Neighbour and son claim they heard ‘animalistic’ scream shortly before 5-year-old Summer Wells disappeared

The woman said she saw a car drive up the Wells driveway shortly before hearing the scream

JodieSue Brown, a neighbor of the Wells family, claims she heard a scream shortly before the disappearance of Summer Wells (screen grab)

A woman has claimed that she heard a scream shortly before missing five-year-old Summer Wells disappeared five months ago.

JodiSue Brown told New Channel 11 that she and her children heard a scream approximately a half an hour before the girl’s parents began searching for her.

Summer went missing from Hawkins County, Tennessee on 15 June. Her parents believe she was abducted, but police have not turned up any leads on her location since her disappearance.

Ms Brown said she was in the neighbourhood with her 19-year-old and 14-year-old listening for noises due to "property things" that happened the day prior.

“We were kind of hyper-alert because of property things that happened the day before, so we were listening for noise; everyone was kind of quiet,” she told the news outlet.

Ms Brown said she noted a car drive up the Wells' driveway, which she claimed "struck her wrong”. She said she then heard a car door slam, which she did not think was suspect at the time.

Ms Brown said shortly after noticing the car, she heard a scream and became concerned.

"It stopped all three of us cold," she said.

Her son described the sound as a "shrill, almost animalistic scream”.

Ms Brown said she and her son went to investigate the scream but did not find anything of note. They then saw the Wells searching for Summer.

“My son and I decided to go out and see what we could see. We went back on to the bank; didn’t see anything, didn’t hear anything,” she said. “And at this point, I start hearing them holler for Summer. By the third, I knew something was wrong. And then my brain immediately went, ‘scream earlier, this, uh oh.'”

She said she dropped her purse and yelled to Candus Bly, Summer's mother, that she was going to help them search for Summer.

There have been reports that a maroon car was spotted near the Wells' home on the day of Summer's alleged abduction, but there is no confirmation that any car was present on the day.

Police have received numerous tips about Summer's disappearance, but have said while most are good natured, few have proven helpful or credible.

The girl's parents appeared on Dr Phil McGraw's show last week, during which "body language" and deception experts analysed their story. Mr McGraw and the experts said after examining the interviews that they did not believe the parents were involved in the girl's disappearance. However, neither Mr McGraw or the analysts were law enforcement officials and were operating solely on interviews with the family.

Shortly after the appearance, Summer's father, Don Wells, was arrested for drunk driving. The family issued a statement calling his actions "stupid" but attributing it to the stress resulting from Summer's disappearance.