An analysis of Nolan Wells’ cellphone found that Snapchat messages sent between him and his friends were deleted from the device after he last used it, a digital forensics expert said at a press conference Thursday, while declining to comment on why.
“I can’t talk to intent; unfortunately, that’s not my field of expertise, the psychology,” Andrew Garrett told reporters while accompanied by civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. “But I could tell you from a digital standpoint, things were deleted on the phone from the time he last had the phone up until the time that his parents got the phone.”
The device was returned to the Mississippi teen’s family after it was left on a boat used to take him and his friends to an island on July 4. Wells’ friends all returned to the mainland that afternoon while he was mysteriously found dead hours later.
A grand jury recently determined there wasn’t evidence to warrant charges.
“We’re not accusing anybody of anything nefarious,” Crump said. “Even with the phone extraction, Mr. Garrett says we don’t know the intent of any of that stuff, but what we are saying is, if you care anything about Nolan Wells, if you know anything, come forward.”
Crump also said that some of the messages obtained through the analysis showed Wells’ friends were worried that some people on the island might be racist. They also shared concern about two specific men and how “you wouldn’t want to be left alone with them, especially if they’re really drunk.”
Civil rights activists have called attention to the Wells case for the lack of details surrounding it and the possible racial dynamics at play. The Black teenage boy died over the Fourth of July weekend after traveling by boat to Horn Island with his mostly white friend group. When he didn’t return home with his friends, Wells’ mother reported him missing. His body was found in the water off the island a few days later.
Former football player and author Colin Kaepernick even paid for an independent autopsy of Wells’ body. That autopsy found the back of Wells’ head had bruising, but the cause and manner of his death were “undetermined.”
After a grand jury declined Monday to recommend any charges in the case, Wells’ mother pushed back.
“How can a jury come to the conclusion of drowning, despite knowing that there was trauma to his body, and despite hearing many inconsistencies?” Christine Wonsley asked Tuesday at a news conference.