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JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL

Kidnapping Suspect Believed to Have Killed Mom, Daughter

Aired May 8, 2012 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live from New York City.

Breaking news tonight as police release new surveillance video right there of kidnapping suspect Adam Mayes. This video was shot three days after the Bain family was kidnapped. Jo Ann Bain and her oldest daughter were found dead in Mayes` backyard. And now the hunt is on arrest him and save the two youngest girls. Where are they?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Tonight, cops release this new video as they amp up the massive manhunt for this man they believe killed a woman and her oldest daughter and may be holding the woman`s two youngest daughters hostage.

Now both the former lover and the mother of this so-called family friend-turned-suspect have both been arrested. Was this a secret, sinister family plot? And what happened to the two other girls? I`ll have all the details, and I`m taking your calls.

Also, it`s an epidemic sweeping the country. Almost half of all Americans could be obese in just a few years, but there`s a way out, and it does not involve dieting. Join me as I embark on a new adventure which will burn away the pounds and change our lives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A dramatic twist in the frantic search for those two young girls. The wife and the mother of the prime suspect here now under arrest. The wife here just now coming out, saying she drove a vehicle containing four victims from Tennessee all the way to Mississippi. There are still two girls missing in this case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are somebody`s daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just when you thought this case wouldn`t get any sadder or any stranger, in that trailer they found the belongings of the two younger daughters that were kidnapped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s always somewhere else. It`s bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you`ve seen these kids call the sheriff`s office here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A mother and her three daughters disappeared over a week ago. Adam Mayes, the man wanted for kidnapping them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a manhunt now for a family friend suspected of kidnapping a mom and her three daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re on the hunt from Mississippi to Arizona to Tennessee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Described as a family friend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He made me nervous, edgy, you know. I don`t know what to think of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, we`re in a race against time in the kidnapping and killing spree that has destroyed a beautiful, young Tennessee family. Can two young missing sisters be found and saved?

Take a good look at this brand-new surveillance footage of suspect Adam Mayes inside a convenience store in Guntown, Mississippi. The video is from a week ago, just three days after cops say Jo Ann Bain and her three daughters were abducted.

Mayes is a close family friend -- at least was -- turned kidnapping and murder suspect. Police across the country hunting for Mayes and the two youngest sisters, ages 8 and 12, who they believe are still alive. We certainly hope so, but imagine the hell they are enduring.

Officers found the girls` clothing inside Mayes` trailer. Last night investigators identified the two bodies buried in shallow graves at the Mississippi home that Adam Mayes shared with his mother as Jo Ann Bain and her 14-year-old daughter, Adrienne were identified.

Hayes -- actually, Mayes was seen digging in the backyard the very day the family was reported missing. Were Jo Ann Bain and her daughter, Adrienne, killed on the very same day that they were abducted?

And then this bombshell today. Take a look at these women. The arrest of Mayes` ex-wife, and there`s his mom. They are charged with aggravated kidnapping.

Mayes` ex- admitted to police she drove the kidnapped Bain family from their Tennessee home to a Mississippi home, a distance of about 80 miles.

So what is behind this bizarre crime spree? Mayes` neighbors and his Facebook page paint a picture of a man obsessed with the Bain family.

Now, check out this photo of Mayes with the two youngest girls. All right. He told neighbors that he was the father of one of the girls, possibly the youngest, Kyliyah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He thought one was, but that was all he would ever say. He thought that one was. But it`s...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But you won`t believe there`s other stories. It would make sense that he would spare little Kyliyah`s life if he thought she was his daughter.

But it`s not that simple. On Mayes` Facebook page, he lists the same girl, Kyliyah, as his sister.

I want to know why cops waited more than a week after this family`s disappearance before putting out an Amber Alert for this missing family. Could more have been done to find them before it was too late?

Taking your calls on this twisted, tragic story. Call me: 1-877-JVM- SAYS, 1-877-586-7297. Your theories, I want to hear them.

Straight out to Peggy Gary, who lives in Guntown, Mississippi. So she is a neighbor of the Mayes family. She lives near the home where the two bodies were dug up.

