Donald Wells, 61, was arrested again on a domestic assault charge in Tennessee, jail records show.
Wells was booked into the Hawkins County Jail at 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, according to facility records. He was scheduled for arraignment at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Additional details about the alleged incident were not immediately available.
This marks another legal entanglement for the father of Summer Wells, the 5-year-old girl who vanished from her family’s rural Rogersville home in June 2021 and has never been found. The elder Wells has previously been arrested on domestic assault, DUI, and firearms charges unrelated to his daughter’s disappearance. He was also served with a civil order of protection on behalf of his wife back in 2020.
Summer’s mother, Candus Bly, told police she last saw her daughter at their home on Ben Hill Road on June 15, 2021. Bly said the child came inside from planting flowers with her grandmother. The parents have maintained that they believe someone entered their 11-acre property, lured the girl outside, and took her.
When she disappeared, Summer was about 3 feet tall and around 40 pounds. She was wearing gray pants, a pink shirt, and may have been barefoot. She has blonde hair. She would now be 10 years old. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released an age-progressed image showing what she may have looked like as a 9-year-old.
No suspects have been publicly identified in Summer’s disappearance. Investigators have been looking for a potential witness — the driver of a red pickup truck that had full-sized ladder racks and white buckets in the bed.
The couple’s other children were taken from their home after Summer vanished. According to the family’s website, the parents were cleared by a Department of Child Services investigation but have not regained custody of their sons.
Both Summer’s parents have criminal records. Bly’s sister, Rose Marie Bly, was reported missing from Wisconsin in 2009 in a case that remains unsolved.
Anyone with information on Summer’s whereabouts is asked to call the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office at 423-272-7121 or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND. Tips can be emailed to [email protected].
Wells was expected to appear for arraignment Wednesday morning in Hawkins County.