Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Summer Wells, 5, Disappears From Rural Tennessee Home: Dad In Handcuffs

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Summer Wells, 5, Disappears From Rural Tennessee Home: Dad In Handcuffs · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Tonight, Summer Wells, just five years old, disappears from her
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: rural Tennessee home. And tonight, dad in handcuffs.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Good evening.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. A five-year-old little girl
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: goes back into her own home to play with her
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: brothers and she's never seen alive again.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: It is a very rural area. You would have to
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: know exactly where that house was.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: The space where Summer Wells lived.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: It felt like a dungeon.
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: 600,000 people a year go missing in the United States.
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: And less than 1% will actually remain missing.
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: Then we went in my mom's.
• 0:54
  Speaker 6: We can't get in there.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's fine. We went in there. We went in
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: there and got some candy and stuff.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: She gets it from Grandma.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: And I said, well, I'm going to go back over
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to the house. She wanted to go back, so I
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: said I'd go back, you know.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: And I brought her.
• 1:06
  Speaker 6: I literally walked over to here.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I literally walked right to here where I.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Could see the boys on the kitchen table. Got them.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: And I watched her walk in there. We come down
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and I searched.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: I looked up underneath the beds under there. We can't
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: really get on.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I can't get on there.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:23
  Speaker 7: But I looked under there.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I looked under every blanket I could possibly look under.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Yep. And then I come over here.
• 1:29
  Speaker 7: And I looked.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Looked on both sides.
• 1:31
  Speaker 8: I didn't see anywhere.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: And.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: I don't remember, I don't recall if this was locked
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: or not.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Okay. I don't recall that. Okay. But I know, it's
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: hard to remember.
• 1:40
  Speaker 7: But I know I did come out again and I said, Summer,
• 1:42
  Speaker 7: because sometimes.
• 1:43
  Speaker 9: She'll sit right here and just sit here and play
• 1:45
  Speaker 9: just for, you know.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: And usually when she comes out, she comes out and
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: she goes directly that way up to the swing.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Okay, so this is like her. Yeah, she just walks.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Where she'd come running out. Oh, yeah, you can see
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: the path here.
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: Right, you can see where she could have run right
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: up to here.
• 2:03
  Speaker 10: And this is all the further she would go, she
• 2:05
  Speaker 10: wouldn't leave.
• 2:05
  Speaker 11: Okay.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: She wouldn't go anywhere else. From our friend Chris McDonough
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: at the interview room, Summer Wells, gorgeous, goes missing 2021. Tonight,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: her father in handcuffs after a late night police call
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to his home. joining us in All-Star Panel to make
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: sense of what we are learning. Chris McDonough joining me.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Chris McDonough has been on the case from the very,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: very beginning. That's him. Let's see Chris McDonough walking through
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the crime scene. Now, to hear the family tell it,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: she goes inside and is never seen again. And they
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: gave you Chris McDonough, director of Cold Case Foundation, former
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: homicide detective. and star of The Interview Room on YouTube.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: They gave, oh my goodness, what a mess. They gave
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you a story about there being a hole in the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: floor and Summer would have to crawl through the hole
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to get down to her basement niche. Oh, there they go. Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Is that it? Is that it, McDonough? You go underneath
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a desk and there's a hole under the desk. It
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: takes you down into the, what?
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: What? Yeah, absolutely, Nancy. I mean, can you believe this, right?
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: I mean, this little girl had to go from the
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: top floor to the bottom floor through about a 20-inch, basically, tunnel.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: They had no stair system at all.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: But when you go through this, it takes you down
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: into the basement, which, quite frankly, had more of the
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: appearance of a dungeon.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: What was her, quote, room like?
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: If we look at this video right here, we can
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: see that's her mattress on the floor. And then the
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: room itself was a concrete walled room. No insulation, as
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: you can see up in the ceiling. It was very cold.
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: There was a bunk bed, which was manufactured with two
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: by fours. And then the windows had aluminum foil up
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: on the windows to prevent light from coming in.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: You can see right there in that picture.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Why? Why were the walls covered over with aluminum foil?
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: That is a great question.