So thank you for joining us, Peggy. I know this has got to be very disturbing for you.

Can you describe, first of all, your reaction when you found out that these two bodies were those of Jo Ann Bain and her oldest daughter, the 14- year-old?

PEGGY GARY, NEIGHBOR (via phone): I have to say that I don`t think anybody was real surprised. The way that the law enforcement official that`s been talking around here, talking about, you know, that he may have changed the appearance of the two younger -- of two of the children, which everybody, I think, kind of expected that that was going to be it.

But I have to say it`s been kind of nerve-wracking for everybody around here. We have -- everybody is sort of living on the -- you know, kind of living on the edge right now in suspense. And the people don`t -- they`re not taking any chances. I usually walk my dog every evening, and I`m not walking my dog right now. I`ve heard several people say that it`s not safe to do anything like that, so...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I also understand that the manhunt is intense around you. I understand the manhunt is very intense around you. Can you describe what the FBI and various other law enforcement are doing?

GARY: The highway patrol, the sheriff`s deputies, all of the different law-enforcement agencies have had people up and down the road. They`ve been out on the highway quite a bit. And it`s been -- there`s been a lot of traffic.

Yesterday afternoon when I came home from work as I turned off of Highway 348 onto my road, the FBI had -- I`ve been told they were FBI. There were several black SUVs and more FBI agents than I`ve ever seen putting on their camo and their body armor and their big guns. And they were -- they were gearing up to do something, and I don`t know what, but they had set up like a command center down there.

That was probably the most unnerving part of the whole thing, because I live actually about five miles from their house, from the house where the bodies were found. And for them to be that close to my house looking for him, that was -- that was bringing it a little bit too close to home.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. Well, thank you for that update. Hang in there. Stand by if you would.

We want to show you again the just-released surveillance video of suspect Adam Mayes at a Guntown, Mississippi, convenience store. This video taken Monday, April 30, at the county line in Guntown, Mississippi. That would be three days after cops believe he abducted Jo Ann Bain and her three daughters from Tennessee, about 80 miles away, allegedly with the help of his ex-wife.

It would appear that Mayes is alone in the store. He`s not acting particularly nervous, but get this. This video was taken after he was seen digging holes in his parents` backyard. The very area where two bodies were later found.

So Marcia Clark, former prosecutor and author of the amazing book "Guilt by Degrees," thank you for joining me on set here in New York City. We`re looking at this video of a nonchalant man in this surveillance video, but that could very well be after he may have, according to police, killed, murdered a mother and daughter that he was close to.

MARCIA CLARK, FORMER PROSECUTOR: It seems that that`s the case, and that`s what`s so perplexing about this case from the very start.

He`d been close to this family for many years. All of the reports have indicated that he was living with them, he`d go stay with them. He didn`t actually live in the town they lived in. He lived far away. But when he came to town, he`d go and stay with them, live with them in their house.

And so the fact that he would just up and kidnap them and then kill two of these family members is amazing to me. And even if it was -- I mean, there are indications as to what the explanation might be, but why now? Why suddenly at this point? Why not sooner?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`ll tell you why, because the family was planning to move to Arizona. So here`s the question. Is this guy Adam Mayes the father of any or all of these girls? We don`t know, but here`s what Jo Ann`s aunt told us last night on the show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via phone): I think he said -- I think he told some people that all three of the girls was his. I think, you know, he was just hopefully thinking that one day they would be his family, you know, that Jo Ann would probably go and live with him and bring the girls and them just all be a family together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and he told the neighbor one of the girls was his. The aunt you just heard says he`d also claimed to be the father of all three. And he also played the role of uncle.

I mean, this guy, Pat Brown, criminal profiler, I think we can say with certainty is a whack-a-doodle who was very confused about his relationship with his family.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, I don`t think he was confused. I think we`ve got an ultimate psychopath here from what we`ve seen him do.

But the question is did he father some of those kids and therefore think he had a right to those children, no matter what? And if they were going to move away, he was going to do one of those kind of -- you know, those family mass murders. If you`re going to take them, you can`t have them type thing?

