Nolan Wells Mystery Death: Who Could Be Lying?

It's a contradiction. They're not saying. the same thing. One of them is telling. the truth. One of them is not. >> Discrepancies, conflicting accounts, this is now part of the Nolan Wells. investigation. You're going to hear. people ask whether someone [music] is. lying, which is very fair given the. reporting. It's time to review the. questions [music] and the contradictions. related to the case of Nolan Wells'. death. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by. Law & Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

>> [music]. >> I think it's time to list out all the. apparent contradictions, the unanswered. questions in the Nolan Wells death. investigation, the discrepancies that. we're seeing. I just wanted to condense. it all so you have it all here to make. sense of it. Is someone lying? Is anyone. lying? Who would be lying? What's not. adding up? Now, we're not going to make. accusations that people aren't telling. the truth, but what we're going to try. to do here is show you the difference of. opinion, the different narratives, the.

contradictions, the apparent. contradictions. Now, we're talking, of. course, about Nolan Wells, the. 18-year-old Southwest Mississippi. Community College football player, graduate of Ocean Springs High, who. disappeared while boating with friends. on Horn Island, right off the coast of. Mississippi, during the July 4th. weekend. Access to that island is. limited to boats. It's a wilderness. area. There's no commercial development. That's a very specific area. Now, he. reportedly didn't return with his group. of friends on their boat that day. His. family reported him missing the night of.

July 4th. a phone call at around 11:00 p.m. from. one of his friends. So, again, the. report came in, you know, late July 4th, early July 5th. His body was found on. the island that Monday, July 6th, washed. ashore. His family is demanding. transparency. They are demanding a full. investigation, a thorough investigation. into what happened. And as you know, if. you've been following our coverage here, you know that they have retained civil. rights attorney Ben Crump. So, let's get. into the discrepancies, let's get into. the contradictions. One of the biggest.

contradictions right now is what was. Nolan doing? What were Nolan's movements. that day? So, Ben Crump held a press. conference that the boys in the boat had. claimed that Nolan went to Horn Island. and decided to talk to a girl. Even one. of the boys' mothers, Ashley Cole, according to WLOK, confirmed that her. son said that. Her son was apparently. with all them that day. And also. confirmed that the boys had taken off. because of boat trouble, which we're. going to talk about, and that seems to. be true. I'm going to explain that in a.

minute. But, the Jackson County. Sheriff's Office said that it believes. Nolan stayed on the island. ABC News is. reporting that one of Nolan's purported. friends, Tristen Shepherd, claims Nolan. wanted to stay back to talk to a girl, and that he would come back on another. friend's boat. Shepherd saying they met. that day, and it's kind of one of those. things. He did come off that day, that. he really did like her, but that was the. only time they ever hung out. Now, what. is in dispute is whether Nolan actually. did that. So, that's one perspective,

right? That's one narrative. But, according to Ben Crump, this girl. allegedly said that Nolan told her he. was going back to the boat, as Crump. said in the presser. >> They're not saying the same thing. One of them is telling the truth. One of. them is not. We have to get to the. bottom of that. >> According to people, Nolan's mother, Christine Wansley, spoke to this young. lady as well. Christine said in an. interview with the Grio, she did reach. out to me initially just saying.

basically like it was a hey-and-bye type. situation. That interview, by the way, was published July 14th. ABC News claims. that they tried to contact this young. woman, that authorities have announced. they've been interviewing anyone Wells. came into contact with that day. So, presumably they spoke to her, right? Look, we don't know her identity. We. haven't heard from her publicly, but. you're seeing this apparent. contradiction about what Nolan maybe. did. And by the way, we haven't really. heard from anyone else on the boat or on. the island that day publicly, which adds.

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Nolan's friends calling for help when. their boat was in trouble. Listen to. this. >> We're sinking. Can you all please come? >> And is everybody on board in good health. otherwise? >> Yeah. Yeah, everybody's all right. >> Yeah, so based on that brief report and. accounts from NBC News and the New York. Post, it appears that boat likely had. seven people on board. The boat was. having trouble at around 4:00 p.m. The. boat operator reportedly said, "Hey, we're at the west tip of Horn and our. bilge pump stopped working. I want to. get this boat unsank and towed back.". So, the boat was reportedly towed for 3.