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: It really felt like it was an environment that, number one,
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: no five-year-old should ever be in. And number two, right
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: next door to it was where the parents were sleeping.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: And there was one exit attached to their room. It
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: was just a makeshift situation that just... There was no
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: way a five-year-old should have been in this environment in
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: any way, shape, or form.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: For those of you just joining us, in the last hours,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Summer Wells' dad is in handcuffs after a late-night police
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: call to the home. Control room, oh my. Okay, control room,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: could I please see them crawling underneath the desk? There's apparently,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong, Chris, there is a hole
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: underneath the desk. The desk covers it up. And you
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: get down in that hole and what is, are there
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: steps or you just jump down? What happens?
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Nancy.
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: So once you go, first of all, you have two
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: ways to get into that thing, right? The safest way
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: is to go in backwards like we saw mom there.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: And that's the way she.
• 5:42
  Speaker 8: Went.
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: I went in straight forward. And quite frankly, I could
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: have fallen down those steps.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Very easily. So you can imagine what a child would
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: be experienced.
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: But so this is like a countertop with a hole
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: cut out of in it. And then they've attached a
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: set of stairs to it that takes you into the basement.
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: So it's really crawling into a tunnel.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: In the last hours and arrest.
• 6:07
  Speaker 10: This arrest comes nearly six years to the date of
• 6:10
  Speaker 10: his previous DV arrest. On October 14th in 2020, he
• 6:14
  Speaker 10: was arrested for DV charges with Candace as well. At
• 6:16
  Speaker 10: that time, Candace filed for an order of protection against Dawn. However,
• 6:20
  Speaker 10: a few days later, she dismissed the order. During that arrest,
• 6:22
  Speaker 10: he was also charged with other things regarding a GUN.
• 6:25
  Speaker 10: In April of 2021, he pled guilty to those charges.
• 6:28
  Speaker 10: And in October of 2021, he was arrested for a DUI.
• 6:32
  Speaker 10: Following that, in February of 2022, he was ordered to
• 6:35
  Speaker 10: serve 180 days for violation of probation for those charges.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: That's from Gentleman468 on TikTok. Straight out to Kristen Kwan
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: joining us, news anchor and investigative reporter, News 5 WCYB.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Kristen Kwan on this from the very, very beginning. Kristen,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. and arrest after a
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: late night police call. Dad has quite the criminal history.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Could you just give me his resume first?
• 7:08
  Speaker 9: Yes, he does, Nancy. I think he has charges actually
• 7:11
  Speaker 9: outside of Tennessee too, also in Utah, but we know
• 7:14
  Speaker 9: that he was arrested for domestic violence a few years
• 7:17
  Speaker 9: ago involving Candace here in Tennessee as well. and then
• 7:22
  Speaker 9: this most recent arrest as well.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Deputies rush to the property there on Ben Hill Road,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Hawkins County, rural area of Tennessee, nearly 11 o'clock at night.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: They get there. They find the dad outside the home
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: with scratches on his chest and abdomen. Now, this is
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: according to the Hawkins County Sheriff, but the wife, Candace Will,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Summer's mother, is inside with visible injuries where dad reportedly
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: had had beaten her up. This as the search for
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Summer goes on. The little girl never found.
• 8:01
  Speaker 10: Shortly after her disappearance, her three brothers were removed from
• 8:04
  Speaker 10: the family home. This was due to the home living
• 8:06
  Speaker 10: conditions as well as the family history.
• 8:08
  Speaker 11: The dogs had a pretty good trail, a track for
• 8:10
  Speaker 11: a little while, but then it disappeared. But they lost
• 8:13
  Speaker 11: seeing it when they come to the road. And sometimes
• 8:16
  Speaker 11: canines will They will lose the scent when it changes
• 8:19
  Speaker 11: to a different type, where they maybe went from the
• 8:21
  Speaker 11: gravel to the pavement.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: From Gentleman468 and WVLT. So, Dave Mack, back to the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: dad's extensive resume. What can you tell me?
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Well, Nancy, he has arrests that go back 20 years, okay?
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: We do have the domestic violence assault record and firearms
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: charges in 2020, October of 2020. We've got a DUI
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: October 30, 2021, and additional driving related charges, open container
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: and other things in there. In February of 2022, we
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: got a jail sentence for the DUI, Nancy, when he
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in the
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Hawkins County Jail with 180 days to serve before eligibility
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: for release. That sentence also reflected a probation violation associated
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: with his earlier handgun conviction.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: That's right, Dave Mack and Kristen Kwan, an extensive resume. First,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: there are convictions and arrests out of Arkansas, Utah, Texas,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: violent felonies, burglaries, drug-related offenses, controlled substances, that's drugs, counterfeit charges,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: that's as recent as 2007, parole violations. In 2020, gun charges,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: police find a handgun. You can't have a handgun when
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you're a convicted felon for Pete's sake. Then you've got
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: 2021 DUI and probation violation.
