Friends of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells say his death pulled them closer to God, even as online critics and activists tried to cast the Horn Island tragedy as a racial crime.
Months after 18-year-old Nolan Wells vanished on a July 4 boat trip to Horn Island, three of his closest friends sat for an exclusive interview and described grief that drove them into church and prayer. Jax Pitalo, Warren Hudson, and Morgan Seymour told Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany how the loss reshaped their lives while unsubstantiated online claims and threats piled up around them.
A Jackson County grand jury later returned a “no true bill,” declining to indict anyone. The panel found Wells’ death consistent with drowning and no proof of criminal wrongdoing. District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said there was “absolutely no evidence” the death was racially motivated. Still, the friends faced intense scrutiny, and the family hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump to demand further review.
Wells, an African American college football player, went out with a group of boys on Independence Day to Horn Island, a barrier island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast near Ocean Springs. The group later returned and reported him missing to the Coast Guard. Search crews combed the area for two days.
On July 6, a National Park Service ranger found Wells’ body at the island’s northwestern tip. Friends later told investigators the boat had been taking on water and that Wells chose to stay behind and catch a later ride. The district attorney stated flatly that “Nolan chose to stay on the island that day, and there is not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that.”
Breitbart reported the grand jury heard from 43 witnesses and reviewed scene evidence, digital materials, reports, videos, images, and maps. The panel itself was mixed: 12 Caucasians, five African Americans, one Asian, two Hispanics, two Native Americans, and one other, with 13 men and 10 women. Jurors found no evidence of a physical fight, argument, or racial motive.
In the Fox News interview months afterward, the three young men described a different response than the outrage machine online. They spoke of faith, not grievance.
Jax Pitalo put it simply.
"Right after the first three days or so, I was like, if this did anything, it got us all closer to God,"
Warren Hudson said the same turn shaped him.
"I learned to lean on the Lord. I know my friends did as well. And I know that's what Nolan would want me to do."
Morgan Seymour described the group’s new habit.
"We started going to church more. Everything from that moment on was like for God, for Jesus,"
Hudson answered Seymour with two words that framed their choice: “For Nolan.” McEnany, speaking on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” noted the young men “were demonized and dragged through a lot, and they loved Nolan.” One had been friends with Wells since elementary school.
The New York Post reported the same account of deepened Christian practice amid the public pressure. The friends kept pointing back to church and prayer rather than the racial theories circulating online.
After the no-true-bill decision, McIlrath addressed the allegations head-on. She said the grand jury found “absolutely no evidence” to support claims that Wells’ disappearance and death were racially motivated. She added, “Nolan’s friends loved Nolan and Nolan loved them.”
That finding undercut the narrative that had already hardened in some corners of social media. Unsubstantiated claims had cast the friends as responsible and the death as a hate crime. An official said the FBI was probing threats tied to the case. Mississippi’s governor blamed activists for “stoking division.”
The friends still lived with the fallout. They described online scrutiny and threats that followed them long after the search ended. Their answer, they said, was more church, not more politics.
Wells’ family and attorney Ben Crump rejected the grand jury’s conclusion. They pointed to bruising and blunt-force injuries described by a pathologist the family hired independently. They called for further investigation, including an independent federal review by the Justice Department.
Crump, known for high-profile civil rights cases, framed the outcome as incomplete. In a statement carried by Breitbart, he said:
"This grand jury result leaves us with more questions than answers. Nolan’s family will not rest until we know what happened to him, and neither will we."
The Washington Examiner noted Crump’s pattern of quickly framing similar cases in racial terms and reported that Wells had been reported missing after the group returned to Ocean Springs. The family continues to press for answers beyond the local grand jury’s drowning finding.
Local prosecutors and the mixed-race grand jury had already examined extensive evidence and found no crime and no racial motive. The friends’ public account added another layer: young men who lost a friend and chose faith over the activist script that tried to claim the tragedy.
When the outrage machine runs ahead of the evidence, the people left holding the loss often look somewhere sturdier than politics. These friends looked to church.
