Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / FBI JOINS SEARCH FOR TENNESSEE GIRL SUMMER WELLS, 5

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FBI JOINS SEARCH FOR TENNESSEE GIRL SUMMER WELLS, 5 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A five year old little girl gets a piece of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: candy from grandma, then goes back into her own home
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to play with her brothers, and she's never seen alive again.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: How can that be? Where is Summer Wells? Good evening,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I Nancy Grace, this is crime Stories. I want to
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: thank you for being with us.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Five year old Summer or Wells lived with her family
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: in a small Tennessee town. One summer day, she was
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: helping plant flowers before going inside to play with her toys.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: When her mother went into check on her, Summer was
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: nowhere to be found.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: I know she didn't walk away from this property by herself,
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: or off this yard by her swing. I feel in
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: my heart that somebody has came up here and took her,
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: has lured or away from.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: I knew right away that she was abducted, you know,
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: I knew that right away, and that's what I told
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: him from the beginning.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: From our friends at w j h L TV. How
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: did the dad know she had been abducted immediately? That
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: would not spring to my mind immediately if I could
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: not find my children, either one of them? Where is
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Summer Wells? Straight out to a special guest joining us tonight,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Kristin Kwan News Anchored News five WCYB there in Bristol.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: What happened? What happened at the time Summer Wells, just
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: five years old, goes missing and everybody, as Kristin Kwan
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: is speaking, I want you to take a look at
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the photos we have amassed of this five year old
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: little girl.
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Nancy, So Summer Wells went missing on June fifteenth.
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: That day, Candice Summer's mother told me that they had
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: gone to run some errands. They had taken her to
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: a local park where she went swimming, and then they
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: came back to the house, their house on ben Hill
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: Road in Hawkins County, And at that time, she was
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: playing outside with her mom with her grandmother, and she
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: wanted to go back inside to play with some of
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: her toys in the house. So Candace says that she
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: walked Somemmer to the house. She went inside the house,
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: Candace went back with the grandmother to finish up some
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: things outside and in the yard, and that's when they
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: realized a few minutes later that she was missing.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, so she goes in the house to play and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: then just a few minutes later she's vanished, Do I
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: have that correct, Kristen, that's correct. Okay, I'm trying to
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: digest that. Let's hear what the parents say.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Me and my mother and her were planning flowers, and
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: we went in after we got done washing our hands,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: and she got a piece of candy from grandma and
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: she wanted to go back over and see her brothers,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: and I said okay, and I walked her all the
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: way over to the porch, and I watched her walk
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: into the kitchen where the boys were watching TV. And
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I told the boys, I said, watch summer. I'll be back,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: And within two minutes I came back and I asked
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: the boys where their sister was, and they said she
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: went downstairs mom to play with her toys in the playroom.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I said okay, and I yelled downstairs for her a
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: couple of times, and they didn't get no answer, which
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: was unusual because usually she always answers me. And so
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: I went down there to check and she was nowhere
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: in sight. She was just gone.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: From wjh LTV to Brian Fitzgibbons, joining us Director Operations
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: USPA Nationwide Security, former marine Iraqi War that his business
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: is finding missing people how many people go missing from
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: their own home never to be seen again.
• 4:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Hey, there's quite a few across the country that
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: go missing each year. Now, of only a very small
• 4:20
  Speaker 6: percentage of something like six hundred thousand people a year
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: go missing in the United States, in less than one
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: percent or around one percent will actually remain missing. So
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: this is very rare. This is a very rare occurrence.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: To go missing in your own home.
• 4:41
  Speaker 6: Yeah, from your own home with a child, you know,
• 4:44
  Speaker 6: you're typically dealing you know, a child with summer's age,
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: You're typically dealing with one of three scenarios. The first
• 4:52
  Speaker 6: could be that the child walked away and got lost.
• 4:56
  Speaker 6: The second is that something happened to that child inside
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: the home, usually from a family member or a close associate,
• 5:04
  Speaker 6: and that that body was hidden. And then the third
• 5:09
  Speaker 6: possibility is a stranger abduction or somebody in the outer sphere,
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: outer perimeter of that family.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Guys with US Brian Fitzgibbons, Director Operations USPA Nationwide Security.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: That is a team of investigators that go around the
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: world finding and extracting missing people. Joining US now tonight.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Chris McDonough, director of the Cold Case Foundation, former homicide
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: detective with under three hundred homicide cases under his belt
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: and the star of the interview Room on YouTube, Chris McDonough,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: You have actually gone to the scene and walked through
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the home. What did you learn, Well, the house.
• 5:56
  Speaker 7: Was under construction at the time of summers disappearance, fancy,
• 6:01
  Speaker 7: And when you first get up to the property, you
• 6:04
  Speaker 7: realize pretty quickly there is a very steep driveway that
• 6:08
  Speaker 7: has gravel in nature, so it would take some type
• 6:12
  Speaker 7: of a four wheel drive and or a vehicle that
• 6:15
  Speaker 7: has all wheel.
• 6:16
  Speaker 8: Drive number one to get up the hill.
• 6:19
  Speaker 7: And then the area and of itself in a geographical
• 6:22
  Speaker 7: profiling concept, it is a very rural area. You would
• 6:27
  Speaker 7: have to know exactly where that house was. Why is
• 6:30
  Speaker 7: that important Because Summer was allegedly down in the basement
• 6:35
  Speaker 7: of that home, and that would have meaned if it
• 6:39
  Speaker 7: was a stranger abduction situation Brian had mentioned, then of
• 6:45
  Speaker 7: course you would have to know number one, that she
• 6:48
  Speaker 7: was in that basement at that moment, and then you
• 6:51
  Speaker 7: would have to make your way up through either the
• 6:53
  Speaker 7: woods and or up that driveway, and both of those
• 6:57
  Speaker 7: are very difficult situations to accomplish to get that child
• 7:02
  Speaker 7: off of that property.
• 7:04
  Speaker 8: So the fact that she was in the basement.
