After getting a tip, law enforcement officers were sent to search a densely wooded area west of Mayes’ home in Guntown, Miss., said Aaron T. Ford, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Memphis, Tenn., office.

At 6:50 p.m. Thursday, an officer saw Alexandria Bain in an area about 100 yards behind a church, Ford said. Officers shouted commands for Mayes to show his hands, Ford said. But Mayes pulled a semiautomatic pistol from his waistband and shot himself in the head, Ford said.

Law enforcement officers moved in to rescue the two girls, who were lying on the ground nearby. Ford said they looked like they had been in the woods for two or three days and were suffering from exposure, dehydration and poison ivy, but were otherwise safe.

“They were immediately given water as they were escorted to safety,” Ford said. The girls were hospitalized “as a precaution,” he said.

“We are very relieved at this event tonight,” Ford said at an early Friday news conference. “We have two little girls that we can return to Tennessee to their family.”

Mayes had been charged with first-degree murder in the April 27 deaths of Jo Ann Bain, 31, and her daughter, Adrienne Bain, 14. Their bodies were found buried outside Mayes’ home a week after they were reported missing by Jo Ann Bain’s husband.

Mayes’ wife, Teresa, also is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths. She told investigators he killed Jo Ann and Adrienne Bain at their Whiteville, Tenn., home so he could abduct the two young sisters, according to court documents.

Ford and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn said authorities still had many unanswered questions and were continuing their investigation. They did not say how the girls and Mayes were able to survive in the woods.

Gwyn did not say whether there was specific evidence of people helping Mayes in Tennessee and Mississippi but added that investigators were still looking into that possibility and anyone found to have helped Mayes would be held responsible.

“Thank God it’s over and the babies are safe,” said Teresa Mayes’ sister, Bobbi Booth. “That’s all that mattered. I’m just glad it turned out the way it did.”

Teresa Mayes told investigators that after she saw her husband kill the two in the garage at the Bain home, she drove him, the younger girls and the bodies to Mississippi, according to affidavits filed in court. She faces six felony counts in the case: two first-degree murder charges and four especially aggravated kidnapping charges.

Authorities refused to comment on the motive for the slayings and abductions.

Mayes’ mother-in-law, Josie Tate, had told The Associated Press that Mayes thought the missing sisters might actually be his daughters and it caused problems in his marriage to her daughter, Teresa.

“She was tired of him doting on those two little girls that he claimed were his,” Tate said.

Adam Mayes’ mother, Mary Mayes, also has been charged with conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping. Mary Mayes’ attorney, Somerville attorney Terry Dycus, said his client maintains she is not guilty.

The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi.

Dee Hart, who organized a Tuesday night vigil for the girls in Bolivar, Tenn., said their prayers were answered.

“No words can express our elation,” she said by phone. “We know prayers brought those babies home. I can’t wait to see them.”

___

Mohr reported from Jackson, Miss. Associated Press reporters Sheila Burke and Joe Edwards in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this story.

“She was tired of him doting on those two little girls that he claimed were his,” Tate said.

Authorities have put Mayes on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List and urged him to surrender.

“Turn the girls in, and then peaceably and safely turn yourself in to law enforcement,” FBI Special Agent Aaron Ford said at a Wednesday news conference. “We believe Mayes could be anywhere in the United States, and we are extremely concerned for the safety of the girls.”

Mayes and his wife, Teresa, were charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jo Ann Bain, 31, and her daughter, Adrienne, 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.

The reward for information leading to Mayes’ arrest is now at more than $100,000.

Mayes’ wife told investigators he killed Jo Ann and Adrienne Bain at their Whiteville, Tenn., home on April 27 so he could abduct the two young sisters who remain missing, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Authorities refused to comment on the motive for the April 27 slayings and abductions at the news conference.

Teresa Mayes told investigators that after she saw her husband kill the two in the garage at the Bain home near Whiteville, Tenn., she drove him, the younger girls and the bodies to Mississippi, according to affidavits filed in court.

Since the manhunt began for Mayes, people who knew him and the Bains have described him as unusually close to the family and the girls. He was described as a friend of Gary Bain, and the children considered him an uncle.

In an earlier interview, Tate’s daughter, Bobbi Booth, said Teresa Mayes suspected her husband was having an affair with Jo Ann Bain.

Mayes was often at the Bain home. Authorities said he was spending the night there before the mother and daughters were reported missing so he could help the family to pack for a planned move to Tucson, Ariz., and then drive their belongings west.

A Facebook page Adam Mayes was using under an alias that was confirmed by law enforcement showed several photos of him and the Bain girls. One picture depicts Mayes and two of the girls smiling, all leaning next to one another cheek to cheek. The page has since been taken down.

Authorities said Alexandria has brown hair and hazel eyes and is 5 feet tall and 105 pounds. Kyliyah has blonde hair and brown eyes and is 4 feet tall and 57 pounds.

