GUNTOWN, Miss. —
A Mississippi manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double slaying had small town residents on lockdown Thursday and shattered the feeling of safety in a place where everyone knows their neighbors.
The hunt for Adam Mayes and the two young sisters he is accused of kidnapping has encompassed parts of at least three counties in northern Mississippi.
State and local law enforcement agents on Thursday searched a densely wooded area about 10 miles from Mayes’ home near Guntown. State troopers blocked a road, stopped vehicles and searched their trunks.
“This is the last place he was seen in, in the Alpine area,” said Union County Sheriff Jimmy Edwards. “We don’t have anything to lead us anywhere else.”
It was one of multiple forays this week by heavily armed federal agents, state troopers and SWAT teams in search of Mayes or a hideout he may have used.
Authorities say they think the missing girls, Alexandria Bain, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8, are still with Mayes, nearly two weeks after he fled with them.
Shelby Bryan, 40, is a cashier at the County Line No.1, where Mayes was seen on surveillance video after the girls disappeared. She said people are frightened and upset.
“Some women are scared to go home until their husbands get there. Then you have some that don’t want to leave their house,” Bryan said. “I have husbands coming in here telling me, ‘My wife made me put the gun beside the bed last night.”’
Mayes and his wife, Teresa, are charged 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 a week after they were reported missing by Jo Ann Bain’s husband, Gary.
Mayes’ mother-in-law Josie Tate told The Associated Press that Mayes thought the missing sisters might actually be his daughters.
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