Mystery Video in Nolan Wells' Death Investigation

This does not smell right. >> One of them is telling the truth. One of. them is not. >> We just want to know what happened. And why our baby didn't make it home. >> Reverend Al Sharpton and [music]. attorney Ben Crump standing with the. family of Nolan Wells today [music]. demanding a full investigation into the. death of the 18-year-old college. football player whose body was found on. [music] Mississippi's Horn Island. As. the family awaits the results of an.

independent autopsy, new questions. [music]. are being raised about what really. happened to Nolan Wells. Welcome to. Sidebar presented by Law & Crime. I'm. Jesse Weber. Big update in the Nolan Wells story. This is something we've been following. There is a major press conference that. was just held. And this is the story of. that 18-year-old Southwest Mississippi. Community College football player, graduate of Ocean Springs High, who. disappeared while boating with friends.

on Horn Island. This is right off the. coast of Mississippi. It's back on the. July 4th weekend. We know that his body. was tragically found that Monday on the. island washed ashore. His family is. demanding transparency. They're. demanding a full investigation. In fact, Christine and Elmore Wansley told Good. Morning America, GMA, in an interview. today, "We just want honesty and transparency. We want a thorough investigation. We. want that same respect that would be. given to anybody else. And that's it. We.

just want answers." And they have even. retained prominent civil rights attorney. Ben Crump. We did a sidebar yesterday. explaining why they would want to hire a. lawyer at this time. It's about ensuring. that they get the information they're. seeking, potentially assessing a legal. issue for a lawsuit, pressuring. authorities to be transparent about the. investigation, ordering an independent. autopsy. In fact, Ben Crump told ABC. News Live this week that Nolan's body. would be flown to Washington, D.C. for. an independent autopsy. This came after.

the Mississippi state medical examiner. already apparently performed an autopsy, but that agency indicated that the. results could take weeks because of. toxicology tests. Those findings are. pending. Now, there is something to keep. in mind here. Authorities reportedly. believe this was a tragic accident, that. this was a case of drowning. According. to the New York Post, John Ledbetter, the Jackson County Sheriff, said. "There's no information that we have. right now that would lead us to believe. that a crime has occurred." According to. CNN, Jackson County Coroner Bruce Lynn.

indicated there were no immediate signs. of physical injury. But, this is a story. that has gotten a lot of attention. It. has sparked many thoughts, many. theories, particularly given what we're. learning. For instance, according to. CNN, Nolan didn't return to the dock. with his friends that day. His family. didn't understand why, why he would. separate from them, that he was supposed. to take a different boat back, but. didn't, that Nolan apparently didn't. have a cell phone with him, that there. were reports of an alleged altercation. that day. We know the Jackson County. Sheriff's Office is reportedly still. investigating all of this. But,

according to the Sheriff, one of Nolan's. friends contacted the Coast Guard on the. night of July 4th at around 11:00 p.m. Nolan's mom apparently called the. Sheriff's Office leading into July 5th, and the family has concerns about, for. example, why Nolan would stay without. friends. Christine telling GMA, quote, "That we cannot answer. I just I can't I. can't fathom why he would." Elmore. saying, "We always told him, if you go. with the group, you stay with the. group." There's also this. Christine. apparently told GMA that they tracked.

Nolan's phone using the Life360 app. They were able to get his phone through. his friends, and she claims that some. texts and messages were deleted. And. apparently, it was actually specifically. in reference to Snapchat. Now, one of. the things that authorities are. apparently looking for and asking for. are unedited photos and videos that were. taken on July 4th. Sheriff Ledbetter. telling outlet WXXV, "Right now, I know. time is of the essence, but folks want.

answers 10 minutes ago, and. unfortunately, that takes time to get. the accurate information. It's going to. take a lot of hard work. I think the. family deserves the truth, and that's. what we're here to provide for them and. for the public." The sheriff adding, according to WAPT, "I would urge anyone. that has information or that was on the. island to take down as much information. as they can to piece together what. happened." I say all that to tell you. what happened today. There's a grieving family. They have a. lot of questions. They want answers. What happened today? Major press. conference was held in Harlem. You had.

the family, their attorney Ben Crump, and Reverend Al Sharpton, all demanding. the same things: transparency, answers, and the truth about what happened to. Nolan Wells. So, if you've been. following this, you know there's been a. lot of anticipation to this. We were. expecting the family to potentially. announce the results of that independent. autopsy that was conducted. And again, this is separate from the state's. medical examination. So, it seems by all. accounts, Nolan's body was flown to. Washington, D.C. Now, we didn't get the. results of that independent autopsy.

