In November of 2023 my husband, Candus, Don, and I were talking on the phone deciding when we should go up and finally get to not just visit them, but also meet them for the 1st time! We were all so excited and chose to go to TN for the Missing and Exploited Childrens event, and the next day it was Summers 8th birthday! We knew how important this event was and we were happy to spend Summer Moon Utah Wells 8th birthday with her parents.
Friday,February,02,2024.
The sun rose up over the mountains early that morning, I was dressing to take my dog out for her 1st walk of the day and i wasnt loving the idea of walking out into the cold, brisk morning air. The mountain tops still showed signs of snow, the fog was heavily floating around the hills, and sunk deep into the valley. As I decended down the stairs I heard a slight crunching noise as I placed all of my weight onto my right foot. I remember looking down at Whisper and asking her if her tootsies were okay. Whisper looked up at me, and then quickly looked away and headed off into the direction that was sure to be the "perfect" potty spot. As we walked across the cold, frosted grass it crunched with every step we took. This was Whispers 1st time ever experiencing weather this cold, and it had been years since id been in this kind of weather. Even though the freezing wind burned my face, there was something refreshing about breathing in the cold, fresh morning air. I took a few more steps, smiled, and said well Whisper, Welcome to Tennessee!
Don and Candus had already left for work, and when our morning walk was finished we went inside so Matt, and I could pack Whispers diaper bag and ourselves ready to head out for the day. Our 1st stop was Chips a cute little drive through, I cant remember exactly what it was that we had to eat, all we knew was it was delicious. Whisper approved of her food as well! We didnt have any real plans on where we wanted to go, but we knew on our way back to the house after our drive. There's something fun and exciting about being in a new area, being a tourist may seem weird to some, but we very much enjoyed it. This was Matts 1st time out of Florida, and he had never seen mountains before so seeing the look on his face made me smile.
On the way back to the hollar, I started to feel this heaviness come over me. Tonight, the 4 of us were going to the Baptist church that was hosting th event for Missing and Exploited Children, Summer Wells was headlining the event. Don and Candus were undoubtedly very emotional, I was as well. This was the night we went to honor all the missing children. Tonight, we all packed into Candus' car, and off we went.
The church was nicely decorated, and lit up. There were a few tall wooden crosses covered with pictures of hundreds of missing children. Some of those children went missing as infants, and would now be teenagers. The most noticable of all were the large, beautiful hand painted portraits of Don, Candus, and their 4 children, and 1 beautiful and very lifelike portrait of Summer. This painting was so realistic I swore Summer could just walk right off of it. We helped Candus and a few others set things up, and then went to meet everyone that had arrived after us. Being YouTubers we knew of quite few people that were attending the event with us, but had never had the pleasure of meeting in person until this night.
Lots of smiles that were hiding tears and emotions, plenty of warm welcoming and loving hugs to help hold those tears back. The music started, Robin took her plave at the podium, and it was time to be seated so the service could begin. It only took about 5 minutes for me to break and start crying. I looked over at Candus to see how she ws holding up, and I was so thankful that she had her husband, and friends gathered around to comfort her.I could tell by the look on their faces that no matter how many people were there, no matter how many hugs, and comforting words were exchanged Don and Candus would soon break down. I couldnt imagine how all of these parents, grandparents, and other family members were able to survive all of these horribly tragic situations that had befallen on them. How in the world were they all so fragile, yet so strong? Each and every single on of them were living their own personal nightmares, the nightmares were all so different, yet all the same.
1 by 1 each family had someone theyd chosen to go up to the podium to speak on behalf of the family, and their missing loved one. Every story made it harder and harder for me to keep my composure. It wasnt until everyone had told their stories that the projector came on. The music, the words, the videos, and slideshow of pictures of little 5 year old Summer had started playing. This is when I lost it, I looked over to check on my friends, and as I had expected they were a mess. The tears, the painful looks on Don and Candus' faces were more than enough to scream what their emotions, and feelings wee at that very moment. I was watching my friends lose all of their composure, and just shatter into a million pieces. It was horrible, it was painful, it was something no parent should ever experience in their lives, and yet somehow every single day for 3 years they woke up, got out of bed, and carried on handling all the many demands life was throwing at them. Somehow no matter how hard the days, weeks, months and years had been for the Wells family they were still doing everything in their power to make it through. Somehow they found the strength to get out of bed, get dressed, and just breathe. Somehow no matter how hard and painful life was for them, the never lost their faith in God.
Many people from the internet had found a way to meet Don and Candus, and almost every one of them stabbed these suffering parents in their backs. People from all over the country had taken advantage of their kindness, and lied to them over and over again just so they could have a story for their channels. The devil sent in some of his best demons to manipulate, trick, and hurt Mr. and Mrs. Wells, but they stayed strong and their faith never wavered. These parents had been hurt by so many people claiming to be their friends, and yet they still trusted and accepted my husand and I. I could never in a million years tell you why they chose to be friends with us, or why they chose to trust, and confide in us, but I can tell you that I am blessed to have met them, and still to this day have them in my life.
The church event no matter how sad it was, turned out beautiful. This church and all of its volunteers hosted an event to honor those that are missing, to share their stories, to share the pain of the family members left with out their loved ones, and it taught us so much. The number of missing children, and adults in that area was such an overwhelmingly high number that it shocked me.Id learned so much from everyone who attended this service. They did a great job of spreading awarness and making it educational. I pray that 1 day, everyone in that church that night will eventually have answers to what happened to their missing babies. I pray that no matter how each story turns out that they will all find the closure they all needed so badly. Most of all I pray that they never lose faith in God, faith in each other, and the hope that miracles really can come true.
Summer Moon Utah Wells turned 8 years old two days later on 02/04/2024. Summer went missing at only 5 years old, I do not know if she is still with us or not, and I do not know what she's had to endure for the last 3 years. To an adult, 3 years goes by with a blink of an eye, but to a 5 year old, 3 years is a lifetime. 3 years, 3 years of pain, 3 years of suffering, 3 years of crying because they do not know where their little girl is, or what is happening to her. 3 years of their hearts stopping, and holding their breath everytime they recieve a call from an unknown phone number, the FBI,TBI, local LE, or their private investigators in fear of recieving the worst imaginable news they could possibly ever recieve. 3 years of fighting to hold themselves together every time they're told the remains of a child were located, and they'd receive a call back to let them know if its their daughter. If this isn't enough to kill a paremt, then I have no idea what it is.
My friends are living in an unimaginable hell every single day since Summer was stolen from her home on June 15 2021. On top of living every parents worst nightmare, theyre being attacked by people they once called friends, and thousands of people they dont even know from a horrible place called YouTube. Why? What in the hell would make anyone attack parents that are suffering so much? Why do these people feel they have the right to attack Don and Candus when no one knows what happened to their daughter? Im sorry, but Don and Candus inspire me. Don and Candus still believe good people exist, they still have faith and find strength in our Lord and Savior. Instead of letting all of those terrible humans that attack them daily turn them cold and bitter they pray for them. They pray for everyone whos ever attacked them because theyre good people. They pray for those cold hearted individuals that try to destroy them because thats what God would want them to do.
I only ask this one thing of everyone that ever reads this. Please before you judge, jump to horrible conclusions, or attack parents or family members suffering this kind of tragedy dont do it. Stop, think about how youd feel if you were the people suffering from such a gut wrenching pain, and ask yourselves how would you feel? How would you like it if you had to go through this torture every day, and then still had to deal with so mant horrible people going after you? Stop attacking the parents and families of those who go missing, and pray for them. Pray for those that are missing, pray theyll come home soon unhurt and healthy. Statistics say that after 3 years the chances of Don and Candus ever finding out what happened to their daughter is down to a meer 2%. Those odds are more than enough torture for anyone, dont add to their suffering by being assholes. Instead of being hurtful, just pray for them.
Miracles can and do happen every day. Let's all pray for those miracles and stop causing so much extra unneeded pain. Be safe everyone, keep your loved ones close to you.
xo