• 9:57
  Speaker 8: Mm, mm, mm.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: 2026 arrested at his Hawkins County home after wife Candace
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: texts dispatchers too afraid to make a phone call stating
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: he had hurt her during a drinking related substance. Okay.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: That's what allegedly happened to the mother. Too afraid to
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: pick up the phone and call 911, she texted. But
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: interesting to Dr. John De La Torre joining us. He's
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: a renowned psychologist. He's a mediator. He specializes in forensic psychology.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Also works with a nonprofit finding missing people called ResolutionFCS.com.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: I think when we look at this man's history, it
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: seems very impulsive, rage-filled, hate-filled. It seems he's constantly seeking
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: kind of control and that he flouts the law by
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: drinking and driving and possessing weapons when he knows he
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: isn't supposed to. What is he willing to do if
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: he's willing to cross so many boundaries, especially with people
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: he claims to love?
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Reminder to everyone, no one has been charged with Summer's disappearance.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: No one has been named a person of interest or
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: a suspect, and that goes for the father, although he
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: was put in handcuffs after a late night call to police.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: To Joanna Nieves joining us, she is a veteran criminal
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: defense attorney, founder of the Nieves Law Firm. Joanna, jump in.
• 11:39
  Speaker 8: So my first thing here is, like you mentioned, nobody
• 11:42
  Speaker 8: has been convicted of an offense here as we think
• 11:45
  Speaker 8: about the new arrest, this domestic assault case. The charges
• 11:49
  Speaker 8: have been filed and he's innocent until proven guilty. And
• 11:51
  Speaker 8: there are questions. He had injuries himself. So I anticipate
• 11:55
  Speaker 8: that his defense is likely going to point out that
• 11:58
  Speaker 8: there may have been, uh, uh, self-defense aspects to what
• 12:04
  Speaker 8: he went through. It was the other party, the initial aggressor.
• 12:08
  Speaker 8: Is there an argument that he was defending himself or
• 12:11
  Speaker 8: trying to restrain the other party? And that's how these
• 12:13
  Speaker 8: injuries got on him. So it's not a foregone conclusion
• 12:17
  Speaker 8: as to whether or not he's guilty of this crime.
• 12:20
  Speaker 8: And there's more to be investigated. What statements did Candace
• 12:24
  Speaker 8: make the night of the incident regarding how the event
• 12:28
  Speaker 8: unfolded and why both of them walked away with injuries.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: You know, to Kristen Kwan joining us, investigative reporter and
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: anchor News 5 WCYB, I understand that someone attempted a
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: 911 call and then hung up. What do you know
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: about that?
• 12:47
  Speaker 9: Yes. So the Hawkins County Sheriff's Office said in their
• 12:49
  Speaker 9: affidavit that someone attempted to call 911 and there was
• 12:52
  Speaker 9: an immediate hang up. And then from there, That's when
• 12:57
  Speaker 9: the deputies went to the house to determine what exactly happened.
• 13:01
  Speaker 9: And that's when Dawn Wells was arrested.
• 13:03
  Speaker 12: Her father, Dawn Wells, he's been arrested for domestic assault
• 13:07
  Speaker 12: after police responded to a disturbance at the same home
• 13:10
  Speaker 12: where Summer disappeared. According to the police affidavit, his wife, Candace,
• 13:15
  Speaker 12: told investigators they had been drinking and got into an
• 13:19
  Speaker 12: argument and he allegedly grabbed her face, scratched her and
• 13:23
  Speaker 12: told her, you know, he needed a new wife and
• 13:26
  Speaker 12: intended to get rid of her. When the police asked
• 13:30
  Speaker 12: if this happened often, she reportedly said yes, describing him
• 13:34
  Speaker 12: as very scary, especially when he drinks. Now, this arrest...
• 13:40
  Speaker 12: is not connected to Summer's disappearance, but this family has
• 13:44
  Speaker 12: had a history of disturbing allegations and legal troubles. And
• 13:48
  Speaker 12: here we are, five years later, still asking the same questions.
• 13:52
  Speaker 10: The father of missing Summer Wells, Don Wells, was arrested
• 13:55
  Speaker 10: again for DV charges. Authorities say they were called to
• 13:58
  Speaker 10: the home on Ben Hill Road at 10.30 p.m.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: On Monday.
