tonight on "nightline," found alive. breaking news. the dramatic end to a frantic search for these two little girls, after a massive manhunt after their captor. we have the latest. he may have pulled off the biggest charity scam ever, raising tens of millions he says was for u.s. vets. after a two-year search, will they ever unmask the illusive mr. x? a controversy today over this "time" magazine cover. just in time for a new movie about what to expect after expecting. >> get me the juice! >> what does it take to be the

perfect parent? a lot of people think this woman has the answers. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with ter terry moran, cynthia mcfadden, bill weir and tonight, juju chang in new york city, this is "nightline," may 10th, 2012. >> good evening, i'm juju chang. we have breaking news tonight. just hours ago, a massive man hunt that has riveted much of the nation for days ended with two little girls found alive and unharmed. adam mayes, the man suspected of kidnapping them, had been on the run from the fbi and shot himself during a police confrontation. may else was suspected of having killed their mother and 14-year-old sister. abc's yunji de nies has been following this story, apnd tonight, she has the very latest. >> reporter: it all ended here in the woods behind this search in guntown, mississippi, just a few miles from adam mayes' home, two hours away from the place he first kidnapped the girls and killed their mother and older

sister. police say mayes was found by mississippi highway patrol officers who came upon him in the woods. >> reports indicate may else shot himself in the head and was later pronounced dead. >> reporter: the two girls he kidnapped were found alived and appear unharmed. >> the girls were taken for treatment as a precautionary measure. >> reporter: the drama began two weeks ago when the bains went missing. may else is a former brother-in-law to the family and was at their home in tennessee the night the family disappeared. e he was charged with first degree murder after the bolds of the mother and daughter were found buried outside his home. he kept the younger girls alive, driving them with their mother and sister's body to guntown, mississippi, where he lived with his mother, father and wife. investigators were hopeful this video of adam mayes from a corner store in guntown would be the break they needed. it was taken three days after

police say mayes kidnapped joanne bain and her three daughters. police believe he changed his appearance and cut his long hair, but in this small town, he was easily recognized. the clerk who sold mayes cigarettes told abc news's steve osunsami he walked in and out as if nothing was wrong. >> he walked out? >> yeah. >> he didn't look like he had any people with him? >> he was so calm. i don't get that. >> reporter: but then there was news that perhaps he didn't act alone. 65-year-old mary mayes and his ex-wife were both arrested monday night and charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping. the arrest warrant say teresa mayes helped her ex-husband by, quote, driving the vehicle that contained the victims from the bain family home in tennessee to the mayes trailer home in mississippi, where the two bolds were found. police say 65-year-old mary

mayes heard her son digging in her backyard the night of the kidnapping, but nit earl mary nor torror th teresa called the. >> i actually called the investigators on saturday, because the statement she was making were concerning me. >> reporter: court documents charge memberships and his wife with first degree murder and ing a are valted kidnapping. teresa is now behind bars and says mayes killed joanne in their tennessee garage and adrienne inside the house. mayes mother-in-law tells abc affiliate wtvc that her daughter was mentally handicapped and that she and memberships fought often. and that he was vie leapt. >> approximately two years ago, teresa called me here on the phone, she was crying and she said, can i come home? and i said, most certainly.

and her step-father, who had never met her, got on the internet and wired a bus ticket up there. we picked her up at the bus station. she told me the reason she wanted to come home was, she was tired of getting, and this is her exact worldds, tired of getting knocked around and beat on. >> reporter: mayes' neighbors tell abc news that although bain were married, adam claimed the two younger daughters were his. the fbi tells abc news, mayes' motives are still unclear. >> adam mayes was a close friend of the family. he was a trusted person to the kids and everybody involved in the family. so, that is one mystery as to why this happened. >> reporter: but the manhunt is now over. authorities tell us they are giving those two little girls lots of hugs tonight. there's no telling what they've been through.

they've lost their mother and their sister, but tonight, they're safe and the manhunt is over. juju? >> our thanks to yunji. up next, investigators say he ripped off americans to the tune of $100 million. but why can't they unravel the mysterious identity of the man who calls himself mr. x? need any help? uh, nope. just, uh, checking out my ad. nice. but, y'know, with every door direct mail from the postal service, you'll find the customers that matter most: the ones in your neighborhood. print it yourself or find a local partner. and postage is under 15 cents. i wish i would have known that cause i really don't think i chose the best location. it's not so bad... i mean you got a deal... right? [ bird cries ] go online to reach every home, every address, every time with every door direct mail. [ male announcer ] when we all believe there are no limits...