Or is he just thinking it`s fun to imagine himself as the father of these children? Maybe that`s a complete lie. Maybe he`s just claiming to be the father of these children. He likes being around them.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely. I think that this is enmeshment. It`s a lack of boundaries.

And I say whatever his relationship with this family, he is not the family. And he was confused and thought he owned this family, and decided to take this family, which he regarded as his property. That`s my psychological analysis.

It`s important to keep boundaries with non-family members. Anybody who`s offering to help all the time, grab your wallet and run in the other direction. Come back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make me nervous, edgy, you know, so I don`t know what to think of it, man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody`s, like, what is going on? They feel there`s more going on, but they don`t know what.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a lot of questions as to whether she was abducted or whether she just run off on her own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: New surveillance video being released of the suspect, Adam Mayes, that they are hunting for. This is a nationwide manhunt. They think he killed this woman and her older daughter. There`s the new surveillance video.

And they`re wondering where he may have gone with the two younger girls, an 8- and a 12-year-old.

Straight out to Adam Hammond, a reporter on the ground for WREG in Mississippi.

Tell us about the search. The FBI thinks these two little girls are alive. Why and where are they looking?

ADAM HAMMOND, REPORTER, WREG (via phone): Well, Jane, I am in Guntown, Mississippi, and this small Mississippi town has become the central nerve center for the national search of Adam Mayes. He, of course, is the 30-year-old man who is accused of kidnapping Tennessee mother Jo Ann Bain and her children.

Now, Jo Ann and her oldest daughter, Adrienne, were found buried in Mayes` backyard in a shallow grave here in Guntown. They were pronounced dead, but the FBI tells me they believe the youngest two Bain girls, Alexandria and Kyliyah, are alive and with Mayes. They are working under that assumption and continuing their search under that assumption.

Guntown remains the central nerve system for this search, because they say interviews they are conducting around town and evidence they are collecting keeps bringing them back here to Guntown. They are combing the area around his home with ATVs, dog crews, whatever resources are available to them.

They have stopped digging in the backyard as they were doing yesterday, but they say they will continue doing that if they find reason to do so.

Now, this case got a little weirder today when Mayes` mother, Mary, and his wife, Teresa, were arrested and charged in the kidnapping of Jo Ann and her daughters.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Listen...

HAMMOND: They say these two women helped Mayes drive the car that kidnapped the Bain family; even saw him dig those shallow graves in the backyard.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Adam, thank you for that update.

I want to Jon Lieberman, investigative reporter. You have analyzed this affidavit. Paint a picture for us, because there are so many states involved. This family, the Bain family, lived in Tennessee. Two bodies end up in Mississippi about 80 miles away. How did they get there? Who took them there?

JON LIEBERMAN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: There are two major leads that we can -- two major nuggets of information in the affidavit, Jane.

But the biggest one is that both Mayes` wife and his mother talked. They talked to investigators and gave them many different avenues to explore prior to being arrested. So that is huge. And they even admitted, according to the affidavit, helping to transport this family from Tennessee to Mississippi.

Another huge point in the affidavit, Jane, is this, that Mayes rented a trailer in Mississippi. Inside that trailer, law enforcement found clues about the two girls who they believe are still alive.

So you see, they`re trying to paint a timeline here. We know April 27, according to the affidavit, he`s seen digging in the backyard. April 30, that surveillance video is taken. May 1, the last time police have contact with Mayes. After that he goes off the map.

But call him whatever you want to call him. I call him a fugitive. And my law-enforcement sources have their best fugitive hunters on this guy, and they tell me they`re making major progress.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Prediction, when will they catch him?

LIEBERMAN: By the end of the week, this guy will be behind bars, but what they`re worried about is either him committing suicide or something called suicide by cop, where he forces cops to shoot and kill him.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I am begging you, if you are watching this, because often these fugitives do watch television, let the girls go. Take a look at me. Let the girls go. Let the girls go. Leave them at a 7-Eleven. Leave them at a corner and take off. Those girls do not deserve to die. Let them go.

