UNION COUNTY, MS (abc24.com) - The mother of one of those charged in the murder of Jo Ann Bain and her daughter Adrienne is speaking out.
Josephine Tate, the mother of Teresa Mayes, says she's known Adam Mayes since he was little.
"We met Adam when he was 10 years old and his whole family is weird. Strange. Different. Whatever you want to call them," Tate said by phone from her Chatsworth, GA home.
"He was always a control freak," she added. "When he married my daughter 12 years ago, first off we begged my daughter not to marry him because we knew how he was, he was a moocher, he didn't hold a job, he mooched of his mom and dad."
Tate says her daughter has long been diagnosed with a mild form of retardation and that her diploma from Southeast High School in Dalton, GA, is a special education diploma.
"Two years ago, Teresa called me at home, and was crying and wanted to know if she can come home, that she was tired of getting slammed against the wall, knocked around, and beat on."
Tate says she and her husband sent Teresa a bus ticket to come. When they picked up Teresa, she was covered in bruises. Tate now wonders if there were warning signs.
"He does not believe in taking a bath, or shower, said he didn't like the feel of water on his skin," Tate said of Adam Mayes.
She says he also had odd eating habits.
"When he was 10 years old, the absolute only, only, foods he would eat, was a type of tomato soup his mother would make for him, peanut butter and crackers, and they had to be a certain brand of crackers, saltine crackers, he would have his mother put peanut butter on one cracker, mayonnaise on the other cracker and put them together.
"When he would get the Big Mac, he would have his mother take a knife and scrape the sauce off, but if we ordered it with no sauce, he wouldn't eat it. 4:54 said he had a fear of choking on lettuce or the little bits and pieces that were in the sauce."
Tate says her daughter long suspected Mayes was having an affair with Jo Ann Bain, and that Mayes would go around telling people Bain's two youngest daughters were his.
Tate reflected on a conversation she had with her daughter two years ago.
"[Teresa] stated that the reason they were arguing so much was because Adam had these two children that he claimed were his, and she suspected that he was having an affair with their mother, but she couldn't prove it."
Tate says she's afraid of what Adam will do next.
"I will tell everybody, the guns I do have in my home are loaded and if he comes here I will call the law, but I will also do what it takes to protect myself," she said.
Tate says she hasn't talked to her daughter since her arrest, and fears what this will do to Teresa's grandmother, who is suffering from dementia.
"I'm numb. I'm in disbelief, I'm hurt, and not only has the Bain family been destroyed, but he is tearing my family apart too."
Adam and Teresa Mayes are both charged with two counts of First Degree Murder for the deaths of 31-year-old Jo Ann Bain and her 14-year-old daughter Adrienne Bain in Hardeman County, Tenn. on April 27.
They also face two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping for the abduction of 12-year-old Alexandria Bain and 8-year-old Kyliyah Bain. Teresa Mayes remains in the Hardeman County Jail without bond.
Adam Mayes was last seen in Guntown on May 1 and is considered armed and dangerous. He was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, which increases the reward to a total of $171,000 for information leading to Mayes’ arrest and the location of Alexandria and Kyliyah Bain.
Investigators have information that Mayes may have changed his appearance as well as the missing victims’. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is requesting that anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Adam Mayes, Alexandria Bain and Kyliyah Bain call the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND (1-800-824-3463).
