"It's Not Adding Up At All": Family Fights for Truth in Death of 18-Year-Old Nolan Wells

At the National Action Network’s House of Justice on Friday,  Christine Wonsley and her husband, Elmore Wonsley, stood before the world and asked the question that had haunted them: Why was everyone in such a hurry to call her son’s death an accident?

Mrs. Wonsley’s first words were “This is not how I wanted the world to meet my son,” as she cried beside her husband. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton flanked the couple who had traveled from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to make one plea to the country — find out what really happened to Nolan Xavier Wells.

Eighteen-year-old Wells was a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College and a graduate of Ocean Springs High School. According to his family, he went out on July 4 to do what so many teenagers do on the holiday: celebrate. He and three friends took a boat to Horn Island, a barrier island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast that is only reachable by private boat.

By that evening, three of them had returned home. Nolan had not.

Two days later, his body was found in the water near the island where he was last seen.

Jackson County authorities, working with a state coroner, told the press that he drowned and that they have not found evidence of “foul play”. His family isn’t accepting that conclusion — especially without more answers than they feel they’ve been given.

Wells was, by every account, exactly the kind of kid who shouldn’t have been the one who didn’t make it home. He was an elite athlete. He could swim. And according to his parents, he wasn’t the type to go rogue — he was, in his father’s words, the “peacemaker” of the family.

So when investigators told them their son had simply chosen to stay behind on the island and drowned, it didn’t sit right.

Crump has said the evidence gathered so far is contradictory, and that the friends who were with Wells have given inconsistent accounts of his whereabouts in his final hours — including what happened to his belongings.

Wells’ phone and his keys ended up in the possession of some of the friends who returned without him. When the family got the phone back, they found deleted photos and messages on Snapchat, a platform Nolan reportedly used constantly– especially to document celebrations. When Elmore went looking for his son’s keys, he said one of the friends lied about having them.

There are also reports of an alleged altercation caught on cell phone video from the island that day.

“What teenager would leave their phone behind if they’re going to stay on this island?” Crump asked at Friday’s press conference. “It’s not adding up. It’s not adding up at all.”

The family’s grief has been met with an outpouring of support, including from some very recognizable names. Activist and former NFL quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, has helped fund an independent autopsy, conducted by a coroner in Washington, D.C., with no ties to Mississippi law enforcement — a step the family felt was necessary to trust the results. Tyler Perry is covering the costs of Nolan’s funeral. Spike Lee has also offered his support to the family.

Getting Nolan’s body from Mississippi to Washington wasn’t simple — flight delays pushed back the timeline, and results that the family had hoped to share by Friday’s press conference are still pending.

Rev. Sharpton didn’t shy away from naming what many are already thinking. He said the family isn’t trying to make this about race — but given the facts of the case and the weight of history in Mississippi, race is already part of the conversation, whether anyone intends it or not.

He cautioned against rushing to judgment in either direction. “Don’t rush to judgment, saying it was racism,” he said. “Don’t rush to judgment, saying it was not racism, because we do not know.”

What both Rev. Sharpton and Attorney Crump were clear about is this: the family deserves a thorough, transparent investigation — and right now, they don’t feel they’ve gotten one.

Still, amid the anger and the unanswered questions, Nolan’s parents used part of their time at the microphone to ask something simple of the public: stay peaceful. A small, peaceful protest had already broken out in Ocean Springs, organized by some of Nolan’s own friends. Christine addressed it directly.

“Nolan was not someone who liked fights,” she said. “He really didn’t even like arguments.” She asked that if people plan to protest going forward, they do it the way her son would have wanted — with respect, not confrontation.

Elmore echoed her. Their son was the one who kept the peace at home, the one who couldn’t stand to see anyone left out. It’s an absence they said they feel every day now — the calm he brought into a room, the way he looked out for people. It’s something they said they miss dearly.

The Wonsleys have not spoken with the young men who were with Nolan on Horn Island, or with their families, since learning of his death. The independent autopsy results are expected soon, and Crump has said the family will make those findings public as soon as they receive them, in the interest of the same transparency they’re demanding from Mississippi authorities.

For now, a mother and father are left holding two things at once — a public fight for the truth about how their son died, and a private grief for the son they knew: a peacemaker, a protector, a young man who cooked his parents salmon for dinner the night before he left for the holiday weekend, not knowing it would be one of the last times they’d see him.

“We will not rest until every fact about what happened to Nolan on Horn Island is brought into the light,” Crump said.

This is a developing story.

About Samantha Brown: Samantha Brown is a producer, journalist, and a council member for the Writers Guild of America. Her work spans multinational coverage across three of the country’s leading news organizations—NBC News, CBS News, and National Public Radio (“NPR”)—where she has reported on international and domestic politics, entertainment, and more for the past decade.

During her six years at NBCUniversal, she was on the launch team for their streaming platform, Peacock, wrote for many of their Emmy Award–winning shows, including TODAY and Nightly News, served as a reporter for NBCNews.com, and helped cover two presidential elections. Earlier in her career, she worked as a field producer– supporting courtroom and breaking news coverage for CBS News and NPR. She’s also produced a variety of global documentaries over the years.

Samantha combines her editorial judgment, writing, and post-production expertise to tell stories that are not only timely, but lasting.