Body of missing 18-year-old found on Mississippi barrier island
The remains of Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old college freshman who vanished during a July boat trip to Horn Island, were recovered on Monday and identified by his mother.
An 18-year-old college freshman from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, was found dead on Horn Island, a barrier island off the Gulf coast, after disappearing during a July 4 boat outing with three friends. The young man, Nolan Xavier Wells, did not return with the group, prompting his mother to report him missing and launch a two-day search that attracted national attention.
Wells’s mother, Christine Wonsley, confirmed the identification of the body on Tuesday. > "His father, our family, friends and I are absolutely devastated," she wrote on Facebook, adding that she felt her heart was broken for her son.
Authorities have not released a cause of death, and Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said the investigation remains "very active."
Wells, a freshman at Southwest Mississippi Community College, would have turned 19 next month. The incident has drawn comments from civil-rights groups, with the NAACP noting the loss of a young Black man and expressing sympathy for his family.