Here`s my burning question tonight. Why wasn`t an Amber Alert issued a lot sooner? This family was last seen well over a week ago, but an Amber Alert wasn`t issued until this past weekend. And here`s why cops finally issued that alert.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We executed the federal search warrants at the location that he was known to have stayed at. At that time during the search, we did find two bodies at that location. It was based on finding those two bodies that PDI did -- initiated the Amber Alert with the concern, the extreme danger to the children and the mother.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Marcia Clark, your thoughts?

CLARK: I think something happened between the mother of these children and this guy Mayes. I think something happened to make him believe that he had to act quickly, and that`s why he ultimately did what he did. Because I think moving away to Arizona was not the big deal, because he could have followed him there, like he followed them already. So...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: More on Mississippi in a second, but first, we keep an eye on what`s trending. Here`s our "Viral Video of the Day."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CAT MEWING)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The guy was -- he was always a good friend to the family. He was always there helping out. The girls liked him. You couldn`t find many people around here that would say anything bad about him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`ve got to tell you, this story is so perplexing, but one young man who was all over it, Levi Page, crime blogger, Internet radio host. Nashville, Tennessee. This is the talk of Nashville, Levi. What have you learned by studying the Facebook pages of those involved?

LEVI PAGE, CRIME BLOGGER: Well, I`ve learned a lot.

Teresa Mayes, the wife of Adam Mayes, was friends with some of the daughters on Facebook, and that`s how she got on my radar yesterday. And I was wondering this woman may have information regarding the possible murders and the abduction of this family.

And then, lo and behold, I woke up this morning to news that she had been arrested and busted and was complicit and aided in the kidnapping of this family.

So what we may be dealing with, Jane, is a criminal couple like Phillip and Nancy Garrido. And it`s scary.

But the good news is the police have arrested her, along with Adam`s mother, and Teresa has flipped and turned on him. She`s confessed. She`s hopefully fully cooperating with police, and this will help and aid authorities in getting closer to Adam Hayes [SIC], a very dangerous individual who is armed and dangerous.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you`re absolutely right. The suspect`s ex-wife and his mom both sitting in jail as we speak in connection with the kidnapping of Jo Ann Bain and her daughters, 31-year-old Teresa Mayes charged with four counts of especially aggravated kidnapping.

The affidavit says Teresa Mayes admitted to helping drive Jo Ann Bain and her daughters across state lines from Tennessee to Mississippi, about 80 miles, and then helping to confine the family.

Now Adam`s mother, Mary, is charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping.

The FBI says both women admit they saw with their own eyes Adam Mayes dig a hole on April 27, the very same day the Bain family was kidnapped.

And of course, yesterday the FBI confirmed that Jo Ann Bain and her oldest daughter, 14-year-old Adrienne, were found in the shallow graves at the Mayes home.

Now, what gets me, Pat Brown, is that the Mayes women had a terrible secret for 11 days. They admitted, according to cops, that they saw Adam Mayes dig a hole where two bodies were found. And they did not tell anybody, even as the entire world was hunting for this family.

BROWN: Well, I can think of two reasons. One is they`re scared to death of him, that he`s very controlling and very manipulative, and they feared him because he has that criminal, psychopathic mind. And he told them they`re going to cooperate.

Or they`re three peas in a pod, and they don`t have any issues with what he`s doing, and they want to protect him.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, well, one report claims, one published report claims that, according to the sister of this ex-wife of Adam Mayes, that he was abusive toward Teresa when they were married. So maybe she`s in some kind of Stockholm syndrome, because she`s not married to this creep anymore, so she doesn`t necessarily have to help him, theoretically.

Nancy, Florida. Nancy, Florida, your question or thought, Nancy?

CALLER: Hey, Jane. Yes, I just want to know is there a vehicle description and license plate number associated with this...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You are asking...

