32. Horn Island: The Death of Nolan Wells

On the Fourth of July, 18-year-old college football player Nolan Wells took a boat to Horn Island — an uninhabited barrier island ten miles off the Mississippi coast — with a group of friends. That afternoon, the boat went back. He didn't. Two days later, a park ranger found his body in the water.

What happened in between is now the subject of a sheriff's investigation, an FBI thread, two pending autopsies, and a grand jury referral — and it's buried under an avalanche of online speculation. So this episode does one thing: facts only. Using GPS records, dispatch audio, and on-the-record statements, we rebuild the timeline of July 4th minute by minute — and clearly separate what's verified, what's official, what's witness account, and what's allegation. The sinking boat. The phone that came home before he did. The viral video two people describe completely differently. The contradiction at the center of "he chose to stay."

No theories. No verdicts. Just the record, and the questions it can't yet answer.

Transcript

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Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of I Fear You Babe. My name is Dino Malvone, and I'm your host. It's called Horn Island, a barrier island, a strip of sand and pine sitting between the mainland and the open gulf. On a holiday weekend, boats anchor along its beaches. There's music and coolers, fireworks. And when the sun starts dropping, the boats go home. And on the 4th of July this year, a group of friends from Ocean Springs, Mississippi took a boat out to Horn Island to celebrate. Among them was an 18-year-old named Nolan Xavier Wells, a college football player that was home for the summer, days away from reporting back for his sophomore season. He would have turned 19 next month. That afternoon, the boat went back to the mainland, but Nolan did not. Two days later, a park ranger found his body in the water off of the island's northwestern tip. What happened in between is now the subject of a sheriff's investigation, an FBI thread, two autopsies, a grand jury referral, dueling witness accounts, a phone with an alleged gap in it, three friends who have all retained attorneys, and a grieving family demanding to know why their son went to an island and never came home. And this is a case that's drowning in noise. So today I'm going to do something different. Facts only. And I will tell you clearly every single time whether something is a verified record, an official statement, or a witness account, or an allegation. Because in the story, the difference between those four things, I think, is everything. I'm Dino Malvone. This is I fear you, babe, and this is Horn Island. So let's talk about Nolan because he was a person before he was a case. So let's get started right there. Nolan Xavier Wells was 18 from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, which is a small city on the Gulf Coast. He graduated from Ocean Springs High School, where he played football and earned a spot as a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College. He was a rising sophomore, set to return for the upcoming season. His father said on Good Morning America that he was supposed to be back at school right after the holiday weekend to start training. He was six foot one, and in the photos from the boat that day, the photos his own mother would later share while searching for him. He's in blue swim trucks and sunglasses, towering over his friends, arm slugg around their shoulders, just smiling. His parents are Christine and Elmore Wandsley. And at the family's press first press conference, his mother described him as a peacemaker with the kindest soul. Someone who, in her words, never met a stranger. She said he loved everybody regardless of what they look like and just wanted people to be at peace with one another. One of his friends, last name is Shepard, who'd known him since freshman year, told ABC News their friend group was diverse in race and ethnicity. And that the one thing that they had in common was admiration for Nolan. Quote, Nolan brought us all together. One more detail to hold on to family attorney Ben Crump has said Nolan was also a really good swimmer. Here's the timeline for the 4th of July. And I want you to know exactly where each piece comes from because the spine of this act is just records, not recollections. There's GPS data recorded by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources that was obtained by CBS News. Audio of a towing call obtained by NBC News through a public records request. Around those records, witness accounts, which I'll flag as witness accounts when we get to them. So here's the timeline. 11:14 a.m. The boat arrives at Horn Island. Again, this is all GPS record. Nolan traveled with three high school friends. This is per reporting, including PBS News Hour, though there were many more young people on the island that day that came on multiple boats. Shepard told ABC the group had been drinking since late morning. And that's, you know, of course, a witness account. So somewhere in these hours, phones come off bodies and onto boats. And Shepard told ABC that when Nolan got in the water, he put his phone on a friend's boat dash, alongside, in Shepard's words, probably 15 other phones. Javon Williams, another close friend who was on the island, told the Biloxi Son Herald that he and Nolan both left their phones on the boat. And this detail, which is, you know, the phone on the boat, becomes one of the most important facts in this case. So let's make sure that we hold on to it. Around 3 p.m., Nolan is seen for the last time as per the Jackson County Sheriff's Department and attorney Ben Crump's office both confirmed that. One note of honest variance between these, Javon Williams told the Sun Herald he last saw Nolan after 4 p.m. hanging