Investigators Release Update on Missing 5-Year-Old Girl After ‘Uptick in Misinformation’

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has responded to “an uptick in misinformation being spread online” about Summer Wells, who went missing earlier this year. “We want to be clear that we’re doing everything within our power to find her,” the bureau wrote in a Twitter thread on Wednesday. Last week, the agency reported it had received 1,500 tips regarding Wells’ disappearance, the majority of them the result of online rumors and baseless theories. In July, the Hawkins County Sheriff said that churning misinformation was “hampering the investigation.”

The TBI said on Wednesday it had executed “numerous search warrants” in the course of the investigation, which has included “exhaustive ground searches” and “dozens of aerial searches.” Wells was last seen at her family’s Hawkins County home on June 15 this year, after her mother said the 5-year-old returned inside after gardening with her grandmother. The girl’s parents, Donald Wells and Candus Bly, have said they believe their daughter was abducted. The TBI, in the case’s FAQ page, said it had developed no evidence “at this stage” pointing to a kidnapping. “No one is more frustrated than us by the lack of answers at this stage,” the agency said. “However, we haven’t given up, and we won’t.”