• 7:06
  Speaker 7: Basement makes this case a very even statistically, it takes
• 7:12
  Speaker 7: that number even higher improbability.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Chris, the scene that you videoed, it's very rural and mountainous.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Describe it well, the.
• 7:25
  Speaker 7: Area of itself, you know, Hawkins County in Tennessee, it's
• 7:32
  Speaker 7: it's what they call a holler, So it's a road
• 7:35
  Speaker 7: that goes off of the main drive and it's basically
• 7:39
  Speaker 7: neighbors that have known each other for generations. So strangers
• 7:43
  Speaker 7: just don't pull up into that area. You have to
• 7:45
  Speaker 7: be familiar.
• 7:46
  Speaker 8: There's streets, there's steep hills, et cetera.
• 7:50
  Speaker 7: And then when you get up into the house, the
• 7:52
  Speaker 7: house was under construction, like I mentioned that when this
• 7:56
  Speaker 7: situation happened, and there was one part in the house
• 8:01
  Speaker 7: when you enter into the house. The boys, the other
• 8:05
  Speaker 7: children of the home slept in a room right when
• 8:07
  Speaker 7: you come in, and then to the right was a kitchen,
• 8:11
  Speaker 7: but there was a bar it looked like a breakfast
• 8:15
  Speaker 7: bar of some sort that that had to cut out
• 8:18
  Speaker 7: in it with a set of stairs that took you
• 8:22
  Speaker 7: down into a basement, and you would there's no way
• 8:26
  Speaker 7: you would have known that In fact, when I walked in,
• 8:30
  Speaker 7: the mom showed me that, you know, breakfast bar, and
• 8:35
  Speaker 7: I was looking for a set of stairs to you know,
• 8:37
  Speaker 7: or another door to go down into the basement. She goes, no,
• 8:40
  Speaker 7: it's right here, underneath the breakfast bar, and I was like,
• 8:44
  Speaker 7: you got to be kidding me.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, wait, wait, okay, hold on just a minute. Let
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: me understand what you're saying. You're saying that this little
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: girl had to climb into the floor, down a trap
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: floor and lived under the basement.
• 9:01
  Speaker 7: Essentially, Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. She mom said
• 9:05
  Speaker 7: she went down into that basement, so she would have
• 9:08
  Speaker 7: had to have gone through that hot out in the
• 9:13
  Speaker 7: breakfast farm. And once you get into it, it's only
• 9:17
  Speaker 7: about you made less than two feet wide to get in.
• 9:21
  Speaker 7: I had a very difficult time getting through it.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: So Chris in a nutshell summer lived under the floor, right, Yeah.
• 9:30
  Speaker 8: That would be an accurate assessment.
• 9:32
  Speaker 7: And there's only one door Nancy to the exterior from
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: that basement.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, why does she have all her hair chopped off
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: in a gash on her head? Do you know the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: answer to that? Kristin kwan so I.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: Was told by her parents and by some of her
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: friends that were close to Somemer in the family that
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: they had actually had lice at one point and so
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: they had shaved her head in order to get rid
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: of the lice.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, moving forward back to Chris McDonough the video, Why
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: is the home full of stuff? It looks like a hoarder.
• 10:10
  Speaker 7: Yeah, the place is extremely disheveled, and you're correct, they
• 10:15
  Speaker 7: are collecting all kinds of stuff. And one of the
• 10:18
  Speaker 7: most interesting things is when you start to get down
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: into the basement, immediately you notice that there are only
• 10:26
  Speaker 7: two rooms down there. To the left is where the
• 10:28
  Speaker 7: parents allegedly slept, and then to the right is where
• 10:32
  Speaker 7: Summer slept. But on the TV was inappropriate material. I
• 10:37
  Speaker 7: think it was a TV show Girls Gone Wild or
• 10:41
  Speaker 7: something to that effect. So can you imagine the children
• 10:45
  Speaker 7: being exposed just to that stuff alone? And was it
• 10:51
  Speaker 7: felt like a dungeon?
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Could you describe again the space where Summer Wells lived.
• 11:00
  Speaker 7: Yeah, So when you come down those stairs, Nanchy into
• 11:03
  Speaker 7: the basement area, to the left is where the parents were.
• 11:08
  Speaker 7: You know, that's was quote their room, but then to
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: the right is Summer's room. And in that room, as
• 11:15
  Speaker 7: you can tell. It's a concrete walled dungeon with the
• 11:22
  Speaker 7: windows were blocked out with some materials, so it was dark,
• 11:27
  Speaker 7: it was dreary.
• 11:28
  Speaker 8: It smelled.
• 11:31
  Speaker 7: It was just horrible for a five year old child
• 11:35
  Speaker 7: in any way, shape or form to being that in
• 11:37
  Speaker 7: that environment.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Well, one thing though, Chris McDonough, I was raised to
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: a large part by my grandmother, Lucy, so my mom
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and dad could go to work, and she lived alone
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: and an old wooden home with a tin roof. Some
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: people would say it was old and decrepitment. It was
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: clean and it smelled like good things on the stove,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and that's how I remember it. I'm seeing a very
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: different picture here. But in defense of Summer's family, you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: said the home was under construction and they were living
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: in it.
• 12:24
  Speaker 8: Yeah, the property had been inherited by her father. It
• 12:30
  Speaker 8: used to belong to his family.
• 12:32
  Speaker 7: And you know, I get the fact that you know,
• 12:35
  Speaker 7: there are some folks that you know are poor. That's
• 12:41
  Speaker 7: a that's not a problem here. But the fact that
• 12:45
  Speaker 7: you can be poor and also then you can also
• 12:48
  Speaker 7: neglect your children around that environment, that's a different story.
• 12:54
  Speaker 7: And I took this environment as a neglectful environment, not
• 13:00
  Speaker 7: a foreign environment.
• 13:01
  Speaker 8: The fact that the house was under construction.
• 13:03
  Speaker 7: They were doing it themselves, but that has taken years
• 13:08
  Speaker 7: and it only started to move forward after Summer's disappearance,
• 13:13
  Speaker 7: when Child Protective Services got involved and told them you
• 13:18
  Speaker 7: need to clean this house up.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Here is Don Wells, is his Summer's dad, defending claims
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: they are unfit.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Missus, Don Wells, We're here to report to you that
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: we've got official letters from the heads of DCS that
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: we are cleared for any abuse.