out with a girl and other friends. Small gap, but I think it's worth flagging because in this case, I feel like those small gaps are the whole story, you know? Around 4 p.m., the boat starts taking on water. That's not a rumor. The NBC News has the audio of the group's call to a towing service. And the operator says, quote, Our bilge pump stopped working. We're sinking. Can you all please come? The dispatcher asks if everyone aboard is in good health. The answer for the recording, yeah, yeah, everybody is on board with reporting indicating about seven people on the vessel. And I think that precision matters in this case. So borrow the Black Information Network's framing. That call confirms everyone on the boat was accounted for. It does not establish whether Nolan was expected to be on the boat. And like the audio proves the boat was in genuine distress, but it doesn't exactly explain why Nolan wasn't there. 4:31 p.m., the boat leaves Horn Island. That's from a GPS record. And reporting indicates it was towed roughly three miles before regaining normal speed. Now, the rest of this is all the rest of the boat's day and all GPS, it's all GPS record. It returns to its original departure dock around 5.52. It travels into Fort Bayou and it's back at the dock at 6.05 p.m. And 719, it moves to the Fort Bayou boat launch. And from there it travels over land, presumably towed by vehicle to the Biloxi residence of its owners. And per the marine resources report obtained by CBS, the boat's owner and the owner's mother, and one other person who was reportedly with Nolan that day all cooperated with that agency's investigation. The owners have not been publicly named in reporting, I can verify. So we don't have to name them either. That evening, and this is a detail that got lost in early coverage. Nolan's family starts using location sharing apps through his friends to look for him. And according to the Associated Press, family members tracked his phone with a locator app and retrieved it from the home of one of his friends that same night. His phone came home before he did, interestingly enough. His mother, around midnight, reports him missing. And as far as the AP has reported, shortly after midnight on July 5th, the family has said the alert came via a phone call from one of his friends. His mother later recounted that in that first call. And in her telling, that initially said that this Katie was also unaccounted for and they didn't know where she was. And that's the mother's account of a phone call. So treat it exactly as that. And we'll come back to Katie in a second. So Nolan's on Horn Island. It's dark. The island has no shelter, no facilities, no communications, and his phone is on the mainland. Okay, so on July 5th, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department announces a search, and they're coordinating with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, and the National Park Service. Christine Wandsley posts photos of her son from the trip appealing for information. Volunteers join, including the United Cajun Navy, whom the family later publicly thanked by name. Per the Marine Resources report, this is also the day the agency hands over this case to the sheriff's office as the lead investigative agency. So that takes us to July 6th. In the morning, a U.S. park ranger finds a body in the water just off the northwestern tip of Horn Island. It's a two-day search and it's ended. The Jackson County coroner positively identifies the body as Nolan. Coroner Bruce Lind told UCBS News the confirmation came via dental records. And one significant early finding from the coroner himself to CNN, there were no immediate signs of physical injury on the body. That is not a cause of death. It's a preliminary observation. And the autopsies will have the final word, but it's on the record, and I feel like it belongs in this, you know, in the picture of what's happening. So, okay, now we're going on to July 7th. Two things happen. The state autopsy is conducted. And as of this recording, which is happening on Saturday, July 18th, its results have not been released. Toxicology and other findings can take weeks. And the family retains civil rights attorney Ben Crump calling for a thorough and transparent investigation. And a GoFundMe for the family passes $230,000 within days. And that's via, that fact is via NPR. Sheriff John Ledbetter has said he suspects that Nolan drowned. That is a suspicion that it was stated. Mid-investigation, it's not a finding yet. There's no official cause of death. Anyone online telling you definitively how Nolan Wells died is telling you something that no medical examiner has said yet. So, and the other thing is one more thing from the sheriff's office in this window. And I think it's important. In a public statement, Sheriff Ledbetter asked for photos and videos from the northwest part of Horn Island on July 4th. And I'm going to give you his words carefully because they matter, particularly those who depicted, especially those depicting alleged altercations or believed to include Nolan Wells, along with eyewitness accounts and of any arguments or disturbances from that day. That's per the sheriff's own statement reported by NPR. And I'm not going to tell you what that means because nobody has said publicly, but the lead investigator asked the public specifically for footage of altercations, and that's a fact that you deserve to have, you know? So what this is where I want to talk about. I'm not going to tell you who's right because I don't know. And neither does anybody outside of this investigation. So the first point is did Nolan choose to stay on the island? So the stay behind account is in dispute. Sheriff Ledbetter told the Associated Press that from the people that the investigator spoke to, it sounds like Nolan chose to stay, assuming that he catch a ride back