It Doesn’t Add Up. Nolan Wells’ Parents, Crump Demand Answers After Friends Returned With His Phone

but we continue to seek answers into the mysterious death of nolan wells the eighteen -year -old african -american uh... who was found dead in mississippi after uh... he went out boating with a group of white friends on july uh... independent autopsy uh... has been done on his body uh... the mississippi official say they continue this investigation uh... in again we continue to You know, ask the critical questions.What happened?What happened to this young man?And how did he end up dead?Joining us right now is Christine and Elmore Wansley, the parents of Nolan Wells, also the attorney, Ben Crump.I'm glad to have all three of you here.

Certainly, our condolences go out to you, Christine and Elmore, on the loss of your son.Thank you.I want to be clear in terms of trying to understand this timeline.What time did Dolan go out with his friends?What time did they go out boating on July 4th?

So that was sometime in the morning.I don't have the exact time.I do still have his information up on the Life 360, but it was earlier in the morning on July the 4th.

So, uh, and so he said, Hey, uh, you know, July 4th, uh, we're going out, uh, for the day, uh, voting, uh, was this something that he had previously done, uh, with his group of friends?

Yes, it was.And there was no issues.And my son came home.

So, um, did he indicate for you what time they're going to be coming back?

No.Um, like his dad has stated in multipleinterviews, it was his last hurrah before reporting back to school.So we were just gonna let him have that time to really just decompress because football can be a lot on you, especially too, he was a student athlete.So he wasn't just doing one thing, he was having to manage both.

the evening, um, arrives, um, all of a sudden it's getting darker.Uh, you have not heard back from your son.What then happened?What time did you, uh, and your husband begin to get concerned, um, when you had not heard from or seen Nolan?

So honestly, we got concerned when we got the phone call.Um, there have been times when Nolan has come in later because he and his friends are, you know, watching movies or again at some type of party so you know that wasn't necessarily uncommon but when i saw his friend call me my heart dropped because i knew something was wrong um his friends do not call me like that what time what time was that was around that was i think 1107 is when he called and he said he leaves that morning So he left the evening before.So, um, he's him and his friends.They all stayed the night at one of the other friends house.

Okay.So, so July 4th was that Saturday.So they stayed the night with some friends on Friday.So y 'all, y 'all last saw Nolan on Friday and then he goes out with him on Saturday.He learned 11 Oh 7 PM on Saturday.Then you get this phone call.

Um, we, we heard about, um,them having his cell phone.Um, when did, when did they turn over his cell phone, uh, to you and your husband?

So they actually gave the cell phone to my friend.Um, whenever I got the call that no one was missing, I was like, you know what, let me, let me call my friend Tashima because her sons, um, Jalen and Javon, um, nolan actually that those are the guys he actually grew up with right like um from playing city league on up We were very familiar with Jaylen and Jayvon and their mom, you know, again, they're friends of ours.And so I called her and I was like, hey, have you seen Nolan?Can you ask the boys?Have they talked to him?And she was like, you know what?

And the boys, of course, they were like, no.So they're pulling up their location tracker on Snapchat because they all follow each other.And they, you know, were able to help him.I'm pulling mine up on Life 360.So between the two, you know, we were able to determine where his phone was, which is not where his car was.So the car and the phone were in two separate locations.

Um, Elmore and I were trying to, after we got off the phone with Tashima, cause she was like, Hey, look, don't worry about it.I'll go get it.You know, we went ahead and started calling authorities to see who we needed to file the missing report, um, missing persons report with.

And when you got the file.

Elmore, I have, go ahead.

I'm sorry.You asked about the phone.It was important when they got the phone.

So it took a while.It took a little bit before the phone was handed over to my friend.And then we did meet up.And of course, you know, they don't, there'swe met up soon after.We filed the police report finally.

And then she was on her way back towards Ocean Springs.So we met up at the second house to pick the car, which is where he stayed overnight.

Yeah, go Ben.

That is very important.We believe.Some of the Snapchat messages seem to have been deleted and some text messages seem to have been deleted.And we believe that could prove very relevant.

Elmore, I've raised six nieces.And first got nieces when they were as early as a year and a half and raised them all the way through.They were, even now my twin nieces, they're 22 years old.I don't know many kids today who they're never without these.And did that cause you suspicion that, and when you think about your son, was his phone always with him?Was he always on his phone?

