Nolan Wells was 18 when his body was found on a Mississippi barrier island, and a grand jury has now said no one will answer for it. His parents say they still do not know what happened to him. Meanwhile a former teammate’s lawyer is sending demand letters over what strangers online have said about the case.
Wells, a Black teenager from Ocean Springs, was found July 6 on the northwest end of Horn Island, off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, after a Fourth of July boat trip with friends. A Jackson County grand jury heard 43 witnesses and reviewed evidence from 132 subpoenas. It unanimously declined to indict anyone, found no credible evidence of a crime, and said the circumstances were consistent with drowning. District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said there was “no evidence to support allegations that Wells’ disappearance and death were racially motivated.”
The jury also acknowledged a head injury and concluded it was not fatal. Two separate autopsies, as the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder reported, listed the cause and manner of death as undetermined, citing unexplained blunt-force injuries. One witness told the grand jury Wells slipped from a boat earlier that afternoon but seemed unhurt; the jury could not say whether that fall caused the bruising.
“How can a jury come to the conclusion of drowning, despite knowing that there was trauma to his body, and despite hearing many inconsistencies?” his mother, Christine Wonsley, asked. His father, Elmore Wonsley, said: “Our son was found on federal land and we are asking the FBI to step in and do a full investigation.” Attorney Ben Crump has renewed the call for a Justice Department investigation. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat, earlier urged the National Park Service, which has jurisdiction over Horn Island, to investigate. Mississippi has no statute of limitations on murder.
The letters
The legal fight now centers on a call made from the boat to the towing company Sea Tow, whose audio spread online. Russ Latino, the lawyer for Bart Edmiston Jr., a 21-year-old University of Wyoming punter who played with Wells at Ocean Springs High School, has sent at least two letters.
The first went to influencer Kymbra Li, who has more than 200,000 followers. Dated July 29, it accuses her of calling Edmiston one of three “suspects,” implying he concealed information, and publishing his address. Latino said Edmiston “received a credible death threat yesterday because of some of the made-up speculation on this and other sites.” Li has said her posts rely on Coast Guard reports, Sea Tow audio and published GPS coordinates.
The second, in October, went to Jeanetta Brantley. It says she took the call from WLOX’s YouTube page, removed the music, adjusted the levels and posted it with a transcript claiming to hear phrases such as “dammit Bart.” “Your interpretation is false and/or misleading and the consequences of your actions are dire,” it says. It cites emotional, reputational and economic harm to Edmiston, a player with NFL potential. WLOX reported that Nancy Grace deleted the “enhancements” from her episode, calling them fake. The grand jury report itself said interpretations of the call circulating online “are not true and accurate.” The reports did not include a response from Brantley.
No officials have accused Edmiston of wrongdoing, and the grand jury charged no one.
For the Wonsleys, the two tracks are not the same. One is a request for an investigation by agencies that have not yet agreed to open one. The other is a set of letters from a family with a lawyer. Neither has produced a ruling. There is no public sign that the Justice Department or the Park Service has opened a case.
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