miles, picked up speed less than an hour. later. But look, that still raises a. question, right? It raises a question. about Nolan's whereabouts. It also. creates a discrepancy in the timeline. Everybody on board, was Nolan on board? Probably not based on the timeline. Though maybe saying everybody on board. is just saying, "Yeah, everybody's on. board." I'm not saying, you know, Nolan. was there or Nolan wasn't there. If he. wasn't there, I'm just saying everybody. who was there was on board. Now, CBS. News also obtained GPS data from the. Mississippi Department of Marine. Resources that tracked the boat's.

movements. This is big, too, because. this is information they say they. obtained via records request. And. according to the reporting, the vessel. apparently left the dock at. approximately 9:56 that morning, arrived. at Horn Island at 11:14. According to. GPS data, the boat left Horn Island at. 4:31 that afternoon, returned to its. original departure dock, and then. traveled into Fort Bayou at around 5:52. before returning to the dock at 6:06. Later that evening, the boat went to the. Fort Bayou boat launch at 7:19, traveled.

overland, which would suggest it was. towed by a vehicle to the owner's. residence. So, to put that into. perspective and why it matters, Ben. Crump claims Nolan was last seen on the. island at 3:00 p.m. Again, according to. Ashley Cole, the mother, her son, right? She's a local judge, by the way. She. says her son claims he last saw Nolan at. around 3:00 p.m. on the island and her. son left at 4:30 p.m. Now, we haven't. seen necessarily a discrepancy in terms. of when Nolan was last seen, but this is.

something to keep in mind, right? This. is one of those outstanding questions. And the DMR report that was obtained by. CBS News indicated that the boat's. owner, his mother, and another person. who was with Nolan, they are cooperating. with the investigation. We will see if. the timeline shifts, but this is one of. the questions again about Nolan's. movements. Now, the biggest discrepancy. here is Nolan's family says, "This is. not like Nolan. It is unlike him to stay. behind and leave his group of friends.".

His father, Elmore Wensley, said to GMA, "Good morning America, we always taught. him that if you go with a group, you. stay with a group. 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.". When they said that, it automatically it. turned me off, but it raised a question. I know he wouldn't do that. I preached. that to him every day. You're lying to. me." Now, there's also been quite a big. back and forth about whether he ever.

made it back to the boat, back to the. mainland, because it centers around this. photo of a party. A photo that seemingly. arguably shows Nolan at this pool party. early in the morning of July 5th. So, in. other words, if you [clears throat]. believe that, the idea would be he left. the boat, made it to the mainland, went. to this party, died somehow, brought. back to Horn Island afterwards, and then. found dead and washed ashore. I mean,

that would be presumably what happened, right? The problem is, look, Ben Crump. even apparently shared this photo again. of what people believe to be Nolan at. this party. And according to New York. Post, Crump posted this photo to social. media, and this was a post that was. circulated by Crump. This was from an. account called Chanel Tarot TV. The. streets are talking. Now, listen, I. don't know if these are facts or rumors. because no official statements have been. confirmed. We sometimes have to follow. all clues until the truth is found. Here. is what was discovered on social media.

last night. Social media allegations. claim a photo exists of Nolan at a land. base pool party in Jackson County before. 1:00 a.m. on July 5th. But the. discrepancy, the contradiction, Shepard, right, who I mentioned before, Nolan's. reported friend, said that that photo. wasn't from July 5th. It wasn't from. that weekend. It was actually from a. party on June 27th in Pass Christian, Mississippi. Rolling Stone reported that. that photo was taken at 11:58 p.m. that.

night in June, with the outlet. confirming that another person provided. them with metadata for that photo and. other photos from that night. So, Ben. Crump was asked about this, right? Ben. Crump was asked about that development. at a press conference this week. Kind of. went on the defensive. He said, "I. didn't share the photo. I just reposted. it.". >> We're reposting everything. Let Let's. make it clear. We're reposting. everything because we're trying to get. people to come in and call. And so, we've said from the beginning, we're in. a ferocious search for the truth. And.

so, things out there, we are trying to. post, ask people, "Do you know something. about this? Let us know." Just because. we repost, does not mean that we. authenticate anything. >> It's been a lot of discrepancies and. contradictions and different narratives. about whether a fight or altercation. took place, too. So, Ben Crump mentioned. that there is a video circulating on. social media on or near Horn Island in. which he seemed to claim that Nolan. might be heard. That he might be heard.

