Conspiracies around Nolan Wells’ death have led to threats against those he was with that day, attorneys say | CNN

On July 4, a group of friends boarded boats and set out from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to celebrate the holiday on nearby Horn Island.

It was a trip many had been looking forward to all year, their attorneys would later tell CNN. But it would end in tragedy after Nolan Wells never made it home.

In the weeks since Wells’ body was discovered along the shoreline of the barrier island, questions around his manner of death have fueled conjecture and fractured a once tight-knit community.

Attorneys representing Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour say despite cooperating with investigators, their clients have effectively become pariahs in their hometown and have been subjected to death threats and defamation.

And, they said, the allegations they were somehow involved in their friend’s death have made it even harder as they try to find ways to grieve the young man they’ve known since middle school.