Mayes’ mother-in-law, who lives in Chatsworth, Ga., said she’s known him for 25 years but didn’t approve of him because his family never seemed to stay in one place and he couldn’t hold down a job.

“Teresa’s father and I begged her: ‘Do not marry him, do not go off with him, do not live with him,’” she said.

Tate described her daughter as a slow learner who spent her school life in special education. Teresa Mayes was also incapable of having her own children, she said.

The mother said she believed Mayes had threatened her daughter and perhaps his own mother, Mary Frances Mayes, who has also been charged with conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping.

Mary Mayes’ attorney, Somerville attorney Terry Dycus, said his client maintains she is not guilty. Dycus said it was too early to discuss what the mother’s defense would be.

“She agrees with the authorities that he’s possibly dangerous, but her main concern is that the children be returned immediately and safely,” Dycus said.

Teresa Mayes faces six felony counts in the case: two first-degree murder charges and four especially aggravated kidnapping charges.

“The feelings I have for Adam are as close to hate as I’ll ever come because he’s destroyed not only the Bain family but he’s destroyed my family too,” Tate said.

___

Burke reported from Nashville, Tenn.

Meanwhile, a community mourned the slain mother and daughter and the loss of the girls.

Authorities canvassed roads Tuesday and searched tree lines near the home where Mayes lived in Union County, Miss. Authorities have been tight-lipped about the details of the search, hoping to avoid releasing information that puts the girls’ lives in jeopardy.

The FBI said that authorities were hopeful the two young girls — Alexandria Bain, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8 — were still alive, but declined to say why. Investigators believed the two youngest daughters were still with Mayes, FBI spokesman Joel Siskovic said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Wednesday announced a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. The money is in addition to $50,000 offered by the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service and $6,000 from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

“It is my sincerest hope that this reward will lead to new information that brings those responsible for this crime to justice,” Haslam said.

Authorities have said Mayes was a family friend who was staying with the Bains on April 27, the day the mother and children disappeared. Before he fled, he admitted to authorities that he was the last person to see Jo Ann Bain and her daughters before the disappearance, according to an affidavit filed with the court.

The bodies of Jo Ann Bain, 31, and Adrienne Bain, 14, were found last week behind the mobile home in northern Mississippi where Mayes lived. The affidavit provides the first clue that the victims may have been killed soon after they were abducted. It said his wife and mother saw him digging a hole in the yard on April 27 or soon after.

On Tuesday, those women were charged in connection with the abduction.

Teresa Mayes, 30, was charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and Mary Mayes, 65, was charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

An attorney for Teresa Mayes, whose bond was set at $500,000, declined to comment Tuesday afternoon. Calls to the attorney assigned to Mary Mayes were not immediately returned. Her bond was set at $300,000.

An affidavit filed in court does not hint at a possible motive for their involvement.

Teresa Mayes told investigators she drove Jo Ann Bain and her daughters from Hardeman County, where they lived, to Union County, Miss., where Adam and Teresa Mayes lived with his parents, according to the affidavit.

Hundreds of adults, teens and children came from throughout west and central Tennessee and north Mississippi for a prayer vigil Tuesday evening at Bolivar Dixie Youth Park, where the two oldest Bain girls played softball.

Mourners sang songs and bowed their heads in prayer as they held red, yellow, orange and purple balloons during the ceremony. Some wept during the vigil and sniffles punctuated the quiet night during a moment of silence for Jo Ann Bain and her three daughters.

Many of the mourners said the kidnappings have shaken their small-town, tight-knit communities, from Corinth, Miss., to Whiteville, Tenn.

Stephanie Bodiford, of Middleton, Tenn., said her son was in the same class at Central High School in Bolivar as Adrienne Bain, who along with her mother was found dead in a home where suspect Adam Mayes lived in Guntown, Miss.

Bodiford said her children have been distraught in the days since the disappearance of Bain and her daughters.

“We live in such a sheltered community,” Bodiford said. “They just don’t understand. They don’t understand bad.”

Megan Ervin said she played with Adrienne Bain on the same softball team last year. She described Adrienne as a good player who enjoyed softball.

“She was real nice but she was real shy,” Ervin said.

Ervin, 16, said she and her friends have been shaken by the kidnapping and deaths.

She also said Mayes spent time at the park. He would often come see the Bain girls play, she said. Megan Ervin’s mother Pam said she also saw Mayes hanging out at the park.

“It’s just shocking. It could have been any of us, really, because he was always here and everybody saw him,” Megan said. “He was around all these kids all the time.”

She recoiled, saying, “No,” when asked if she had ever spoken with Mayes.

“When I first saw him, I kind of had a bad vibe about him, so I just kind of stayed away,” Ervin said. “But then I saw him here all the time and I figured he’s no threat to us because he’s always here. Obviously, that wasn’t true.”

