An attorney for the family of Nolan Wells said Thursday that they have hired audio engineers to review a distress call made from a boat on the day of his disappearance, which has prompted online speculation and claims of defamation amid the ongoing investigation into the 18-year-old’s death.
The recording, released by Mississippi authorities this week, captures a July 4 call to a private marine towing company requesting assistance for a boat that was taking in water off Horn Island, where Wells was last seen.
“Our bilge pump stopped working. We’re sinking. Can y’all please come?” the caller asks, noting that there were about seven people on board. The dispatcher then speaks with a captain for the towing company, who said a relative of the boat owner reported those onboard had solved the issue and “don’t need any help right now.”
The distress call was made to Sea Tow, a private company, and released to media outlets by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. Law enforcement officials have said they were told by witnesses that Wells was not on the boat when it left the island.
Speaking at the National Urban League Conference on Thursday, the civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Wells’ family had retained audio engineering experts to review the recording. The legal team is also calling on prosecutors to include outside authorities in the review of phones belonging to friends who traveled with Wells to the island.
A voicemail left with the Jackson County District Attorney’s office was not returned.
Wells’ parents also attended the conference, pleading for anyone with information to come forward. “We will not rest until we get answers,” said his mother, Christine Wonsley.
Online speculation and suspicion mount
The teenager’s death has touched off rampant speculation, deepened in part by uncertainty about his final hours, distrust of law enforcement and Mississippi’s long history of racist violence.
The teenager, who was Black, had traveled to the uninhabited island with a group of friends from high school, all of whom were white. He did not return with his friends to the mainland that evening. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast.
A day after the discovery, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said Wells’ friends were cooperating with authorities and that investigators did not suspect foul play. The sheriff has released few details since but has said the investigation is ongoing.
An independent autopsy commissioned by Wells’ family was inconclusive about the cause of his death. The official autopsy will remain sealed until a grand jury reviews the evidence, which is a standard practice in Jackson County, according to the local district attorney.
In the absence of new information, social media users have seized on videos and photos shared online. Some have made unsubstantiated claims against Wells’ friends, whose attorneys and family members have since reported death threats and doxing campaigns.
Following the release of the dispatch call this week, online sleuths quickly tracked down some of the people mentioned in the audio.
In a statement Wednesday, the parents of a 21-year-old said their son had been doxed and threatened as a result of “outright fabrications” stemming from the audio.
They said he had boarded the malfunctioning boat to help, then briefly towed it a short distance with his own boat. He has since cooperated with law enforcement, provided names of potential witnesses and allowed authorities to inspect his boat and GPS device, the statement added. An attorney for the family said they had already served one person with a cease-and-desist letter for alleged defamatory claims and planned to serve others this week.
Crump defends the attention on the case
On Thursday, Crump rebuffed criticism that his attention on the case could inspire online targeting of others. He noted that Wells’ parents also have faced online attacks.
“We’re not trying to cast aspersions on anybody, we want the truth,” Crump said. “If it was your child, you’d want the same thing.”
The attorney was also joined Thursday by relatives of Tyler Smith and Daniel Erving, two Black 18-year-olds who died in recent months, in circumstances that Crump described as “very similar” to Wells’ final hours.
Smith, a recent high school graduate from Lexington, Kentucky, died on July 4 from a gunshot wound that police said was accidental and self-inflicted. His family has disputed the determination. Police said the investigation remains ongoing.
Erving drowned in a Texas lake in April after jumping from a railway bridge with two teenage friends, local authorities said. Earlier this month, the two friends were charged with evidence tampering because they had “failed to report the incident and later discarded items belonging to Daniel,” according to a Dallas police spokesperson.
Relatives of both Erving and Smith said their concerns about the investigations had not been taken seriously by local law enforcement.
“Three 18-year-old Black boys all within three months,” Crump said. “We want answers.”
