Recovered audio captures friends calling for boat help before Nolan Wells vanished
TheGrio...
Newly obtained audio sheds light on the moments before Nolan Wells’ friends left Horn Island, capturing the group calling for boat assistance as questions about his death persist.
Newly surfaced audio is offering a clearer picture of what unfolded in the moments before some of Nolan Wells‘ friends departed Horn Island off the Mississippi coast, the day the 18-year-old was last seen alive. According to NBC News, the recording was obtained through a records request and captures the group calling for towing assistance after their boat began experiencing problems.
The audio aligns with an account shared last week by the mother of one of the friends, who said the group left the island without Nolan when their boat started malfunctioning.
In the recording, the group can be heard urgently requesting help, with someone asking, “Can y’all please come?” The dispatcher on the other end is heard confirming the situation, asking whether everyone aboard was accounted for and in good health, to which the caller responded that they were.
The new detail adds to the broader timeline investigators have been piecing together. As previously established, Nolan traveled to the uninhabited barrier island with friends on July 4, but his body was recovered two days later. It remains unclear whether Nolan was with anyone at the time he disappeared, one of the central questions still hanging over the case.
Meanwhile, the search for answers continues on multiple fronts. Attorneys representing the Wells family say they will now work directly alongside investigators to examine Nolan’s cellphone, a device his parents have said they believe may have had content deleted from it. The phone has emerged as a recurring point of concern for the family as they push for a full accounting of the teen’s final hours.
As theGrio previously reported, attorney Ben Crump and Nolan Wells’ family met with Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath for an update regarding the case. During a press conference afterward, Crump described the meeting as “respectful,” and shared that the DA’s office had revealed that Wells’ case will be turned over to a grand jury once its investigation is complete.
The local district attorney told NBC News that this is standard procedure for cases involving an unknown cause of death and should not be interpreted as a sign that a crime was committed.
As the investigation presses on, the newly released audio stands as one of the more concrete pieces of information to emerge, even as the ultimate question of how Nolan died remains unresolved pending autopsy and toxicology results.