Bly’s family is dealing with another disappearance
Candus Bly’s sister, Rose Marie Bly, has been missing since 2009, but investigators say there is no evidence that indicates the two cases are connected.
According to the FBI, Rose Marie was last seen leaving her residence in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin on Aug. 21, 2009. Five days later, her vehicle was found in a tractor-trailer parking lot 30 miles from her home.
Bly said she was between Arkansas and Tennessee at the time of her sister’s disappearance, “I don’t know all of what happened or what did happen. But I hope that they find her too and bring her home safely, too.”
The search for Summer Wells
The search has utilized over 120 agencies from Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina and covered 4.6 square miles, over 3,000 acres, since it began.
Since June 15, over 1,100 searches have covered the area, logging nearly 14,000 search hours. Crews have searched on the ground, through the air, and in the water with the use of dive teams.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is one of the agencies involved in the search. FBI Public Affairs Officer Darrell DeBusk said the FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) Team had been deployed to assist in the search for Summer.
“FBI CARD Teams consist of highly trained and experienced subject-matter experts, including FBI agents, intelligence analysts, and behavioral analysis profilers,” said DeBusk in a June 24 statement.
A physically and mentally exhausting search
During a June 17 press conference, Hawkins County Sheriff Ronnie Lawson said crews had faced issues communicating in the field, “We can hardly communicate at all on our radios, and cell phones are out of the question.”
AT&T and Verizon have brought cell signal boosters to help increase reception, but Incident Commander of Ground Search Captain Tim Coup said service was “still spotty.”
Another issue crews have had to deal with is the area itself. The rough terrain presented a challenge in the search efforts early on. It’s also why, as Coup explained, investigators had not asked for volunteers to help in the search.
“Due to the extreme terrain, the nature of this, trying to locate her, trained professionals [are] what we need at this time to make sure that these residents don’t become endangered…and expand this issue with having to search for somebody else,” Coup said on June 17.
The extreme conditions from the terrain and heat are making things harder as the search continues, exhausting crews both mentally and physically. Additional resources from the local, state, and federal levels are being used to bring in fresh eyes and rested bodies to the search.
“Everyone now is getting mentally, physically, emotionally, just drained,” said Sheriff Lawson on June 24. “We’re going to rehab and start back again, but we’re not going to stop. We’re gonna find Summer.”
‘Scaling back’ search efforts
In a June 27 release, Coup stated crews are “scaling back search operations.”
Coup said the search efforts would continue on a more specialized team basis as needed and directed from local, state and federal agencies.
In addition, officials are continuously urging people to search for a child hiding on their property. Coup said Wells, “could hide in an area that a legal size piece of paper or folded-up laptop could go.”
The ‘outside the norm’ investigation
TBI: Summer Wells case is ‘definitely outside the norm’
Despite all efforts in the investigation, TBI Public Information Officer, Leslie Earhart, said the circumstances leading to Summer’s disappearance, remain unclear.
“While every case is different, this one is definitely outside of the norm,” she said during a June 24 media briefing.
During that same briefing, Earhart said they couldn’t discuss everything in the case. “In order to preserve the integrity of the investigation, we can’t discuss everything we are doing, and have done, to find Summer.”
