The family of Nolan Wells, a Black teenager who was found dead after going missing on an island in Mississippi, made an emotional plea Friday for an honest, thorough investigation in a case that has captured national attention over its unanswered questions.
“We just want to know what happened and why our baby didn’t come home,” his mother Christine Wells-Wonsley said at a news conference with the Rev. Al Sharpton and noted civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
WATCH: Nolan Wells’ family calls for probe into teen’s death with attorney Ben Crump
Wells, an 18-year-old described by his parents as having a big heart, went out on a boat with three friends who were white on July 4 before going missing. His body was found on July 6.
Liza Park, senior attorney in the Atlanta office of Ben Crump Law, said she heard about Wells’ death before she got the call to work on the case.
“Why? Because it doesn’t take an attorney, it doesn’t take a special investigator, it doesn’t take someone with extreme training to know right off, there’s something wrong here,” Park said.
Authorities have said they believe Wells drowned and don’t suspect foul play.
Throughout the news conference, Crump described “glaring contradictions” in the witnesses’ accounts of Wells’ disappearance, related to whether he stayed on or left the island, why he didn’t have his phone with him and the very idea that a young athlete who knew how to swim would drown.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement it is actively investigating the situation and has asked for information, including unedited photos and videos or knowledge of “an argument, disturbance, or other unusual activity while on the island that day.”
Wells’ family has retained Crump, who said his team is conducting a thorough investigation including an independent autopsy.
“We are in a ferocious pursuit for the truth,” Crump said.
Here’s what we know about Wells’ death.
What do we know about Wells’ disappearance?
On July 3, Wells cooked his parents a dinner of baked salmon after his mom had a busy day at work, Wells-Wonsley said. That night, he stayed over at his friend’s house. The next day he and his friends went by boat to Horn Island, an undeveloped barrier island eight miles off the coast of Mississippi that can only be reached via private boat. He was last seen at 3 p.m. on July 4.
One of Wells’ friends contacted Wells-Wonsley at around 11 p.m. to report him missing. Wells-Wonsley posted on Facebook in the early hours of July 5 asking for information. She reported his disappearance to the authorities and asked a friend if she had seen her son.
Nolan Xavier Wells, an 18-year-old who died on an island off the coast of Mississippi, with his parents Christine and Elmore Wonsley in an undated photo released by the family attorney Ben Crump on July 10, 2026. Family handout courtesy of Ben Crump Law/Handout via Reuters
In a July 5 press release, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department said it was searching the island “with the assistance of the Department of Marine Resources, the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and the United States Coast Guard.”
Wells’ father, Elmore Wonsley, said he went out on a boat with Wells’ football coach that morning and found nothing.
On the morning of July 6, Wells’ body was found by a U.S. Park Service Ranger.
At the news conference, Wonsley and Crump questioned why Wells’ body didn’t float to the surface on July 5.
“He went missing on July 4th, and they say his body should have been there on July 5th. Why would it not appear until July 6th?” Crump said. “That’s one of those things that’s just not adding up.”
Crump and Wells’ parents cast doubt on the idea that he may have drowned, saying the island was packed and people would have seen him struggling. They said that he knew how to swim, was a promising football player and was in “tip-top shape.”
In an interview with CBS News, Brian Trascher from the United Cajun Navy, a nonprofit organization that helped search for Wells, also questioned the possibility that he drowned.
“If he went into the water at all and became distressed, it was so crowded that day, it seems hard to believe that nobody would have noticed a distressed swimmer in the water,” Trascher said.
What other inconsistencies does Crump say are in the case?
According to Crump, one young woman said Wells had been speaking with her on Horn Island and told her he was going back to get on his friends’ boat. Wells’ friends, on the contrary, say Wells told them he was going to stay back and talk to the young woman.
“It’s a contradiction,” Crump said. “They’re not saying the same thing. One of them is telling the truth, one of them is not. We have to get to the bottom of that.”
Watch the video in the player above.
The mother of one of Wells’ friends, who is a Jackson County chancery judge, said in a post on Facebook that her son left the island around 4:30 p.m., during which time the boat had an issue with the bilge pump.
“Nolan made a decision to stay on the island and return inland later with another group of friends,” Ashlee Cole said. She added that her son had been interviewed by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and “cooperated fully.”
In another Facebook post, Cole said her family had received death threats and that she was willing to speak with Crump and Wells’ parents and “provide them with all the information known to us so their family can rest and properly mourn.”
Crump said during the news conference that they believe the “young men have lawyers, so we will have to have their lawyers agree to let them speak to our investigators and we have not attempted to talk to them as of yet.”
Wells-Wonsley said in an ABC News interview that she could not fathom why Nolan would have separated from his friends. His father said he had always taught his son “if you go with a group, you stay with the group.”
Crump also referenced a video circulating on social media where Wells appears to scream, asking for his phone.
Wells-Wonsley said she tracked down her son’s phone using Life 360 and found the phone on land at one of his friends’ houses who had been on the boat with him.
“What teenager would leave their phone behind if they’re gonna stay on this island?” Crump asked.
Wells-Wonsley said she believes messages were deleted off her son’s phone after finding no saved photos or videos on Snapchat from that day. She said that was concerning because it would be unusual for her son not to capture the day on his phone.
What comes next?
The independent autopsy, which is being paid for by former football player and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick, will be conducted in Washington, D.C., by a doctor with no ties to Mississippi.
Crump said Wells’ family has a distrust that Mississippi law enforcement officials will conduct a fair investigation.
A photo of Nolan Xavier Wells that was posted on the Facebook page of the Jackson County Sherriff’s Department on July 5, 2026. Jackson County Sherriff’s Department/Handout via Reuters
“The history of Mississippi is something that they don’t just read about in books, but it’s a lived experience for many Black Americans. That, oftentimes, when our children are killed in highly questionable situations, that there is this notion that, ‘Oh, it was nothing wrong, no foul play. Let’s just sweep it under the rug.’ Well, we refuse to sweep it under the rug,” Crump said.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Department’s autopsy results have still not been made public. The Jackson County coroner told the Mississippi Free Press the autopsy was conducted July 7, but the state medical examiner hadn’t released a final report because she was awaiting a toxicology report.
Crump said the results of their autopsy would be made public.
“We want them to be transparent and we want to be transparent,” he said.
In a tearful plea, Wells-Wonsley said she was seeking the truth.
“I would hope that any parent who God forbid would be in our situation, I would hope that you would do the same thing,” she said. “I would hope that you would ask for any help. Receive any help to get answers.”
