GUNTOWN, Miss. — A Mississippi man killed a Tennessee mother and her teenage daughter so he could abduct two young sisters who are still missing, according to court documents filed Wednesday, and a relative says the suspect thought the two
GUNTOWN, Miss. — A Mississippi man killed a Tennessee mother and her teenage daughter so he could abduct two young sisters who are still missing, according to court documents filed Wednesday, and a relative says the suspect thought the two younger girls might be his daughters.
The developments gave the first hint of a motive in the case that began in southwest Tennessee, stretched into Mississippi and led the FBI to put Adam Christopher Mayes, 35, on its Ten Most Wanted list. Authorities said they think the missing girls, Alexandria, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8, are still with Mayes, nearly two weeks after he took them.
Josie Tate, Mayes’ mother-in-law, told The Associated Press that Mayes thought he might be the girls’ father and it caused trouble in the marriage to her daughter, who’s jailed in the case.
“She was tired of him doting on those two little girls that he claimed were his,” Tate said in an exclusive phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. In an earlier interview, her daughter, Bobbi Booth, said Teresa Mayes suspected her husband was having an affair with Jo Ann Bain.
Authorities refused to comment on the motive for the April 27 slayings and abductions at a Wednesday news conference.
Mayes and his wife were charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jo Ann Bain and Adrienne Bain, 14. Their bodies were found buried outside the Mayes’ home near Guntown, Miss., a week after they were reported missing by Jo Ann Bain’s husband, Gary.
Adam Mayes’ mother, Mary Frances Mayes, also has been charged with conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping. Her attorney, Terry Dycus, said his client maintains she is not guilty. Dycus said it was too early to discuss what her defense would be.
