Attorney Ben Crump revealed that 18-year-old Nolan Wells' last text message was a simple "Thank you" to a family member, sent hours before he vanished from a Mississippi boat party and was later found dead in the water.
Wells sent the two-word message to a relative known as "Auntie Gabby" at approximately 8:30 p.m. on July 3, the evening before an Independence Day gathering on Horn Island, Mississippi. His body was recovered from coastal waters two days after he disappeared from the celebration. Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the Wells family, disclosed the text at a Thursday press conference and said Wells' phone had also yielded 282 pages of Snapchat messages from his friend group.
The disclosure came days after a 23-member Jackson County grand jury voted unanimously to return a "no true bill", meaning no indictment, after an extensive investigation that Fox News reported included testimony from 43 witnesses, 132 subpoenas, and a review of GPS logs and phone forensic reports. The grand jury's written report found that "the position of, the condition of, time of discovery, and location of Mr. Wells' body is consistent with drowning."
No one was charged. No crime was identified. And both the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office and an independent pathologist hired by the family listed the cause of death as undetermined but consistent with drowning.
An unidentified witness testified under oath before the grand jury that he saw Wells slip "awkwardly" off the side of a boat around the time he was last seen. The witness could not say definitively whether Wells struck his head. But he told the panel that Wells did not appear injured and continued socializing afterward.
The grand jury report noted bruising on the back of Wells' head but concluded it "was not a fatal injury." Beyond that, the panel found "no evidence of any fatal injury or organic disease to Mr. Wells' body." Three boats, the Triton, the Palm Beach, and the Tideline, were referenced in the report.
The investigation also revealed that Wells had purchased alcohol using a fake ID. The grand jury determined that no adults of legal drinking age provided him alcohol on the island. Wells was 18 years old and a football player at Southwest Mississippi Community College.
As previously reported, a forensic pathologist reviewing the independent autopsy did not find evidence suggesting foul play, a finding that aligned with the state medical examiner's conclusions and ultimately with the grand jury's ruling.
Crump framed the text message revelation as part of a broader effort to understand Wells' final hours. He noted that Wells, like many teenagers, relied on Snapchat rather than traditional text messaging to communicate with friends.
As Crump told reporters at his Thursday press conference:
"And what his parents and family shared with us, this was common because... Nolan was like many teenagers, they don't use their mother and father text messaging, they use Snapchat."
But Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath was direct in a video statement released after the grand jury's Friday ruling. She said flatly that "there is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan's disappearance and death were racially motivated." Breitbart reported that the grand jury's vote was unanimous and that the investigation had been exhaustive, 132 subpoenas, 43 witnesses, and forensic analysis of phones and GPS data.
The grand jury report itself went further, characterizing online attacks against Wells' friends and their families as "malicious," "false," and having "no truth in fact or evidence." That language was pointed. It addressed a harassment campaign that had targeted the young people who were on the boats with Wells, people who, by the grand jury's account, had done nothing wrong.
The broader controversy surrounding the case, including reported threats against officials, had previously drawn attention from the Mississippi governor and the FBI, as covered in earlier reporting on the escalating tensions around the investigation.
Christine Wells Wonsley, Wells' mother, broke down in tears at a separate press conference on Tuesday. She and Wells' father, Elmore Wonsley, have said publicly that they do not believe their son "simply and accidentally drowned."
In a statement, the mother made clear the family has no intention of accepting the grand jury's conclusion as the final word:
"Despite the grand jury's decision, Elmore, our family and I will continue to fight for justice and I know all those who have supported us will do the same."
A grieving family's refusal to accept a painful outcome is understandable. No parent should have to bury an 18-year-old. But the facts assembled by the grand jury, 43 witnesses, two separate autopsies, forensic phone data, GPS records, and 132 subpoenas, tell a consistent story. The grand jury's conclusion was unanimous, and it explicitly rejected the racial narrative that had been layered onto the case.
Crump, for his part, told reporters the result "leaves us with more questions than answers" and pledged that the family "will not rest until we know what happened to him." The grand jury report left the door open as well, stating that if credible evidence surfaces in the future suggesting Wells' death was non-accidental, the matter should be brought back before a Jackson County grand jury. Mississippi has no statute of limitations on homicide cases.
Earlier questions about the condition in which Wells was found had also been addressed when the United Cajun Navy corrected claims that he was fully clothed, confirming he was found in swim trunks, a detail consistent with someone who had been on a boat party in the Gulf waters off Horn Island.
The grand jury's report did something unusual: it did not just clear the people under suspicion. It called out the public campaign against them. The panel described the accusations hurled at Wells' friends and their families as "malicious" and "false," with "no truth in fact or evidence." That is a grand jury, 23 citizens who reviewed the full record under oath, telling the public that the online mob got it wrong.
This matters because the harassment did not come from nowhere. High-profile involvement by a nationally known civil rights attorney, combined with allegations of racial violence, created a pressure environment. When those allegations collapse under the weight of a unanimous grand jury finding, two autopsies, and 43 witnesses, the people who were falsely accused do not simply get their reputations back.
Nolan Wells' death is a tragedy. His family deserves compassion. But the evidence, gathered through one of the most thorough local investigations a county grand jury can conduct, points to a drowning, not a crime. Grief is not evidence, and a narrative is not a fact. When the two get confused, innocent people get hurt.
