Two Bodies Found in Search for Missing Tennessee Mom, Three Daughters - East Idaho News
National News

Two Bodies Found in Search for Missing Tennessee Mom, Three Daughters

  Published at

abc bain missing family jp 120503 wg1?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1336314282078ABC News

*UPDATE: A Hardeman County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman told ABCNews.com Sunday that the two bodies found have not yet been identified.

The FBI and United States Marshal’s Service are offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the whereabouts of Bain and her daughters, and the arrest of their alleged abductor.

 

(GUNTOWN, Miss.) — Two bodies were found Saturday in Mississippi in the search for a missing Tennessee mother and her three daughters, which investigators said led them to issue an Amber Alert for the missing family.

When they announced the Ambert Alert, Mississippi police said only that new details led them to believe Jo Ann Bain, 31, and her three daughters, Adrienne, 14; Alexandria, 12; and Kyliyah, 8; were abducted and could be in extreme danger.

An FBI spokesman said this evening that the two bodies had been found, but said they had not yet been identified.

“The Medical Examiner is taking steps to identify those bodies,” said Joel Siskovic, spokesman for the FBI in Memphis. “Our focus is on finding the suspect in returning the children and their mother.”

The Tenessee family was last seen on April 27 leaving their home in Whiteville, which is located between Jackson and Memphis.

Police said they had reason to believe the missing mother and her three daughters were with Adam Christopher Mayes, 35, of Guntown, Miss.

“Early days of the investigation led us to suspect Adam Mayes,” Siskovic said. “Other information led to a location in Mississippi where we executed federal search warrants. During the course of searching that location, two bodies were found.”

The two bodies were found in Guntown at a residence where Mayes was last seen, he said.

“The fact that these two bodies were found at this location led to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to issue Amber Alerts that stated that we believe that the children and the mother were in extreme danger,” Siskovic said.

Mayes, who was questioned by Hardeman County Police on Sunday, is believed to have cut his hair. Authorities said he may have also cut and dyed the hair of the three children to alter their appearances.

Earlier this week, investigators issued their first warrant for Mayes, charging him with filing a false report based on statements he made to investigators about the Bain family. Mayes then disappeared.

“We believe he has information on the whereabouts of this family,” Hardeman County, Tenn., Sheriff John Doolan said at a news conference Wednesday.

Bain’s Dodge Durango was found abandoned on a county road less than three miles from their home on Sunday.

The missing mom and her husband Gary were just days away from moving the family to Arizona when she and her children vanished.

The FBI is involved in the investigation since it crosses state lines, said Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION