- NEW: Jo Ann Bain and her daughter Adrienne were found dead in Mississippi, the FBI says
- They and 2 other daughters were reported missing April 27 in western Tennessee
- Authorities say their suspected kidnapper is considered armed and dangerous
By the CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) — The FBI said Monday night that a Tennessee mother and her 14-year-old daughter are dead, through the man they believe abducted them — along with two other daughters — remains at large.
Authorities previously reported that they had found two bodies Friday at a Guntown, Mississippi, residence tied to the kidnapping suspect, Adam Mayes. But it was not until Monday that the Shelby County, Tennessee, medical examiner positively identified the pair as Jo Ann Bain, 31, and her daughter Adrienne Bain, according to the FBI.
Mayes is considered armed and dangerous, with authorities asking for the public’s help in tracking down him and the two other girls, 12-year-old Alexandra Bain and 8-year-old Kyliyah Bain, whom he also allegedly abducted.
Authorities established contact with and tried to interview the 35-year-old Mayes soon after the mother and her three daughters were reported missing on April 27 by Jo Ann’s husband from Whiteville, a western Tennessee town of 4,600 people, but then he fled, Joel Siskovic, the spokesman for the FBI bureau in Memphis, Tennessee, told CNN affiliate WPTY.
He was last seen May 1 in Guntown, the same northern Mississippi town where the bodies were found. Details haven’t been released as to how or exactly when they died.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation late last week issued an Amber Alert asking for the public’s help in finding the Bain sisters and for information leading to Mayes’ arrest.
Aaron T. Ford, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Memphis bureau, told CNN on Sunday that investigators believe all the kidnapping victims “were transported across state lines into Mississippi.”
Local, state and federal law enforcement’s focus is now in Union County, Mississippi, where Guntown is located, the FBI agent said. Authorities have also pointed out, however, that Mayes has connections to Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida and could be en route to Arizona.
Mayes may be using the alias of Christopher Zachery Wylde or Paco Rodrigass, his Facebook profile name, the FBI said Monday.
Rick Foster, whose wife was a lifelong friend of Jo Ann Bain and whose daughter was a classmate of Adrienne Bain, recently told CNN that Mayes had been a friend of the Bain family for years. Mayes lived about 90 miles away in Mississippi, Foster said, but would stay with the Bains when he was in the Whiteville area.
He described Mayes as “a big kid in a grown man’s body.”
Mary Patterson, Mayes’ landlord in Alpine, Mississippi, told WPTY that she thought he was a “kind” and “fun guy.”
“If somebody told me this, I would have never believed it,” she said.
Authorities characterize Mayes as a white man who has blue eyes and brown hair, weighs about 175 pounds and stands 6-foot-3. He recently cut his own hair and may have done the same to the three children, according to the Amber Alert.
As for the Bains, Foster described the marriage between Jo Ann and her husband, Gary, as “perfect” and said the family had planned to move to Arizona once the school year ends.
The FBI and U.S. Marshals Service are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to Mayes’ arrest and to the missing girls.
CNN’s Stephanie Gallman and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
