Friends of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells say his death deepened their Christian faith after a grand jury cleared them, while activists still refuse the facts.
Months after 18-year-old Nolan Wells vanished on a Fourth of July boat trip and was found dead on Horn Island, three of his closest friends sat down with Fox News and described how grief drove them closer to God.
Jax Pitalo, Warren Hudson, and Morgan Seymour told Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany that the loss reshaped their lives. A Jackson County grand jury had already returned a “no true bill,” declining to charge anyone and finding the death consistent with drowning. Online accusations against the friends collapsed under that review. The family and civil rights attorney Ben Crump still demand more investigation.
The young men rejected the false claims that followed them. They said faith, not public pressure, carried them through.
Nolan Wells, 18, went with friends by boat to Horn Island, a barrier island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, on July 4. He disappeared that day.
Search crews combed the area for two days. On July 6, a National Park Service ranger found his body at the island’s northwestern tip.
District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath later stated that Wells chose to stay on the island that day. She said there was “not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that.”
Months later, the Jackson County grand jury reviewed the case. It returned a unanimous no true bill. Jurors found insufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing and concluded the death was consistent with drowning.
Breitbart reported the grand jury examined phone forensics, GPS logs, 132 subpoenas, and testimony from 43 witnesses before declining charges. Both the state medical examiner and the family’s own pathologist listed the cause as undetermined and consistent with drowning.
McIlrath was blunt about the racial narrative that had spread online.
"There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death were racially motivated. Nolan’s friends loved Nolan, and Nolan loved them. Nolan chose to stay on the island that day, and there is not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that."
The district attorney made clear the friends were not suspects in any race-driven crime. The record before the grand jury did not support the theories pushed on social media.
Wells’ family and attorney Ben Crump rejected that outcome. Crump said the result “leaves us with more questions than answers” and vowed the family would not rest. They pointed to bruising and blunt-force injuries described by their independent pathologist and called for a Justice Department review.
The grand jury had already weighed the evidence and found no basis for charges. Activists kept the pressure on the young men anyway.
In the exclusive interview, the three friends described a turn toward faith that began in the first days of grief. The New York Post carried the same account of how they leaned on Christian belief while facing public suspicion.
Jax Pitalo put it plainly.
"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 pull shaped his days.
"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."
He added a simple dedication: “For Nolan.”
Morgan Seymour described the change in routine and focus.
"We started going to church more. Everything from that moment on was like for God, for Jesus."
They did not claim the scrutiny was easy. They said it was wrong. McEnany noted on air that the young men “were demonized and dragged through a lot, and they loved Nolan.”
After the body was found, social media filled with claims that the friends were responsible and that race drove the death. Those claims never matched the forensic trail or the witness record the grand jury reviewed.
The district attorney called the race allegations baseless. The friends kept pointing back to their relationship with Wells and to the faith they said he would have wanted them to keep.
No one was indicted. No criminal case moved forward. The official finding remained death consistent with drowning, with cause listed as undetermined by both the state examiner and the family’s pathologist.
Crump and the family continue to press for federal review. That demand does not erase the grand jury’s work or the DA’s public findings. It does keep a painful story in the headlines long after jurors said there was no crime to charge.
Pitalo, Hudson, and Seymour chose a different response. They went to church more. They said they leaned on the Lord. They framed their days around the friend they lost rather than the strangers who accused them.
When facts clear ordinary people and activists still demand a different verdict, the record should matter more than the narrative. These young men buried a friend and kept their faith. That is the part that holds up.