• 13:38
  Speaker 8: And neglect on our parts towards our children.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much, have.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: A great day.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: That is Don Wells on YouTube. I want you to
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: listen to our friend Chris McDonough from the interview room
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: interviewing Summer Wells's dad as he gives an interview up
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the home.
• 13:56
  Speaker 8: Where do you think she is?
• 14:00
  Speaker 9: Said, you know, it's got to be some sicko hubility druggy.
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: You know her on the woods or you know, or something, or.
• 14:10
  Speaker 9: Somebody put her in her car and took her not
• 14:11
  Speaker 9: too far away or whatever like that.
• 14:13
  Speaker 8: But I'm starting to wonder if it isn't some.
• 14:16
  Speaker 9: High end thing, maybe somebody's seen her on pacebo because
• 14:19
  Speaker 9: my wife was always posting someone Facebook it's her been,
• 14:24
  Speaker 9: you know, if she should be anywhere I have, My
• 14:28
  Speaker 9: mind just goes back and forth.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: I don't I don't have any idea.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Chris McDonald, what is your understanding about what happened to
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Summer that when she disappeared.
• 14:38
  Speaker 8: Whether there's various trains of thought.
• 14:42
  Speaker 7: So from the family's train of thought is like you said, Nancy,
• 14:46
  Speaker 7: mom last saw her going into the house. She told
• 14:50
  Speaker 7: her other children keep an eye on Summer, and somehow
• 14:54
  Speaker 7: Summer ended up in the basement, according to the other children.
• 14:58
  Speaker 7: And that's just coming on also from the mother. This
• 15:01
  Speaker 7: is the story that she's shared. And then so then
• 15:04
  Speaker 7: the story changed that the parents had said, well, there
• 15:08
  Speaker 7: must have been a stranger parked down on the road
• 15:11
  Speaker 7: and he comes up through a dog trail and then
• 15:14
  Speaker 7: knew that Summer was going to be in the basement
• 15:17
  Speaker 7: and then entered into the basement and took her out
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: that door. The challenge with that particular story is the
• 15:24
  Speaker 7: door had changed open and closed, locked and closed at
• 15:29
  Speaker 7: various times, So there's some discrepancies in that story and
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: of itself. And then the third, of course, is she
• 15:36
  Speaker 7: just vanished, somehow walked out that door and just disappeared.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: You mean like a magic trick. Chris McDonough. You know
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: what I don't like when you say that they quote
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: just vanished like boot. No, nobody just disappears like I
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: dream of Genie. That doesn't happen. Something happened to this child.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: And let me clarify. When you say she went down
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: to the basement, you mean in through that down that
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: trap door.
• 16:03
  Speaker 8: Yes, down underneath that breakfast bar. We'll call it.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, Joining us an all star panel to makes sense
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: of what we are learning. Back out to news anchor
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: News five WCYB in Bristol, Kristin Kwan, joining US. I
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: understand there has been a new search in the thirty
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: one hundred block the thirty five hundred block of Van Hill.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: What do you know?
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So the TBI let us know that they were
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: searching that road, which is about nine miles from Summer's home,
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: about sixteen minutes away from her home there in Hawkins County.
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: They have not given any specific details about what that
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: search was. They just said that they were following up
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: on a tip.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I wonder too, why if it's Gibbons joining us USPA
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Nationwide Security. If the brothers have been re interviewed since
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Summer went missing. I wonder if they're all still living
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: in the home or if they are now away from
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the influence of relatives.
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I would have to imagine that. You know, getting
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: a statement, getting an interview done with the siblings would
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: be very important. Now, you know, it would be challenging,
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: right because you know, with children of that age who
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: have been exposed to those conditions, building trust to get
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: a you know, accurate statements from them certainly not an
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: easy task. But you know, one thing I want to
• 17:39
  Speaker 6: highlight that that credible lead that TBI followed up in November.
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: The fact that they actually physically went out there lends
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: a lot to the credibility of that lead. And you know,
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: hopefully something's coming to investigators through reinterviews, through new information
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: that's moving this case forward.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Law enforcement following up on a brand new lead to
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Chris McDonough, any idea what that lead is.
• 18:08
  Speaker 7: Yes, that lead is connected to the father's friends.
• 18:14
  Speaker 8: Who would have access to the property.
• 18:18
  Speaker 7: And also, stepping back for a moment, Nancy about the
• 18:21
  Speaker 7: three the kids, the other boys the parents lost by
• 18:27
  Speaker 7: court order parental rights. So basically, the state of Tennessee
• 18:31
  Speaker 7: took the children and then took the parental rights away
• 18:35
  Speaker 7: from the parents and put them into foster care. Now
• 18:39
  Speaker 7: those children are getting older and the parents, you know,
• 18:44
  Speaker 7: that was the statement you heard from the parents where
• 18:47
  Speaker 7: they're no longer being investigated. And so in this lead itself,
• 18:52
  Speaker 7: they went to a farm where there was believed to
• 18:57
  Speaker 7: potentially be a pig farm point and you know, we
• 19:02
  Speaker 7: can talk about what that theory could have been.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, go ahead, hit me.
• 19:08
  Speaker 7: Well, pigs will devour a human body within forty eight hours,
• 19:13
  Speaker 7: and they will not eat the teeth, though they will
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: leave the teeth, but they'll eat the entire body. In fact,
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: I did a video you'll see it on my channel.
• 19:25
  Speaker 7: I went to a pig farm and showed folks what
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: that would potentially look like. And this is why when
• 19:33
  Speaker 7: on pig farms, believe it or not, if a pig dies,
• 19:37
  Speaker 7: the farmer has to get that pig out of there
• 19:39
  Speaker 7: immediately or the rest of you know, the animals will
• 19:43
  Speaker 7: devour that body completely.
