Summer Wells: Missing girl’s father arrested for DUI four months after daughter vanished from home

Donald Wells is arrested on multiple charges including driving under the influence and having an open container

Summer Wells, a 5-year-old who has been missing since late June, disappeared from her home in Hawkins County, Tennessee (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)

The father of missing five-year-old girl Summer Wells has been arrested for driving under the influence four months after his daughter vanished without a trace from their home.

Donald Wells was spotted by an officer driving a white GMC and attempting to turn left on a road close to the Hawkins County and Greene County line in Tennessee on Saturday night, according to the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office.

The car veered onto the grass shoulder and the officer pulled the car over, reported Fox17.

Mr Wells failed a sobriety test and told the officer he had drunk a couple of shots, the police report said.

He was arrested on multiple charges including driving under the influence, having an open container and violation of financial responsibility.

Mr Wells was held on $5,750 bond and was released from Hawkins County Jail around 7.30am the following morning, reported WJHL.

During his arraignment Monday, Mr Wells was then arrested for violating his probation and taken back to jail, reported WJHL. He was then released from jail again later that morning.

The Wells family released a statement on their “Find Summer Wells” website on Sunday, describing Mr Wells’ actions as “stupid” but explaining that the “pain” of their daughter’s disappearance “won’t go away”.

“Thank you everyone for kind messages. There are no words to what each day and night is like. We needed cigarettes,” the statement read.

“IT was a stupid decision. Please keep us in prayer. Keep Don. This pain wont go away. thank you”.

Summer Wells was last seen on 15 June at her home in Rogersville, a rural town in east Tennessee.

The five-year-old’s family said she had been planting flowers with her mother Candus Wells and grandmother just 20 feet away on Ben Hill Road in Beech Creek.

Summer was then said to have gone inside from gardening and told her three older brothers she was going downstairs to play with her toys in the basement.

Ms Wells said she later found her daughter gone.

Donald Wells in his mugshot following his DUI arrest (Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office)

Her disappearance kicked off a weeks-long manhunt which authorities said was hampered by the mountainous terrain around the area.

Hundreds of tips poured in from the public but, more than four months on, investigators are yet to find any indication as to her whereabouts.

Investigators had been seeking the driver of a red Toyota pickup truck after a witness reported seeing the vehicle in the area around the time that Summer was last seen.

Police said the driver could be a witness and asked them to come forward. To date, the driver has not been found.

Both Mr and Mrs Wells have said they believe their daughter was kidnapped from their home.

Summer has blonde hair and blue eyes, is about three feet tall and weighs 40 pounds. She was last seen wearing grey trousers, a pink shirt and was possibly bare foot.

Anyone with any information about her disappearance is asked to contact the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND or TipsToTBI@tn.gov or the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office at 423-272-7121.