Aunt: Jayme Closs escaped, found woman walking dog

BARRON, Wis. (FOX 9) - Jayme Closs’s family was emotional Thursday night after the 13-year-old girl missing since October was found near Gordon, Wisconsin. 

According to Closs’s aunt Sue Allard, the teenager was found after escaping and finding a woman walking her dog in a housing development outside the town. 

“For her to get away and to do this, it’s not her character,” said Sue Allard. “She’s just so shy.”

Relatives of Closs spoke to FOX 9 Thursday night to describe what finding her means to the family.

“She’s coming home,” said Jennifer Naiberg, Closs' aunt and godmother. “Best night. Just happy with lots of emotions and tears tonight but so happy and I can’t wait to hug that little girl.”

“We never give up hope, you know? You just have to get up every day and keep that hope alive and stick together as a family and pray that everything is going to work out,” said Tom Allard, a family member.

Relatives say the family is “appreciative” of everyone’s efforts in helping find Closs.

“Prayers from our family, we got prayers from everybody,” said Steven Naiberg, the teen's uncle. I mean everybody telling they were praying for us, praying for us and you know, it’s the power of prayer and it worked. I mean, how she got out, we don’t know that yet, you know, it wasn’t just on her own. So, it was amazing.”

Making the day even more emotional was a false tip that got the family’s hopes up earlier in the day. It was a tip that Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald had to publicly dispute earlier in the day.

For Sue Allard, that emotional swing led to a wild day.

“Tonight, we actually got false news again this afternoon and I really had my hopes up then,” Sue Allard said. “To learn it was false news, I was so devastated. I was so tired I took a nap. I woke up to 15 phone calls.”

Sue Allard said she “just had this feeling” about today and said she “can’t wait to give her a hug.”

Nobody in the family has seen Closs yet and she is still with law enforcement.

“It’s time to move forward and bring justice for my sister and brother-in-law and we’ll get through this with Jayme together as a big family,” said Jennifer Naiberg.