Was he always using his phone?Yes.You talked about, Christine, you talked about the life tracker.I would assume, just like my nieces, his hand was attached to the phone.

Yes, sir.

All the time.

His hand was attached to his phone all the time.His hand and his phone was always in my face, messing with me.So he wouldn't go nowhere without that phone.He wouldn't give someone else's phone and go off a whole nother way.It just wasn't him.his character.

We didn't raise him like that.For him to not stay with the people that he came with.We taught him that if you go with someone, you stay with them.You go with them, you leave with them.You don't go off.You don't split from the group chasing a girl.

There's girls back where you at.There's girls everywhere.So she's not the only one.You can find another girl.And I constantly drilled in his head to always stay with the group, always just be mindful of your surroundings.Absolutely.

All of the kids, really.

I constantly had those conversations with him until it's like he got...And I can tell you, he was getting tired of, like, Dad, you're nagging, you're nagging.But I could've said to him, son, one day you're going to thank me for me nagging you like this, because you're going to say, you know, Dad was right.And when that day comes, I want you to pick that same phone up and call me and tell me I'm all right.So, let's say, it's hard for us to believe that he would choose to stay on the island without any kind of forced communication.

And see, that's why, that's the thing that jumps out at me.Again, knowing how young folks are today, if, again, if he, if he says, okay, I'm gonna go with somebody else.They don't they don't leave this.They don't like that's the don't have to be sure.Give me my bag.Make sure I have my phone.

And being that's what he immediately jumps out that that he separated from his phone.It takes so long for isparents to be notified.And then when you said it appears as if some items have been deleted, obviously people don't realize text messages cannot be deleted permanently.Have you already communicated with the cell phone company to be able to pull those records?

Yes, we are reaching out to experts to try to not only retrieve the deleted Snapchats, but the deleted messages, because we know in the video role and that's been circulating all around the internet, we know there was some kind of argument where you hear Nolan saying, give me my freaking phone.What are you freaking doing?And then for him to not come back, but his three friends who were in the boat with him all come back with his phone.and he comes back a couple days later on the shore dead, it doesn't add up, and it makes it hard for the sheriff to say, well, there's no foul play that we found.Well, that's foul play there, where you're talking about an argument over a phone, and then they take his phone and leave him on an island.It makes you scratch your head and say, this isn't adding up.

Have you, Christine, have y 'all had any, did you have any conversations, any discussions with these, and was it three young men who went with your son, or was it more?

I think they're, I'm pretty sure there were probably more present.Um, two, three of them, three of them have reached out.Um, and I know, and I've been sitting here kind of trying to go through all the facts and everything.Cause again, we're still grieving.Like it, it hasn't even been that long since our son, four days since he's been found.Um, but I think maybe two, two or three parents have reached out.

Um, and I'm just, you know, I'm in a mindset right now where I'm trying to protect my family.I'm trying to protect my peace.Um, make sure my husband's okay.And it's just, it's a lot because social media is just so nasty with what this pain that we're going through.Like they think it's a joke and it's, it's horrible.And I pray that they never have to go through anything like this.

Unfortunately, and Ben knows this, I've had to interview far too many of his clients.I always say this is a fraternity or sorority that no one wants to be a member of.Absolutely.What is so difficult here, again, is sort of like there's this fog, if you will, when you said that they've reached out.The only explanation given was that, did it come from his friends that he just decided to stay?That was it?

They didn't convey anything else?

Yes, that was it.They said that hewanted to stay and hang out with this girl named Katie.And also, and this was the initial conversation, me being alerted to him being missing.It was, oh, well, Katie's also missing, but we don't know who she is.Like, that was our first time kind of seeing her type of thing.

So then when I'm going to social media, I'm coming from a place with information that was given to me by people that were there.

Ben, you mentioned the video circulating.There appeared to be a lot of boats in that area and they were shooting video.In terms of this investigation, are you troubled by the lack of urgency that you're hearing from this sheriff who's just sort of being somewhat nonchalant about what took place with Nolan Wells four days ago, or six days ago, if you will.

