Sixteen days after Nolan Wells died, no one knows what happened to the Mississippi football player who traveled to Horn Island with friends
A memorial service for Nolan Wells, the Mississippi teen who died during a Fourth of July outing to Horn Island, will be broadcast live today as the mysterious case drew national attention due to Wells’ campaign. Wells was the only black person in the group of friends; the others had returned home. Wells’ body was found on July 6, face down in the water.Wells was a 2025 Ocean Springs High School graduate and multi-sport athlete who later played football at Southwest Mississippi Community College.Actor and media mogul Tyler Perry is paying for the services, CBS News reports.While investigators said drowning was suspected, they have not yet released an official cause of death and the case remains under investigation.
Possibility of drowning not ruled out, but family hires lawyers to conduct separate investigation
There were no signs of trauma or foul play on Will’s body, but autopsy results have not yet been released as experts await toxicology tests. Family attorney Ben Crump said Wells’ parents sent their son’s body out of state for an independent autopsy.“We flew his body from Mississippi to Washington, D.C. because the family wanted to make sure they had a doctor who had no ties to Mississippi law enforcement to do an independent examination of their son’s body,” Crump said. Autopsy results are also pending.The other three friends hired attorneys. A friend said we stayed with a girl he knew. “They met that day and it was like this … he really liked her, but that was the only time they hung out, it was the Fourth of July on Horn Island,” Tracestin Shepherd said. But another friend who also saw Wells on July 4 said Wells was not separated from those he was traveling with.Wells’ mother, Christine Wells-Wonsley, said the family compared the location history tracked by the Snapchat and Life360 apps on her son’s phone, but the data didn’t match.Those friends are now receiving death threats, Shepherd said. “We’ve done nothing wrong here and we don’t understand why we get so much hate,” he said. “We all care about and love Nolan and no one wants to see Nolan die. No one wants to see his life cut short.”