• 19:47
  Speaker 8: That body will disappear.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: We are showing you the video Chris mcdona is describing,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: which you can see on his's YouTube channel. The Interview
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Room now reportedly, no direct connection has been made between
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Summerwell's disappearance and a pig farm, but there are theories
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: and rumors circulating supporting a link between the two. Actually,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: there is a lot of forensic anthropology related to pig farms,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: but that aside with no direct connection or kind of
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: at loose ends. But to Kristin Kwan joining US News
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: five WCYB, what do you know about this lead that
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: was predicated upon friends of adult friends of Summer's father. Yeah,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: so we know that.
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: Don Wells, Summer's father, did have friends on Van Hill Road,
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: about nine miles from their house, but the Tennessee Bureau
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: of Investigation has only confirmed to us that they went
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: there following up on a tip. They haven't said what
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: they were doing there, and because of the nature of
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: this case, everything has been sealed off to the media.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Straight out to Brian Fitzgibbons, the connection of the search,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the new search based on a tip nine point five
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: miles away from the family home. This is very densely
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: forested terrain. What would you do now, Yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker 6: Well, here's the deal. Just like Chris said, and he
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: makes the right point. This is a tremendously rural area.
• 21:40
  Speaker 6: You would have to have knowledge of the family, of
• 21:44
  Speaker 6: that location, of their patterns of movement, that summer would
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: be there when you showed up. So it's very unlikely
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: that this is just you know, a complete stranger.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, wait a minute, Wait a minute, Brian Fitzgibbons. You
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: saw the hull the aerial photos. It's in the middle
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: of a very rural area. Some would say, the middle
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: of nowhere. Where's she going to go? Of course she's home.
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: No exactly, but I mean, how are you going to
• 22:11
  Speaker 6: know that there's a child in there too? Abduct So
• 22:15
  Speaker 6: you know, it points to someone with knowledge of the
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: family and with knowledge of when they're going to be home,
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: right that she's not at school at that time, et cetera,
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: et cetera.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: So at this juncture, where do we go? Brian?
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: You know, at this point, the hope is that through reinterviews,
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: through new information, that some new lead will come out.
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: There is still a substantial reward attached to this case,
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: and we know that TBI is actively working on it,
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: so you know, you have to you have to hope
• 22:49
  Speaker 6: that new information can be revealed through these efforts.
• 22:53
  Speaker 10: We are pursuing Avery Avenue we're we're covering every ground cover,
• 22:57
  Speaker 10: We're covering avery aspect the end of it. If we
• 23:00
  Speaker 10: don't cover it, we have to cover everything hundred percent
• 23:05
  Speaker 10: reualize them. Just to clear waterways, areas that we can't
• 23:08
  Speaker 10: put our normal people into the K nine stuff that
• 23:11
  Speaker 10: aerial cannot see that well, we want to get in there.
• 23:14
  Speaker 10: Check every flip, every rock, check every crevice, check every spot,
• 23:18
  Speaker 10: just to make sure we don't miss a spot.
• 23:20
  Speaker 11: It's still an open and active investigation. I think most
• 23:23
  Speaker 11: people think that the case has gone cold, but that's
• 23:28
  Speaker 11: not true. We still have agents working on it constantly.
• 23:33
  Speaker 11: We follow up on any new information that comes in.
• 23:36
  Speaker 11: I can say that we've been following up on information
• 23:40
  Speaker 11: that we've received in the last few months. So it
• 23:43
  Speaker 11: is very much an active investigation and we will not
• 23:46
  Speaker 11: give up.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: From wb ir ten and Times News in Kingsport, there
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: is a ten thousand dollars reward in place for information
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: leading to the whereabouts of Summer Wells. Chris McDonough, let
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: me re emphasize all of your credentials director at the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Cold Case Foundation, former homicide detective, extensive experience in searching
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: for people and witnesses over three hundred homicide cases under
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: your belt and the star of the interview room on YouTuber.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: I happened to find you at the beginning of the
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Brian Coburger investigation early on, Chris, you decided on your own,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: on your own suice Bonte, to launch your own investigation
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: into the disappearance of Summer Wells. Why and what did
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: you do?
• 24:46
  Speaker 7: So, Nancy, what happened was I happened to have been
• 24:49
  Speaker 7: in Tennessee at the time this had taken place, and
• 24:54
  Speaker 7: I went there to Hawkins County and met with Candish
• 24:59
  Speaker 7: and we talked for a little while about the disappearance
• 25:02
  Speaker 7: of her child, Summer. And because my background and expertise
• 25:07
  Speaker 7: is in missing children, I was able to create a
• 25:12
  Speaker 7: relationship with her and a relationship of trust, and she took.
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: Me down to the water hole where they were, She.
• 25:18
  Speaker 7: Took me up to the house where they live, and
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: my intent surely was to help her and help the
• 25:26
  Speaker 7: family identify if this in fact was an abduction or
• 25:30
  Speaker 7: if there was other circumstances that were taking place that
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: would cause suspicion, and help them find Summer.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: So, Chris mcdona, when you go to the saying good gravy.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: They do look like hoarders. What did you learn?
• 25:45
  Speaker 7: Well, the first thing I discovered when Candace and I
• 25:50
  Speaker 7: were down at the water hole talking initially, and that's
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: Candace right there, Nancy, and the shot going into that,
• 25:56
  Speaker 7: you know, it's behind a tape almost like a bar
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: of some sort in their living room and and it's
• 26:05
  Speaker 7: really a crawl space into the basement. And so when
• 26:09
  Speaker 7: I was first talking to her at the water hole,
• 26:12
  Speaker 7: I could tell she was carrying a tremendous amount of
• 26:14
  Speaker 7: weight obviously, so you know, being a mother of a
• 26:17
  Speaker 7: child who's missing. But when I got back to our house,
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: I was shocked at the circumstances in relationship to the
• 26:26
  Speaker 7: living conditions.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, I think we're showing Summer's bedroom right right now,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: and that's underground.
