Prayer vigil to honor one year since Summer Wells disappeared

HAWKINS CO., Tenn. (WVLT) - A prayer vigil was announced for all missing children and Summer Wells, the missing 6-year-old from Hawkins County whose disappearance captivated the nation, according to the Wells Family website.

Summer Wells, a 6-year-old Hawkins County girl, disappeared on June 15, 2021, and has been at the center of a Tennessee AMBER Alert since. While her parents believe she was abducted from their residence on Ben Hill Road, the TBI has repeatedly reported no evidence supporting that claim.

Don Wells invited WVLT to come to his home in Rogersville to show in detail what he thinks happened to his daughter.

Wells said he believes someone came through a wooded trail near the family home and took Summer.

“We don’t know if someone was waiting in the basement or if she come outside here and went to the swing or possibly back up there to grandma’s. We don’t know. All we know is that she went down the basement. That’s the only thing we know. To play with her toys,” shared Wells.

He said the basement door at their home was typically left open or unlocked.

“The boys a lot of times would leave this unlocked and wide open a bunch of times, and we’d get on them a lot and tell them ‘you can’t do that’ but we’d always find it open a bunch of times. We tried to control that but we couldn’t control that 100 percent of the time,” says Wells.

The family released a video on Feb. 4, to honor Summer’s sixth birthday. Officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also said they had received over 1,800 tips in February, but none have panned out.

The poster states that if Summer is not yet found by June 15, 2022, the vigil will take place that evening. A location for the event will be announced the day before, according to the website.