RENOWNED body language and behavior experts believe a missing girl's dad - who's been accused by the public of harming his daughter - is innocent.
Don Wells has faced ceaseless backlash and branded as a villain on social media after his daughter Summer mysteriously disappeared last June.
The Behavior Panel interviewed Mr Wells for two hours before his Dr Phil appearance in November 2021 and spoke to The Sun on Tuesday after Mr Wells sent an open letter to his daughter's "kidnappers."
Mr Wells is "no choirboy" but he's also "not a criminal mastermind," said Greg Hartley, a retired military interrogator and one of the four members of The Behavior Panel.
"Nothing is ever 100 percent (but) he wasn’t hedging in his answers. He wasn’t guarding anything," Mr Hartley said.
“There was consistency with delivery in his story, even when faced with our psychological ploys, even when he was asked tough questions. There were no deviations in his story."
SUMMER WELLS STORIES
All four members of The Behavior Panel agreed that Mr Wells didn't hurt Summer, something that has happened only two or three times in their decades of providing insight on public interest cases.
Mr Hartley said they asked Mr Wells if he hurt Summer or if he had anything to do with her disappearance.
His answer was no, and his story was consistent, Mr Hartley said.
“We look for how fast they talk, choice of words and how smooth they deliver their answers," he said.
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"When faced with questions like that, it becomes a fight or flight reaction and turns off your thinking brain. You just react. Some can come in with a script but we can break that pretty quickly.
"Don didn't have a script, and he never deviated from his story. There were no anomalies.
"Some have pointed out that he looked nervous around authorities. Ya of course. He’s been in trouble with the law before. He’s not a choirboy and he doesn’t pretend to be, but I don’t think he did this.”
WHERE IS SUMMER?
Summer was last seen on June 15, 2021 in her Hawkins County, Tennessee home, and an AMBER alert was issued the next day.
The Wells family has said she went to the basement to play with toys after planting flowers in the front yard with her grandmother and mother and seemingly vanished.
The court of public opinion turned on Mr Wells and his family - and pointed the finger at them.
But the family has maintained that Summer was abducted by an unknown perpetrator.
In March it was reported that Summer's family "wasn't co-operating" with law enforcement as the search for their daughter continues.
Candus Bly, Summer's mom, wrote a note to a WJHL, which was forwarded to The Sun by a family spokesperson, that denied the sheriff's wall-of-silence allegations.
A FATHER'S LETTER TO 'KIDNAPPERS'
The Sun revealed Mr Wells' letter from jail that pleaded with the "person or persons responsible for kidnapping Summer" midnight Monday into Tuesday.
The letter was part of six-minute, narrated video released by a family spokesperson while Wells remains in jail for a DUI arrest.
"Please do the right thing and turn our daughter over to the authorities," he wrote in the letter. "We're begging you with all our hearts, please do the right thing.
"When you took our little girl, you took our very lives! Why don't you our little girl back before God's wrath descends on you."
It's one of a series of letters that he wrote. The next one will be addressed to Summer, who he believes is still alive.
When asked how he's holding up, a family spokesperson told The Sun, "Don will say God, which is true."
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WHAT IS THE BEHAVIOR PANEL?
The group of four - Hartely, Scott Rouse, Mark Bowden and Chase Hughes - are the world's top body language and behavior experts who use their expertise to discuss public interest cases on YouTube.
They look to educate and entertain you with their interest and expertise in communication, body language, deception detection, interrogation, and resistance to interrogation.
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