Community to celebrate Summer Wells' 6th birthday

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — Community members will celebrate the 6th birthday of missing Summer Moon Utah Wells at Borden Park on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Those interested in celebrating Summer and praying for her safe return are encouraged to bring a candle to light in honor of the girl last seen at her home on Ben Hill Road in Hawkins County seven and a half months ago.

Summer will turn 6 years old on Feb. 4, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).

On June 15, 2021, Summer’s mother, Candus Bly, reported the 5-year-old girl missing after watching her return inside the house after planting flowers with Bly and Summer’s grandmother.

Bly reportedly told Summer’s brothers to look after her. Within two minutes, Bly said Summer was gone.

“Me and my mother and her were planting flowers, and we went in after we got done washing our hands, and [Summer] got a piece of candy from grandma,” Bly said. “And [Summer] wanted to go back over and see her brothers, and I said, ‘OK,’ and I walked her all the way over to the porch, and I watched her walking into the kitchen where the boys were watching TV. I told the boys, I said, ‘Watch Summer; I’ll be back.’ And within two minutes, I came back, and I asked the boys where their sister was, and they said, ‘She went downstairs, Mom, to play with her toys in the playroom.’ I said, ‘OK.’ And I yelled downstairs for her a couple times, and I didn’t get no answer, which was unusual because usually she always answers me. And so, I went down there to check, and she was nowhere in sight.”
Candus Bly during an exclusive first interview on June 28, 2021

Since Summer’s disappearance, a reward fund geared for her safe return has reached nearly $74,000. The TBI revealed in December that there “is a very real possibility that [Summer] wandered off.”

No persons of interest surrounding Summer’s disappearance have ever been announced, and the TBI, Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office and other regional departments — with the help from multiple agencies nationwide — have combed hundreds of acres in the area multiple times in an effort to bring Summer home.

The TBI did reveal in June 2021 — 11 days after Summer was last seen — that it was searching for a maroon or red truck deemed to be a possible witness in the case.

The TBI AMBER Alert reports Summer’s appearance as follows: