HAWKINS COUNTY, Tenn. — On Tuesday, a 5-year-old girl was reported missing in Hawkins County. Later, agencies from across Tennessee started searching through the dense, rural landscape for her.
One of the crews combing through the heavily wooded areas searching for Summer Wells will be from Knox County. Officials with Knox County Rescue announced that a team will travel to Hawkins County Friday morning to help search for her.
They will spend 36 hours searching for Wells in hopes of finding her alive and well, according to a post on social media from officials.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued an AMBER Alert for Wells on Wednesday. Helicopters then took the sky and crews of 80-100 professionally trained people started looking for any sign of her. By Friday night, officials said they searched more than 680 acres.
They are urging residents who live near Ben Hill Road to check their trail or surveillance cameras for videos or photos of Wells. They also said radio communications challenges have made the search more difficult.
Anyone with any information about where Wells could be should call the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND or the Hawkins County Sheriff's Office at 423-272-7121.
TBI said the circumstances of Summer’s disappearance remain unclear.