CALLER: ... he may be using?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... the best question of the night. And on the other side, we`re going to ask why have the FBI not released the vehicle that this guy could be in?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This man, Adam Mayes, right there, kidnapped JoAnn Bain and her three daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two bodies found in a shallow grave. This town is called Guntown. They are that of missing mother JoAnn Bain and one of her daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators became suspicious of Mayes when they lost contact with him on Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has a warrant out for lying to investigators about where the family is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He gave them some misleading information on Sunday. Mayes hasn`t been seen since.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two bodies were reportedly found in shallow graves behind his parents` home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: During the search we did find two bodies in that location.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let us know where the kids are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has altered the appearances of everybody including himself.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are somebody`s daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It never happened here before and I guess we considered ourselves, you know, not ever having that kind of problem. But it looks like we do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: There is a national manhunt going on right now for this man. Authorities have just released this new surveillance video of him nonchalantly shopping at some kind of convenience store and this is after authorities believe he may very well have killed JoAnn Bain and her oldest daughter, 14-year-old Adrienne Bain. And tonight authorities are desperate to find the two surviving girls, 8-year-old Alexandria -- and it`s actually 12-year-old Alexandria and 8-year-old Kyliyah.

Now we just had a caller who asked why have they not released the vehicle description of the car that Adam Mayes might be in with these two girls? Wouldn`t that be the smartest thing to do? Jon Leiberman, investigative reporter.

JON LEIBERMAN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, it`s a good question. We should point out they have Mayes` trailer, the one that he rented and the best reason for not releasing the description of the car is they`re worried that he might ditch it and they have good leads and the last thing they want is for him to ditch the car he`s in so that they may have no idea what vehicle he`s in.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I don`t buy it. Honestly, because he might ditch it? He might ditch it anyway.

And if the whole world is looking for this guy, Marcia Clark, you`d think they`re putting out the pictures. They`re putting out the surveillance video. They`re telling us that they may have cut their hair. They probably cut their hair that they look different. They dyed their hair. Why not show the vehicle that they`re believed to be in?

MARCIA CLARK, PROSECUTOR: I think they`re more worried about vigilante justice. Somebody out there, you know, going and getting those girls and possibly starting a confrontation where everyone gets killed. It might just be a safety issue for the reason why they`re holding on to the car.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think that you make a very good point because we`ve got two little girls, 8 and 12 and imagine the nightmare they`re enduring as we speak. Their mother and older sister murdered. We don`t know how, but found in shallow graves in this guy`s yard.

And these are the two little angels -- look at them. I pray right now that they`re ok and that God willing they don`t even know at this moment in time that their mother and older sister have been killed, Jon?

LEIBERMAN: But we should point out when people are out looking for these two little girls they may not be running around screaming help, help. They apparently have some sort of trust relationship with this guy. I`ve seen many cases like this so these girls might look happy and healthy and they might be with this guy and by all appearances everything looks fine.

So people should not be put off by looking for something that they`re imagining in their head of how this situation should look.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, in an exclusive interview with mew last night, JoAnn Bain`s aunt explained the relationship between this suspect and the Bain family. It is very complicated. So pay close attention because it really is a head spinner. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEVERLY GOODMAN, JOANN BAIN`S AUNT: JoAnn`s husband Gary was married to Adam`s sister once upon a time and that`s how Gary and Adam got to be such close friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But others say that Adam Mayes and the dead woman`s husband Gary Bain had in the past been married to sisters, which is slightly different. Either way, it`s very complicated and they are deeply connected. It is obvious the Bain family had a long history with Mayes.

A next-door neighbor says Mayes told her, "Well, I think one of the little girls is mine. The youngest daughter is mine." But then again, Levi Page, crime blogger, on a Facebook page he refers to one of the girls as his sister. The suspect is all over the map. Could he be hallucinating or schizophrenic?

LEVI PAGE, CRIME BLOGGER: Well, he doesn`t seem to be schizophrenic, because this was very organized. He was able to get these children and JoAnn out of the house without waking up Gary Bain, the father and his daughter.

