In the three months since 18-year-old Nolan Wells was found dead on Horn Island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, his family, investigators and the public have tried to piece together any available information in determining how and why he died.
That effort includes an analysis of his phone activity. On Sept. 24, Garrett Discovery, a digital forensics firm working with the Wells family and its legal team, announced it had compiled a 292-page Snapchat log containing data from Wells’ private Snapchat messages and 29 group chats. That report has been released publicly at justicefornolanwells.com.
Wells visited Horn Island with several friends on July 4 and later chose to stay behind while his friends returned to shore. But Wells never returned home, and he was found dead on the island on July 6. Both an official state autopsy and an independent autopsy organized by the Wells family found Nolan Wells’ cause of death to be undetermined. A Jackson County grand jury declined to issue indictments in relation to his death, but Wells family attorneys, led by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, have said questions still remain.
Garrett Discovery founder Andrew Garrett discussed the results of a forensic investigation of Wells’ phone during the Sept. 24 press conference.
He said “there were things that were deleted from the phone,” but later clarified on a Sept. 27 livestream that “deletions can happen remotely from people sending messages that can delete the messages afterwards” and Wells’ phone was not unlocked after he last accessed it. Snapchat allows the sender to manually delete messages.
In a statement Jackson County District Attorney Angel McIlrath issued on Sept. 24, she called on attorney Ben Crump’s team to provide her with any new information they have uncovered.
“If the Crump team genuinely has new information or evidence that Nolan Wells was murdered they should stop playing games and immediately provide it to me,” McIlrath said.
Most names and numbers have been redacted from the Snapchat report, so it’s not possible to tell who Wells was sending messages to or who authored which messages in the group chats included in the report. Additionally, many of the messages that were sent were in picture or video format and are not readable in the PDF format.
What the Snapchat Report Tells Us About Wells’ Disappearance
One text exchange may point to the last time Wells’ was seen on Horn Island, nearly an hour and a half after his friends left the island at around 4:30 p.m. on July 4.
In the report, a redacted user sent a message at 11:43 a.m. on July 5. The person said “No he came and was hanging out with us and around us, he never disappeared with (redacted) when it was time to leave around like 6 he got off our boat with this other guy and they started walking back to their boat.”
After this message was sent, others in the Snapchat group chat sent follow up messages trying to figure out who Nolan was with, but no one seemed able to identify the man.
Later on July 5 at 12:50 p.m., another person said “(redacted) said that Nolan wasn’t ever planning on riding back w(ith) them.”
Members of the group chat continued to question whose boat Nolan was planning to get on to return from the island.
At 12:52 p.m., another person sent a message that read: “(redacted) also said his girl was passed out around 6, but they said she saw him with other people around that time.”
During an exclusive with Fox News on Oct. 3, Warren Hudson confirmed at least one witness reported seeing Wells on the island around 6 p.m.
“According to the DA, there was multiple witnesses after we left,” Hudson said during the Oct. 3 exclusive. “From my personal experience, I’ve talked to one person that seen him after we left, but from the DA’s standpoint, there’s been multiple (witnesses).”
Some on social media shared messages speculating about a July 20 conversation where friends discussed putting up a cross to honor Wells’ memory and planned to bury his flip flops at the memorial. Some users shared the messages without a timestamp, misleading people that they may be evidence in the case. At the time these messages were sent, Wells’ body had already undergone both the official state autopsy and an independent autopsy and was in Ocean Springs for his funeral service.
Other messages in the Garrett Discovery report show Snapchat users sending messages grieving the loss of their friend and supporting one another after Wells’ death.
Friends of Nolan Wells Say They Continue to Receive Death Threats
Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour—Wells’ friends who traveled with him to Horn Island—said during the exclusive with Fox News on Oct. 3, that they and their family members continue to receive thousands of death threats.
“ Before they even found his body, I had people in my phone texting me insane threats,” Hudson said. “Things like, ‘I’m gonna find you and your family and kill you all.’”
“ I’ve received plenty, plenty of death threats,” Pitalo concurred. “Bomb threats in the mail. Every day we’re getting death threats.”
Hudson’s stepmother, Ashlee Cole, is a chancery court judge in Jackson County. Her connection with Hudson has raised rampant speculation that no investigation into Wells’ disappearance could be fair, and consequently, her office has received countless death threats as well. Authorities have made several arrests in connection to these threats.
“She goes to her office every day and there’s voicemails, hundreds, thousands. Not just my step-mom but my mom, my dad, my step-dad, my entire family … they’ve dragged my family into this. They’ve dragged my closest friends into this, and they’ve dragged amazing people, all across the board into this that do not deserve this at all,” Hudson said.
Ocean Springs attorney Tyler Cox said during the exclusive that one of the multiple individuals indicted for actions against Wells’ friends and their families made graphic threats of murder.
“We had individuals call her office, leave voicemails at a government agency, threatening to kill Warren, her, and Warren’s two younger brothers: that they were gonna slit his brothers’ throats in front of them. And so that person has now been thankfully indicted, being held without bond, and hopefully will be seeing justice soon,” Cox said.
The three friends have also threatened defamation lawsuits against national figures like the Rev. Al Sharpton and “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin, accusing both of defaming the group by suggesting they were involved in Wells’ death.
Crump Team Continues to Call for Federal Investigation
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump joined Wells’ parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, along with Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Stop AAPI Hate Executive Director Cynthia Choi to call for a federal investigation into Wells’ death at a press conference in Inglewood, California, on Monday.
“We add our voice to the call for a full and transparent and ongoing pursuit of truth,” Choi said. “We join the Wells-Wonsley family and demand that the Department of Justice use their resources to conduct a full and thorough federal investigation.”
Christine Wells-Wonsley said the family has renewed its plea for answers and called for an “honest and thorough investigation.”
“That is all we want,” Wells-Wonsley said. “We have not blamed anyone. We have not tried to cause a division. That was never our intent and it was not ours. It was not our legal team’s. Unfortunately, it’s just the way it happened.”
Christina Baal-Owens, the executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, also called for federal review of the Wells case in a statement Crump shared with the press.
“NAPAWF calls on the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to act: conduct a thorough, independent review of the circumstances surrounding Nolan’s death, make clear what federal investigative steps have been taken and ensure that all information that can lawfully be released is made available to his family,” Baal-Owens said in a statement.
In the grand jury report released Sept. 21, it acknowledged there is no statute of limitations on homicide cases in Mississippi.
“If credible evidence comes to light in the future that suggests Mr. Wells’ death was non-accidental, this matter should be re-presented to the Jackson County Grand Jury for further consideration,” the report said.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of Nolan Wells and read past stories here.
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