Yeah.You know, Roland, we're very concerned because from the very beginning, his response was that, well, we don't think it was foul play.Well, how do you know?You haven't even investigated anything.And that video certainly makes you think there's something that doesn't pass the smell test.And the fact that you have the young lady who said that Nolan said he was going to get back on the boat with the boys, and then the boys said, nah, Nolan told them that he was going to stay with the girl.

Which one is it?Somebody must not be telling the truth.And again, we cannot overstate it enough.What 18 -year -old teensays, I'm going to stay behind on the island and don't ask for their cell phone?

Well, especially when you look at the map that shows the distance of this island from where they came from.I do want to ask Christine, her husband, this year.So the photos that we've been showing, were those photos taken on that day or was it a previous boating trip?

That was taken on that day, specifically the one with all three of them.Whenever I had made the posts asking for information, there was a young girl who reached out to me and she said, Hey, Miss Christine, I know that in the report it's stating that he had black shorts on, but she was like, he actually had blue shorts.And those are two very different colors.Like you can't mess, you know, get those two confused.And so what she did is she's like, I'm going to send you these pictures to show you.So, you know, I could use to show everybody like, this is actually the color of the shorts he was wearing.

But she was concerned too.

So they had sent those photos to her or had they posted them on social media?No, these are pictures that she took.

No, she took the picture.

She was.

Yeah, she took those herself and she said she was out there.Yeah, she was out there.

Got it.Got it.Um, obviously, it has been four days since your son's body was found.Seven days since you last saw him.Um, are you are you concerned with the pace ofthis investigation?

Um, I would also ask Ben, I mean, do you believe, I mean, uh, initial reports saying that the young men have been questioned?Um, no one obviously has been taken, uh, into custody.Um, any, any thoughts and concerns about that?The pace of this investigation that here we are is four days later and there still are so many unanswered basic questions.

Yeah, I know.The family is very concerned.That's why they wanted an independent autopsy done, Roland Martin, and so the body was flown from Mississippi to Washington, D .C.because they wanted to have a doctor do an exam of his body that had no connections, no influence from the law officials in the state of Mississippi.because it's inescapable that, you know, Roland, had the roles been reversed and you had three young black men and a young white man on a boat and the white man dies or is killed, you would see a completely different investigation, Roland Martin.

I mean, as President, and you got his cell phone, and you back on the island, and you leave him on the island.I mean, it's so many things that says you all are not doing a zealous investigation on behalf of the family of Nolan Wells.We want the same kind of investigation that you would have did if the roles were reversed for a young white man for our son too.

Elmore, it has to be, I listened to you as you talked about, your son felt like you were badgering him with all those questions.And the reality is fathers and mothers desperately want to protect their children, want to provide them with as much cover as possible.And so as you think about those many conversations.You absolutely believe that you gave your son so much information that you don't believe for a second that he would decide on a whim just to make some crazy decision and just go off with some other people.He had no idea, didn't know who they were at all.

I believe I gave my son, like I said, enough information to not do that.He had too much at stake.He had a plan for his life.He knew what he wanted to do.He knew what he had to do coming up that following Monday, which was get down to business so he can get on with his life and get his future started.So for someone to tell me that Nolan decided to stay on the island, Texas girl, I do not believe you.

No one is going to get me to believe that, not one bit.No, I can't believe that because he wasn't raised like that.I had him super focused on what he wanted to do.He was finally buying into what I was talking about as far as sports and business and really taking it serious and understanding that.if he wanted it, he had to put in the work.

Couple of questions left.Uh, Christine, you talked about how nasty folks are on social media.Um, it has to be extremely painful and difficult for you and your husband to see people who you don't know, who don't know you, who don't know your son, uh, question, uh, you allowing him to be around white teens, uh, questioning, how you raised yourself.

What I would say to that is the amount of love and support that we've received from our local community, people outside of our community, and even his friends.It's a testament to his character.It's a testament to us as parents.And this is the thing, we would never, and my husband is saying, we would never tell our child, any of our children, you are not allowed to associate with this person over here because of the color of their skin or because this person over here is purple.Absolutely not.And just the way Nolan's heart was, he was a friend to everybody.

Like, he was just, his heart was that big.So, like, I just, I don't care.Because at the end of the day, I know we, did everything we could as parents, raised our children as best as we could.We have always told them to be kind, caring, and respectful to others, no matter who they were.And that's the way we were raised.So if

anyone has an issue with that, then that seems like that's a you problem, not a us problem.