___

Loller reported from Nashville, Tenn. Associated Press writers Lucas Johnson II in Nashville, Tenn.; and Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss.; contributed to this report.

Teresa Mayes told investigators she drove Jo Ann Bain and her daughters from Hardeman County, where they lived, to Union County, Miss., where Adam and Teresa Mayes lived with his parents, according to an affidavit filed in court.

An attorney for Teresa Mayes declined to comment Tuesday afternoon. Calls to the attorney assigned to Mary Mayes were not immediately returned.

Bond was set at $500,000 for Teresa Mayes and $300,000 for Mary Mayes.

The bodies of 31-year-old Jo Ann Bain and 14-year-old Adrienne Bain were found last week behind the mobile home in northern Mississippi where the Mayes family lived. The affidavit provides the first clue that the victims may have been killed soon after they were abducted. It says Adam Mayes’ wife and mother saw him digging a hole in the yard on April 27 or soon after.

Alexandria Bain, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8, were still missing, and neighbors were planning a candlelight vigil for the girls Tuesday evening.

The FBI said Tuesday authorities are hopeful the two are still alive, but did not elaborate. The affidavit said that some items belonging to the two younger girls had been found at a trailer rented by Adam Mayes in another part of Union County.

Authorities have said that Adam Mayes, 35, was a family friend who was staying with the Bains on April 27, the day the mother and children disappeared.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Teresa Mayes’ sister, Bobbi Booth, said her sister told her last week that she knew about the killings, but Booth said she thought Teresa Mayes may have been too scared to call the police.

“Teresa started to call, text and Facebook constantly on Thursday,” said Booth, who gave an earlier interview to WMC-TV.

Booth told Teresa Mayes to call the police and was assured that she had, but by Saturday Booth had become suspicious about that claim and called police herself.

“I told them exactly what she had told me: Who the bodies were, where they could be dug from,” Booth said.

As it turned out, investigators had begun digging in the Mayes’ backyard the previous day.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kristin Helm said she was unaware of Booth calling about the killings but said she might have called a different law enforcement agency.

Jo Ann Bain’s husband, Gary Bain, last saw his wife and daughters when he woke up briefly early April 27. By the time he got up they were gone, but he did not know they were missing until after the girls failed to come home from school.

Adam Mayes and Gary Bain, who had once been married to sisters, had been planning to drive some of the family’s belongings to Arizona the next day because the family was moving to that state.

Before he fled, Adam Mayes admitted to authorities that he was the last person to see Jo Ann Bain and her daughters before the disappearance, according to the affidavit.

Police announced Saturday that they had found two bodies at the Mississippi property. They weren’t identified as Jo Ann and Adrienne Bain until Monday.

Mary Mayes is accused of agreeing to the kidnapping but not participating in it.

The affidavit does not hint at a possible motive for Mary or Teresa Mayes’ involvement.

Friends and neighbors of the Bains have said Adam Mayes was like an uncle to the three girls.

Booth said they were “like a big happy family.” She said she finds it hard to believe that Adam Mayes could kill a child.

“I have cried until I’m sick,” she said. “I was totally shocked. I’ve known him since I was little. We played together when we were kids. I always thought he was odd, but I never dreamed he’d do this.”

Booth said she has not had much contact with her sister for the past 11 years because Adam Mayes didn’t want his wife to contact her.

“He was very aggressive with her, abusive,” she said. Booth said Teresa Mayes also told her she thought her husband was having an affair with Jo Ann Bain.

TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm said they don’t know if Bain and Mayes were romantically involved. They know the families were friends, and early reports from the investigators said they were trying to determine if Jo Ann Bain had willingly gone with the suspect.

FBI spokesman Joel Siskovic said on Tuesday investigators believed the two youngest daughters were still with Mayes.

Siskovic said no further details were available on the deaths or the search for Mayes. The FBI has not said how Jo Ann and Adrienne Bain died.

Meanwhile, FBI agents in green camouflage, carrying high-powered rifles joined K-9 units and SWAT teams in a search of the woods and back roads of north Mississippi near Mayes’ home.

State troopers stopped vehicles and looked in trunks Monday, and FBI agents continued to search the yard of the house where Adam Mayes and his family were living.

Mayes was last seen a week ago in Guntown, about 80 miles south of the Bain family’s home in Whiteville, Tenn.

Siskovic said authorities talked to Mayes early on in the investigation, but he fled when they tried to contact him again.

Mayes is considered armed and dangerous.

Linda Kirkland, a cook at the Country Cafe in Whiteville who is a Bain family friend, said the family was moving to Arizona because two of the girls had asthma.

Mayes also has ties to Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Booth said she told authorities to look for him in Florida, where he has relatives.

___

Loller reported from Nashville, Tenn. Associated Press writers Lucas Johnson II in Nashville, Tenn., and Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.