by Kelli Gunn
Chris McDonough uploaded a video yesterday where he analyzes a recorded phone call between Don Wells and his step-sister, Mary, who Chris calls the “real hero of this situation.” (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Don’s sisters, along with five other women, have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse from Don, some of the accusations went back thirty years.) Another sister, Jeannie, spoke to Chris on The Interview Room in August and gave details of her life growing up as a younger sibling to Don and being molested by him throughout her childhood and into her teens.
Since August, Mary has spoken up on YouTube when she has the chance, although it’s emotionally painful for her. I have observed her break down and have to leave when she was a guest on panel because she’s so reactive to anything negative in the chat that it makes her cry. It is because it it’s painful for her and she keeps on going that makes her brave and strong.
In the recorded phone call, Mary is trying to give Don hope about Summer being alive and he tells her that he “knows for a fact” that Summer was taken. He reiterates it over and over, “she’s been abducted, she’s not here.” He said that he tried to tell the searchers that Summer was gone and they wouldn’t listen to them.
Chris also mentioned that Mary asked him for his opinion on recording calls with Don and he told her that she was doing everything right, which was nice to know because I did wonder why Mary suddenly started recording phone calls with Don. Also nice to know that Mary was coached by Chris before she spoke with Don–I hate the thought of her mitigating his manipulation on her own. Mainly, I think Chris disclosed that he spoke to Mary before she had that phone call with Don (apparently there are many others) so Don would hear it and it would drive him crazy that his control has been usurped.
What you hear in the phone call is Mary playing the “good guy” role. She’s acting to make Don believe that she supports him and she does a great job. I admire her courage for doing that, as one of his victims. Don is fairly easy to convince, as long as he doesn’t hear direct conflict, he assumes everyone agrees with him. He’s highly critical of his “stupid … hillbilly” neighbors, who he says question him when he tries to search around their properties. Chris points out that Don has badmouthed his neighbors and told the sheriff about meth users and likely got them in trouble with the law in the past, so why would he be up there asking them if they had Summer?
Don blames Chris McDonough for losing his job. He said his bosses wife saw Chris on YouTube and now she believes that Don is a piece of shit so she wanted him fired. He also said that YouTube was the reason that Jeannie thinks he did something to Summer (as if she doesn’t have years of personal experience to draw from to help her form on opinion!).
“They couldn’t pick up her scent no where else but straight down a dog-trail to the road,” Don told Mary, but the police have never officially said where the scent trail was located. Don has stood by the story that Summer was abducted, but here we hear him telling Mary that he knows for sure that Summer was put into a car and taken away. I don’t know if that is just Don’s way of stating his opinion because he’s not that bright so he goes way over board and exaggerates details–also tricking himself into believing it–but he loves to get pulled into his own melancholy.
When Don says, “I’ll see her in the resurrection,” in reference to Summer, is he being defeatist as a route to Victimville? Perhaps Don lacks a bit of hope, too. When he said to the camera during his interview with Brian Entin, “If there’s any way you can find it in your heart to bring her back…,” I think he’s talking to God. He doesn’t seem able to direct a hopeful, directive, pleading, or any other sort of message to the abductor. Remember, Don says that he KNOWS for a FACT that Summer was abducted.
There are people who will give up instantly when things don’t go their way. Defeat is a constant in their lives because they love to play the victim role.
I don’t like that explanation when it comes to Don though.
Don isn’t the kind of guy who will sit at home and twiddle his thumbs if someone he knows or trusted snuck up on his property and stole his baby girl. He either knows where Summer is-alive or otherwise-or he sold her to someone. Don is way too insidious to be a true victim, but he has a pretty good “Innocent-Naive poor little old me” mask that he likes to wear.
Either way, he knows he’s not going to see her again and I think he’s talking to “God” when he’s asking the “abductor” to bring her back.
I do hope that God is listening and will bring Summer home in every way possible, except in the most literal sense–back to the dungeon at 110 Hell Hill Rd.
Anyone with information on Summer Wells is asked to contact the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office at 423-272-7121 or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND.
The Gunn Journal 