with someone else. Tracen Shepard told ABC that when the group learned that the boat had to head in because of the mechanical failure, Nolan said he wanted to stay because he'd met a girl and would return on another friend's boat. And a Jackson County Chancery judge, the mother of one of Nolan's friends, actually, interestingly, wrote publicly on Facebook that her son Warren last saw Nolan around 3 p.m., that the group left around 4:30 when the boat started taking on water, and that Nolan decided to stay and come back with another group. She stated her son was interviewed by the sheriff's department and cooperated fully. Against that, Nolan's parents, his father told CBS morning, quote, Nolan always stays with the group and asked directly whether he believed his son was left behind. He said yes. Staying alone, in his words, is not his character. His parents have said they raised him not to separate from the group and they point to the phone. He left it on a boat with dead battery hours ahead of him and on an island with no communications. And they don't believe that he'd do that voluntarily. Javon Williams told CNN, the stay behind story just doesn't square with the person he knew. So there's this next point about this girl named Katie. Katie is the name of the reportedly the young woman that Nolan met on the island. And here's what's on record, and it contains a direct contradiction, okay? So interestingly, per attorney Ben Crump speaking to the Grio, the young woman's account is that Nolan told her he was going back to get on his friend's boat. The friend's account is that Nolan told them that he was staying behind to be with her. So I mean, like if you sit with that, everybody's saying that he left with the other person. So it just feels like they're playing a little game of volleyball. Those two statements, like, cannot both be true at the same time. And the gap between them is arguably the single most important unresolved contradiction in the case because, like, what went down? Nolan's mother told the grill the young woman had been identified and that she'd reached out to Christine directly after the disappearance, describing her interaction with Nolan as basically a hey and buy type situation. Christine's response, quote, that's not what I'm getting from other people. She called it one of the many inconsistencies. And Crump said that the family's team planned to speak with the young woman herself. And ABC News has said it attempted to contact her. A relative of hers publicly dispelled early rumors that she was ever missing, too, because that was a rumor that was going around. In your narration, this she stays unnamed beyond what the family itself put on the record. She's a private young person inside an open investigation. And the contradiction is in the story. It's not, it's not her. So then there's this other thing about the video that supposedly was the viral video. So there's a video from that day shot from a boat showing people on the island. On July 10th, Crump said Nolan is among the people in it and can be heard demanding his phone back. Days later, Shepard told ABC in a broadcast exclusive that the voice, the voice they heard is his, that Nolan isn't in the video at all, and that no phone was even mentioned. And that he was yelling at people who were physically restraining him during an altercation, telling them to let him off the boat. So two directly conflicting accounts of the same footage: one from the family's attorney and one from a friend who supposedly was there. And no authority has publicly settled it. So we're gonna treat neither as established, okay? The other one, the fourth contested point is the phone. So the facts are that the family recovered Nolan's phone the evening of the 4th of July from the home of one of his friends using like a locator app. And the Associated Press said that the family has alleged that messages seem to have been erased before it got back to them. They say that Nolan was an avid Snapchat user, and there were no posts or messages for roughly 24 hours before it came into their possession. That is a family allegation. It's not a forensic finding yet, and it's precisely what the upcoming forensic examination exists to test. For days there was friction, and the sheriff told ABC this is kind of cut crazy. The phone hadn't been turned over to his investigators. That got resolved on July 15th with an agreement for a joint inspection. So there's going to be an independent investigators and sheriff's investigators present together when the data is downloaded, both sides reviewing simultaneously. A law professor quoted by AP Ronald Rylach noted this arrangement is not typical at all, and the evidence is usually secured, not shared, but said the cooperation could actually speed the investigation. So we're going to go to this last contested point, and that's the friends and this kind of lens of race. So the three friends who travel with Nolan have all retained attorneys, and that's like fully confirmed. Crump said it himself on PBS News Hour on July 13th. And here the record has since firmed up an important way. Sheriff Ledbetter confirmed to WLOX that all three friends who were on the boat with Nolan have been interviewed, that his office has interviewed more than 60 witnesses in total. Crump has said the family doesn't know the extent of the friend's cooperation because they've lawyered up. Two notes of fairness that facts only demands, okay? Retaining a lawyer is an open death in an open death investigation is not evidence of wrongdoing. It's what an attorney would advise. It's really the smart thing to do, right? And these same friends, per Shepard, have been receiving death threats. And, you know, Shepard said to ABC, it worries me for my friends, it worries me for my family. The FBI has confirmed directly to ABC News that it's working to address interstate