The parents of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells, who was found dead after going missing following an outing on Horn Island on the Fourth of July, said they don’t believe their son would’ve stayed behind on the island by choice when his friends left by boat.
“No, he wouldn’t. Nolan always stays with the group,” Elmore Wonsley, Nolan’s father, told “CBS Mornings.” “If you be with me, you come back with me. So that I don’t understand, and with me being a parent, if I was in that situation, I would have told them, ‘You’re going to get back on this boat with me because I don’t want to answer to your parents if something happens to you.'”
When directly asked if he believed Nolan was left behind on the island, his father responded, “Yes. I don’t believe he decided to stay on the island by himself. It just doesn’t— that’s not his character.”
Jackson County Sheriff’s Department
Wells, 18, was last seen on July 4 on Horn Island, where he had taken a boat trip with friends to celebrate the holiday, officials said. Wells traveled to the island with his friends on Saturday but did not return to the mainland with them that afternoon, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said.
He was last seen on the island at 3 p.m., according to attorney Ben Crump’s office. His mother reported him missing later that night and a search began.
His body was discovered Monday off the coast of the island, which is about 10 miles south of the Mississippi mainland, following a search that involved the U.S. Coast Guard, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and the National Park Service.
Dental records confirmed the body was Wells, Jackson County coroner Bruce Lynd told CBS News. An autopsy took place Tuesday, Lynd said, but the results were not immediately made public.
Wells’ body has now been flown to Washington, D.C., for an independent autopsy, according to Crump. Former NFL star and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick facilitated the flight, Crump said.
Ledbetter told The Associated Press that Wells’ friends were cooperating with the investigation.
“There are so many glaring contradictions, that’s why so many people all across America are chiming in, saying this is not adding up,” Crump told “CBS Mornings.” “I mean, you have [his friends] say he was talking to a young lady, and she said that he said, ‘I’m going to get back on the boat with the boys.’ The boys say, ‘He said that no, I’m going to stay with her.’ I mean, which is it?”
CBS News
Wells’ mother, Christine, said her son’s phone was with one of his friends who had returned from the island and they went and retrieved it. She believes Snapchat messages were deleted from the phone because there were no photos or videos on the account.
“I know when kids get together for events like that, they’s Snapping,” Christine Wonsley said. “They are making videos, taking pictures, and I’m just like, ‘Where is it?’ Because it hadn’t been 24 hours when we started looking, which usually, with Snapchat, it goes away once you hit that 24-hour mark.”
A Snap company spokesperson told CBS News in a statement: “Our hearts go out to the family affected by this tragic incident. A critical part of our efforts to help keep our community safe includes our longstanding and crucial engagement with law enforcement, and we stand ready to work with them to investigate this tragedy.”
Ledbetter previously told CBS News that investigators were hoping to identify the original poster of a video in which arguing can be heard in the background. Crump said independent investigators are looking into whether a voice heard on the video arguing with someone about taking his cellphone is the voice of Wells.
Crump held a news conference with Wells’ parents on Friday and called for a full investigation.
Wells went to Ocean Springs High School and was a rising sophomore on Southwest Mississippi Community College’s football team. Crump said Wells was a good swimmer.
Actor and director Tyler Perry has offered to pay for Wells’ funeral, Crump said. The family also started a GoFundMe, which had raised over $380,000 as of midday Friday.