At first, the mysterious death of a beloved 18-year-old unified a small Mississippi community in grief and uncertainty.
One month later, a dearth of answers about what happened have led strangers nationwide to fill the void with speculation, vitriol and even threats.
Some of the conjecture stemmed from photos of the Black teen, Nolan Wells, surrounded by White friends while on a Fourth of July trip to Horn Island, a popular holiday destination off the Mississippi coast.
Wells’ friends rode out to the island on multiple boats. One of the friends was another Black teen who said he was supposed to be on the same boat as Wells before it filled up. But Wells was the only one who did not make it back. And some of Wells’ friends who were on the trip have differing thoughts on whether the teen decided to stay behind to talk to a girl on the island.
Suspicions about the case developed against the backdrop of Mississippi’s fraught history of racial violence, leading some to speculate whether race played a role in Wells’ death. And the family’s attorney has said Wells’ parents don’t fully trust law enforcement.
