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Five hundred or more people gathered on the Biloxi waterfront Sunday morning and marched across the Biloxi Bay Bridge into Ocean Springs, all of them asking the same question. What happened to Nolan Wells?
The march was called the Justice for Nolan Xavier Wells Mass March. Family members, community organizers, civil rights activists and supporters walked the span together, carrying the 18 year old’s name from the Biloxi side of the bay to the town where he grew up, and demanding answers and accountability in his death.
Nolan Wells was an Ocean Springs teenager with his future in front of him. He played football at Ocean Springs High School and signed to play wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College. On July 4, he rode a boat to Horn Island with a group of friends to spend the holiday on the water.
The boat came back to Ocean Springs that afternoon without him. Two days later, on July 6, a National Park Service ranger found his body on the northwest shore of Horn Island. He was 18 years old.
Major Takeaways
- Five hundred or more people marched across the Biloxi Bay Bridge on Sunday, from Biloxi into Ocean Springs, demanding answers in the death of Nolan Xavier Wells.
- Wells, 18, went to Horn Island with friends on July 4. The boat returned without him, and his body was found on the island two days later.
- The state autopsy and an independent autopsy for the family both ruled the cause and manner of death undetermined.
- A Jackson County grand jury declined in September to charge anyone, finding no credible evidence of criminal conduct.
- His family, represented by attorney Ben Crump, is calling for a federal investigation and for the local case to stay open.
Two Autopsies, No Answer
For most families, the autopsy is where the answers begin. In this case it is where the questions deepened. The state medical examiner completed an autopsy and ruled the cause and manner of Nolan’s death undetermined. A forensic pathologist hired by the family, Dr. Roger Mitchell, reached the same official conclusion. Undetermined.
But the family’s independent examination documented an injury that has never been publicly explained: blunt force trauma to the back of his head, with bleeding that happened while he was still alive, in the final hours of his life. The examinations also documented no water in his airway, lungs or stomach, a fact his family returns to again and again when officials raise the possibility of drowning.
In September, a Jackson County grand jury heard the case and returned a no true bill, declining to charge anyone. The jurors said they found no credible evidence of criminal conduct. What the grand jury did not do is just as important to this family. It did not rule that Nolan drowned, because the medical evidence does not say that. It says undetermined.
The Phone That Raised More Questions
The family’s legal team commissioned a forensic extraction of Nolan’s cellphone, and the report ran to hundreds of pages. It pulled more than 200 pages of Snapchat messages from nearly 30 group chats, and the messages have only fueled the demand for a deeper investigation.
In one exchange that has drawn national attention, as public criticism of the mostly white friend group who was with Nolan that day intensified, a participant wrote about going to his funeral and getting with their other Black friends to prove a statement for the media. For Nolan’s parents, the messages read like a window into how the people around their son were thinking about appearances while they were still waiting for answers.
A Family That Refuses to Move On
Nolan’s parents, Elmore Wonsley Sr. and Christine Wells-Wonsley, have carried this case in public for four months. Standing with attorney Ben Crump in October, they renewed their call for the FBI and the Justice Department to open a federal investigation. Horn Island sits inside a national seashore, on federal land, and the family believes federal investigators owe their son a full and independent look.
The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy at Nolan’s funeral in Ocean Springs in July. His National Action Network offered a 50,000 dollar reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, and Tyler Perry matched it, bringing the reward to 100,000 dollars and covering the funeral expenses.
Sunday’s march carried the family’s demands in plain form. Keep the investigation open. Produce an explanation grounded in the evidence and say it clearly, to the family and to the public. And the organizers paired the march with a second message aimed at Tuesday: show up and vote, in Jackson County and everywhere this story has traveled.
Why the March Crossed a Bridge
The route was the message. The Biloxi Bay Bridge connects the casino waterfront in Biloxi to Front Beach in Ocean Springs, the same water Nolan crossed on July 4 headed the other way. Students have been marching for him for weeks, at Jackson State University in October, at the Atlanta University Center, and in Baton Rouge, carrying signs that read He Did Not Drown and chanting about the water that two autopsies did not find in his lungs.
Four months after a boat came home without him, nobody in authority has told this family how their son died. On Sunday, five hundred people walked a bridge to say that undetermined is not an ending. It is a beginning, and they intend to stay on it until somebody answers.
Follow more of our news coverage, including our report on HBCU students marching to vote and the shooting outside Legion Field after the Magic City Classic.