because there was reporting that we may. get those today, but we did get. something. Maybe not what everyone. expected, but Reverend Al Sharpton. kicked things off, and he was getting. straight to the point. >> What we've been told does not make. sense. And being that. there is lack of confidence in the local. authorities. who have already, in my judgment, seemed. to have mishandled where it was going. Because to just immediately.

before a week time saying there was. nothing done wrong when we hear that. this young man. was engaged in some kind of argument. that was on tape. That his cell phone and keys. ended up with one of the people that. were there on the island and got away. >> Now we go to Ben Crump and he claims the. stories about what happened to Nolan. just doesn't match.

>> The glaring contradictions. are just jump out at you. The fact that. he is there with his friends and you. look at all the videos. it seems to be he's the only. black. on the island or maybe one other but not. many. And so. um Jared, you have where. a young woman he was talking to says.

that well. Nolan said he was going back to get on. the boat with the boys. The boys say. that Nolan told them. he was going to stay. and talk to the young woman. It's a contradiction. They're not saying the same thing. One of them is telling the truth, one of.

them is not. And then the fact Reverend. Al that they have. this video. of an argument. that is going on and and you know, thank. God all young people they have cell. phones and anytime you hear people. raising their voice, they start the. video. And so you hear on the video. Nolan saying, "Give me my freaking. phone.

What are you freaking doing?". And that becomes even more relevant when. you think about the. The that they are presenting that Nolan. chose. to stay behind. That's what they're. saying. >> And he also brought up something that. makes you stop and think. Nolan's phone. >> His phone? He wouldn't take that with. him if he's going to stay behind on the. island? I mean, we're talking about an.

18-year-old kid. What teenager. would leave their phone behind. if they're going to stay on this island? What teenager wouldn't take their phone? And so, it's not adding up. It's not. adding up at all. The fact, as Ravenel. said, you know, they didn't take his phone. with them. His mother, when she finds out that.

her baby is missing, they start trying to. track the phone. The GPS the phone. They've used Life360, and they discover that Well, the phone. is on land. The phone is on land, but you're saying. he went missing. on the island. And so, it's not adding up. >> From there, we heard from Christine, Nolan's mom, talked about what happened.

when she finally got her hands on that. phone. >> So, when we. made it home, uh my sister and I. actually went through Nolan's cell. phone, um particularly Snapchat because. that is so popular. with the children. Um. And when we opened it up, there was. nothing. There were no saved pictures. There were. no, um snaps from that day. And we did. open it before the 20-hour 24-hour.

expiration. Um so, we found that very. concerning only because. anyone who's ever been around Nolan will. tell you at social gatherings, he's taking videos, he's taking. pictures, he's even come up to me when. I'm getting ready to go to bed, "Hey Ma, come on, take a picture of me.". You know, like he's just that's that was. Nolan. Um. so that's why we feel that things may.

have been deleted. >> And here's one of the biggest questions. of all. More than 200 people were. reportedly on that island. Boats. everywhere. Anyone see anything? >> This notion that where he drowned, y'all have I'm sure seen all the videos. out there. I mean, if he's drowning, nobody sees him drown? Nobody offers. assistance? Nobody tries to help him? I mean, obviously, he stands out. He's.

I think the only black person I saw when. I'm looking at the videos. And if you. see him drowning, you mean nobody is. going to try to help him? It's not. adding up. It is not adding up. And that's why. um the family. at their behest, we had an independent. autopsy being performed. Um. and we thank Colin Kaepernick for.

helping to pay for that independent. autopsy. And we thank Tyler Perry for uh. helping to pay for the funeral. Because. as Reverend Al said, these were just uh. regular parents going about their life. They weren't expecting any of this. And. then we're having to try to hire all. these experts to be able to go and see. if they can retrieve deleted messages. We have to have experts you'll hear from. Attorney Park talk about um you know,

where the body came was found when it. was recovered and how long it took to be. recovered. >> So, despite prior assurances that Crum's. team would have the autopsy results as. soon as possible, seems we're still. waiting for those. And we're going to. keep following the story. We're going to. keep seeing what develops because this. is a family that's not going to stop and. I will tell you right now, neither are. we. That's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so. much for joining us and as always, please subscribe [music] on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you.

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