saying, quote, "Give me my freaking. phone. What are you freaking doing?". During a press conference, when he was. asked, "Look, how do you know that. that's Nolan's voice?" Crump reportedly. said that multiple people identified it. as Nolan's. But according to ABC News, Nolan's friend, Mr. Shepard, claims that. there was no altercation. That Nolan. wasn't involved. Shepard even says Nolan. isn't in the video. He said, quote, "That's me yelling. There was no talk. about a phone in that video. Nolan.

wasn't on the island. Shepherd says that. this was a fight with a stranger. Shepherd told Rolling Stone, "Those were. not Nolan's words, they were mine. I get. that everybody wants justice for Nolan. Everybody wants to know exactly what. happened.". Now, Crump was asked about that this. week at another presser, and he said, "That's what a witness told us, and. that's what we put out. And then another. witness has come forward and said, 'No, that was his voice.' We have other. witnesses who said there were other. altercations. We're trying to go through. it all. We have audio people doing it,

but we know certain people said it was. him, and there are certain people who. say it was not him." By the way, there. is also no clear consensus on Nolan's. phone, either. Ben Crump said at a press. conference last week, quote, "What. teenager would leave their phone behind. if they're going to stay on this island? What teenager wouldn't take their phone? It's not adding up at all." And he. reportedly also highlighted that the. family seemingly believes data, messages. on that phone, on Nolan's phone, may. have been deleted. And we believe that.

the family actually recovered his phone. from Nolan's friends using the Life360. app. But Nolan's friend, again, Mr. Shepherd, told ABC, "It's not unusual. for people to leave their phones in. boats." Shepherd's uncle, who was. apparently driving one of the boats that. day, confirmed that. Shepherd said, quote, "All our friends are out there. Who are we communicating with? And we're. in salt water. We're not in fresh water. When Nolan got in the water, he put his. phone on the boat dash, along with. probably 15 other phones. And this is.

another update, by the way, as we try to. get to the truth about the phone. We. have learned from Ben Crump that Nolan's. phone will undergo a mutual inspection. by both state investigators and the. family's own experts. So, that could be. a game-changer. That could be very. interesting. It's different to see that, right? A mutual inspection. I spoke to. attorney Tyler Bailey about this. Take a. look. >> It's highly unusual that a victim's. family, along with their attorney, would.

be allowed to participate with law. enforcement in the inspection of a cell. phone data. That's really the crux, one. of the crucial pieces of evidence with. this case. I don't think that would have. happened without a lot of the. uh chatter going on around going on. around the country about how this. investigation has transpired, and it. shows there's some distrust between the. family and law enforcement here. So, there's there should be some forensic. experts regarding uh data extraction uh.

present with the state, and also there. would likely be independent one um that. Mr. Crump's office has present with at. the with the DA at the same time. So, that way everybody can see it at at the. same time whether all data is being. extracted, make sure nothing's being. left behind, because the big issue here. is that the early announcement of no. foul play, uh the the evidence of the. cell phone that the family received, I. believe a couple days after Nolan went.

missing or the night of, I can't recall. the exact time, and then the missing of. text messages and Snapchat data. And by. allowing joint experts or a joint data. extraction at the same time, it's going. to help uh the family feel comfortable. knowing that all data is being looked. at, it's not being piecemeal, because. oftentimes I've seen cases where there's. been a a cell phone data that's been. extracted and the state says, "Oh, well, that's other information is deleted, we. can't get it.". But, that's not normal when you have you. could. a forensic expert can see what's been.

deleted, what's been um altered in the. data. >> Now, I would say obviously, the biggest. discrepancy, the biggest question we. have right now, the biggest mystery, how did Nolan die? What was the cause of death? Look, at. this time the results of the state's. official autopsy, meaning the one from. the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's. lab, have not been released. Seemingly, they're appending toxicology findings. that they need to get a hold of. We also.

do not have the results of the. independent autopsy that has been. ordered by Nolan's family through Ben. Crump, where Nolan's body was apparently. taken to Washington, D.C. Ben Crump said. the delay was due to canceled flights. Now, in an episode where we're talking. about contradictions, if these two. autopsies do not match up, if the. results are inconsistent, that's going to be an issue. Ben Crump. told Don Lemon that the independent. autopsy will find out, quote, "If he had. any physical injuries to his body beyond.

