The details of Closs’ kidnapping and subsequent escape from Patterson are terrifying. According to police, Patterson plotted Closs’ abduction after seeing her getting onto a school bus while on his way to work. Investigators state that Patterson told them that he had twice gone to the Closs family home with the intention of kidnapping Closs. When he was apprehended by police after Closs’ escape, Patterson told them: “I did it.”

Now, authorities are debating what to do with the $50,000 (£38,000) reward for information about Closs and her safe return, funded in halves by the FBI and by Jennie-O Turkey, the company where her parents James and Denise worked.

The money was first offered to Peter and Kristin Kasinskis, a couple who called 911 after the dog walker brought Closs to their house, but they turned it down. “She got herself out,” Kasinskas explained to Associated Press. Now, social media is calling for Closs to receive the reward money herself.

This teen escaped her kidnapper – so shouldn’t she get the reward money?