Newly released messages from Nolan Wells’ phone show his friends advising each other to ask for lawyers, avoid speculation and “stick to what you know happened” as police began contacting them in the days after the 18 year old disappeared from Mississippi’s Horn Island.
The messages come from a 292 page analysis of Wells’ cellphone compiled by the digital forensics firm Garrett Discovery for his family. The report, which People says it has verified, covers 29 group chats Wells’ phone was part of, along with his private Snapchat conversations. Wells’ family made the report public through its Justice for Nolan Wells website.
Wells went to a Fourth of July party on Horn Island, a barrier island about five miles off the Mississippi coast, where roughly 300 people had gathered on boats. His friends have said they left the island that afternoon after their boat started taking on water, and that Wells chose to stay behind and ride back with others. His phone was left on their boat. His family reported him missing that night, and a park ranger found his body on the island’s shoreline on the morning of July 6.
The messages begin just after midnight on July 5, as Wells’ friends realized no one knew where he was. “Nolan where the [expletive] are you dawg,” one person wrote. “Coast guards on the search for you man.” By 6:15 a.m., another asked, “Has anybody seen Nolan yet,” as the group tried to figure out whose boat he had gotten on.
As the day went on, the confusion grew. Just before noon, one user wrote, “There is definitely some sus [expletive] going on,” and another noted “suspicious behavior from a lot of ppl.” In one chat, a member questioned the account that Wells had decided to stay on the island. “If he was gone ride with somebody else why would he leave his phone on the boat,” the person wrote. Others pointed out that thousands of people had been on the island and nobody seemed to know who he was with.
On the evening of July 5, a user said police had just contacted them. The next morning, before Wells’ body was found, one friend offered the group advice. “If we get called in for questioning that the smart move is to ask for an attorney and that doesn’t mean we’re guilty it just smart so we don’t get played by some potential bias cop,” the person wrote.
At 9:48 a.m. on July 6, word spread that Wells had been found. “They got him,” one person wrote. Another replied that there was no way, calling Nolan “the best” person. “I love Nolan he would want us to stay together through this and be there to live on his lecacy,” another wrote.
When the conversation turned back to police, the advice was consistent. “Don’t speculate,” one person urged, as others added “Only facts” and “just stick to what you know happened.” Another warned that investigators “can try to get your ass.” At 12:45 p.m., one friend wrote, “We have nothing to hide.”
In the days that followed, as Wells’ family hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump and questions about race and the investigation spread online, the chats turned to the public reaction. One user complained that “every single comment is just abt how we’re covering it up.” Another told the group to stay out of the public eye because people might “take a picture and say some lies about us.”
On July 14, the group discussed Wells’ funeral. “We need to go to Nolan’s funeral and get with all our other Black friends to prove a statement for the media,” one person wrote. Before anyone committed, another said they should first ask Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, if she was okay with them being there. On July 20, the day of the funeral, which was officiated by Rev. Al Sharpton, the group made plans to bury a cross and Wells’ flip flops in his honor.
The phone report has fueled questions about whether anything was removed from Wells’ Snapchat. His family has said they were troubled that there were no photos or videos on his account from July 4. However, Andrew Garrett, the forensic expert behind the report, clarified in September that the missing messages had been unsent remotely by the other users in the chats, not deleted by someone who had access to Wells’ phone.
A version of the phone analysis was also presented to the Jackson County grand jury that investigated Wells’ death. After hearing from 43 witnesses and issuing 132 subpoenas, the grand jury unanimously declined to indict anyone, and District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath announced the decision on September 21. In its report, the grand jury said the position, condition, timing and location of Wells’ body were “consistent with drowning.” It also found no credible evidence that anyone on the three boats that traveled to and from the island was involved in his death, and it described the allegations against his friends as “the result of public clamor and private malice.”
The official cause and manner of Wells’ death remain undetermined. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office could not make a final ruling, and an independent autopsy by Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., paid for by Colin Kaepernick, found discoloration on the back of Wells’ head but could not determine how he died or rule out other factors. The grand jury noted that both autopsies found bruising on the back of his head.
Wells’ family and their attorneys are not accepting the grand jury’s decision as the final word. “No True Bill Does Not Resolve How Nolan Wells Died,” Crump wrote after the report was released. The family is pushing for a federal investigation, which the Congressional Black Caucus also asked the Department of Justice to open in August. Because Mississippi has no statute of limitations on homicide, the grand jury said the case should be brought back if new evidence ever shows Wells’ death was not an accident.
The case has also turned dangerous for people connected to it. Several people have been arrested and federally charged with threatening witnesses and officials in the investigation, and Wells’ friends have filed lawsuits and legal notices against public figures they say falsely accused them, including former NFL star Terrell Owens. Wells’ friends have consistently denied any role in his death.
Wells, who graduated from Ocean Springs High School in 2025, was playing football as a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College when he died. He would have turned 19 on August 19.
