Rescued Sisters: 'Now We Can Go Home'

May 12, 2012— -- When they were finally rescued, after a nearly two-week ordeal during which they were kidnapped by the man who allegedly murdered their mother and older sister, 12-year-old Alexandra Bain turned to her 8-year-old sister Kyliyah and said softly, "Now we can go home."

The two girls were rescued Thursday after Mississippi state highway troopers spotted a small blonde child peeking over a ridge, police said.

Moments later, Adam Mayes, the suspect in the killings of JoAnn and Adrienne Bain, shot himself as he knelt in the grass next to the children, in what his mother-in-law called the "coward's way out."

"We saw something lying down by the wood line that caught our attention. We took another five steps, and I gazed around and saw one of the children. An officer started hollering, 'Get your hands up,'" said Master Sgt. Steve Crawford at a news conference Friday.

Lt. Lee Ellington, who was part of a team from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks involved in the search told The Associated Press he heard Alexandria comfort her little sister with the words: "Now we can go home."

"It brings tears to your eyes it was just a beautiful sight," Union County Sheriff Jimmy Edwards said.

The highway patrol and state fish and wildlife officers were searching the wooded area for a cabin that they were told Mayes, 35, may have been hiding in with the two girls he kidnapped two weeks earlier from their home in Tennessee.

Mayes is suspected of killing the girls' sister, Adrienne, 14, and mother, JoAnn, 37, in order to kidnap the younger girls, whom he thought were his children, relatives have said.

The girls had been living with JoAnn and her husband, Gary Bain, and the family was planning to move to Arizona at the end of the school year.

As police searched for the cabin Thursday night, they caught sight of one girl and then another and, finally Mayes' head popped up.

"All three were lying face down on the ground trying to take cover," Crawford said.

The girls slowly raised their hands at the officers' command, but Mayes raised only one hand, the officer said.

"Mayes raised his hand and I could see the gun. I hollered 'gun' three times to let my team know, and then Mayes got on his knees. He never brandished the gun toward us, but at that time he took his life," Crawford said.

The girls, who had been in the forest without food or water for three days, were "eaten up with poison ivy and insect bites," another officer said. He said they were shaken and unable to speak much, but didn't cry.

"When these children get to where they can speak, and calm down, I'm sure we'll find out" more details, a police spokesman said.

The girls were brought to a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., that night and released to their father after treatment.

"A lot of prayers were answered when we found these two young ladies to be safe," Crawford said.

Police have not said whether the $71,000 reward offered for Mayes' capture would be handed out to anyone, but noted that police were searching the wooded area not far from Mayes' home because of a tip received from the public.

Adam Mayes' Mother-in-Law Said He Took 'Coward's' Way Out

The mother-in-law of Mayes blasted Mayes for leaving his wife to be charged for killing the kidnapped girls' mother and older sister.

"I'm really trying to hard not to be ugly about this, but he took coward's way out, and he left my daughter hanging, and they're still talking about maybe seeking the death penalty for her," Josie Tate told ABC News.