US POLICE HAVE launched a major search for a man who allegedly murdered a woman and her daughter before kidnapping two other children.
The remains of Jo Ann Bain, 31, and her 14-year-old daughter Adrienne were found buried in the garden of a property in Mississippi a week after their disappearance.
Bain’s two other daughters Alexandria, 12, and Kyliyah, 8, have not been found and police say they believe they were abducted by their mother’s attacker.
An official alert has been issued for Adam Mayes, 35, who was a friend of Bain’s husband Gary Bain. In the amber alert issued by Mississippi Highway Patrol, authorities say they consider Mayes “armed and extremely dangerous”.
Tennessee has also issued an amber alert concerning the children and Adam Mayes.
Kristin Helm, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said that Mayes had stayed with the Bain family on 27 April, the night before the disappearances. He had been helping the family to pack their belongings before a planned move to Arizona.
When Gary Bain woke the next day, his wife, daughters and Mayes were gone, as was their car. Helm said that Bain usually woke after the children had gone to school and wasn’t expecting to see them that morning. However, he was unable to reach his wife by phone.
When his children failed to appear off the school bus later that day, he reported them missing.
The family’s car was found abandoned on 30 April.
Warrants for Mayes’s arrest have been issued and the FBI and US Marshals Service are offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the discovery of the missing girls and the arrest of Mayes.
Today, Mayes’s wife Teresa was charged with the murder of Jo Ann Bain and Adrienne Bain. Officials said she told them that the motive was to kidnap the two younger children. She also reportedly said that she drove them with her husband and the two bodies from their home in Whiteville, Tennessee to a property in Guntown, Mississippi where the bodies were later discovered.
The FBI says that Mayes may have altered his appearance or the children’s appearance to escape detection.
- Additional reporting by the AP
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