• 14:01
  Speaker 10: When authorities arrived at the home, they said they found
• 14:03
  Speaker 10: Don Wells outside of the home with scratches on his
• 14:05
  Speaker 10: abdomen and sternum. Candace was located inside of the home
• 14:09
  Speaker 10: and said that she also had injury. She told authorities
• 14:11
  Speaker 10: that Don had caused them.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: That was from It's Me, Tiff W. and Jenna Lynn 468,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: both on TikTok that we were just showing you. To Dr.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: John De La Torre, licensed psychologist, before I go back
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: to Kristen Kwan and Dave Mack, threatened to get rid
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: of her. That's curious translation. That's probative because a lot
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: of people have arguments.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think what we're seeing are elements of the
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: domestic and intimate partner violence that has been pervasive throughout
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: this relationship. It's clear that Don Wells has no sort
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: of real love and affection for his wife. He's already
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: making these claims that he just wants to get rid
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: of her, drunk or not. If you're in a loving relationship,
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: that thought doesn't happen. The fact that he is drunk
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: is suggestive is that he no longer wants to deal
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: with anything that's kind of around him. And so he
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: gets drunk to feel more numb from whatever it is,
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: whatever he thinks he's experiencing. And he certainly believes that
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: his wife and maybe even his children are all part
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: of the stressors that he thinks he's experiencing. And once
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: someone who is willing to engage in those violent behaviors
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: starts looking at the people around him as the obstacles.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Chris McDonough, when you hear somebody say in seriousness, I'm
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: going to kill you. I'm going to get rid of you.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: That's disturbing to me on many, many levels. I mean,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: we often hear joking around, not me. I don't joke
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: about killing anybody because to me, that's not funny even
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: if stated in jest. But you do hear people say,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: I want to kill him. I'm going to kill him.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: And it's spoken in jest. But to hear it stated seriously,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: I'm getting rid of you. I need a new wife.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: Take it as face value, Nancy. I mean, October is
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: Domestic Violence Awareness Month. And if if any woman out
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: there ever hears those words coming from their partner who
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: allegedly loves.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Them, take that as face value.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: That is one of the eight steps to domestic violence homicide,
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: where they get to a place, as Dr. Delatore has graciously,
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: in his experience, told us, when these guys get to
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: this place in their mind and they project that, you
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: can bet there's a strong possibility they can follow through.
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: I've been to many domestic violence homicides where those words
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: had been said after I had spoken with those suspects.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: We've heard a lot of speculation about what happened to
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Summer Wells back in the headlines tonight because Daddy is
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: arrested after a late night call to police there in
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: rural Tennessee. But here is his dad, Don Wells, speculation
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: about what really happened to Summer. I think.
• 17:17
  Speaker 7: Whoever grabbed her probably had her mouth covered, and I
• 17:21
  Speaker 7: think she was gasping for air by the time she
• 17:23
  Speaker 7: got down through here somewhere because her neighbor heard a scream,
• 17:26
  Speaker 7: a really funny scream. I think they just carried her
• 17:30
  Speaker 7: to a vehicle and threw her in there and took
• 17:32
  Speaker 7: her somewhere far away from here. You get all kinds,
• 17:37
  Speaker 7: you know, with the drug trade, and there are, we've
• 17:40
  Speaker 7: seen quite a bit of stuff surrounding the meth thing.
• 17:44
  Speaker 7: We've parked in our, we've Our neighbors caught them parked
• 17:48
  Speaker 7: at our road in our driveway in the middle of
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: the night or early in the morning and stuff like
• 17:53
  Speaker 7: that and run them off and they get mad.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: That is the father, Don Will, speaking to WVLT and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: joining us now, Kristen Kwan from WCYB. So he's blaming
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: drug dealers, nefarious, suspicious drug dealers with no name?
• 18:12
  Speaker 9: Yeah, Nancy, over the years, you know, I've talked to
• 18:15
  Speaker 9: Don repeatedly many, many years. And the story kind of
• 18:19
  Speaker 9: changes over what he thinks happened to Summer. There's been
• 18:22
  Speaker 9: so many theories that he's given to us over the years.
• 18:26
  Speaker 9: He believes that possibly the border's being open, that she
• 18:30
  Speaker 9: could have been taken to the drug cartels in Mexico.
