Disappearance of Adele Marie Wells

Adele Marie Wells was born on January 1, 1951, one of nine children in a family living in Flint, Michigan. Her father, Karl W. Wells, worked at a local factory. At the time of her disappearance, Adele was seven years old and in the second grade at Jefferson Elementary School, living with her parents and six siblings. She was African-American.

On the morning of November 21, 1958, Adele stayed home from school with a slight cold. Later that morning she walked to her grandmother's house, located one block from her own home and four blocks from her school, wanting to show her grandmother how her mother had styled her hair for school. She was last seen leaving her grandmother's residence at 11:30 a.m. She did not return home and never arrived at school, and has not been seen or heard from since. At the time of her disappearance, she wore a gray cotton coat, a blue dress with small animal figures along the hemline, red knee-length socks, and black shoes, with her hair styled in bangs and waves.

Adele's mother did not become concerned until the afternoon, having assumed her daughter had felt well enough to attend the rest of the school day. Police were notified of her disappearance at 5:00 p.m. that evening. Two days later, on November 23, more than 1,000 people participated in a search for her.

During the investigation, police received multiple witness reports describing a young, light-skinned African-American man carrying a young girl matching Adele's description toward a dirty black Chevrolet with a damaged front fender near Lewis Street and Gilkey Creek. The man was reportedly wearing a gray coat and red socks. Some children at Adele's school separately reported that a man matching this description had attempted to lure them into his vehicle in the days before her disappearance. This man was never identified. Other unverified accounts included a witness who claimed to have seen Adele enter a car with two men near her school, and a classmate who claimed to have seen a man beating a young girl in nearby woods. Police also received earlier, conflicting reports from Adele's playmates describing a man forcing her into a pink-and-white car with large tailfins near her home; these reports were ultimately discounted by investigators.

In September 2014, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released an age-progression image depicting how Adele might have appeared at age 63. Her case remains unsolved and is classified as a non-familial abduction.

In the years following Adele's disappearance, her parents had another child before divorcing. Her mother, Martha Wells, was awarded custody of the children but, due to poor health, the children were placed in foster care. Martha died in 1987. In 1992, Karl Wells shot one of Adele's brothers and was charged with assault with intent to commit murder along with several counts of felonious assault; at his son's request that he not be imprisoned, Karl pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor aggravated assault and was placed on probation.