Third suspect arrested for threatening witnesses in Nolan Wells death investigation

Authorities arrested 40-year-old Edward James Porter on a charge of transmitting threatening communications across state lines, according to court records obtained by local media. Prosecutors say Porter told a witness he would "come kill" the individual and their family and sent the witness the victim’s home address to demonstrate knowledge of their location.

Porter is the third person charged in connection with threats tied to the investigation of Nolan Wells, whose body was discovered on Mississippi’s Horn Island on July 6 after he vanished following a July 4 celebration. Earlier arrests include 27-year-old Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce, who allegedly threatened a judge involved in the case, and Michelle Francine Edwards, accused of making bomb threats to a county clerk’s office.

No one has yet been charged in relation to Wells’s disappearance or death, and the state autopsy findings have not been released to the family. Civil-rights attorney Ben Crump, representing the family, said they continue to face online harassment, including negative reviews posted about Wells’s mother, a nurse, after she sought answers about her son’s death.

The case has attracted national attention, with public figures expressing support for the family, while investigators continue to pursue leads and address the alleged threats against witnesses.