(NewsNation/WJHL) — An AMBER alert issued two years ago to find Summer Wells remains active.
Despite the nationwide attention over her disappearance, there are still no answers as to what happened to the little girl.
The most significant recent development came Wednesday when an age-progressed image was released showing what Summer could look like at seven years old. She was five when she disappeared.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says there are no new details they can publicly release.
As law enforcement searches for answers, Summer’s father is also searching for answers of his own.
He spoke with News Nation and News Channel 11 about his daughter’s case.
“I’m just having to put my faith completely in God and know that he has a better plan. And, that’s pretty much where I’m at,” Wells said. “My wife is still struggling.”
A lot has changed for the Wells family over the last two years.
“[People on] social media have come out, you know, and protested at my job everywhere we go. So it’s hard for us to get any work or anything in eastern Tennessee,” Wells said.
Wells says he and his wife Candus have been in Arkansas on and off for the last few months, where he’s been working in construction. He also says they have been working with the Department of Children’s Services there to get their three older sons back.
Their sons have been in Tennessee DCS custody since the month after Summer was reported missing.
“I think [our sons are] scared of our house because of what happened and that’s one of the issues, Wells said. “We would like to buy another house here in Arkansas.”
The house he’s referring to on Ben Hill Road is where his daughter went missing from.
“We couldn’t understand what happened to Summer. The police couldn’t understand. And they were questioning us. There were times they were hard on us and other times they weren’t. Just depending on, you know, what police agency was there at the time or whatever. You know, so emotionally, it was very bad.”
Two years later, he and Candus have no clues as to where Summer is.
“We try to bounce things off of each other all the time. We might have talks about some of the drug activity that was going on at the time and was going on right after her disappearance for quite a while,” Wells said. “But yeah, there’s nothing new.”
He says the family stays in touch with law enforcement through their private investigators.
“About two months ago they talked to our private investigators, and the FBI did and they shared what they could work with,” he said “They’re just trying to come up with any new information or leads that they possibly could. And so far we just haven’t been able to come up with anything.”
As two years pass with no new information publicly released, Wells says the emotional toll is weighing on the family, especially Candus.
“She’s been burnt by so many people. They want to supposedly interview her or help and stuff and then basically turn on her in every imaginable way,” he said. “She’s been hurt deeply by these kind of things…plus the thought of we lost our daughter and our boys are in custody also with the [Child Protective Services].”
He says they haven’t been able to talk to their sons.
“At first we were allowed to talk to them and everything but what we haven’t been able to talk to them for about six months. No contact or anything like that,” Wells said. “And that’s all we want to do, is be able to tell them that we love them and we’re rooting for them and we’re working on things to get them back anything we can do.”
Hope is hard to hold on to after all this time but Don says he’s clinging to faith.
“Whatever the outcome is, I have hope in God. And one day, either sooner or later, I will be with my daughter again,” he said.
News Channel 11 reached out to the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office, the TBI, the FBI, and the Wells family’s private investigators. They all declined an interview but the TBI did answer some questions by email. Those answers however don’t bring us any closer to knowing what happened to Summer.
