Hawkins County Sheriff Ronnie Lawson said Tuesday that the parents of missing Tennessee girl Summer Wells are not being cooperative as the search continues.
Lawson, who added that Don Wells and Candus Bly have lawyered up, broke the news after the Tennesee Bureau of Investigation began a small search for Summer on Monday, News Channel 8 reports.
On Tuesday, search crews, including K9s, continued the search and looked throughout the Beech Creek community, located near Summer’s home. So far, there has been no credible sighting of the child.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Summer was reported missing on June 15, 2021, after her parents claimed disappeared from inside their home in rural east Tennessee. Don Wells has maintained since her initial disappearance that Summer was kidnapped; though authorities said they do not have evidence pointing to abduction.
Police have not named any specific persons of interest, but Lawson previously said that “everybody is still a person of interest.”
Summer’s father also appeared to confirm, as previous local reports have suggested, that he was not at home at the time Summer disappeared from her home.
“She’s been abducted in my mind, 100%,” Don Wells said when asked if he still believes his daughter was kidnapped.
“I know [Summer’s mother] Candus wouldn’t lie to me about any of the facts. She has no reason to, and she wouldn’t lie.”
Don Wells also insisted that both he and his wife passed a lie detector test, appearing to reference speculation that they had not.
Meanwhile, Lawson touched on social media and Internet sleuths, adding that law enforcement doesn’t pay attention to the speculation anymore, which has reportedly gotten out of hand.
“[In] the first few months, it was pretty bad, but I think it’s gotten to now that we don’t pay attention to it whatsoever,” Lawson said. “I mean, it’s just a waste of our time. Occasionally, we get something we really want to check into, but people out of state — they really don’t know what we’re doing.”
Lawson assured the public that the search will continue for Summer and that law enforcement had “given 100% effort on this case.”
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[Featured Photo: Summer Wells/TBI]
