Donald Wells, the 61-year-old father of missing Tennessee girl Summer Wells, has been arrested again, this time following a domestic assault allegation, court records show.
Hawkins County Jail records show Wells was booked at 4:15 a.m. Tuesday. His arraignment was scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Officials had not released additional details about the allegation. Representatives for the Wells family and the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Don Wells in a Hawkins County booking photo. (Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office)
Wells has previously been arrested on allegations involving domestic assault, driving under the influence and firearms offenses. Those cases were separate from Summer’s disappearance, which remains unsolved. In 2020, he was also served with a civil protection order filed on behalf of his wife.
Summer was 5 when she disappeared from her family’s rural home near Rogersville, Tennessee, as previously reported by News Media. She would now be 10. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released an age-progressed image showing how she may have looked at age 9.
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Summer’s mother, Candus Bly, told investigators she last saw her daughter at the family’s Ben Hill Road property in Rogersville on June 15, 2021. According to Bly, Summer had come inside after planting flowers with her grandmother.
Summer Moon-Utah Wells shown in an age-progressed image depicting how she may have appeared at age 9. She has been missing since June 15, 2021, when she was 5. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
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Summer’s parents have said they believe an unknown person entered their 11-acre property, lured the child away and abducted her.
Investigators have not publicly identified any suspects. They have sought information about a possible witness who was reportedly driving a red pickup truck with full-size ladder racks and white buckets in the truck bed.
Summer was approximately 3 feet tall and weighed about 40 pounds when she disappeared. She was last known to be wearing gray pants and a pink shirt and may have been barefoot. She has blonde hair.
Summer Wells in an undated family photo released by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation after her disappearance in June 2021. Her whereabouts remain unknown. (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)
The couple’s other children were removed from the home after Summer disappeared. The family’s website says the parents were cleared in a Department of Child Services investigation, although they have not regained custody of their sons.
Both of Summer’s parents have criminal records. Bly’s sister, Rose Marie Bly, was reported missing in Wisconsin in 2009, and that case also remains unresolved.
Anyone with information about Summer’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office at 423-272-7121 or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND. Tips can also be emailed to TipsToTBI@tn.gov.