Family demands answers after Mississippi teen found dead on Horn Island
Nolan Wells was last seen on a July 4 boat trip to Horn Island and found dead two days later, as his parents pressed Mississippi officials for answers.
Wells’ body was recovered on Monday, July 6, on the uninhabited Horn Island, about 7 miles off the Mississippi coast near the Alabama state line and roughly 11 miles long. Christine and Elmore Wonsley demanded a transparent investigation into the death of their 18-year-old son, Nolan Xavier Wells, at a news conference Friday in New York City beside attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Since Wells disappeared during a Fourth of July boat trip to Horn Island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, the family has said the case has been clouded by conflicting accounts and missing details.
Family lawyers said about 200 people were on Horn Island on July 4. “We just want to know what happened and why our baby didn’t come home,” Christine Wonsley said at the news conference. Crump said the family has commissioned an independent autopsy by a forensic pathologist in Washington, D.C., while they wait for the official results, which could take weeks. He also said investigators plan to try to recover deleted messages from Wells’ cellphone before it is turned over to authorities. The family has also asked witnesses to come forward and urged anyone with video from Horn Island to share it with investigators.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said Wells’ friends were cooperating and that investigators do not suspect foul play. Ledbetter said investigators believe Wells drowned, though the circumstances remain under review. On July 10, Ledbetter said a friend contacted the Coast Guard around 11 p.m. on July 4, and Wells’ mother separately called the sheriff’s office around midnight into July 5.
Wells was a standout athlete at Ocean Springs High School and later played football at Southwest Mississippi Community College.
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