The parents of the Black teen found dead near a Mississippi island after his friends returned from a Fourth of July boat trip without him are calling for a more thorough investigation into their son’s death because of the “contradictions” in people’s stories.
“The only thing we’re asking for is a thorough, honest, clean investigation,” Christine Wonsley, the mother of 18-year-old Nolan Wells, told MS NOW on Sunday. “We just want to know what happened to our son. I think that again any parent in America or even just any person, if your loved one goes missing, you want to know what has happened.”
Wells, a wide receiver on Southwest Mississippi Community College’s football team, left on a boat trip to travel to Horn Island with a group of mostly white friends on July 4. When the friends came back without him, Wells’ parents reported him missing. A few days later, his body was found and the coroner said there were no signs of physical injury.
But his parents and civil rights activists who’ve gotten involved in the case are concerned about the investigation because of Mississippi’s history of fraught racial relations, and have pointed to several strange circumstances surrounding the teen’s disappearance and death.
Wells’ parents shared their knowledge of the series of events that happened leading up to Wells’ death. Christine Wonsley said at 11 p.m. July 4, one of Wells’ friends called her and asked if she knew where Wells was. She didn’t, so she tracked her son’s phone and learned it was at a friend’s house. She then reported Wells missing.
That friend’s mother wrote Tuesday on Facebook that Wells had decided to stay on the island “and return inland later with another group of friends.” Wells’ parents are suspicious of that claim.
“Nolan was always taught to stay with the group,” Elmore Wonsley, Wells’ dad, said Friday on “CBS Mornings.” “If you leave with me, you come back with me.”
He added: “I don’t believe he decided to stay on the island by himself. That’s not his character.”
Tracestin Shepherd, one of the friends on the boat trip, who is not white, told “Good Morning America” on Monday that he and his friends “did nothing wrong.”
“We all cared and loved Nolan and nobody wanted to see Nolan die,” the friend said.
Civil rights attorney and Wells family’s attorney Ben Crump has referenced a viral video of what many people believe is Wells arguing with a group of friends. The lawyer alleges that Wells can be heard in the video arguing with his friends about where his phone is.
Crump said he doesn’t know any 18-year-old who would leave his cellphone behind.
“It’s not adding up,” Crump said.
Shepherd refuted that claim Monday morning, saying it was actually him in the video, not Wells.
Shepherd said he took a boat back from Horn Island late afternoon, but Wells stayed behind with a girl he had met.
Wells’ death has drawn national attention, with protesters marching the streets of Ocean Springs, Mississippi on Saturday. Civil rights activists have also called for more attention on the case, including actor Tyler Perry, who is covering the costs of Wells’ funeral, and Colin Kaepernick, who is paying for an independent autopsy of Wells’ body.
Christine told NBC News that she doesn’t want to believe race was at play in her son’s death.
“But unfortunately, there’s patterns, right,” she said.