Dental Records Confirm Nolan Wells, 18, Died After July 4 Horn Island Trip

Q: What did a second autopsy and deleted texts reveal about the mysterious death of college football star Nolan Wells?

The second autopsy did not publicly reveal a cause or manner of death at the time of the reports; its findings were still pending. Nolan Wells’ family had the independent autopsy performed in Washington, D.C., because they wanted an examination separate from Mississippi authorities and to check for any injuries or evidence beyond a possible drowning. What did emerge was new concern over Wells’ phone. His family said they recovered the phone from a friend’s house using a locator app and found that messages appeared to have been deleted before it was returned. They also said there were no Snapchat posts or messages for roughly 24 hours before they got the device back, which they considered unusual because Wells was a frequent Snapchat user. The family and their attorney, Ben Crump, also pointed to inconsistencies in digital evidence. They said location history from Life360 did not fully match Snapchat-related data, raising more questions about Wells’ movements and who had access to his phone after he disappeared. Crump said experts would try to recover deleted data from the device and social media accounts. So, the second autopsy had not yet produced public answers, but the deleted texts and missing phone activity deepened suspicion that potentially important evidence may have been altered or removed.

3 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Jul 16

Jackson County coroner Bruce Lynd said dental records identified the body found July 6 off Horn Island as 18-year-old Nolan Wells, who vanished after a July 4 outing with friends.
GPS data obtained by CBS News shows the boat reached Horn Island at 11:14 a.m., left at 4:31 p.m. and returned to dock without Wells, who was last seen on the island around 3 p.m.
The vessel later went into Fort Bayou, returned to the dock, then was taken to a Fort Bayou boat launch at 7:19 p.m. before being towed over land to the owners' Biloxi home.
Mississippi marine authorities said the boat's owner, his mother and another person with Wells that day have cooperated; the Jackson County Sheriff's Office took over as lead agency on July 5.
An autopsy was performed July 7 and results were not released, while Wells' body was also sent to Washington for an independent autopsy as his parents dispute that he would have stayed behind voluntarily.