Family seeks answers after 18-year-old Nolan Wells found dead on Mississippi island
Two weeks after Nolan Wells was discovered dead on Horn Island, his family and attorneys are pressing for a transparent investigation amid conflicting accounts and social-media speculation.
An 18-year-old Mississippi college freshman, Nolan Xavier Wells, was found dead on Horn Island on July 6, two days after he and a group of friends took a boat there for a weekend gathering. Local authorities continue to investigate the circumstances of his death, while the family and their legal representatives have called for an independent, transparent inquiry.
Wells’s mother, Christine Wonsley, posted on Facebook on July 4 seeking information about her missing son, a message that quickly spread online. The post prompted speculation about a possible racial motive after a photo showed Wells, who was Black, with three white friends. At a press conference in New York on July 10, Wonsley said the family had retained civil-rights attorneys Rev. Al Sharpton and Ben Crump, who emphasized the need for a thorough investigation.
"We are in Mississippi. These were three young white men. Nolan was the only young Black man. Had the roles been reversed, we know this investigation would be going differently," Crump said.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter earlier stated that no foul play was suspected, a comment Crump described as premature before the autopsy was completed. The family disputes claims that Wells left the island voluntarily. A friend who was on the island reported that Wells met a young woman and considered staying, but later decided to rejoin the group, a detail the family finds inconsistent with the advice they gave their son about staying with the group.
"If you go with a group, you stay with a group. Safety is in numbers," Elmore Wonsley, Wells’s father, said on television.
Wells’s phone, tracked via the Life360 app, was recovered at the home of one of the men who had been on the boat, but messages and Snapchat content from the day had been deleted, according to the family’s attorney. The keys belonging to Wells were also found at that residence.
The autopsy, funded by former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, was performed in Washington, D.C., after a state autopsy was completed; results have not yet been released. The Congressional Black Caucus issued a statement urging a full and timely investigation.
Wells’s funeral is scheduled for Monday at Center Pointe Church in Ocean Springs, with actor Tyler Perry covering the costs of the services.