• 18:33
  Speaker 9: So we've heard a number.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Of different theories. What Tennessee border are we talking about?
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: The border with Georgia? What border is open? that some
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: had something to do with Summer's disappearance.
• 18:50
  Speaker 9: Well, there was a theory for a while that he
• 18:52
  Speaker 9: believed that the borders being open in Texas, that she
• 18:56
  Speaker 9: was taking states away to Texas and that she was
• 19:01
  Speaker 9: taken to Mexico through open borders. And because of that, or,
• 19:05
  Speaker 9: you know, he's not very happy with the way that
• 19:09
  Speaker 9: DCS has treated them over the years. He believes they
• 19:13
  Speaker 9: could be involved.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: With taking back up. So, Whoa, hold on. Kristen Kwan, DCS.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: You opened that Pandora's box, not me. Department of Child Services.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: He was unhappy with the way Department of Children's Services
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: treated them over the years. Ding, ding, ding, ding. In
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: my head, all sorts of alarms going off. Why was
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Children's Services after them for years before Summer disappeared?
• 19:41
  Speaker 9: Well, I think it's easy to look at that video
• 19:43
  Speaker 9: of their house and see that the living conditions were
• 19:46
  Speaker 9: not up to par with what children should be living in. They,
• 19:51
  Speaker 9: the boys that were also in the home at the
• 19:55
  Speaker 9: time were taken very shortly after Summer went missing and
• 19:59
  Speaker 9: never returned to that home. And they had tried to
• 20:05
  Speaker 9: get those boys back into their custody. But eventually they
• 20:08
  Speaker 9: did sign over their rights to DCS.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute. Hold everything. Joanna Nieves, I knew DCS
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: child services had been three inches up their tailpipe for
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: good reason. I didn't know they just signed away their children.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Did you know that? Here, take them.
• 20:34
  Speaker 8: You know, this family dynamic is a difficult one to
• 20:37
  Speaker 8: understand and to relate to. I think that when we
• 20:41
  Speaker 8: see the images of the home and we hear even
• 20:44
  Speaker 8: the story that comes from the parents about what may
• 20:48
  Speaker 8: have happened or the events that day, some of the
• 20:51
  Speaker 8: details that come from Candace's mouth that just don't really
• 20:55
  Speaker 8: add up. And so the fact that DCS was involved
• 20:58
  Speaker 8: in after them and they finally said, well, you know what,
• 21:01
  Speaker 8: I'm going to be a little hands off. I think
• 21:03
  Speaker 8: that that it could be that they are just saying
• 21:08
  Speaker 8: the more distance I can create from the situation for myself,
• 21:11
  Speaker 8: the better. And I think that contributes to why there
• 21:15
  Speaker 8: are so many questions surrounding the veracity of the claims
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: that have summer disappeared.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Put any of us up, please. Did you say the
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: family dynamic is difficult to understand? I wrote it down
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: as you said it, so I'm pretty sure my notes
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: are correct. I don't think it's difficult to understand. Chris McDonough,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: you've been in the home. I'm about to show a
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: video of you going all around the location. McDonough, it's
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: not hard to understand for me. Do you see where
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: they live? And I don't care if they're not wealthy.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I don't care if they're rock bottom poor. McDonough, my grandma...
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: My grandmother, Lucy, that I named my daughter after, helped
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: raise us. They had nothing. We would have to go
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: out after school and pick pecans in a pecan orchard
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: to sell them in paper bags at the farmer's market
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: to make money. Bag up, tie up, turnip greens and
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: collard greens with a string and put them on the back.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: We'd call them a mess, a mess of turnips or
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a mess of collards and put them on the back
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: of a truck to go sell at the farmer's market
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: to make money. But I've never seen a more beautiful
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: home that she had. Perfectly clean, comfortable. Every time there
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: was a meal, there would be all sorts of things
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: to eat. Regardless of her getting up at four in
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: the morning to take care of farm animals and then
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: go stand up all day at a tile factory. regardless
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: of my grandfather driving an ice truck, a school bus,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: digging wells, you name it. They never gave us a
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: place to live like that. I don't understand difficult dynamic
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: to understand. They didn't want the children. They signed them away,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: and they let them live in a shithole.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: And not only that, Nancy, if we think about the
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: dynamics here of that challenge. There are millions of people
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: who are suffering in this world. There's no question about that.
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: But to your point, they do not live like this.