Final question for you.You got any indication?First of all, Ben, who's leading this investigation?Is it the sheriff or is it the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation?

I think at this time it's still the sheriff because the sheriff is the one who's making the statements.Sheriff in Jackson County, Mississippi.

Do you want to see the MBI take this over?

I want to see somebody lead the investigation who's going to do so zealously.We are in a ferocious search for the truth.I mean, with every day that goes by, that makes it a little more daunting, a little more challenging.So time is of the essence.I mean, we don't want not one more sleepless night to go by just because they don't have answers.We know they're never gonna have peace because, you know, their baby, as they talked about, brought their family so much peace.

And so there's a void in their hearts and in their family's favor.But let's at least give them the transparency that they deserve.As Christine said, any parent, any parent, black, white, brown, or red, You would want answers if somebody came to you and said, we went out with him, we left him, and now he's gone.dead.No, we gotta get answers, Roland Martin.We must get answers.

Christine Elmore Wansley, again, our condolences go out to you.It is absolutely difficult, and as you said, it's even more difficult when you're trying to grieve the loss of your son and you're having to do interviews and frankly, put the pressure on officials to get answers as to what has taken place.And so I appreciate both of you joining us.I appreciate Ben Crump, you being here as well.And certainly we've been covering this story from day one, as we always do.We're going to continue to cover this story.

because it needs to be told, and we need answers as to what took place to 18 -year -old Nolan Wells.Thanks a bunch.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Roland Mark.Thanks a lot.Quickly go to my panel here.Candace, when we talk about evidence collection, what is bothersome here is that these boys come back, they call the mother at 11 p .m., they don't get the phone until the next day, Anybody who understands investigations, you are most concerned about the destruction of evidence.

In this case here, we're dealing with water.And so now, again, you don't know.Did they change clothes?Now you're talking about, you know, was there a fight?Scratches on their body.What kind of interviews took place from the authorities?

There's so many people, there's so many thingshere at play that could determine not knowing what actually happened.

Mm -hmm.Yeah.And you said the key word there, and that is the evidence, because the evidence begins right now, and if there are any lawsuits, that's what this part and this time is for, to collect the evidence and make sure that people are held accountable so that evidence plays out well in court, whether it's a wrongful death suit, a negligence suit, or any other criminal action that comes down the line, which there probably will be.Now, I'm not sure, and this is a question that I wanted to hear from them, and maybe you know this.any of those young men that were with him did get legal representation.I've heard it, I'm not sure, but you know, to search for an attorney and not be as part of the search party is ridiculous.

And that is evidence.And that is evidence that it goes against any story that they have.At this point, it seems to me, I think about it this way, Roland, when you want to punish a child that's 18 years old or eight years old, the first thing that you do is you take away that phone.And we know that there was confirmation from Crump, there was audible, you could hear audio that was confirmed that was Nolan, that he did say, you know, give me back my freaking phone.Why were they punishing him by keeping that phone away from him?There's something that somebody is hiding.

This is what we know.And it all has to do with that phone.The fact that they went home, sat on that phone, that a friend of hers had to go retrieve the phone.Nobody offered that phone up.Are you kidding me?This is all the evidence building that is not going to play well for those kids in court, which is why one of the kids' mothers, that judge whose name escapes me, that's why she started her evidence and seeding of it now.

that my child, you know, he's been cooperating with everyone and everything is fine.And maybe I canceled my Facebook book account, but don't take it personally.People out there are mean.Everybody is pulling together their evidence and that's where we are.And it does not look good.It is because of that phone.

It is because of that, that phone is telling the story and it's going to tell the story in court.

Yeah, I want to stay on that same thought.So I have literally proven a murder case off of deleted text messages from a cell phone.The police may not have thought they had probable cause to search the phone, but phones get dumped.So what people don't know is even if you delete messages or delete data on your phone, there are various levels to the phone where things are saved.So like I said, I literally proved a murder case off of deleted text messages.There's a lot of evidence, surely, in that phone.

