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Jailed Father Of Missing 6-Year-Old Tennessee Girl Writes Letter To Her Alleged Captors
Don Wells, serving time for driving under the influence, penned a letter to the alleged captors of his 6-year-old daughter Summer Wells, who's been missing for more than a year.
The father of a 6-year-old Tennessee girl – missing for more than a year – has written a letter to her alleged captors from his jail cell.
“To the person, or persons responsible for kidnapping Summer,” Don Wells wrote. “Not only have you broken [Summer’s] heart and taken her away from her mother and father whom love her very much but you’ve ruined her chances to become educated ruining her life!”
He continues: "One day God will hold you accountable for this crime unless you do something to make this right! Please do the right thing and turn our daughter over to the authorities. [We're] begging you with all our hearts please do the right thing."
The letter was posted to the family’s Find Summer Wells website earlier this week. Wells is nearing the end of his nearly one-year sentence for driving under the influence. He was arrested in October.
Summer disappeared from her family home in the Beech Creek community on June 15, 2021. Law enforcement, including the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, spent nearly two weeks searching the area around the family’s 11-acre home.
The Tennessee Bureau Of Investigation, which is leading the search, has repeatedly stated that there is no evidence to support the family’s kidnapping theory, according to WTVF, a local Nashville station.
The Amber Alert for Summer is still active and the search is ongoing.
“There are few clues as to what happened to Summer despite investigators doing everything within their power to find answers. All possibilities are still being explored,” TBI spokeswoman Leslie Earhart said during a news conference on the one-year anniversary of Summer’s disappearance, according to the Kingsport Times News.
Wells and his wife, Candus Bly, lost custody of their three boys, after police were unable to locate Summer last year, according to Fox News.
Wells details the family’s struggles following Summer’s disappearance in the letter. He and his wife both lost their jobs and have been unable to find work. Wells was fired from his drywalling job in January after protesters came to his place of employment, according to WJHL.
Wells told the station that the group had come to his home at least six times before tracking him down at work.
“They come in and started banging on the garage door and all the windows and everything and so I called my employer first and then we called the police, and they came out. So, they had to step off the property but they was out there making a big scene and everything so my employer, for the builder’s sake, for me to pull off the job so I had to pull off the job,” Wells told the station in January.
“Nobody will hire my wife, and I’ve been fired from the job I’ve had for 13 years,” he wrote. "You see, the public blames us. I don’t know if we’ll ever find employment again.”
He begs Summer’s captors to release her.
“When you took our little girl you took our very lives,” he wrote. “Why don’t you give our little girl back before God’s wrath descends on you. You’ve broken many hearts and more especially an innocent [6-year-old girl’s] heart. One day God will hold you accountable for this crime unless you do something to make this right.”
Both of Summer’s parents have criminal records. Bly’s sister in Wisconsin has been missing since 2009, according to Fox News.
