Three months after the 18-year-old was found dead near Mississippi’s Horn Island, his family says unanswered questions have made it impossible to move forward.
Three months after Nolan Wells was found dead off the Mississippi coast, his parents say they are no closer to understanding what happened to their son.
Christine and Elmore Wonsley are renewing their call for a federal investigation into the 18-year-old’s death, despite a grand jury’s decision not to recommend criminal charges and an FBI statement maintaining that investigators found no evidence of foul play.
“I cannot take that ruling, and I cannot move on with my life,” Christine said during a press conference Monday, according to ABC News. “We have been left with more questions and heartbreak than any answers.”
Wells, a Black and Filipino American college football player, disappeared July 4 after traveling by boat with friends to Horn Island, an uninhabited barrier island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. His body was recovered two days later.
Authorities have said the circumstances in which his body was found were consistent with drowning. However, both the official state autopsy and an independent autopsy commissioned by his family listed his cause and manner of death as undetermined.
That gap between what investigators believe likely happened and what medical examiners could conclusively determine remains at the heart of his parents’ questions.
According to People, the FBI assisted local authorities with the investigation and agrees with their conclusion that the available evidence does not indicate a crime or foul play.
A 23-member Jackson County grand jury reached a similar conclusion in September. Its report said there was “no credible evidence” that anyone who traveled to or from Horn Island that day engaged in criminal conduct connected to Wells’ death.
The panel also reviewed testimony from a witness who said Wells fell awkwardly from a boat but continued socializing afterward and did not appear injured. Both autopsies documented bruising on the back of his head, but the state report determined the injury was not fatal. The grand jury could not establish whether the fall caused it.
Wells’ family and their attorney, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, say those findings still do not explain exactly how the teenager died.
“We have not closed our case, and we refuse to close the chapter of Nolan Xavier Wells,” Crump said Monday, according to local news outlet WLOX.
Crump has also raised questions about Wells’ cellphone data and the account that he voluntarily remained on the island after his friends departed. Wells’ phone left the island aboard a boat without him, a circumstance his parents have repeatedly said does not align with their son’s character.
A forensic review found that the phone remained locked after leaving Horn Island. Although some Snapchat messages had been deleted, the examiner said he could not determine who deleted them or why. No evidence showed that anyone accessed Wells’ phone after it left the island.
The family is asking the FBI, the Justice Department and the National Park Service to conduct or continue an independent federal review. Horn Island is part of the federally managed Gulf Islands National Seashore.
The Congressional Black Caucus previously called for an independent federal examination of the case, while the NAACP has supported the family’s demand for greater transparency.
In a statement shared on social media, Crump vowed that the family’s legal team would “keep fighting until every question is answered and justice is served.”
Wells’ mother also addressed those urging the family to accept the authorities’ conclusions.
“If this were your child, would you just give it up?” she wrote on Facebook. “Justice for Nolan Wells. His life matters. His story matters. His family deserves answers.”
For Wells’ parents, the issue isn’t just about whether authorities found enough evidence to prosecute someone. It’s also that, three months after losing their son, no one has been able to tell them definitively how he died.
“Elmore and I, our family, our friends, the community, all of you, we cannot accept that,” Christine said. “So it is our plea that this case is reopened, reexamined.”
Wells Wonsley took to Instagram Wednesday to re-share those sentiments, cautioning: “DO NOT COME to my page and try to explain to me that despite there being NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE of a drowning/dry drowning in either autopsy report that I need to accept my child’s death and move on. MANNER AND CAUSE: UNDETERMINED!!! Have you people lost your minds?!?So you’re telling if YOUR CHILD DIED under these same exact circumstances you would not fight for the truth?!?”
A post shared by Christine Wells Wonsley (@christine.fnp)
“Well guess what God built me differently and I WILL NOT stop,” she continued. So please take your opinions, feelings, “prayers,” and everything else in between elsewhere if this is how you are thinking or feeling!”
Wells Wonsley went on to condemn “vile messages” and comments from self-proclaimed Christians, while showing gratitude for “TRUE SUPPORTERS.”
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