A teen football player’s death has sparked scrutiny and speculation. Here’s what’s happening with the investigation

Christine and Elmore Wonsley are not sleeping. They cannot do this because of their 18-year-old son. Nolan Wellsfirst disappeared.

“That was our son,” said Christine Wonsley, who wore blue to resemble Wells’ father, and the couple held tight hands. “I gave birth to him.”

Wonsley is now fighting for answers so he can find peace in knowing he did everything possible to uncover the truth behind his son’s death, he told CNN’s Victor Blackwell on Saturday.

It’s been a week since Wells and his friends took a July 4 trip to Horn Island, a desolate, untouched wilderness off the coast of Mississippi. no shelter, no facilities and no communication.

His friends managed to return home. Wells, a student and wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College, did not. His body was found face down in the water off the shoreline by a National Park Service agent Monday morning.

Many questions now remain unanswered: Why didn’t he return to the boat with his friends? Why didn’t he have his cell phone with him? Was Wells involved in a fight? Did he leave his friends to talk to a girl on the island?

While the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department is still investigating, Wells’ death has fueled speculation and distrust in part because of Mississippi’s alarming racial history, the fact that Wells appeared as the only black person in a photo with friends during the trip, and an earlier comment the sheriff made. I did not suspect foul play – but did not explain why.

“This doesn’t smell right,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said at a news conference Friday. “Some people say, ‘Reverend, are you all entering the race?’ he says. Well, we don’t bring the race. But we don’t discount race because we don’t know what it is. So it would be appropriate for you to tell us: ‘Don’t rush to say this is racist.’ “But then I say to you, ‘Don’t rush to judgment by saying this isn’t racism,’ because we don’t know.”

But CNN law enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey said nothing about the case was particularly unusual, other than speculation about race. It is quite common for law enforcement to take a week or more to gather all the evidence and interviews necessary to determine what caused the death.

But those days and weeks can feel like an eternity for a family desperately searching for answers.

The content of the investigation may be as follows:

Notable interviews

Ramsey said it was important to interview Wells’ friends he was traveling with, everyone who was on the beach at the time, and a girl he was allegedly talking to on the island.

“They have to interview them one by one to make sure the story is consistent,” said Ramsey, who previously led the Philadelphia and Washington D.C. police departments.

Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter did not respond to CNN’s questions Friday, including whether all of Wells’ friends on the trip had been interviewed. But Ledbetter said it before CNN affiliate WXXV“It will take a lot of hard work” to get to the bottom of this case.

Attorney Ben Crump, who represents Wells’ family, said he was dismayed by the lack of clear details in the case.

“One young woman he spoke to said: ‘Nolan said he was coming back to get on the boat with the kids.’ The boys say Nolan told them he would stay and talk to the young woman. It’s a paradox,” Crump said.

Questions about Wells’ phone

One of the strange parts of the case involves Wells’ cell phone. Crumb He said it was strange for a teenager not to have a cell phone, and noted that Wells’ parents managed to find the phone before police did.

According to Crump, Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, tracked his phone using Life360, a real-time GPS tracking app. developed To increase family security.

Crump claimed online that his phone was found “at the house of one of the boys who owns the boat.” Sunday service at the Georgia-based New Dawn Missionary Baptist Church.

Parents said that the location history data found on the phone left them with question marks. They also expressed concern that messages or pictures may have been deleted from the device.

After tracking his keys and phone, the family compared Wells’ location history between the Life360 and Snapchat apps; but the data didn’t match, his parents told “Good Morning America” ​​last week.

CNN has contacted the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department for more information.

There was also speculation that Wells had been in an argument shortly before she was reported missing.

Wells’ mother said her son was not a confrontational person and avoided conflict.

“Nolan wasn’t someone who liked fights, physical fights. He didn’t even like arguments,” Christine Wonsley said.

An area known for strong currents

Jackson County Prosecutor Bruce Lynd said the 18-year-old’s body was found in the water just off the coast at the northwest tip of Horn Island.

“The swimsuit she was wearing matched the ones in the photo she was last known to have worn,” Lynd told CNN on Friday.

Crump, the family’s attorney, was skeptical of the idea that Wells might have drowned, saying the teenager was a strong athlete and knew how to swim.

But barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi have a history of strong currents and drowning deaths, the coroner said.

“The currents are strong there, especially at this end of the island,” Lynd said. “There have been many drownings on barrier islands over the years.”

The medical examiner said there were no immediate, obvious signs of mistreatment or trauma on Wells’ body. But because of the unclear circumstances, “we requested an autopsy from the state medical examiner’s office so they could do the full autopsy and say if there was any foul play or trauma,” Lynd said.

Findings from the autopsy, including Wells’ cause and manner of death, are not yet available as the coroner’s office awaits the results of routine toxicology tests. And these can last days or weeks.

“I waited about two or three weeks for toxicology,” Ramsey said.

Meanwhile, the family has launched its own investigation into what may have caused the teenager’s death.

Parents sent son’s body out of state for second autopsy

Crump said he believes if Wells had drowned, someone would have seen him struggling or offered help. fast, quiet and doesn’t always look as expectedThe National Drowning Prevention Alliance says.

“This doesn’t make sense. That’s why we had an independent autopsy performed at the family’s request,” Crump said Friday.

“We flew his body from Mississippi to Washington, D.C. because his family wanted to make sure they had a doctor with no ties to Mississippi law enforcement to independently examine their son’s body.”

Those results are expected “very soon,” Crump said Saturday.

‘There are all kinds of possibilities’

Ramsey, who is black, said he understands why some Mississippians might be concerned about whether race played a role in Wells’ death or investigation. He expressed his deep condolences to the family for the great tragedy.

But so far, he said, there’s nothing surprising about the timeline of this investigation and how it’s progressing.

“It’s not an unusual situation. What’s unusual is the degree of media attention,” he said. “The only reason we’re having this conversation is because it happened in Mississippi. He’s a black kid and he went there with his friends who are white.”

“No matter what anyone’s skin color is, you hope that the people your kids call friends are there,” Wells’ mother, Wonsley, told CNN on Saturday. “Unfortunately, when you start talking about the African community in America, there are so many stereotypes. We’ve seen this over and over again.”

Wonsley said she sees the “discourse” surrounding her son’s situation and the question some are asking: “How can these Black parents allow their son to be the token Black kid of the group?” he said.

“Nolan was friends with everyone,” Wonsley said. “Nolan was a pacifist. He wanted everyone to feel included.”

Wonsley said Wells would ensure his friends returned home. “Nolan had such a big heart. That was always something we were concerned about, that his heart was too big, because sometimes… that kind of love that you give to others isn’t always reciprocated.”

Ramsey said there are many possible reasons why Wells wasn’t with his friends at the end of the trip. And the potential circumstances surrounding Wells’ death aren’t limited to foul play or accidental drowning.

“There are all kinds of possibilities,” he said. “You go crazy trying to speculate about every possible thing that could have happened. And as a result, it takes evidence to really reconstruct what happened.”

Even if Wells drowned, “there are a variety of reasons why an individual might drown,” Ramsey said.

Much of the criticism, speculation and outrage on social media this week came after the local sheriff issued a statement saying: “No foul play was suspected“

Ramsey said this could be a poor choice of words, leading to widespread misunderstandings. It might be more accurate to say there was no direct and obvious sign of foul play, similar to what the coroner told CNN.

But until autopsy results are released and investigators say what they believe caused Wells’ death, Ramsey said anyone who speculates or jumps to that conclusion “will be doing a disservice to the family.”

A family’s nightmare

Christine Wonsley’s brain is mush, her emotions are all over the place.

“I can’t tell you how hard this is… Not just us as parents, but also her siblings,” Wonsley said. “They, too, feel the pain of not having siblings.”

Wells was preparing to return to school to start football training His body was found near the shore the same day.

On Saturday, peaceful protesters gathered in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where Wells graduated from high school, and demanded a transparent investigation into his death.

A resident named Jeron Lowery, with whom Wells once worked renting water slides and bounce houses, spoke of his kindness and respectful nature.

“That says a lot about his family and himself,” Lowery said. he told CNN affiliate WLOX. “The things he did while on Earth left a mark on the hearts of many people. Life is precious. No matter what color you are,” he said.

CNN’s Devon M. Sayers, Maria Sole Campinoti, Chelsea Bailey, Ryan Young, Amanda Musa and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.

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