So he`s -- he`s in his right state of mind. Obviously, he`s very evil. He`s very calculated. And you made a good point about his Facebook page that he went by the alias by the name of Paul Rodriguez and that`s maybe something that people out there in the public should be made aware of. That`s a name that he goes by and on his profile page the majority of the photographs were of him and these children that he`s not related to.

Did he have some sort of unnatural obsession with these children and did this move to Arizona spark an outrage in him? Did he not want them to move to Arizona and is that why he did this? It`s very strange. And hopefully authorities can get to the bottom of this before he does something terrible.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think one of the reasons the cops didn`t issue an amber alert immediately is because there was this whole confusion. Did JoAnn possibly leave voluntarily with him because there had been all of this talk of first of all, well, the neighbors thought that well maybe one of the kids is his. And that could just be talk.

Obviously JoAnn is not here to speak for herself which is tragic. But also that apparently according to Facebook, Jon Leiberman, Gary, the husband of JoAnn had an argument of some sort with JoAnn the night before all this happened.

LEIBERMAN: Yes, absolutely, and it took law enforcement a little while to try and untangle this web of who was related to who and what vehicles and the description. And so every jurisdiction has different rules for issuing amber alerts and according to the local cops this didn`t rise to their level quickly.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, We spoke with JoAnn Bain`s aunt exclusively last night. She told me that Adam Mayes may have been obsessed with the Bains - - obsessed --- and was desperate to keep them from moving to Arizona.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOODMAN: The only thing that we can figure out is that he was obsessed with either JoAnn or one of the girls and he wanted to keep them there with him and not let them go back to Arizona.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Former prosecutor Marcia Clark, author of the amazing book, "Guilt by Degrees", you`ve covered so many cases. I mean any kind of criminality involves dysfunction and from a psychological perspective I see this guy who insinuated himself into a family that wasn`t his on the pretext of being a nice guy who was always there to help.

CLARK: Absolutely and probably always did have though the belief and maybe it is true. We don`t know. We don`t know whether there is some kind of relationship, real blood relation there. But in his mind he certainly believed that there was that kind of relationship and that there was an entitlement in his mind to this family.

So that may have been what actually sparked the fight between them. She says I want to take them to Arizona and the girls supposedly had asthma. And that`s why they wanted to move to Arizona. It would be better for them. And he didn`t like that idea and they had a fight.

She wrote in her Facebook page, the mother who has now been killed and just recently discovered; she wrote in her Facebook page that she was very happy to be relieved by venting her feelings which indicated there was some fight. My supposition about this is that it was a fight with him and they got into a fight about them moving to Arizona.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. Because it would seem that some interpret it as a fight with her husband, but maybe it could have been a fight with this so-called family friend about the move.

That`s an interesting idea and that`s the thing is that we`re doing the detective work that the FBI is doing right now. Trying to figure out what exactly went on.

Let`s go to the phone lines. Whitney in Tennessee, your question or thought, Whitney.

WHITNEY, TENNESSEE (via telephone): To me, I am from Tennessee and this is very unusual, I mean, around these parts. I`m from a different section of Tennessee, of course, but this is very unusual situation. And I feel for the family of these people. And I can only pray that they find these other two girls alive and that they can close in on this man.

And I just have no words for this. This is just something that is just shocking to everybody in Tennessee because stuff like this never happens around here.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I appreciate your comments, Whitney.

Quickly, how are they going find these girls and protect their safety at the same time?

CLARK: That is the tricky thing and that to me is yet another reason why they don`t want to release too much information about this guy`s car and where he might be. They have to get there and diffuse the situation because otherwise you wind up in a gun fight and the little girls are in the middle.

We don`t know where they are. We don`t know what he`s doing with them. We don`t know what they believe. We don`t know how they`re likely to react. They have to be very careful to make sure they proceed very delicately and find out where the girls are. Find out what the situation is before they move.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And again, if you`re watching Adam Mayes, let these little girls go and go on your way, but let these children go.

All right. Nancy Grace is all over this story. She has so much more at the top of the hour -- Nancy.