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with juju chang. >> he's being called one of the greatest imposters of our time. the feds say he has multiple identiti identities, but often costs as a navy commander and scammed donations through a fake veteran's charity. the only catch in this scenario?

investigators have no idea who he actually is. abc's brian ross investigates the peculiar case of mr. x. >> reporter: juju, for the last two years, authorities have been searched for the mist tier use man who posed as an american military hero, was invited to the white house and raised an estimated $100 million, supposedly for u.s. veterans. now, u.s. marshals have tracked him down, but most of the money is missing. and he's refusing to even give his real name, in what may be one of the biggest scam charity rip-offs ever. ♪ americans have opened their hearts and wall lets for veterans. and chair tips have been able to get the biggest stars to help raise much-needed money for those who fought for their country. but that reservoir of good will has meant an opportunity for cobmen, including the man investigators say made off with suitcases full of cash, by creating his own scam veteran's charity.

it was called the u.s. navy veterans association. its website said it operated in 40 states, with more than 66,000 members. all run by a man who used the name bobby thompson. >> had a great story. help our troops. help our troops family. talk about iraq. talk about afghanistan. >> reporter: and thanks to tens of thousands of dollars of charity money in political donations, the man called bobby thompson got his picture taken with president bush, senator john mccain. and rudolph you yanni, among others, adding credibility to his charity's spiel. >> i figured he was a real player. >> reporter: and yet he was an imposter. >> absolutely. >> reporter: looking disheveled in court today in cleveland, he faced charges including identity theft and rep fused to tell the judge his real name or anything about his background. >> i believe, your honor, that the state has a burden of proof as to that. >> reporter: thompson told the

u.s. marshals that caught him he preferred to be called mr. x. >> he signs his name mr. x. he's not admitting who he is. >> reporter: and even his former lawyer says she doesn't know he real name. >> i have no idea. >> reporter: helen mac murray admits she fell for the pitch that the u.s. navy veterans sew yags was a legitimate charity. >> he was the greatest patriot. my whole family is navy. i was thrilled to be able to help an association that was going to be helping people like my dad and father and uncles, all of whom were navy veterans. >> reporter: as the money poured into the charity, mac murray grew concerned and finally went to the fbi, when, she says, she realized that thompson had created fake records. >> the only thing you would p prepare a fake diary and you didn't give it to the homeless vets. >> reporter: as authorities began to move in, mr. x fled and led authorities on a cross-country odyssey, traveling only on bus from tampa to new

york to providence. then, it was onto boston, up california to seattle and finally, portland, where u.s. marshal william bolden and his team found him. >> at one location, he was an employee at boeing, at another location, he was a visiting scholar or a professor from a university. >> reporter: in his room, the marshals found only one dvd. "catch me if you can." the leonardo dicaprio film of a young man that traveled the world as an imposter. >> i have a secret. >> reporter: his character seems to be a role model for mr. x. as an imposter, how good was he? >> in my 20-some years of law enforcement, he's the best. >> reporter: tipped that mr. x was a heavy drinker, the mar shams began survey lens of bars and liquor stores in portland and picked up the trail of his lies. >> i thought he was a professor.

>> he told me he was helping a friend back home in ohio open up a new church. >> reporter: and then pay dirt for the marshals at a place called biddy mcgraw's. >> i walked into the pub and immediately saw him sitting at the corner bar stool. >> reporter: just like that? >> just like that. >> reporter: the marshals followed him home and ape rested him outside the rooming house where he had lived for months and told people he was a retired canadian mountie. >> this was his game and he loved it. >> the u.s. marshal made a very big bust. >> reporter: and it was big news in port land when the marshals discovered a suitcase in a storage locker, stuffed with $100 bills. >> this is more money than i've ever seen. >> after tallying it up, it totaled to $981,000 in u.s. currency.millions of

dollars more that donors thought were going to veterans are still unaccounted for, to the outrage of people that run legitimate organizations. >> a million dollars would have provided mental health support for thousands. i mean, shame on him. this is the lowest of the low. >> reporter: the u.s. marshals tell us that this case is now turned from catch me if you can to identify me if you can. they want to know who mr. x really is. and they hope someone watching "nightline" tonight might recognize him. if you do, go to our website at abcnews.com the blotter and we'll tell you how to get in touch with the marshals and we'll keep up posted with what happens next in this amazing case. juju? >> incredible, brian. thanks for that. for us, just ahead, a parenting book that's so good, they made it into a star-studded film. we meet the mommy guru behind "what to expect when you're we meet the mommy guru behind "what to expect when you're expecting." le away... starh the guys who built it. this taurus is pretty serious.

