The FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team is part of the search for Summer Wells, who was reported missing from her east Tennessee home on June 15.
Multiple local, state and federal agencies have joined the extensive search for the missing 5-year-old girl from Hawkins County. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said at a press conference Thursday that investigators have followed hundreds of leads but still have very little concrete information about where the missing girl could be. A TBI spokesperson has also said that authorities are not clear about the circumstances of Summer’s initial disappearance.
FBI Public Affairs Officer Darrell DeBusk said in a statement obtained by WJHL that the FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team was part of the search effort.
“We have deployed our Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) Team. FBI CARD Teams consist of highly trained and experienced subject-matter experts, including of FBI agents, intelligence analysts, and behavioral analysis profilers. CARD also utilizes resources from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and a variety of search teams,” the statement reads.
“CARD Teams provide on-the-ground investigative, technical, analytical, and resource assistance during non-family child abductions, ransom child abductions, and mysterious disappearances of children.”
While Summer’s parents Don Wells and Candus Bly Wells have faced intense public scrutiny, investigators have said the parents have been cooperative in the investigation. Authorities have not ruled out foul play.
Anyone with possible information is urged to call the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office at 423-272-7121 or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 800-TBI-FIND.
Read all of CrimeOnline’s covering of the search for Summer Wells here.
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