Two-thousand volunteers are being sought for a ground search on Tuesday, as investigators in Barron County continune to seek clues in the disappearance of a girl whose parents were shot to death in their home. Jayme Closs has been the focus of search efforts since deputies responded to a 911 call early on Monday, October 15, finding the bodies of 46-year-old Denise and 56-year-old James Closs

Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald requested the volunteers in a post to the department Facebook page on Monday, for “an expanded routine search for articles of evidentiary value that may be related to the incident.” The ground search is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Investigators are also looking for two vehicles of interest.

Jayme’s classmates planned a “Gathering of Hope” which will take place Monday evening at Riverview Middle School in Barron.

There’s a new development in the Jayme Closs case. A Barron County Sheriff’s Department dispatch log released on Friday shows that a call made shortly before 1:00 a.m. Monday came from a cellphone belonging to Jayme’s mother.

According to the log, no one spoke to the 911 dispatcher, but it was determined there was a disturbance in the background. After the call was disconnected, the dispatcher tried to call the number back several times, but did not receive an answer.

Deputies arrived at the Closs home less than four minutes later and found 46-year-old Denise and 56-year-old James Closs shot to death.

On Thursday, a ground search involving a hundred volunteers turned up nothing useful. Investigators believe the 13-year-old is in danger, and a nationwide Amber Alert remains in place.

Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said Friday that the case has generated over 1000 tips. Investigators including the FBI and Wisconsin DCI want information to continue to come in using the tip line (1-855-744-3879). An email address – jaymetips@co.barron.wi.us – will accept any photos or videos related to possible sightings.

Investigators say they’re still looking for a mission Barron County girl, and that they’re taking tips from the public.

Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald says autopsies were completed on Jayme’s parents on Wednesday.

“The medical examiner has ruled the deaths of Denise and James Closs as homicides. Based on our investigation thus far, we believe Jayme was in the home at the time of the homicides and we believe she is still in danger.”

They’re still trying to determine if this was a targeted attack on the Closs family.

“We received no other threats or anything in the local area to say that this was just a random act, but we don’t know that answer. And we continue to follow up on leads to hopefully answer that question.”

Fitzgerald says they’ve received over 400 tips since the search started, and that if there’s any new developments they’ll keep the public updated. Until that time, they’re asking people to let the rest of the community have its privacy as the search continues.

If you have any information, contact police at 715-537-3106.

Koval

Madison Police Chief Mike Koval says despite his officers’ best efforts, juvenile crime remains a serious problem in the city. “We have this perfect storm. We have increasingly bold crimes being committed, by historically young offenders,” Koval said.

Koval said officers repeatedly arrest chronic youth offenders. “Some of the times we’re picking them up, they still have GPS bracelets, or we find out they’re on home detention or home monitoring. And it’s a little difficult, when you’ve just picked kids up out of a stolen car that they may have rolled or crashed, and to have them literally laughing and saying ‘nothing’s going to happen to me.'”

He said the perception is that those young people are being turned back into the community. Juvenile court judges are pushing back against the claim that there is a “revolving door.” Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne issued a statement responding to Koval Tuesday afternoon, disagreeing with Koval’s assessment of the justice system.

“The juvenile’s best interests and the safety of our community are linked and it is past time we acknowledged this,” Ozanne said. “I implore the people of this county to resist the urge to turn towards more severe and harsher punishments and instead ask them to join me in demanding and creating change.”

Ozanne

Madison mayor Paul Soglin said juvenile court judges options have just two options in dealing with young offenders. He said judges are not going to send them to Lincoln Hills, “because of the operation of that facility.” The second option, Soglin said, is to release the juveniles.

Koval released his daily blog post on Tuesday morning. in which he noted the increasing frequency of “juveniles engaged in serious, illegal behavior[s].” He referenced a recent incident last week, in which three teens are accused of beating a woman and stealing her car.

Police spokesman Joel DeSpain says one of the suspects, a 13-year-old boy, appeared unfazed. “We were trying to convince him to change his ways and stop this crime spree, and the teen told the officer ‘This is only the beginning, we’re just getting started.'”

DeSpain said the young teen is a known member of a gang that continues to steal unlocked cars in the city. He was already on electronic monitoring for a previous case of theft, but had cut off his ankle bracelet. DeSpain also noted that many of the vehicle thefts are crimes of opportunity. “Almost all of the cars that have been stolen in the last month had been unlocked and had the keys inside.”

WRN’s Raymond Neupert contributed to this report

Details on the deaths of a northern Wisconsin couple whose daughter remains missing are expected to be made available on Wednesday. The Barron County Sheriff’s office released new photos of 13-year-old Jayme Closs, who has been missing since deputies responding to an early Monday 911 call found her parents dead in the family’s Barron area home.

At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald admitted that investigators had little new information to offer. “I’m struggling with this, because I don’t have those answers that I want to give you, that I want to give the family.”

#AMBERAlert UPDATE @bcsheriff has released new photos of Jayme Cross, last seen October 15, 2018 in Barron, WI. https://t.co/nQaPnn3gbX pic.twitter.com/tILRELL9k3

— NCMEC (@MissingKids) October 16, 2018

Fitzgerald confirmed that autopsies were being conducted the on the bodies of Jayme’s parents, Denise and James Closs. He did not confirm or deny if they were killed by a gunshot or by another means.

Police say they have isolated where the 911 call came from early Monday morning but they don’t know who made it. Barron is located about 90 miles northeast of the Twin Cities.

A news conference has been scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday to give an update on the case.