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: And if we look at that picture straight ahead in
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: this shot that you have up here, that is Rose Blythe.
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: You know, she is also missing in Wisconsin. She disappeared.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: How many families do you know that have two family
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: members that have vanished off of this earth?
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: So if we look at.
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: That one shot where, you know, straight ahead, you see
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: that picture up on the wall, that is Rose Bly.
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: That is Candace's sister, the mother's sister. She has also
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: vanished off of the earth in Wisconsin. That is an
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: ongoing investigation that is still unsolved like summer's.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: It's just so typical, Dr. John De La Torre and
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: you too, McDonough. This, this is happening. So, so far
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: we've got illegal immigrants. It's their fault. They took her
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: because the borders open in Texas. They live in Tennessee.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Like people are going to break into the country and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: then what? Jog all the way to Tennessee to rural Tennessee.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: They did it. Then they're dopers. They did it. Now they're,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: He's blaming somebody else. Listen.
• 24:43
  Speaker 7: Hawkins County hasn't been a help to us at all.
• 24:45
  Speaker 7: They helped us out of our kids. That's how they
• 24:48
  Speaker 7: helped us.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: From WCYB. Okay, that's over a thousand miles to commute
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: from the Texas border to Tennessee and then find their
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: way into Summer's home and then down under that desk
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: hole thing to her room downstairs. That didn't happen. Now
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: you hear him blaming Hawkins County. He says, and I
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: quote Kristen Kwan, Hawkins County hasn't been a help to
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: us at all. They helped us out of our kids.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: That's how they helped us. Excuse me, did anybody force
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: them to sign away rights to their children, Kristen?
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: No.
• 25:25
  Speaker 9: They also had multiple chances to get those kids back.
• 25:29
  Speaker 9: And they, for a while, were doing the visitations and
• 25:33
  Speaker 9: the meetings in order to get their kids back and
• 25:36
  Speaker 9: then just decided that it was too much for them
• 25:38
  Speaker 9: to be able to do.
• 25:39
  Speaker 7: I've tried going out and searching what little bit I
• 25:41
  Speaker 7: could by myself, but that's tough, too. So, no, I
• 25:48
  Speaker 7: don't search anymore. I mean, I wouldn't know where to search.
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: She could be anywhere in the world. We don't know.
• 25:55
  Speaker 7: You can't search this whole world.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: That from WCYB. And I know you remember this, Dave Mack.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: The mom, Dr. Maggie Zingman, that we worked with extensively,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: that goes all around the country driving a minivan, and
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: she's got it wrapped with pictures of her daughter, Brittany Phillips.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: She's never given up, ever. But you hear this dad, hey,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I can't search the whole world, can I?
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Can't even look outside his own yard. You know, none
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: of this. This case makes sense, Nancy. I've been concerned
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: about the Wells family since the day that this was
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: reported because, you know, in reality, we have to believe
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Candace and Don Wells as to where Summer was last seen.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: You realize that? So the last time we know that
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Summer Wells was seen was earlier in the day when
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: they went swimming. They stopped off to go swimming that day, remember?
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Running errands with Grandma, went to Kingsport, go to a doctor,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: and ended up stopping. There's a picture of Summer in
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: the car. There you go.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: So he has blamed illegal aliens. He's blaming, quote, the dopers.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: He's blaming the county and Department of Children's Services. Now
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: he's blaming the neighbors.
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: I just wish there was a way that neighbors could
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: search neighbors' houses, and then if they're not willing... you know,
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: get a search warrant or something, but there's just no
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: way you can search every single house, you know, in
• 27:32
  Speaker 6: the eastern United States or whatever.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. From WJHL. I want to remind everyone, as bad
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: as it may look for the father and the mother,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: they are not charged. They're not suspects. They're not persons
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: of interest. All we know tonight is that Don Wells
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: arrested again, for beating his wife and threatening to, quote,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: get rid of her and not threatening that for the
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: very first time. What happened to Summer Wells? I'm not
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: going to be happy until the correct person is behind bars.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: If you know or think you know anything, please dial
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: toll-free 800-824-3463. We remember American hero police officer Suzanne O.,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Maui PD, shot and killed in the line of duty,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: leaving behind grieving partner Alex. American hero, police officer Suzanne O.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you to our guests, but especially to you for
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: being with us. Nancy Grace signing off for tonight. I'll
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: see you tomorrow night, and until then, good night, friend.
• 28:52
  Speaker 7: Good night.