayme Closs
  • Smart was kidnapped and held captive for nine months when she was 14
  • She offered advice to Jayme just days after the teen was found safe near Gordon, Wisconsin after three months
  • Smart said Jayme should take her time to try and build a ‘new normal’ with her relatives and not let her horror ordeal define the rest of her life

Child safety advocate Elizabeth Smart has spoken out about Wisconsin 13-year-old Jayme Closs, saying her horrific kidnapping ordeal doesn’t have to define the rest of her life. 

Smart was 14 when she was kidnapped from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah back in 2002 and help captive for nine months. 

Speaking from her own experience as a child kidnapping victim, Smart offered advice to Jayme on Monday – just days after the teen was found safe near Gordon, Wisconsin. 

She said during an appearance on Good Morning America that Jayme should take her time to try and build a ‘new normal’ with her relatives.

Jayme, pictured following her miraculous escape, was snatched from her home in Barron on October 15. Patterson is accused of shooting dead her parents before abducting her

Child safety advocate Elizabeth Smart spoke out on Monday about Wisconsin 13-year-old Jayme Closs, saying her horrific kidnapping ordeal doesn’t have to define the rest of her life

‘Right now at this point in time, I feel that it’s very, very vital for her to build those relationships with her family because, unfortunately, her family was brutally torn apart,’ Smart said. 

‘So this is a very important time to try to rebuild, to come together again and to start afresh, to try to create a new normal because, unfortunately, there is no going back to the old normal. There’s only a new normal. 

‘Everyone should be giving her as much time and space as she needs because she’s just been through the most traumatic experience anyone in their life could experience. 

‘It’s gonna take time… and if she doesn’t want to talk then I think that’s her complete prerogative.’ 

Speaking on CBS This Morning, Smart recalled some advice her own mother gave her when she was reunited with her family after nine months. 

The image above shows the cabin in rural Wisconsin where Jake Patterson allegedly held 13-year-old Jayme Closs prisoner for nearly three months

The image above shows the cabin in rural Wisconsin where Jake Patterson allegedly held 13-year-old Jayme Closs prisoner for nearly three months

This aerial photo shows the cabin where 13-year-old Jayme Closs was held by Jake Thomas Patterson, surrounded by law enforcement vehicles

This aerial photo shows the cabin where 13-year-old Jayme Closs was held by Jake Thomas Patterson, surrounded by law enforcement vehicles

‘My mother told me after I returned that what these people had done was terrible, and there weren’t words strong enough to describe how wicked and evil they are. They had stolen nine months of my life that I would never get back. But the best punishment I could give them was to be happy, was to move forward.

Jake Thomas Patterson was arrested last Thursday soon after 13-year-old Jayme managed to escape the remote woodland cabin in Gordon in rural Wisconsin where she had been held captive for 88 days

Jake Thomas Patterson was arrested last Thursday soon after 13-year-old Jayme managed to escape the remote woodland cabin in Gordon in rural Wisconsin where she had been held captive for 88 days

‘I think in Jayme’s case, the same is true. She will not be able to go back to who she was before she was kidnapped. She will never be able to just return to life before. But that doesn’t mean that what has happened needs to destroy her future or needs to define her future.’

Jayme was found on Thursday after she managed to escape a man who authorities say killed her parents and then held her captive for three months. 

The teen had fled the cabin in a rural, heavily wooded area near the small town of Gordon – 70 miles from her home – where she had been imprisoned and asked a woman who was walking her dog for help. 

Police officers arrested 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson minutes later based on Jayme’s description of his vehicle. 

Authorities are holding Patterson on suspicion of kidnapping and homicide ahead of his first court appearance on Monday.

Little has been revealed about Jayme’s ordeal since her abduction in mid-October, although more details could come Monday when Patterson is expected to be charged. 

Jayme was found at the Eau Claire Acres estate near the town of Gordon, which is about 70 miles away from her home in Barron where she was abducted

Jayme was found at the Eau Claire Acres estate near the town of Gordon, which is about 70 miles away from her home in Barron where she was abducted

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk