Summer Moon-Utah Wells

According to WKRN.com,

She was first reported as last seen Tuesday, June 15, 2021, walking near her home on Ben Hill Road in the Beech Creek community (a picture of the house can be found in the additional images), wearing a pink shirt and gray shorts.

According to her father, Donald Wells, Summer was planting flowers just before her disappearance. He spoke with Nexstar’s News Channel 11 about what he remembers that night.

“She was planting flowers with her mother and her grandmother and she wanted to go into the house, so my wife watched her go into the door and she went into the house,” Wells said. “And the boys were on the internet of course, and she wanted to go downstairs and play with her toys. So when her mother [came] in and she says, ‘Summer’ and she went down into the basement and she didn’t answer. So she went down there and she was gone.”

Wells said they haven’t seen Summer since.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said a family member reported her missing to the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office around 6:30p EST that night.

After Summer was reported missing, the TBI issued an Endangered Child Alert for her at 12:07a EST. At the time she was reported to be 4-years-old in TBI’s first tweet, but has since been updated to be 5-years-old.

While Summer’s dad thinks “someone snuck up on her and grabbed her,” TBI Public Information Officer, Leslie Earhart, reiterated on Monday that the circumstances leading to her disappearance remain unclear.

“While we’ve not ruled out an abduction, we simply do not have any evidence at this point to confirm that’s what occurred,” Earhart said. “For that reason, the ground search for Summer continues. It’s possible that she wandered off and is lost and afraid.”

As of Tuesday, the agency said they have received over 200 leads in the investigation. Foul play has also not been ruled out at this time.

There have been 72 agencies involved in search efforts from Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina. As of Tuesday, crews have covered 4.6 square miles in the search for Summer. The National Park Service is also involved in the search for Summer Wells.

Aircraft units are being used to keep an eye on the area overnight when the ground search effort is paused unless crews are following up on a lead.

“At the evening time, it is too treacherous and too dangerous, unless TBI or the sheriff’s department gets a lead that they need us to go help assist on,” Coup explained. “Too dangerous for us to keep our guys up in these mountains in this treacherous terrain at nighttime. But I want you guys to know, and rest assured, along with the community, that search efforts due to not stop when it gets dark.”

TBI tweeted on Tuesday that the search for Summer Wells will continue with a focus on specific areas using specialized teams./*54745756836*/