• 26:33
  Speaker 7: Yes, yes, I mean, if you can believe this, Nancy,
• 26:36
  Speaker 7: if you saw how we got into this area here,
• 26:40
  Speaker 7: you had to go through, you know, this crawl space,
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: and it was very narrow. It was very in my opinion,
• 26:46
  Speaker 7: if somebody would have fallen down that and that was
• 26:48
  Speaker 7: one of the thoughts that I had. Could this have
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: been an accident where she fell down? And you know,
• 26:53
  Speaker 7: now the family feels that they're stuck in a circumstance
• 26:56
  Speaker 7: that maybe there's other things behind the scenes which I
• 26:59
  Speaker 7: wasn't aware of at that time. And you know, maybe
• 27:02
  Speaker 7: they wanted to help, but couldn't you know, they couldn't
• 27:07
  Speaker 7: think fast enough, for lack of a better term. But
• 27:09
  Speaker 7: when you get down to that basement there, you'll notice
• 27:11
  Speaker 7: the windows. Look at the windows in there next to
• 27:14
  Speaker 7: her bed. I mean there, they've got aluminum on them
• 27:19
  Speaker 7: and it's reflective. And then so the room next door
• 27:22
  Speaker 7: is her parents' room, and then there's an exterior door.
• 27:26
  Speaker 7: At the time though it was blocked by a couch
• 27:30
  Speaker 7: when she went missing. So I started to really question
• 27:35
  Speaker 7: about how a five year old goes down into the basement,
• 27:38
  Speaker 7: and that was the last environment she was ever seen
• 27:42
  Speaker 7: and just vanished.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Usually you couldn't see the road because they have went
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: through here mode. Okay, took down a bunch of stelf
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: away from the car lines.
• 27:51
  Speaker 8: Okay, Well, usually it's full up.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: You can't even see the road.
• 27:54
  Speaker 8: That day though, how was it was it fulled up?
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: There was likely that day in a few days prior
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: that they were working on this.
• 28:02
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I can see the cars going by. That is
• 28:04
  Speaker 12: not far from your property. Is there is there a
• 28:08
  Speaker 12: holler down there? I mean, is there a river or
• 28:10
  Speaker 12: some short and how big?
• 28:14
  Speaker 8: Is how deep? It's a creek? Okay, just so it's
• 28:17
  Speaker 8: like an into two.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Chris mcdonney, you want the property as well. What did
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: you learn about the creek and what did you learn
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: about the traffic.
• 28:29
  Speaker 8: At the bottom of that hill as we can see there.
• 28:32
  Speaker 7: Uh, at the time Summer went missing, there was a
• 28:37
  Speaker 7: tree trimming company that had been working below there, and
• 28:41
  Speaker 7: what what Candice was doing is pointing that out where
• 28:44
  Speaker 7: they had been working. And that road in of itself, uh,
• 28:48
  Speaker 7: you know, it's a very steep incline to get up
• 28:51
  Speaker 7: to the top of that of that hill there to
• 28:54
  Speaker 7: get to their property. So one of the thoughts was
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: is it possible somebody from a you know, the service
• 29:01
  Speaker 7: company or somebody stopped on that road gotten up there.
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: But the downside to that thought process was you would
• 29:09
  Speaker 7: have had to known one hundred percent that Summer was
• 29:12
  Speaker 7: in that basement at that very moment, and and I
• 29:16
  Speaker 7: find that highly unlikely.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: You were seeing video from don Wells family on YouTube,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: I want you to hear what the mom Candice Wales
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: tells Chris McDonough.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: I parked the truck and I opened both doors. It's
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: really hard because this lowmore is. But I opened the
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: doors up and said wake up were she'd jump right
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: up okay, like nothing. I'm buckle there and I said
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: come on, I said, Mom, if you're right, we went
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: in there and you got the boys and they were
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: sitting in at the table. The boys are actually sitting
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: here okay, and actually sitting at the table watching TV.
• 29:53
  Speaker 8: Okay. So they're at the table watching TV. Okay, we're
• 29:56
  Speaker 8: all locked in.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: Nobody could get in, nobody could get out.
• 29:58
  Speaker 8: Okay, watch TV wor shommer summer. She was with me.
• 30:03
  Speaker 8: We walked up in here.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: When we got Josie Why and the boys.
• 30:06
  Speaker 8: When you put the groceries down, yeah, well we.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: Went back out and then we brought the gross dow
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: and put them down. And then Mom, she took her
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: stuff to her. I was putting her stuff away, okay,
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: And then of course me and someone went back over
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: put our stuff away.
• 30:21
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: In addition to Chris mcdonna, star of the Interview Room,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and Dave Matt Crime Story's investigative reporter joining us tonight,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Kristin Kwan, news anchor five wcy B, Bristol. What jumps
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: out at you from what you are seeing on Chris
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: McDonough's interview with the mom.
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: Well, I think what jumps out to me is, you know,
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: I've been up to that property as well, along along
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: with Chris at a different time. And I think the
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: first thing that she told me was they believed that
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: summer was taken, that someone came through that back door
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: in her room and took her out the side door
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: and maybe took her down that dog trail that you
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: can kind of see in the video near their property.
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: We walked, we walked that dog trail. It's extremely, extremely rugged.
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: It's hard to walk down. I think it would be
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: hard to take a five year old girl down that path.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Take a listen to more from Chris mcdunne's interview.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, me and someone went back into the house and
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: then we're just doing normal stuff, okay, around the house
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: like normally do. And I come out almost sitting there,
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: and non I come out and I'm standing here, like
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: what are you doing?
• 31:45
  Speaker 8: What are you staring at?
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: She's like, these plans, I gotta get them transplanted. I
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: was like, well, someone will help us. So I went
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: back in. By that time, she was sitting on the
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: floor plane with her toys. I said, somebody want to
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: help plant flowers? And she jumped up, left her toys,
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: and I, of course, we transplanted these cat distance from
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: the little pots that they were in, and transplanted these
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: ones here into this bigger.
• 32:08
  Speaker 13: Pot, and that one in that bigger pot.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: And she took the rocks that we've gotten from different
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: gem mines when we went up to the gallenburg and stuff, okay,
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: and she was taken. She's the one that splitted all
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: the rocks around in here. And then she put her
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: puppies in him.
• 32:22
  Speaker 8: She wanted chasing there, you know, okay.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: And then we went in my mom, well, we can't
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: get in there.
• 32:27
  Speaker 8: Yes, went in there. We went in there and.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: Got some Canadian and stuff. She gets some grandma okay,
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: And I said, well, I'm gonna go back over to
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: the house. She wanted to go back, so I say,
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: I go back, you know, okay, And I bought her.
• 32:38
  Speaker 14: I wal, I literally walked over to here, literally walked
• 32:44
  Speaker 14: right in here where I.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: Could see the boys in the kitchen table got 'em,
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: and I watched her walk in there.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Chris McDonald, I'm sure you've seen this with a lot
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: of witnesses. There are portions of what the mom just
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: said that I believe. I believe that Summer Wells was
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: there when they were transplanting the little catti. I believe
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: that she spread the gems around amongst the ornamental rocks.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: I believe she probably went into the grandma's and got
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: some candy. I don't know what to make of it
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: from that point. I don't know when those things actually occurred.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: But the reason I say I believe that those things
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: did happen, whether it was that day or another day,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: is the level of detail she provides, the degree of certainty.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it was the day Summer went missing,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: but I think those things did happen. What did you
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: make of her story?
• 33:41
  Speaker 8: Yeah, and I agree with you and Nancy.
• 33:43
  Speaker 7: There are fractions of her story that are believable. There's
• 33:47
  Speaker 7: no question about it. In your experience, I mean, having
• 33:49
  Speaker 7: interviewed thousands of witnesses and trials and courts, I guess
• 33:55
  Speaker 7: one of the things that really jumped out at me
• 33:58
  Speaker 7: is the level of detail just seems too much. What
• 34:03
  Speaker 7: I mean by that is, you know, she walks me
• 34:06
  Speaker 7: over and points to how she, you know, told Summer
• 34:10
  Speaker 7: to get into the house. And it's almost like this
• 34:13
  Speaker 7: overprotective narrative. Yet you let a five year old go
• 34:17
  Speaker 7: into a basement like this, which is quite frankly it
• 34:20
  Speaker 7: looks like a dungeon when you get inside of it,
• 34:23
  Speaker 7: and then you know it's it's on top of this
• 34:28
  Speaker 7: concept when she first pulls up from a day's activities
• 34:31
  Speaker 7: together they're at a water hole together, that she gives
• 34:35
  Speaker 7: this narrative of yeah, Summer just jumps up. It's almost like, okay,
• 34:42
  Speaker 7: you know, I need to emphasize this to you, and
• 34:46
  Speaker 7: in my training and experience that that could be either
• 34:50
  Speaker 7: a completely truthful or you know, you have to look
• 34:54
  Speaker 7: at those types of statements and say, okay, is she
• 34:57
  Speaker 7: just trying to fill some gaps from activity that she's
• 35:00
  Speaker 7: trying to conceal.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Investigative reporter Kristin Kwan joining us out of News five WCYB, Bristol.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: I've had a lot of witnesses and defendants that they
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: weave in truthful portions of a story with untruthful portions.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: But I definitely believe that those events did happen. I
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: don't know when if it was the date Summer went
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: missing or not when you went there. Let me rephrase that,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: have you heard any story that is inconsistent with what
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: she just said?
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: I have not heard anything inconsistent with what she just said.
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: And even when we went up there the day, a
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: couple of days after Summer had been reported missing, you
• 35:46
  Speaker 5: could still see some of the pop patrol toys in
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: the planters where she had maybe been planting with her
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: grandma or planting with her mom. So I do think
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: some of those details are definitely accurate.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: This is where the story gets Marquis and afterwards, he.
• 36:06
  Speaker 8: Was already in there.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: I walked over. I said why, and he looked at me,
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: and I said, watch this, I'll be right back. And
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: that's when I walked back over to my mom's okay,
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: and I was fixing her braces and stuff like that,
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: and I said, well, Mom, I gotta go back over
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: with the kids. And that's when I come back up
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: into the house okay with the boys, Okay, walked in
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: here and then the three were sitting right here, and
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: girl with her eyes glue with the d and I said, boys,
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: where's your sister? At well, she just went downstairs on
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: the place. So I I went over here, like I did,
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: so this is where are okay, intentionally down under there?
• 36:44
  Speaker 8: Oh oh, down into her down into from our bedroom
• 36:48
  Speaker 8: and then hers is on the other side. Oh okay,
• 36:50
  Speaker 8: in the basement yea. And then I yelled, I said summer, summer,
• 36:54
  Speaker 8: and she didn't.
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: I listened for a minute. I didn't hear nothing.
• 36:57
  Speaker 14: So I went like fisk, cause this is how I
• 36:59
  Speaker 14: hold to get down back.
• 37:00
  Speaker 8: Yeah, this is my okay, get o right here.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: Well it's a mess again, that's all right. But this
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: is where summer and little Whalen was because Whalen is
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: only nine, okay, and they stayed down here.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Chris mcdonna, what did the boys say happened?
• 37:20
  Speaker 7: Well, the boys have not, you know, publicly made any statements.
• 37:27
  Speaker 7: I know they were interviewed by not only Tennessee Bureau
• 37:31
  Speaker 7: of Investigation, but the Hawkins County Sheriff's Department the day
• 37:34
  Speaker 7: of the of the incident. But and as you can
• 37:38
  Speaker 7: see there, she's to me, she's almost you know, wants
• 37:42
  Speaker 7: to over emphasize that somebody had eyes on summer at
• 37:46
  Speaker 7: all time.
• 37:47
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 37:48
  Speaker 7: And yet again we go back to this, you know,
• 37:53
  Speaker 7: going down into the basement area there. And one of
• 37:56
  Speaker 7: their interesting note Nancy, is before I even got there,
• 38:00
  Speaker 7: we had stopped at a market down the street, and
• 38:05
  Speaker 7: I was supposed to meet with her husband as well.
• 38:08
  Speaker 8: Up at the house.
• 38:10
  Speaker 7: I think she made because she she made a phone call,
• 38:13
  Speaker 7: and I believe she had made a phone call to
• 38:14
  Speaker 7: her husband, who just inadvertently, you know, wasn't there when
• 38:19
  Speaker 7: I got onto the property. And when I got down
• 38:22
  Speaker 7: into that basement, you'll notice the TV is on, and
• 38:26
  Speaker 7: there's some programs on that quite frankly, to any children
• 38:30
  Speaker 7: being around, it would have been inappropriate.
• 38:34
  Speaker 8: So that end of itself caused you know, the hair
• 38:37
  Speaker 8: to go up on the back of my neck. And
• 38:40
  Speaker 8: I was really suspicious about the totality of this statement.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: What was on the TV?
• 38:47
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so there was you know, what appeared to be
• 38:49
  Speaker 7: some very inappropriate material for any children to be around.
• 38:54
  Speaker 7: And I mean it was a TV show where girls
• 38:56
  Speaker 7: were lifting up their tops and you know, displaying their
• 39:00
  Speaker 7: you know, the upper parts. And I just thought to myself,
• 39:03
  Speaker 7: Holy Kyle, this is right next to you know, Summer's bedroom.
• 39:07
  Speaker 7: And if you look at that picture right there, Nancy,
• 39:09
  Speaker 7: on this shot that is also a family member who
• 39:13
  Speaker 7: disappeared in Wisconsin. Her case has never been solved either,
• 39:18
  Speaker 7: and that her sister's name was Rose, and this is
• 39:21
  Speaker 7: Candace's sister.
• 39:23
  Speaker 8: She pointed that picture out to me.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: So wait, let me understand the mom's sister went missing.
• 39:29
  Speaker 7: Yes, her mother sister, Candace's sister is also another unsolved
• 39:35
  Speaker 7: missing person's case.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's quite the coincidence, isn't it. How old was
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the sister when she went missing.
• 39:43
  Speaker 8: I believe she was in her twenties.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Now we're hearing more, we ll come.
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: Down in our search.
• 39:48
  Speaker 14: That looked up underneath the beds under.
• 39:50
  Speaker 8: There, and we can't you know, I can't.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, BRO looked under there and looked at her every blanket.
• 39:54
  Speaker 8: I possibly look under yep.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: And then I come over here and I look with
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: on most side in Sanda work and I don't remember.
• 40:04
  Speaker 7: I don't want to call.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: If this was lost or not.
• 40:06
  Speaker 8: I don't call that, okay, but I know what.
• 40:09
  Speaker 14: But I said summer because sometimes she'll sit right here
• 40:14
  Speaker 14: and just sit here and play it for you know,
• 40:17
  Speaker 14: And usually when she comes out, she comes out and
• 40:19
  Speaker 14: she goes directly.
• 40:21
  Speaker 8: That way up to the swing.
• 40:24
  Speaker 12: Okay, So this is like her when she come running out.
• 40:27
  Speaker 12: Oh yeah, you can see the path here right, you
• 40:30
  Speaker 12: can see where she could.
• 40:31
  Speaker 8: Have run right up to you would go.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: She wouldn't leave, Okay, she wouldn't go nowhere else.
• 40:38
  Speaker 13: There is a time frame here between this trailer and
• 40:43
  Speaker 13: that house within. You said two to ten minutes, maybe
• 40:51
  Speaker 13: two to five. And then she goes in and now
• 40:55
  Speaker 13: she's going.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Back to you. Christian Quo joining us wcyb NIE's five Bristol.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: So her the mom's story is Summer goes in the
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: home and within five minutes she's gone. That's the story.
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: That's the story. Yes, And I mean I think we've
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: mentioned this before, but when you drive up their property,
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: it's this extremely rough road, gravel road, and at the
• 41:25
  Speaker 5: time they had three or four dogs that would have
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: been barking. So if somebody had driven up that road,
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: I feel like they would have heard somebody coming at
• 41:35
  Speaker 5: that point because the dogs would have been barking. You
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: would hear any kind of truck or car that would
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: try to make it up that road.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: What do you make of the mom's story, Kristin.
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think it's hard. I think that, like
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: we said, there's a lot of truth to what they
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: did before that day. There's a lot of people that
• 41:58
  Speaker 5: saw them go to the watering, go to the lake
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: to swim, and then come home that day. But as
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: far as what happened exactly on that hill, I think
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: it's it's hard to know because there was only a
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: few people that were up there that day.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Chris mcdonna, did the mom have this casual demeanor the
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: whole time she was talking about her daughter's disappearance.
• 42:20
  Speaker 8: Yes, and no.
• 42:21
  Speaker 7: There was a time there was a point in our
• 42:23
  Speaker 7: conversation where she emotionally had a breakdown.
• 42:27
  Speaker 8: Nancy. I mean she literally down by the water hole
• 42:31
  Speaker 8: when we were talking.
• 42:33
  Speaker 7: This is just prior to this, to getting up to
• 42:36
  Speaker 7: her house, she had made a really interesting comment to me.
• 42:40
  Speaker 7: She said, you know, I just feel like there's a
• 42:43
  Speaker 7: lot of weight on me and that God is, you know,
• 42:48
  Speaker 7: basically punishing me.
• 42:49
  Speaker 8: Was her.
• 42:50
  Speaker 7: That was her inference, and I actually turned off the
• 42:54
  Speaker 7: camera because I just thought it was such a.
• 42:57
  Speaker 8: Movement, a moving moment.
• 42:59
  Speaker 7: But Mike experience also told me maybe she was going
• 43:02
  Speaker 7: to release information that she's been holding inside that you know,
• 43:08
  Speaker 7: could give us a little more insight into Summer's disappearance.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Punishing her for what.
• 43:15
  Speaker 8: That's a great question.
• 43:16
  Speaker 7: That is an absolutely great question, and I, you know,
• 43:20
  Speaker 7: I didn't want to press it obviously at that circums
• 43:22
  Speaker 7: In that circumstance, I wanted to, you know, get to
• 43:26
  Speaker 7: the house and get a little more information. So we
• 43:30
  Speaker 7: that's where we kind of jumped off from the water
• 43:32
  Speaker 7: hole to hear into the house.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Now mom is casting doubt on alleged child molesters, and.