drowning." Here's how retired detective. Matt Iervine thinks about it. >> It's not unusual to have more than one. autopsy uh in case, and it's not unusual. for um medical professionals to. disagree, any more than it'd be unusual. for scientists or other uh eminent. professionals to disagree about how to. interpret facts in a case. The autopsy. itself, at least the preliminary. autopsy, both the uh official one and. the private one commissioned by the. family, should be complete or close to. complete uh now or very soon, but.

there's additional steps, like looking. at toxicology, for example, that may. take uh again, additional weeks. So, um. that's going to take a while. I I think. that probably additional potential. witnesses may be identified besides uh. the group of friends that went to the. island with Mr. Wells. Those interviews. may take additional days and weeks. They're probably going to be. re-interviews as they gain information. from one person that requires them to go. back and clarify or confirm information. with somebody they've already talked to.

So, I think we're probably talking about. a matter of weeks both for the uh. Jackson County Sheriff's investigation, and hopefully for the uh independent. investigation sought by the the family. and by Mr. Crump. As I'm hoping it's not. going to be too much longer than that. The tough thing about a case like this. is sometimes even after all the. information is in, you don't have a. clear answer. I mean, for example, if. the determination is that he drowned, well, that's a cause of death. It's not. a manner of death, right? You could. drown accidentally, you could drown by. suicide, you could drown by homicide.

So, we might at the end of the day have. all the the facts in and still not have. an answer that that satisfies uh the. grieving family or other people that are. concerned about what happened. >> Because the forensic evidence wouldn't. be so. clear to suggest how someone drowned, right? I mean, how could you show unless. there was some sort of blunt force. trauma or some sort of evidence of. you know, he was held down or pushed in. the water or something like that. It'd. be really hard to know. >> Exactly. And even if there are some. injuries to his body, depending on the. injuries, they could be something caused.

by another person or caused by a body. being in a rough current. >> You know, there's not even an official. conclusion or consensus on when or where. Nolan died. Did he die on land? Did he. die in the water? Did he die in a boat? His body was found on July 6th in the. water by the island. And there are. questions that remain about why he. wasn't found earlier. Ben Crump said in. an earlier press conference, quote, he. went missing on July 4th and they say. his body should have been there on July. 5th. Why would it not appear until July.

6th? That's one of those things that's. just not adding up. Now, I asked Brian. Trasher from the United Cajun Navy about. this. He was part of the search efforts. for Nolan. He was there when Nolan's. body was found. It's up in the air. Now, keep in mind, this was early on because. Nolan's body wasn't even officially ID'd. yet, but take a look at what he said in. this earlier interview. >> Just to clarify something, why wasn't. the body spotted earlier? >> I think that the Well, I can tell you. that I've I've started flying over the.

island, that part of the island where. the body washed up um approximately 6:30. a.m. and uh I believe he was spotted by a. park ranger at 8:45. My belief is that. he just washed up within that time. period because we were flying kind of a. long grid north and south. And uh I think he just washed up and a. park ranger is just doing his uh. doing his normal. um runs in the morning. But also too, given the situation, I'm sure they were. a little more hyper aware and probably a.

little more head on a swivel on the. island knowing what happened and what. was going on. Um but yeah, I was told. that it's about 8:45 when a ranger. spotted, called it in uh cuz I did see a. long line of emergency boats coming in. to um coming north uh I'm sorry uh. heading southwest. uh toward the northwest tip of the. island. My opinion is that he when he. went into the water, however he got into. the water, he didn't go that far out before he. drowned because uh of it only took like.

a couple of days for him to drift right. back south to the tip of the island. Same tip of the island where he was last. seen. Um had he gone a lot further out, he. probably would have gotten sucked into. the channel and pushed way further south. toward the Chandeleur Islands. >> And I mean another source of discrepancy. or perhaps why the family is working. with an independent team of. investigators conducting an independent. investigation is that authorities with. the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. and other agencies have initially said. they don't suspect foul play.