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: Jane, it is now a desperate nationwide search to find two Tennessee girls. They are in extreme danger after we learn their mother and sister found 90 miles away in shallow graves. Right now, Jane, every minute counts.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You are absolutely right, Nancy, and we`re going to be watching you right here at 8:00 p.m. on HLN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: America`s battle of the bulge is expected to keep expanding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The number now, 42 percent but still pretty shocking, just within the last -- within the next couple of decades they expect these changes to occur. People point to all sorts of different reasons as to why this is occurring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. Listen, this is not going to be what you think. Yes, there is a very frightening new stat about obesity, but on this show we`re about figuring it out. Not dwelling in the problem.

So now we`re going to take you on a fabulous new adventure that could change your life, and I`m a whole part of it because I`m doing this, too.

Your guide is Kathy Freston. She is a healthy living advocate to the stars. She`s been on Ellen. She`s been on Oprah. You can follow along with me on my Facebook page and together with Kathy`s help we can radically improve our lives. And this is the best part, people. No dieting, no stress, no exertion of willpower. This is going to be fun.

And Kathy, Kathy Freston, you have written a slew of best-sellers. Your latest, "The Lean" is a fabulous guide to tweak your life bit by bit, day by day to basically be fit and lean in a short time. My Facebook page will feature your online daily lean tip and we`re going to check in with you every week on this show so our viewers can lean on you as they lose weight.

So, all right. Here`s the scary statistic, people. All right by 2030 almost half of all Americans will be obese unless a radical lifestyle change occurs. So that`s the scary news, but we are going to offer a solution. Kathy, you`re offering that healthy lifestyle change. Tell us about it. Tell us why it`s going to be fun for us and I`m doing it. So tell us why it`s going to be fun for me and our viewers.

KATHY FRESTON, AUTHOR, "THE LEAN": Great. I am so glad you`re doing it, Jane and it is going to be fun and here`s the good news, we`re not going to do it in a radical way. That word scares the pants off of me and I`m sure it does you, too, because we like our lives.

We want to keep enjoying the foods that we love. We want to enjoy the traditions that we`re used to. We want to enjoy meals with our family and our friends and we`re going to keep on doing that. We`re just going to tweak what we eat and what we do throughout our day just a little bit very gradually. So nothing major overnight, no hard core discipline, no white knuckling it all the way through; I don`t want you to be miserable. I don`t want you to hate your life. I want you to enjoy your life so we`re going to do it one step at a time, gradually so the changes stick.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. You said it was going to be fun so I decided to have fun right now and that`s why I have an apple on my head. Now I`m going to be able to tell you that there is an apple in this entire adventure. So, you can go to my show`s Facebook page, Jane Velez-Mitchell Facebook page. You could click on the link to "Kathy`s Daily Lean".

I struggle with my weight. Yes, I struggle a lot with my weight so I`ve been checking it out every single morning and that`s how I got the idea to do this because I actually get it on my iPhone phone and we`re going to offer it to you on our Facebook. Ok.

You see a bunch of badges, they`re small menus of small change that you make every single day that help you shed pounds and one of them is so simple. It involves a daily apple.

So Kathy, why is the apple one of your badges. Why is an apple so important?

FRESTON: Well, you know what? When your mom told you an apple a day keeps the doctor away, she was right. But it also helps to melt the pounds away. And Apples are full of fiber, right? All fruits and vegetables are full of fiber, but apples have a special kind of fiber called pectin. And pectin is what made with jams and jellies and the stuff that makes it really nice and jellyish and that`s what happens in your belly when you eat an apple.

So the fiber leaves your belly really slowly, actually twice as slowly as other fiber, so that means you`re going to be full for longer. Now I`m not saying eat an apple instead of something else. I`m not saying make it your go-to snack. All I`m saying is at some point during the day have an apple. You can cut it up. You can just take a big bite of it, but at some point during the day have an apple. And this is going to fill you up. It`s going to put fiber in your body. It`s going to give you energy. It`s going to release the glucose and blood sugar very slowly into your body which is going to keep your hunger hormones at bay.

