Nolan Wells case sees blunt force pivot as attorney decries friends' lawsuit threat

Ocean Springs, Mississippi - It's been a whirlwind week in the Nolan Wells case, and prominent attorneys are speaking out against a grand jury's findings, noting they'll be releasing the full results of independent autopsies and toxicology reports in the coming days while facing lawsuit threats from friends of the late teen who were with him before he died.

Attorney Liza Park (l.), Nolan Wells' parents Elmore and Christine Wonsley (c.), and attorney Ben Crump appear at a news conference on July 22, 2026. Crump announced on September 24, 2026, that his team will release the full independent autopsy, toxicology, and forensic reports next week.
Attorney Liza Park (l.), Nolan Wells' parents Elmore and Christine Wonsley (c.), and attorney Ben Crump appear at a news conference on July 22, 2026. Crump announced on September 24, 2026, that his team will release the full independent autopsy, toxicology, and forensic reports next week.  © OCTAVIO JONES / AFP

Though a grand jury last week claimed there was no sufficient evidence to charge any single person with a crime in Wells' mysterious death over the Fourth of July weekend, which was initially ruled a drowning, civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump, along with his team of legal experts, aren't sold.

Wells' body was found on July 6, days after the 18-year-old went missing during an outing to Horn Island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast of the July 4 holiday weekend.

Crump stressed in a video posted to Facebook on Saturday, "This mystery still needs to be investigated. We simply cannot close the chapter and ... wash our hands of it, put a bow on it, and say, 'Nothing to see here.'"

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Crump denounced the grand jury's conclusion as misleading at a press conference last Thursday and once again called for an independent investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Other members of Crump's legal team who are representing Wells' family were present at the presser. This included forensic examiner Andrew Garrett and attorney Liza Park, the latter of whom highlighted discrepancies between the grand jury's conclusion and oddities in the state's official autopsy report of Wells.

Park pointed out that the state's autopsy showed no fluid or debris in Wells' airways, lungs, or stomach: "What this means is that there is no water in the stomach, there is no water in the lungs, and there is no water in the throat," she said, adding that water is typically present in those areas in drowning cases.

The state's autopsy, according to Parks, also shows two blunt-force contusions or lacerations on the back of Wells' skull, further questioning how a drowning conclusion could be reached without addressing those apparent injuries.m

Crump took things a step further by saying his team will be releasing its full independent autopsy, toxicology, and forensic reports next week in an effort to dispute the state of Mississippi's accidental drowning ruling and force the DOJ to open an investigation of its own.

"The State of Mississippi is attempting to close the chapter on Nolan Wells' death without getting to the truth," Crump said. "Mississippi must keep investigating, and if it will not pursue this to the end, the Department of Justice should.”

Then, there are the digital forensic findings that Garrett addressed, which led Wells' friends to make legal threats in response.

Christine Wells-Wonsley, the mother of Nolan Wells, speaks during a press conference with attorney Ben Crump (r.) to announce preliminary results of an independent autopsy on July 22, 2026. The full report is expected to be released by attorney Ben Crump's team.
Christine Wells-Wonsley, the mother of Nolan Wells, speaks during a press conference with attorney Ben Crump (r.) to announce preliminary results of an independent autopsy on July 22, 2026. The full report is expected to be released by attorney Ben Crump's team.  © SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

At the Thursday presser, Garrett said, "From a digital standpoint, things were deleted on the phone from the time he last had the phone, up until the time that his parents got the phone.”

He said that although Wells' phone went into lock mode from 2:14 PM to 2:18 PM on July 4, user actions were taken to delete Snapchat messages and Snaps before Wells' family retrieved his phone early the following day. Garrett stressed that while digital forensics confirm data was deleted, it cannot prove who deleted it or the intent in doing so.

Crump added that 95 percent of Wells' communications were via Snapchat and Instagram, adding that group chats among his friends that he was included in continued after he disappeared. Crump even read an excerpt that he claims showed Wells' friends expressing concern about "real sketchy" men on Horn Island that day, writing that "you wouldn't want to be left alone with them, especially if they're really drunk."

In response to the September 24 press conference, attorneys representing three of Wells' friends denied any wrongdoing by their clients while threatening to file a defamation suit against Crump, according to multiple media reports. Attorney Edward Andrew Paltzik said, "Warren [Hudson, Jax [Pitalo], and Morgan [Seymour] did not erase anything and never had access to his phone. If anything was erased, they didn't do it."

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Attorney Tyler Cox explained that a female friend of the group gathered all the phones left on the boat, including Wells', and placed them in a truck, and she later handed Wells' phone to a family friend around 1:30 AM.

Paltzik took it further, criticizing Crump and his team and accusing them of withholding Wells' phone from the District Attorney.

Crump has dismissed the claims about the phone and the threats of a defamation suit, calling them a distraction in an attempt to take focus away from the main goal of uncovering what happened to Wells.

Cover photo: SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

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