Father Of Missing 4-Year-Old Summer Wells Jailed 8 Months After Her Disappearance
She is still missing.
Youtube / Twitter Half a year has passed since the disappearance of Summer Wells, many still remain suspicious of her case and her family.
The 5-year-old's family has repeatedly protested their innocence since her June 2021 disappearance but that hasn't stopped them from running into trouble with the law.
Most recently, Summer's father, Don Wells has been jailed amidst the ongoing search for his daughter.
Why was Don Wells jailed?
Wells, father of the missing Summer Wells has been jailed in connection with a DUI arrest from back in October.
Wells was pulled over after failing to adhere to traffic lines and police noticed both the smell of alcohol and a bottle of what looked like alcohol in the car.
Tests revealed no evidence of drugs in Wells’ system but also a blood alcohol content of 0.13%, well above the usual legal limit.
Wells was reportedly having some sort of dispute with his wife, Candus Bly when he took the bottle, began to drink and left in his car.
When Wells claimed in court that the reason for his behavior was because he “wanted to get away” from Bly and their argument, Judge Ross responded, simply saying, “that’s what feet are for.”
While being read his rights, Wells allegedly admitted that he “probably had too much to drink.”
Wells’ trial comes over half a year since the disappearance of Summer Wells, who went missing without a trace in June of 2021. The search efforts have become largely passive as months have gone by without any sign of the 5-year-old.
Summer Wells' case has brought up few leads.
During the weeks long search for the child, Captain Tim Coup of the Church Hill Rescue Squad spoke about the difficulties in looking for the child in Hawkins County, 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.”
A spokesperson for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said of the investigation, “While every case is different, this one is definitely outside of the norm. 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.”
Many are hopeful to see the 5-year-old alive and well but as days become weeks and weeks become months, that hope is diminishing.
On June 26th police announced that they were searching for the owner of a late-model red Tacoma truck that might have seen the 5-year-old before her disappearance.
Summer was last seen when she was with her mother and grandmother.
Candus Bly described the last time that she had seen her only daughter, saying, “Me and my mother and her were planting flowers, and we went in after we got done washing our hands, and she got a piece of candy from grandma. And she wanted to go back over and see her brothers, and I said, ‘OK.’”
Bly returned only minutes later and when her sons told her that Summer had gone downstairs. When Summer didn’t respond, Bly “went down there to check, and she was nowhere in sight.”
Don Wells' behavior may be a result of the disappearance of his daughter.
It sounds as though Don Wells is (understandably) taking the disappearance of his daughter badly and his situation has only been further complicated by the fact that the DUI charge was also a violation of his probation.
Wells was on probation in connection to a situation where he was in possession of a handgun while intoxicated. This has caused his jail time to go from 48 hours with some community service hours for the DUI to nearly a year in jail.
At this time Don Wells is now serving time in Hawkins County Jail and Summer Wells remains missing.
Dan O'Reilly is a writer who covers news, politics, and social justice. Follow him on Twitter.