NOLAN WELLS IS COMING HOME: FAMILY’S ATTORNEY REVEALS SH0CK NEW CONCERNS ABOUT ALLEGEDLY DELETED MESSAGES
Nolan Wells’ body will be flown more than 800 miles for an independent autopsy — as his family’s lawyer revealed they have concerns about “deleted messages” on his cellphone.
Wells, an 18-year-old college football player, was found dead on Monday days after he vanished on a Fourth of July boating trip to Horn Island, Mississippi, with his friends — who left the island without him, according to police.
His family have since retained the services of prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is flying Wells’ body to Washington DC for an autopsy as part of independent investigation into the teen’s death, which he claims is full of “contradictions.”
Authorities say 18-year-old Nolan Wells was last seen Saturday around 3 p.m.Facebook/Christine Wonsley
Nolan Wells with his mother, Christine Wonsley.Facebook/Christine Wonsley
Wells’ pals told police he wanted to stay on the island, where he was last seen talking with a girl, but “they took his cellphone,” Crump told ABC News.
“That’s not adding up to them. The fact that then when the family gets the cellphone back … they’re saying they are trying to understand why there are deleted messages, and so it’s very concerning to them.”
The woman who he was last seen speaking to around 3 p.m. Saturday had said that after they talked, “Nolan said he was going back to the boat,” according to Crump.
“And then the boys on the boat said, ‘No, Nolan told them he was going to stay with her.’ And so they are conflicting. She’s saying he went and got on the boat. They saying he didn’t get on the boat. So which is it?” he asked.
Authorities believe Wells likely drowned, and no foul play is suspected, ABC News reported.
The Mississippi state medical examiner performed an autopsy on Tuesday, but no official cause of death has yet been released.
It could take weeks to receive the state’s results, which include a toxicology report.
Crump questioned investigators determining that there was no foul play, pointing to videos circulating online.
“…They continue to tell the family that we don’t see any evidence of any foul play, even though you have students who recorded an altercation while they were on the boats of an argument where you had Nolan and somebody yelling at one another on the boat,” he said.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said Tuesday that officers were looking to speak with anyone who “observed or heard an argument, disturbance, or other unusual activity while on the island that day.”
Wells’ family wanted an independent investigation because they have “some concerns about the state of Mississippi doing an investigation of the death of a young black man where young white students may be looked at as having some culpability,” Crump said.
His family have since retained the services of prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump.USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Photos of the 6-foot-1, 180-pound teen — who played as a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College — showed him shirtless while sporting blue swim trunks, sunglasses and grinning alongside friends on a boat before he went missing.
“Missing our Nolan so much every second of every day,” Wells’ mother, Christine Woolsey, posted on Facebook Wednesday. “This has been the worst time in our lives. Watching his siblings go through the motions of grief adds another layer to the sadness.”
SOURCE: https://nypost.com/2026/07/09/us-news/nolan-wells-body-to-be-flown-hundreds-of-miles-to-new-state-as-attorney-reveals-deleted-messages-concerns/?utm_campaign=nypost_health&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwY2xjawS9RthleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFwWFgyN2dBdk5BWktySlo2c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHq-EPDl0yEBMTdYyix-WhksF49V18Ovrxcmx-GaXQAWurRmzQI7a3dv5csWk_aem_wlCbQijr_5WZYTWZtfhvvQ
