As investigators continue to assess the mysterious death of Ocean Springs native Nolan Wells, one of the 18-year-old’s friend’s has come forward to clarify what happened in a video that some internet sleuths have considered a smoking gun in the case.
Wells, who was an Ocean Springs High School graduate and a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College, traveled to Horn Island via boat with a group of friends on July 4. That’s where he was last seen before his body was discovered by a park ranger on the barrier island on July 6. According to local law enforcement, preliminary findings suggest that Wells drowned and that no foul play was involved in his death.
However, Wells’ family has welcomed prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump as counsel to dig into the circumstances surrounding his passing. Two autopsies have been conducted — one by the state of Mississippi and a Colin Kaepernick-funded one by a Washington, D.C.-based independent forensic pathologist — though the results remain pending.
In the meantime, a viral video that circulated social media has been used by some, including Crump, to suggest that Wells had been in a verbal altercation with his friends on Horn Island the day he went missing. In the video, indistinct shouting can be heard, with Crump suggesting that Wells was yelling for his friends to give him his phone. A friend of Wells’ who was with the group that day, Tracestin Shepherd, said Monday it was actually him yelling in the video.
Shepherd said on “Good Morning America” that he and the friend group that accompanied Wells on Independence Day have been wrongly accused of foul play in connection with Wells’ death.
“That’s me yelling,” Shepherd said. “We did no wrong here and we don’t understand how we’re getting so much hate behind us. We all cared [about] and loved Nolan, and nobody wanted to see Nolan die. Nobody wanted to see his life be taken so short.”
Shepherd said he returned to the mainland on the boat he took to Horn Island, but Wells stayed back. Wells, according to Shepherd, had been talking to a female on the island and did not join the group in returning home so that he could continue to spend time with her.
“They met that day, and it was kind of one of those things,” Shepherd said of Wells and the female’s interaction. “He did come off that day that he really did like her, but that was the only time they ever hung out was at Horn Island on July 4.”
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter has confirmed that all of the individuals on the boat with Wells on Independence Day have fully cooperated with law enforcement in light of the tragedy.
Family searching for answers
The victim’s parents — Christine Wells-Wonsley and Elmore Wonsley — have since demanded answers relating to their son’s passing. They do not believe that the story they’ve been adds up, especially the part where Wells is said to have ditched his friends to talk to a female.
The parents utilized the location-sharing service tool, Life360, to track Wells’ phone down on July 4. After retrieving his phone, the parents said there seemed to be deleted messages.
Wells reportedly used popular social media app Snapchat as a primary form of communication. Christine said during a July 10 press conference hosted by civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton that, when she checked the app on her son’s phone, she could not find any pictures or messages from that day. She found that to be odd, considering how often she said the teen was on his phone.
The father asserted that he had a difficult time retrieving Wells’ keys from one of the individuals in the friend group. Elmore said during the July press conference that he arrived at the house where Wells left his vehicle before venturing out to Horn Island. When he asked for his son’s keys, he was reportedly given the runaround by the friend who was believed to have possessed them.
“I said, ‘I’m Nolan’s father. I’m here to get his keys so I can get his car.’ He was like, ‘I don’t know, man. Nolan’s like my brother.’ I said, ‘If Nolan was like your brother, would you please go in your room and see if you can find my son’s keys, so I can take his car home?’ He walks off for two or three minutes and comes back, ‘I can’t find the keys,'” Elmore recounted.
Wells’ father added that the individual was later able to locate the keys after a brief phone call with an unidentified female who reportedly placed them in the young man’s room. Suspicious, Elmore said he lost faith in his ability to trust that friend group because he believed he had been lied to.
The family is further leaning on the independent autopsy to reveal meaningful details linked to the case. Though they have been in contact with police, both Elmore and Christina have expressed discontentment with their son’s death preliminarily being considered a drowning, as they argued that he was a more-than capable swimmer.
Racial component to this case
Wells was the only Black member of the friend group that went out to Horn Island on July 4.
While Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell has suggested that there is no reason to believe that race played a role in the teen’s death, Sharpton said the public should not be quick to rule race out.
Crump also cited Mississippi’s complicated history with race relations as a justification to infer that Wells could have been a victim of racial violence.
Funeral being planned
The family has not yet announced when Wells’ funeral will take place, though Sharpton has confirmed that he has been asked to go to Mississippi to be the officiant. Hit Black filmmaker Tyler Perry has also agreed to pay for the funeral.