threats received by individuals related to this matter. And the context you cannot skip because Nolan was black. In a widely circulated image from the trip, he appears to be the only color person of color in this group of four. And this is Mississippi. So Crump argued on PBS that if the roles had been reversed, three young black men and one white man who ended up dead, the investigation would have been far more zealous. The Reverend Al Sharpton at the July 10th National Action Network press conference said, quote, this doesn't smell right, while explicitly saying that no one should rest to judgment in either direction, not concluding it was racism, not concluding that it wasn't, because we just don't know. Nolan's mother told reporters that she and her husband had talked with their son about black history and how you have to move in certain spaces, which is set against that. Authorities have said they found no evidence of foul play. While the sheriff's office simultaneously stresses investigators are working diligently to determine exactly what happened. And while the same sheriff publicly requested footage of altercations, okay? So all these statements coexisted. So here's where it stands as of today. The investigation is active. So Ledbetter says that his department has been in contact with other agencies, including the FBI, has interviewed all three of the friends from the boat, and has interviewed more than 60 witnesses overall. After the public call for tips, he called the response very productive and he's been explicit about pace, telling ABC the family deserves a thorough and factual investigation and that investigations will not put themselves on a timetable. We know that that stuff takes time. So a grand jury is confirmed on July 15th, and the family and attorneys Ben Crump and Eric Hertz met for the first time with district attorney Angel Myers McCrath. A meeting Crump described as respectful, and which the DA's office framed as routine victim services for families of deceased children. So out of it, once the sheriff's investigation is complete, the case goes to the grand jury. And here's the Nuance that I think the headline kind of flattens sometimes is that the DA's office stated that convening a grand jury does not mean that there is any criminality. It's standard procedure in Jackson County for most unnatural or suspicious deaths. It's just a process, not a verdict. They again, joint inspection was agreed upon by both sides in the room for download. Whatever it is or isn't on that phone, including the family's erase messages allegation, and that's where you know it gets tested. The two autopsies are pending because the state done on July 7th, results are still unreleased. And the family's independent autopsy funded with help from Colin Kopernick. The body sent to Washington, D.C. Results initially expected to be around July 10th, but delayed by problems transporting the body. The sheriff publicly warned the independent exam as another, sorry, welcomed the independent exam as another set of eyes. Sorry. So the national weight is on this. Someone whose character spoke louder than his accomplishments. For Crump, the attorney, the family has been fielding 50 to 100 calls a day from people who say they were on Horn Island or knew someone who was. And Crump's team says it has spoken with dozens of witnesses of its own. The funeral is set for Monday. The family had approval to use the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, then chose otherwise. So the service is at Center Point Church in Ocean Springs. Visitation is from 9 to 11 a.m. Funeral to follow. Reverend Sharpton is officiating Tyler Perry covering all the expenses. Afterward, a gathering at the Jackson County Fairgrounds. Because in Christine Wandsley's words, her son wouldn't want people sitting around crying. She's calling it a homegoing celebration. And she asks that anybody protecting, she asks that anybody protecting, protesting, keep it peaceful out of respect for Nolan. So strip away everything that's contested and what's, you know, a little bit up in the air. Still, here's what remains. A boat left a dock at 9.56 in the morning and came back without Nolan. The boat was genuinely sinking. The audio exists. Seven people called for a tow. Everyone on board accounted for. And Nolan's phone came home that evening, tracked by his own family, to a friend's house while Nolan spent a night on an island with no shelter and no way to call anyone. The lead investigator has publicly asked for footage of altercations. Three of his friends have lawyers. Two autopsies have no released results. A young woman's account and his friend's accounts point in different directions. A family that taught their son to always stay with the group is burying him this week, still without a cause of death. Every hard fact in this case is a record. Every explanation is a claim. The investigation exists to close the distance between those two things, and it hasn't done it just yet. Christine Wandsley says that she hopes any parent in her position would do exactly what she's doing. Ask for help, receive help, and demand answers. And Trayston Shepard, a friend under death threat, said the thing that is the entire ethic of this episode, which is let the investigation continue. Let the facts be shown. If the facts show somebody harmed Nolan, he hopes that there's justice. If it was a tragic accident and somebody stayed silent, he still hopes there's justice. Quote, the facts is the only thing that's going to overturn that. And, you know, the facts. That's all any of us should be tracking in. The grand jury will get this case when the work is done. The autopsies will have a story to tell. And we'll come back and tell that story. Until then, this was I fear you, babe. And, you know, no one's family deserves to be heard most of all. Talk to you guys soon.