Dark secrets of the family where people disappear: Five-year-old Summer Wells vanished five years ago but 12 years earlier her aunt also went missing

When Summer Wells vanished while playing with her brothers five years ago, it wasn't the first time her family had experienced the desperate hunt for a loved one.

Summer's family was turned upside down on June 15, 2021, when she disappeared from her home in Rogersville, Tennessee, at 6.30pm.

Summer was five then, and despite extensive searches and an ongoing AMBER Alert, no trace of her has ever been found. Police have said there is no evidence of an abduction but her father believes she was kidnapped.

Summer is the youngest of four children and only girl among three older brothers. She was often seen swimming, fishing, and exploring the lakes and wooded areas of her Beech Creek community. She would be 10 years old today, and her family continues to hold onto hope that she will be found.

'This is a tender and quiet week for us. Candus [Summer's mom] and I would like to thank each person who cares about our daughter Summer,' Don Wells, Summer's father, wrote on Facebook this week.

'Your kindness and prayers mean a lot. We know that only God can restore our family.

'We love you Summer, Waylon, Wyatt, and Josey. God always wins. God bless you all,' he added, expressing his endearment to all the Wells' children.

But Summer is not the first member of her family to vanish without a trace. More than a decade earlier, her aunt, Rose Marie Bly, disappeared in 2009, leaving another unsolved mystery.

Bly, who was Candus Wells' sister, disappeared after being seen in St Croix Falls, Wisconsin, on August 21, 2009. 

According to the Charley Project that highlights missing people, Bly left home that evening to meet a cousin at a bar about five miles away.

Before leaving, Bly told her husband she would be home before midnight. But she never made it to the bar. 

Five days after she disappeared, Bly’s vehicle was discovered abandoned in a parking lot frequented by long-haul truck drivers roughly 30 miles from her home, the FBI said.

Authorities found no obvious signs of foul play and learned that Bly had left home carrying only a small amount of cash and no credit cards. Police say Summer and Bly's disappearances are not connected.

A further investigation suggested the couple was experiencing serious marital strain. Police had responded to a domestic dispute at the home prior to Bly’s disappearance.

During the incident, her husband claimed she slapped him, while Bly alleged he placed her in a headlock and slammed her head into the ground, according to the Charlie Project.

He later passed a polygraph test and is not considered a suspect, the report states.

Her husband started divorce proceedings just three weeks after Bly vanished.

Reports also indicate her husband filed for a court order to keep her from returning and taking their two children. 

The divorce and custody petition were granted, and he was awarded sole custody of their children.

Bly’s mother later speculated that she may have become disoriented and wandered away from her vehicle after a prior injury, though there is no evidence to support that theory, the report stated. Bly had fallen off a horse a week before her disappearance.

This year marks the five-year anniversary of Summer’s disappearance. Early search efforts covered more than 3,000 acres of rugged terrain within two weeks of her vanishing

The operation included helicopters, K-9 units, dive teams, and detailed mapping to comb the area.  

A week into the investigation a $25,000 reward was offered for credible tips. Investigators received more than 300 leads which led nowhere.

Operations were scaled back and in August 2025, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released an updated age-progressed image of Summer created by a forensic artist with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, showing what she might look like today.

The most recent public development came on November 13, 2025, when investigators followed a lead near Van Hill Road in Greeneville, around 10 miles from the Wells home, though officials later said no further details were available.

Don previously spoke to the Daily Mail about Summer's disappearance, calling it a 'living nightmare.'

Speaking ahead of the 2025 anniversary of his daughter's disappearance, Don told Daily Mail that he still believed his daughter was kidnapped and addressed her abductors saying: 'Be glad I'm a Christian. I just hope law enforcement finds you first.'

Her disappearance devastated the family - but Don says what followed nearly broke them.

'We were a two parent family. They kept trying to get us to divorce. We suffered together. We suffered separate. We are now more solid together than ever before,' he said. 'We are still a two parent family with no children to parent.'

He and Candus lost custody of their three sons in the wake of Summer's disappearance.

One of them, Josey, is now featured in a public adoption video.

'(He) is online being marketed like a shopping product. The pain never ends,' Don said.

'It was so good to finally see him. He is a great young man but has to be so hurt cause they took him and his brothers away from everything they knew. Then they took him from his brothers.

'This isn't about us now, it's about our boys. They took three of the five witnesses away. Together we could have worked together to try to solve what happened to their sister. Instead they lost everything. When we lost them, we lost everything. Hell times four.'

He says their hearts were so 'shredded' by the loss that it became nearly impossible to focus on the search for Summer.

'How could we concentrate on Summer when our hearts were shredded that our boys were gone so far away,' he said.

'We didn't know how the system worked... constantly being told how rotten we are by DCS, by social media, by people on the streets, on and on.'

Now, after years of legal battles, both Don and Candus have been cleared by the Department of Children's Services.

In spring 2025, DCS withdrew its findings of abuse or neglect, and a judge formally dismissed the allegations against them.

'Now DCS admits for the second time we are NOT abusers or neglectors of our children,' Don said. 'So bring Josey home. Bring them all home.'

Don faced further trouble when he was arrested in October 2021 for a DUI. He was later jailed for 11 months after admitting to driving under the influence. 

A toxicology screen from the night of his arrest showed no evidence of drugs but he registered a 0.13 blood alcohol percentage, above the 0.08 intoxication limit.

Wells said that on the night in question, he 'wanted to get away' after an argument with Candus. 

Shortly after the arrest, his family put out a statement saying: 'There are no words to what each day and night is like. We needed cigarettes. It was a stupid decision. Please keep us in prayer. Keep Don. This pain won't go away. Thank you.' 

The mandatory minimum sentence for the DUI was 48 hours in jail, 88 hours of community service, a $350 fine and a year with a revoked license.

But the arrest violated a previous probation order after he was arrested for possession of a handgun while intoxicated so he received a harsher penalty.

The couple also faced public scrutiny after an appearance on Dr Phil in November 2021 to talk about Summer's disappearance. 

On the show Don outlined the timeline of events, stating that Summer had been planting flowers outside with her grandmother before going inside to play with her brothers. 

He said minutes later she disappeared from the basement playroom. Don firmly maintains his belief that Summer was abducted from the property. 

During questioning on the show by interrogation experts regarding the day her daughter vanished, Candus became overwhelmed and walked out of the interview. She later clarified that she left due to emotional distress.   

Two analysts asked the couple if they thought the 'Cornbread Mafia' could be involved in Summer’s disappearance.

Dr Phil McGraw explained that 'Cornbread Mafia' is used to describe a grassroots crime syndicate in Tennessee.

Don said he’d heard of something called the hillbilly mafia, but he and his family had tried to stay clear of them.

Another point of scrutiny when Summer initially disappeared was when photos circulated showing her with a shaved head.

This led to Candus addressing why her daughter's hair had been chopped off. 

'[Summer] was a tomboy,' Candus told WJHL. 'I shaved my head; she wanted to shave her head like me and the boys did.'

Don added on that Summer tried to shave her head herself. 'I think you can see it in some of the pictures, and it was getting out of control, and we decided to shave her head off and let it grow back long. And [Candus] shaved her head too - so [Summer] wouldn’t feel bad. And…but…it didn’t bother her.'

The couple's home has now been searched 11 times by investigators. No arrests have been made.