What happened to Nolan Wells? Family seeks answers two weeks after 18-year-old’s death

Investigation continues after college freshman was found dead on Mississippi island after 4 July boat trip with friends Nolan Wells went to an island with friends and never came home. His death has renewed debate over race and justice in the deep south Two weeks after Nolan Xavier Wells was found dead, his family is still searching for answers. On 4 July, Wells, an 18-year-old Mississippi college freshman, and a group of friends took a boat out to Horn Island, a barrier island a few miles off the Mississippi Gulf coast. About 300 young adults gathered on a section of the island for a “last hurrah” before returning to college or work, one of Wells’s friends said. Wells’s parents were supposed to take him to Southwest Mississippi Community College for football camp the following Monday. Wells’s friends, his phone and his keys returned that day; he did not. Instead, after a missing person search that received national attention, his body was found on the island on 6 July. What exactly happened on Horn Island is still unclear, as is how the Ocean Springs native died; an investigation by local officials is ongoing. In the absence of answers, misinformation, particularly on soc