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: I just recently found up that there was like, uh,
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: get these um lessons, okay, that lived like literally eight
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: minutes from my house. He can literally walk from his
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: house into.
• 43:54
  Speaker 8: My house in eight minutes, okay.
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: And like that bushy area right there, you can't really
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: tell if anybody's crouch down there or anything.
• 44:02
  Speaker 8: What do the authorities think?
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: I don't know what they think.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: You I really don't, Okay, Chris mc donna, let me understand.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: The only way to get to Summer Wells's bedroom is
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: through that crawl space. But isn't there a door down there?
• 44:18
  Speaker 7: Yes, there is a side door down And as Kristen
• 44:21
  Speaker 7: talked about, when I pulled up, I counted thirteen dogs
• 44:25
  Speaker 7: on the property. So number one, a suspect would have
• 44:29
  Speaker 7: to park down at the bottom of that dog trail
• 44:32
  Speaker 7: that she was talking about a little bit of Google.
• 44:35
  Speaker 8: And then number.
• 44:35
  Speaker 7: Two, the suspect would also have to know the exact
• 44:39
  Speaker 7: time Summer was going to be into that basement. Remember
• 44:43
  Speaker 7: we're only talking a two to five minute time frame
• 44:45
  Speaker 7: here to know that that child would be in that basement.
• 44:50
  Speaker 7: So and then from that point he would have to
• 44:52
  Speaker 7: take her out that side door. And an interesting point
• 44:56
  Speaker 7: there is Candice made it a point to turn back
• 44:59
  Speaker 7: to me you saw when she was walking towards out
• 45:02
  Speaker 7: side door, to tell me she didn't know if it
• 45:05
  Speaker 7: was open or if it was closed. And the reason
• 45:08
  Speaker 7: for that is I believe she had actually told the
• 45:11
  Speaker 7: authorities it was locked, and that was something that maybe
• 45:15
  Speaker 7: she was trying to fill that gap.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Locked from the inside, got it. So the suspect would
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: either have to go to the family bar, slash island,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: go into a little hole, go down the chute, land
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: in the bedroom to get Summer and then go out
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the door, or encounter thirteen yapping, screaming, baying dogs by
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: going up the side of the hill, get through all
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: the dogs, get through the side door, which she may
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: have said, Mom may have said was locked, get Summer
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: and leave without being detected. Those are the two choices
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: from an outside intruder. I have that right, Chris mcdowne, Nancy,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: you're right on target, Okay, Kristin Kwan agreed, disagree?
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: I agree. I think at one point Don Dawn Candace's
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: father did tell me he thought that she could have
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: maybe been playing on the side of that hill, because
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: the boys and Summer would sometimes go down on the
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: hill and play in the woods there, and that he
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: thought that maybe she could have been taken while they
• 46:30
  Speaker 5: were playing and down on.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: That not in five minutes. If the time estimate is correct,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: her disappearing within five minutes of going into the home,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: that doesn't seem possible that she has time to go
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: in the home, go down the chute underneath the family kitchen,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: island land in her bedroom, and what goes straight out
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: the door and start playing. I don't know if that's
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: feasible if the timeline is correct. But then there are
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: discussions of a polygraph.
• 47:01
  Speaker 12: There is a rumor about these polygraph tests.
• 47:04
  Speaker 8: Clear that out, all right.
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: The first one that I took, and I didn't really
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: take it because they kind of threw me in the
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: back of the squad car. So I was really upset,
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: and you know, just all the I was crying my eyes.
• 47:16
  Speaker 8: Out, okay.
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: And so when I got up there to the courthouse,
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: we tried to do it, but I couldn't do it.
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: So we waited a few days and then I went
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: back and I did it and I passed it.
• 47:30
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: So that was that?
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Is that true? Chris mcdona. Did Mom pass a polly?
• 47:38
  Speaker 7: According to the family, and according to Candace, she passed
• 47:42
  Speaker 7: the poly But I don't think there's been an official
• 47:44
  Speaker 7: law enforcement you know, information on that.
• 47:49
  Speaker 6: What about it?
• 47:50
  Speaker 5: Kristin, The law enforcement had never said whether or not
• 47:54
  Speaker 5: any of the family members have passed a polygraph, but
• 47:58
  Speaker 5: we do believe that they took them.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Kristin, where does the case stand tonight?
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: At this point, Summer is still missing. Years later, they
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: still are following up on tips. They tell us it's
• 48:10
  Speaker 5: not a cold case that they continue to follow up
• 48:13
  Speaker 5: tip on tips. The most recent one that we learned
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: of was that one in November, Back in November twenty
• 48:19
  Speaker 5: twenty five, when they were following up on a tip
• 48:22
  Speaker 5: in Greenville.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: And what became of it? What was the tip and
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: what became of.
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: It, so all we know about that tip was that
• 48:31
  Speaker 5: they were searching a property on Van Hill Road in
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: Green County, which from Summer's home is about sixteen minutes away,
• 48:38
  Speaker 5: about nine miles. Now, we tried to find more information
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: on what exactly they were doing there, but unfortunately the
• 48:49
  Speaker 5: judge has sealed anything related to this case at all,
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: so we don't know exactly according to law enforcement, what
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: they were doing at that home.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Where is Wells. There is a ten thousand dollar reward
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: in place for information leading to the whereabouts of Summer Wells.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: A ten thousand dollar reward. If you know or think
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: you know anything about the disappearance of this little girl,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: please dial toll free eight hundred TBI find repeat eight
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: hundred eight two four three four six three. We remember
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: an American hero Officer, Stuart Beasley, Jasper PD, Alabama, killed
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: in the line of duty after five years on the force,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: leaving behind a wife turned widow, Melissa. American hero Officer
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Stuart Beasley. Thank you to our guest, but especially to
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: you for being with us tonight and keeping the search
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: for Summer Wells alive. Nancy Gray signing off, but I'll
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: see tomorrow night and until then good night friend,