Law enforcement on Summer Wells case: "We haven't given up, and we won't" (copy) - Johnson City Press (subscription)
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ROGERSVILLE — Repeating social media-based misinformation as tips to law enforcement isn’t helping find 5-year-old Summer Wells of Hawkins County.
However, the investigation into her June 15 disappearance is continuing and has uncovered details that law enforcement has not made public in order to protect the integrity of the case.
Those were the two points of a social media message from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Hawkins County Sheriff Ronnie Lawson in a video posted on Twitter Thursday. Summer went missing from her home in eastern Hawkins County more than three months ago.
“Bottom line: We haven’t given up, and we won’t,” text that goes along with the TBI video posted in the afternoon said.
INVESTIGATION CONTINUES
The probe into the disappearance of Wells has not grown cold, according to Lawson and TBI spokeswoman Leslie Earhart. But they urged people to submit only potentially useful and meaningful tips, not social media speculation, rumors, and such.
“We’re still looking. We’re still searching. We’re still following tips,” Lawson said in the video posted on the TBI Twitter account.
He also said the public needs to realize that law enforcement can’t and won’t divulge everything it knows about the case just yet.
“We’ can’t tell everything we’re doing. We can’t tell everything we know,” Lawson said.
He said part of the problem is law enforcement officials have already looked into any credible-sounding social media-based tips and found them not helpful or valid.
“This misinformation and speculation simply don’t help the case,” TBI Public Information Officer Leslie Earhart said in the video.
Wells went missing at her home on Ben Hill Road in the Beech Creek community of Hawkins County the afternoon of June 15. It has a Rogersville address but is much closer to Kingsport, near the Sullivan County line.
Wells is 3 feet tall, weighs 40 pounds and has blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing gray pants and a pink shirt and possibly no shoes.
In the initial days and weeks after her disappearance, law enforcement from throughout the region helped comb the rural, mountainous terrain around the Wells home. At one point more than 1,000 people searched for her over 14 days.
Tennessee Child Protective Services took Summer’s two brothers away from the parents in late July for a reason not specified.
Anyone who has seen Summer Wells or has information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office at (423) 272-7121 or the TBI at 1 (800) TBI-FIND.
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source: https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/law-enforcement-on-summer-wells-case-we-havent-given-up-and-we-wont-copy/article_498b5734-1cc7-11ec-816e-cbdae079b3b5.html
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