NOLAN WELLS’ MOTHER WAS SEARCHING THROUGH HER SON’S PHONE FOR ANSWERS… AND NOW, WHAT SHE SAYS SHE FOUND IS RAISING NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT POSSIBLY DELETED MESSAGES
The heartbroken mom of Nolan Wells has revealed what she found on her missing son’s phone that made her suspicious that messages were deleted.
Wells, 18, was found dead Monday after vanishing on a Fourth of July boating trip to Horn Island, Mississippi, police said.
His mom, Christine Wonsley, told “Good Morning America” anchor Michael Strahan in an interview Friday that they “just want honesty and transparency and a thorough investigation.”
“We want that same respect that would be given to anybody else, and that’s it. We just want answers.”
Wonsley said she tracked Wells’ phone on the Life360 app after his disappearance, but when she recovered it, suspicions were raised.
“When we finally got his phone, me and my sister went through the phone. We went in his Snapchat. He had two accounts. Absolutely nothing,” she said.
“It wasn’t even 24 hours, which is how long videos and pictures stay on Snapchat, and I was just like ‘that can’t be’.”
“I’ve seen Nolan whenever he Snaps – like when he goes and he’s having fun, like he does videos… there was absolutely nothing… even my sister was like… ‘that’s suspicious’,” Christine Wonsley said.
The Southwest Mississippi Community College football player was visiting the remote island with friends, but Wells decided to stay behind while they returned inland due to a mechanical issue with the boat, according to the mother of one of his friends.
However, Wells’ parents said this explanation flies in the face of everything they taught him about safety.
“That we cannot answer,” Christine Wonsley said of the claim that her son stayed behind. “I just, I can’t — I can’t fathom why he would.”
She added, “We always told him, if you go with a group, you stay with a group,” Wells’ dad, Elmore Wonsley, said.
Wells’ body was recovered on July 6 and identified the following day.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said nothing from the evidence “yet” points to foul play, and urged patience as the investigation presses on.
“We’re working towards the same goal as the family. We want a thorough investigation. We’re trying to find out everything ,” he said in an interview on “GMA” Friday.
“We are providing a thorough, professional, and accurate investigation. That’s what we’re going to continue to do, until we arrive at the answers that the family deserves.”
The family has retained civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who says the biggest unanswered question in the case is what happened to the teen.
“I think the reason this… case has caught such fire is because [people] see the pictures, they see the video, and they’re saying, ‘Hold on. You’re trying to tell us just accept this an accident and sweep it under the rug?’ His mother, Christine, his father, Elmore, say no, they will not allow that to happen,” Crump told ABC News Wednesday.
Crump said the family is aware of an alleged “altercation” recorded by the students on the boat, where “Nolan and somebody” were “yelling.”