i can't believe they're actually going to let me drive it. all right, it's got what? 360 horsepower. 365 horsepower. let's see what that feels like. so this is 365 horsepower. all while delivering really great fuel economy. so we're getting great fuel economy? cuz that's what i'm thinking about right now. [ roger ] tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... [ dennis ] ...allstate. really? i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy.

[ kyle ] nope, i've got... [ dennis ] ...the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance -- and you still get an allstate agent. i too have... [ dennis ] ...allstate. [ roger ] same agent and everything. [ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ the allstate value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate.

just today, "time" magazine unleashed an onslaught of controversy when they released this cover of a young mother breastfeeding her nearly 4-year-old son with the caption are you mom enough? in the long standing and often contentious debate over how to be the perfect parent, this is a question many of us have asked. but when it comes to tried and

true advice, millions across the globe have turned to the ultimate best-selling baby bible, and the wisdom of the woman behind the words. >> we're going to be a family. >> reporter: when j. lo and cameron diaz head up an all-star in a movie about what to expect when you're expecting -- >> you dropped your kid? >> that just happened last week. my kid ate a cigarette. >> you know the baby bump -- has gone glam. >> reporter: but pregnancy wouldn't be on the a-list in hollywood were it not for this woman. heidi murkoff wrote the guide that inspired the movie. it sold 34 million copies in 30 languages. how did a handbook turn into a romantic comedy? >> what is more romantic than starting a family together? right? and what's funnier than being a pregnant woman? >> i'm sorry. all i want to do is punch you in the face. >> reporter: mommy bloggers

think of the high please test of pregnancy. >> it's the first thing someone hands you. >> reporter: in the movie, as in life -- >> we're pregnant. >> reporter: some women waltz through pregnancy. >> no blanks in this pistol. boom. >> she's wearing six-inch heels. >> reporter: others are simply miserable. >> pregnancy sucks. making a human being is really hard. i have no control over my body or my emotions. >> reporter: and it doesn't always end up the way you carefully plan. >> i want the epidural. >> you said that would be the crazy talking -- oh. >> get me the juice! >> reporter: pregnancy is not easy. >> no, no. >> reporter: and not always fun. >> no! and i think that we all have felt that during pregnancy. i'm pregnant as hell and i'm not going to take it anymore. i'm tired of being tired. i'm tired of not seeing my feet. >> reporter: murkoff's empathy helped fuel the popularity of

the franchise. 93% of pregnant women who are reading pregnancy books have read hers. it's been 29 years since she was a nervous expectant mom and she'll be the first to tell you, a lot has changed. >> well, i feel like we can talk about sex during pregnancy openly now. we can talk about positions. and that some guys have some real hangups about sex during pregnancy. >> reporter: the percentage of working moms has spiked. as has the prevalence of twins. and then, all the new stuff. that, like in the old days, might be awkward to bring up. >> issues of belly rings and spray tans sh the. >> nipple piercings. >> reporter: what's the state of the art or spray tans? >> your skin does weird things during pregnancy. so, what you thought was going to be, like, a beautiful golden brown could be sort of, like, terra cotta. >> reporter: the handbook has

launched a library of other titles and she protects her brand like a mother bear. >> they won't accept junk food advertising. and it's not that i'm preachy, because i think all moms should make the choice that's right for them. but i also feel that there's the risk of preying on moms when they are at their most vulnerable. >> reporter: she says she insisted in removing a product placement in the movie from a baby formula company. >> in the shot, there's a bottle with formula in it and that's -- i'm totally fine with that. it's just that -- and especially because jennifer lopez is adopting, so, you know, it makes breast feeding difficult. >> reporter: you won't sell -- >> never, never. i feel i would be letting my parents down, you know, by doing that. >> reporter: from the author of "what to expect" you would expect nothing less. halt hats off to pregnant women everywhere. thank you for watching abc news.