There's a question, is it too early to. say that? Why did they say that? Look, the sheriff seemed to indicate that. Wells' body did not have homicidal. trauma. That it seems like drowning. But. he also said that even without the. autopsy coming out. And the coroner. indicated that he's not going to. speculate yet. By the way, this is. according to People magazine and an ABC. 7 reporting. Interestingly, WLBT3. reported that Mississippi Governor Tate. Reeves has joined the conversation. commenting on this case for the first. time saying, "What I will simply say is. I don't know all of the details. I don't.

know all of the facts surrounding the. case. I have yet to see a fact or a. piece of evidence that suggests any foul. play. But, if there is, I feel confident. that the sheriff's office, the district. attorney's office, the members at the. Department of Public Safety that deal. with these crimes, if there had been. one, they will find it, and they will do. what is necessary. But, look, talk about the discrepancies, the family. has concerns that something else might. be going on here, raising questions. about when he was found, why he went off. on his own, no phone, but also, how.

could no one see him? If it's a packed. island, if he was drowning, no one saw. him, no one came to help? And also, they. highlight he was athletic. He was in, quote, "tip-top shape." That he knew how. to swim. And you also have multiple. things happening here. So, not only the. family seeking answers, and the. investigation moving forward, but this. is concerning, too. TMZ reports that the. FBI office in Jackson announced that it. is reviewing threats related to the. Nolan Wells investigation. They don't.

specify what kind of threats, who was. getting them, who they were directed at, but the FBI indicated, quote, "These. efforts are in parallel with Jackson. County's independent investigation.". According to WLOS, Sheriff Ledbetter, Sheriff John Ledbetter of the Jackson. County, indicated that the FBI is. helping examine digital evidence in this. case, too. And just to add to this. potential discrepancy over whether foul. play is involved or not, and who could. allegedly be involved or not, according. to ABC News, Mr. Shepherd said that.

investigators have spoken to him and his. friends, and he emphasized that they. have a diverse friend group. He. indicated that he and his friend group. have been receiving death threats since. Nolan was found, that he wanted to speak. out to clear up any misinformation, stating that neither he nor his friend. group had anything to do with Nolan's. death, that he rejects the idea of race. being a part of this, considering the. idea that Nolan Wells is black, appears. that he was around all white people, and. quote, "They're trying to spin a.

narrative that's not there. He's wrong. I understand Nolan's parents are. grieving and I really think he's taken a. little bit of advantage of that and I. don't like that. I really don't because. they're vulnerable." And Shepherd asked. for everybody just to relax and let. everybody mourn the loss of Nolan and. let us remember him as the sweet guy he. was and not something we're scared of. because of the trauma we've had. If Ben. Crump is doing his own investigation, let him do it. And then let the. sheriff's office conclude their. investigation and figure out the facts. on their end. Let us all just know the.

truth instead of jumping to two. conclusions about things. We did no wrong here and we don't. understand how we're getting so much. hate behind us. We all cared and loved. Nolan and nobody wanted to see Nolan. die. Nobody wanted to see his life be. taken so short. I just know I lost my. best friend. Wells was just somebody. that you automatically just felt so. comfortable to talk to. Nobody would. ever hurt Nolan in our friend group. We. would die for him. We would do. everything in our power for that guy. If.

he needed anything, we would do it. Nolan brought us all together. And look, we now know one of the potential next. steps. That this case could potentially. be presented to a grand jury. Ben Crump. announced that during a press conference. that the family had met with Jackson. County District Attorney Angel. Myers-McGrath and the key takeaway from. that meeting was that the DA said, according to him, that they would turn. the case over to a grand jury for. potential filing of charges or. indictment once the sheriff's office. finishes its investigation. To be clear. though, that's not a guarantee. It's not.

a guarantee that it'll be presented to a. grand jury. It's not a guarantee that a. grand jury would return an indictment. And by the way, we're not even saying. that would be a homicide charge. Someone. could potentially be charged with a. crime that's unrelated specifically to. Nolan's death. Tampering with evidence, lying to police. I'm not saying that. that happened, but I'm just giving you. something. to consider as we talk about the. possibility of a grand jury. Going back. to Sheriff John Ledbetter, he told ABC, "I think it's important we don't put.

ourselves on a timetable, that we don't. rush ourselves, but I do think it's. important to be diligent in gathering. all the facts. That's what the family. deserves." He's right. That is what the. family deserves. But look, we don't know. what happened to Nolan. We don't know. what he did after 3:00 p.m. We don't. know if he died in the water, on land, or on a boat. We don't know if anybody. had a role or there's criminal. culpability here. We don't know if his. phone was tampered with. We don't know. who's telling the truth or not. But what. I do know. >> [music]. >> is we're going to stay on top of this. and see how this progresses. 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 should. get your podcast. You can also check us. out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you. want to follow me, [music] X, Instagram, my NewsNation Show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday through Friday, 11:00 p.m. Eastern. See you next time, everybody.