Sharpton offers $50k reward for info on death of Mississippi student on Horn Island

On July 4, hundreds of young people boated out to Horn Island, a federally-protected barrier island about 10 miles off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, near Pascagoula. Among those young people was 18-year-old Nolan Wells, a graduate of Ocean Springs High School and a student at Southwest Mississippi Community College. Wells, who was Black, was a promising student athlete and has been described as a kind and upstanding young man by friends and family. He traveled out to the island that day with friends he had known since his freshman year of high school. Wells and his friends were attending a party of about 300 people on the island, many of whom were their former high school classmates.

Tragically, Wells would never return from that outing to Horn Island. Wells was last seen on the island around 3 p.m. on July 4 when the friends he had boated out with returned to the mainland due to an electrical issue with their boat. The friends, including some who have spoken publicly, say that Wells decided to stay behind to spend more time with a young woman he had met on the island that day. Wells’ friends said they believed he would return to the mainland with other friends who had also boated out that day. However, when Wells did not return home, his family reported him missing around midnight that night.

After a two-day search, a National Parks Service employee found Wells’ body in the water on the northwest side of Horn Island.

Suspicions raised

Wells’ family is searching for answers about the circumstances that led to his death and has retained the services of civil rights attorney Ben Crump. The family has publicly cast doubt on the version of events given by his friend and have expressed frustration with investigators’ characterization of the known facts as being consistent with an accidental drowning.

One curious thing that immediately raised alarm bells with the family was the fact that Nolan’s friends returned to the mainland in possession of Nolan’s cell phone and keys. These were retrieved for the family by a friend after he was reported missing. Wells’ mother thought that the phone was “too clean,” meaning there were no pictures or videos on it from the island that day. Wells’ friends have explained that all their phones were kept on the boat because they were spending most of their time in the water, which also explains the lack of photos.

The family also expressed doubts that Nolan would willingly stay behind when his friends returned to the mainland. Both Crump and the family themselves have publicly implied that race could be a factor in whatever happened to Nolan. Several of the friends Nolan boated out with that day were white. Nolan’s friends have denied there was any tension, racial or otherwise, in the group and said that none of them would have wanted to hurt Nolan.

Crump publicly referenced a video which he said captured audio of Nolan involved in an altercation on the island. Nolan’s friends have denied that Nolan was involved in an altercation. One said it was his own voice, not Nolan’s, that can be heard on the video.

Independent autopsy results expected Wednesday

The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy on Wells’ body on July 7. The Jackson County Coroner said there were no immediate signs of injury to the body. Medical examiners are awaiting toxicology results before releasing their findings.

With help from Crump and funding from former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, Wells’ body has been taken to Washington D.C. for an independent autopsy. Crump said they chose D.C. because they wanted the autopsy carried out by someone with no ties to Mississippi law enforcement. Reportedly, Crump has scheduled a news conference to announce the results of the independent autopsy during the NAACP National Conference in Chicago at 8 a.m. July 22, which is this Wednesday. Wells’ parents will also be in attendance.

The family has also reached an agreement with local law enforcement allowing the family to conduct their own independent examination of Nolan’s phone, according to Crump.

At Nolan’s funeral on Monday, Rev. Al Sharpton offered $50,000 for any information “that could lead to an arrest and a conviction” in Nolan’s case. With hundreds of people apparently present on the island even after Nolan’s friends left, it’s possible someone could have witnessed something in the time leading to Nolan’s death, whatever its cause.