What happened to 5-year-old Summer Wells?

On June 15, 2021, Don Wells called the Hawkins County Sheriff’s office to report that their 5-year-old daughter, Summer had gone missing. Candus Bly and Don Wells described their daughter as being four-foot-tall, with blond hair, wearing a pink shirt and grey pants.

Sheriff Lawson made a late-night announcement that led to a massive search on the ground for the missing tot. The next day, the search for Summer began, with the captain of the Church Hill Rescue Squad, Tim Coup saying “with the steep and dangerous terrain, we’re also experiencing very dense canopy coverage, including very dense ground cover causing search efforts to be very difficult”

Authorities gave daily media briefings on the Summer Wells disappearance for 10 days, with Leslie Earhart from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation saying. “While every case is different, this one is definitely outside the norm” On June 24, Earhart said during the agency's final press conference “typically in an investigation like this one, we have some idea of where the case is headed and what might have happened within a few days”.

On June 26th Summer’s father, Don Wells told News Channels that he believes that “some bad person grabbed her”, Summer’s mother also believes that their daughter was kidnapped by someone driving a late model red Tacoma truck. This information from Don Wells led the TBI to announce that they were searching for a lake model red Tacoma truck, however, the driver was not considered a suspect, but a potential witness.

Two weeks into the Summer Wells investigation, her mother Candus finally decides to sit down with Channel 11 News. Candus told Channel 11 “I and my mother and her were planting flowers, and we went in after we got down washing our hands, and she got a piece of candy from grandma” Candus goes on to say” she wanted to go back over and see her brothers, and I said, ok, and I walked her all the way over”. Without a tear in her eyes, Candus said “well, whoever has my daughter, I pray they haven’t harmed her, and they bring her back to us safe and sound”.

As we move on to July 21, the Department of Children’s Services spokesperson confirmed that they were actively involved in the investigation of the Wells disappearance. At this point, the active search for Summer led by The Church Hill Rescue Squad has ended, with the Church Hill Rescue Squad stating on July 27th that the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office will be taking over as the primary agency in charge of the Summer Wells investigation.

On July 29th, Summer’s mother Candus told Channel 11 News that Summer’s three brothers had been removed from the home and were in the custody of the Department of Child Protective Services and had been for approximately a week. Summer’s father, Don confirmed this information to be truthful, but would not elaborate on why the boys were removed from the couple’s custody.

Moving on to October 13, it’s not been 4 months with no information on the whereabouts of 5-year-old Summer, Candus Bly, and Don Wells took to YouTube saying “I hope and pray to God we can find out daughter. We can’t thank you enough” “There’s nothing we can do to thank y’all enough, but just to thank you and praise our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ”. Around October 27, Wells newly found social media stardom turned into embarrassment when Wells was pulled over on suspicion of driving while under the influence and was arrested live on YouTube.

November 1, Don Wells stood in court on the charges relating to the DUI, where he was subsequently arrested on a probation violation. The court would later release Wells on his own recognizance, otherwise known as a signature bond. On this same day, Channel 11 News would find out that there had been a gag order issued against Child Protective Services regarding Bly and Wells other children. On November 9th Wells went on to say “I must stay off the YouTube thing or be very careful about if I do anything on YouTube from now on because I have lost control. I’ve done stupid things and for that, I apologize. I’m just trying to be right, focus on our church and the things that our family, that we so much enjoy together”.

Here we are, nearly into May. Approximately 11 months since Summer Wells disappeared and authorities are no closer to finding the girl than they were nearly a year ago.

The ongoing AMBER Alert lists the following details for Summer:

• Age: 5 years old

• Sex: Female

• Race: White

• Hair: Blond

• Eyes: Blue

• Height: 3′

• Weight: 40 lb.

• Missing from: Rogersville, Tennessee

• Missing since: June 15, 2021