Highlights
- Adam Mayes shot himself in head, officials say
- Two abducted sisters were found alive in Mississippi
- Adam and wife Teresa Mayes were charged with kidnapping and murder
(CNN) -- The two young girls, kidnapped from Tennessee after their sister and mother were killed, were found alive in a wooded area in Mississippi, authorities said.
And Adam Mayes, the man accused of the slayings and kidnappings, died Thursday after shooting himself, the FBI said.
"Preliminary reports indicate that Mr. Mayes shot himself in the head and was later pronounced dead," said Daniel McMullen, FBI special agent in charge in Jackson, Mississippi.
Mayes, 35, was suspected of abducting Alexandria Bain, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8, from their Whiteville, Tennessee, home, in late April, and killing Jo Ann Bain and her eldest daughter, Adrienne, 14.
Officers with the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol and state Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Parks rescued Alexandria and Kyliyah, the FBI said.
The two surviving sisters "are suffering from the experience of being out in the woods and from being kidnapped. They are suffering from dehydration and exhaustion, but appear OK," a federal law enforcement source on the scene told CNN.
"The girls were hungry, thirsty and dehydrated," said Aaron Ford, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Memphis office.
The FBI on Wednesday put Mayes on its list of 10 most wanted fugitives.
Authorities came to the wooded area Thursday evening after someone called to report what they believed may have been Mayes' vehicle, a law enforcement source close to the investigation said.
A task force was nearby and as they approached, Mayes stood up and shot himself in the head, the source said.
Mayes and his wife, Teresa Mayes, had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping. He faced an additional count of making a false report, according to arrest affidavits filed in Tennessee.
Adam Mayes' mother-in-law told HLN's Nancy Grace on Thursday that he may have believed he was the father of the two young girls he was accused of abducting.
"He believes they are his children," Josie Tate told Grace.
Police said Teresa Mayes told them she was in the Bains' garage when Adam Mayes killed Jo Ann and Adrienne Bain.
Teresa Mayes' lawyer, Shana Johnson, said Thursday that her client last saw Mayes and the Bain girls in Mississippi on April 27.
The Mayes family and the Bain family are connected through Adam Mayes' sister Pamela, who used to be married to Jo Ann's husband, Gary Bain, the lawyer said.
Johnson told HLN she was "happy" and "relieved" the girls had been found alive.
In affidavits, investigators said the Mayeses drove the bodies of Jo Ann and Adrienne Bain to Union County in northern Mississippi, where they were discovered Saturday in a shallow grave behind the house of Adam Mayes' mother in Guntown, Mississippi.
Bobbi Booth, Mayes' sister-in-law, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday night that she's "overwhelmed right now."
"All I'm (thinking) about now is that the children are safe," said Booth. "Thank you, God, for letting those children come home."
Booth described Adam Mayes as "aggressive, abusive, crazy obviously."
But Booth said she never had an inkling Mayes would be accused of kidnapping and murder.
"I never dreamed that he would do this," she said.
CNN's Rich Phillips and Joe Sutton, and HLN's Natisha Lance, Mike Brooks and Josey Crews contributed to this report.
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