The heartbroken parents of 18-year-old college football player named Nolan Wells are asking for a full investigation into how their son died. As we previously reported, Nolan went missing during a Fourth of July boat trip with a group of friends on Horn Island, which is an island near the Mississippi coast. Sadly, a park worker found his body two days later.
During an emotional interview on Good Morning America, Nolan’s parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, said they are confused by the stories they are being told. They explained that Nolan was a great student and athlete who played football at Southwest Mississippi Community College. He was also a strong swimmer who always stayed close to his friends.
His father does not believe that Nolan would choose to stay behind on the island alone.
“We always taught him that if you go with a group, you stay with a group,” he said. “If you go with five, you come back with five. Do not separate from the group. Because I always said, ‘Safety is in numbers.’ So he knew to stay with this group, so why would he split from the group? I don’t know.” Nolan’s mother also noticed something strange when she got her son’s cell phone back from one of the friends. She said that all of Nolan’s recent pictures and videos on his Snapchat account were completely deleted. Usually, teenagers take lots of photos when they hang out on holidays.
“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.”
Because there are many unanswered questions, the family has hired a famous lawyer Ben Crump to help them find the truth. Police officers are still investigating what happened, and they are asking anyone who was on the island that day to share their original videos and photos to help them solve the mystery.
Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton are expected to hold a press conference with the Wells later this afternoon to further discuss the case and call for a full investigation.
“There wasn’t a friend that he couldn’t make”: Christine and Elmore Wonsley say it was not in the character of their son, Nolan Xavier Wells, to stay behind without his friends. The 18-year-old’s body was found two days after he was reported missing while on a trip to a… pic.twitter.com/xV4WR52fm1— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) July 10, 2026