And there are a couple of things I don't understand in this case.The first thing I don't understand is if you have a video that's contemporaneous with their time on the island with Nolan, and they come back with his phone and he's protesting them having his phone, you have a theft.So how you don't issue an arrest warrant immediately for the theft, how you don't decide to dump the phone, how you don't send an exigency search warrant to Snapchat, to social media, to the phone provider.I mean, they do that all the time when somebody is missing and they have reason to believe there's been foul play.The police routinely do that.And the phone companies and other providers have a means whereby they can get them information in an exigent circumstance.

Here on the 4th of July, this young man goes missing.The family realizes he's missing.It seems to me the police had a number of things they could have done to truly investigate this and preserve that evidence.And, you know, Ben Crump is one of the best in the country, so I suspect his team is going to do this.But the absolutefirst thing I would do is get a private forensic examiner on that phone.

I would do a logical dump, a physical dump, find what is in that phone.And there may certainly be things that were deleted.Right.And then it's Even if those things are innocuous, even if they're text messages that don't have anything to do about the conflict, then you have a question of chain of custody.Okay, y 'all had this phone for X number of hours before it was provided to his family.And there's something that was deleted that was sent after the time Nolan had the phone or rather deleted after the time Nolan had the phone.

It stands to reason you got tampering with evidence.So maybe, you know, this is something the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation will have to get into.But police officers do these things routinely.And I think what this might be.is a situation where they want to take the path of least resistance and assume there's no foul play, despite the fact that they had incontrovertible evidence that this young man was not only in a conflict, but that they had expensive property of his, which they would normally call a theft.So how they didn't go down that road, I don't understand.

Hopefully Ben and his team are able to develop some of that.And that evidence has been preserved despite presumably someone trying to delete it or otherwise obscure it.

Well, Michael, what's so bothering for me is for a sheriff to say we don't believe there was foul play.I'm sorry.An 18 -year -old, extremely healthy young man goes on an island with friends, doesn't come back.They come back.he's missing.And I'm sorry, that's called doubt.

That's called suspicion.And so you don't just come out and just make that kind of statement that raises questions as to the thoroughness of the quality of the investigation that this sheriff is going to actually conduct.

Yeah, Roland, I agree.I think it's premature to saythere's no foul play suspected.You could just say we haven't been able to conclude that at this point in the investigation.

Or you just simply say this is under investigation.You don't give a definitive statement like we don't believe that was foul play.

Right.So I agree, Roland.I watched the press conference today.I also saw the interview this morning on Good Morning America that Nolan's parents did along with Ben Crump.And I watched the interview on CBS this morning.And I have I have like 15 questions, but I'm only going to ask two.

So I heard you, Roland, say that someone called the parents at 11 p .m.Uh, was that to say we have Nolan's phone or what was that call regarding?

Well, the mother answered that.She said, uh, that, uh, the call she got, uh, was that, uh, Nolan, uh, had not come back with him.

Right.Okay.Now when, so one of the questions I had is when the father went to go retrieve the phone, uh, the boy or the man or the young man, he retrieved the phone from, said, Nolan was like a brother to the father.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.The father didn't go retrieve the phone.The mother said a friend of hers, uh, was the one who went to go and retrieve the phone.

Okay.Okay.I misunderstood it at the press conference today.Uh, okay.

Yeah.I didn't see that.Here's the deal.I didn't see the news conference.I'm just simply saying what the mother just said.I just interviewed her.

So in terms of, so I don't know that, but so, so, so the bottom line is here.Okay.Clearly they're not giving answers as to what actually is taking place.Um, it has been four days since his body was found.Seven days, uh, you know, seven days since they last saw him, six days since July 4th.Uh, and, uh, it's clear folks are clamming up.

And so I would hope the sheriff is doing a real investigation.And the problem is, if he's not the effort every day that you get away from this, the problem that you have is you have a lack of evidence as we said evidence could be destroyed evidence washed away all that sort of stuff and that's really what is of great concern all right folks let me tell you about chapter now if you're in medicare or about to be the system is not set up to work for you too much fine print too many plans and too many people making money off of your confusion and look we're used to this we're no strangers to systems that don't have our best interests at heart But we don't have to accept it when it comes to Medicare.That's why I'm telling you about Chapter.Their advisors are independent and honest.In fact, they're the only Medicare advisors that compare every plan nationwide.And they're focused on one thing, what works for you.

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