So this is all about crowding out and not cutting out.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, Kathy, we`re inviting our viewers -- to join this adventure. Go to my Facebook page, all right? I`m doing it.

FRESTON: Ok.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You can do it. Together, we cannot be a stat.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Now it`s time for a laugh break. Here is a video that`s all over the Internet.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now the health ministry is asking people to stay off the beaches in Lima.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First, more than 800 dolphins. Now more than 500 pelicans are washing up dead.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Some of the fisherman it`s much higher than that. Some are claiming it`s 3,000 dolphins. We don`t know for sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at this. Officials don`t know what is causing the deaths.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Carnage on the coast; thousands of animals dropping dead on a tropical beach. Is a mystery epidemic hitting Peru? Who or what is killing thousands of pelicans and dolphins. I have to warn you, some of this footage is disturbing but we must bear witness if we`re going to solve this mystery.

Here are the facts. First, the dolphins started dying. Some estimates say as many as 3,000 dolphins perished and then washed up on Peru northern coast. Now it`s pelicans -- over 1,000 of these majestic birds found dead in the same exactly area. Tourists are now being told to stay off the beaches.

It`s all happening in a small stretch of land along the coast of Peru about 100 miles between San Jose and Punta Negra. Health official says the most likely suspects, a virus and starvation. Scientists say the food supply has fled because the waters are heating up at a rapid pace. The anchovies dive to the bottom where they can`t be eaten by the pelicans.

But others have other suspects. Some blame overfishing. Others say the dolphins are being killed by seismic testing used to locate underwater oil deposits. Still others claim raw sewage with deadly toxins is being dumped into the water.

And we`re going to go straight to my very special guest, Paul Huling (ph) from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA. You have another theory, what is it?

RYAN HULING, PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS: That`s exactly right. I mean the government has been doing an excellent job of trying to keep this story under wraps, but we cannot ignore the fact this particular region in the Peruvian coastline is also the world`s largest fishery. This is an area where Peruvian fishermen are notorious for dumping vast quantities of poison and dangerous chemicals into the ocean as a means of deterring sea birds and other animals from competing with them for the fish they hope to capture and sell for human consumption. And so much in the same way -- I`m sorry, go ahead.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead, go ahead.

HULING: Much in the same way in the U.S. as when we have a human health hazard or an environmental catastrophe of this size, we have to look at the food system and factory farming as the number one suspect. This has helped, of course, show us that we have antibiotic resistance super bugs and super germs here in the U.S. food supply.

We need to apply the same rule to the Peruvian fishermen who are overfishing these waters at reckless levels and dumping these dangerous chemicals into our oceans.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I would bet the house that at the bottom of this tragedy is human behavior. This is not an act of nature. This is people doing something wrong and the government is talking about viruses and starvation but a lot of people are very, very suspicious of the government. Everybody`s got an agenda. Ok? Everybody has an agenda and everybody has a voice to sell their story except for the animals themselves.

This isn`t the first time the coastal animals have been dying in mass numbers. We all remember the BP oil spill here in our country; 170 million gallons of oil flooding the Gulf of Mexico. According to the National Wildlife Foundation, more than 8,000 birds, turtles, and marine animals were injured or they died. We still don`t know what the long-term impact of that is going to be.

Here`s my burning question. Is Peru poisoning their water? Are Peruvian fishermen poisoning their water to eliminate the competition? It`s happened before.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Pelicans and dolphins dying by the thousands, washing up on the shores of Peru; Ryan Huling what can Americans do? We always like to give our viewers an action point.

HULING: Absolutely. Anytime that animals are being raised, captured or killed for food, corners are going to be cut. It`s the animals and the environment that suffer when that happens.

Thankfully we can all choose healthy vegetarian and vegan options instead. And people can visit our Web site, peta.org for more information. We have to put our money towards industries that are compassionate towards animals and the environment rather than those that support egregious cruelty and devastation to the environment.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It is a terrible mystery and, again, I would bet the house, at the end of the day it`s human behavior.

And, speaking of healthy eating, if you want to join our adventure, go to my Facebook page and get involved.

Nancy next.

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