Nolan Wells' cellphone paints a story of what happened the tragic day at Horn Island, including messages that were allegedly deleted off of his device.
Nolan Wells' cellphone paints a story of what happened on the tragic day at Horn Island, including messages that were allegedly deleted from his device, which contain conversations about "sketchy" people.
Attorney Ben Crump and the family's digital-forensics team laid out the findings at the press conference on Thursday. Crump announced that Wells last used his phone at 2:18 PM local time. Andrew Garrett, the forensics examiner hired by the Wells family, said messages were deleted between the time Wells last used his phone and when his family regained access to the device after it was retrieved.
Garrett said his team could not determine who had deleted the messages and why they did it.
It was determined that Wells used Snapchat and Instagram for the majority of his communications; Garret says that there were 282 pages of records that mostly consisted of Snapchat data. Among the data, there was one group chat that continued to message after Wells' death.
Crump said some of the deleted messages included texts showing Wells' friends discussing whether people on Horn Island could be racist. One exchange refers to two "really sketchy-looking guys" in boats, while another recounts a sheriff allegedly warning Wells' father he "wouldn't want to be left alone with them, especially if they're really drunk."
Crump stressed that while there is no definitive proof Nolan's death was racially motivated, his parents have never accepted the idea that he simply drowned and nobody saw anything. Wells' family attorneys also pointed to discrepancies between the state medical examiner's report and the independent autopsy, calling for a closer look at his death.
