What Nolan Wells' Family Did While Sharpton Spoke

Tony Brueski (0:00)

This is The Big Breakdown, a long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers Podcast and True Crime Today. This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brueski.

Tony Brueski (0:20)

Nolan Wells, the phone, what's on it? Where are the messages that were supposedly deleted or were they not? Were they just never there to begin with because his phone was on the boat? What's happening with the phone? What is the data that is there that will reveal so much about it? You would think the people who were closest to Nolan, his family, his mother, his father, they would be at the forefront of getting that phone examined. And the data or lack thereof, whatever the data is revealed, so the truth can come out. And so the accusations that were made early on, that his data was wiped, it was erased. That they'd be coming forward with their information of, see, it was erased, it was destroyed. Oh, wait, you don't have that. That was all conjecture. That was all opinion. That was all rage being fueled by an attorney that showed up to make a buck.

Where is the phone today? What data has been extracted from it? Well, it's still with the family of Nolan Wells. And no, no data has been extracted, at least publicly. Or what that data is that has been revealed by the independent investigation, maybe doesn't match up with the chronology or with the vibrato, with the rage, with the accusations, with the conjecture, with the hate, with the fuel that it was once originally delivered with. Maybe the two don't match up and maybe, maybe that's why we haven't seen anything about that phone. Because this device is going to have so much information that's going to reveal all of these friends being this horrific boat of Klansmen, and they're not, killing their friend and deleting messages. Oh, wait, oh, wait, we don't have any of that yet. Well, what the hell's the hold up?

Nolan Wells' phone made it back from Horn Island, Nolan did, and his friends brought the phone to shore when they returned on July 4th, and his mother tracked it to a friend's house. She picked it up, opened it and says she found a Snapchat account with nothing on them. Her son had two Snapchat accounts, and according to his mother, he was on social media constantly. Okay, I get that. She believes somebody tampered with it, because there was nothing there. That's a conclusion that she jumped to. He's normally always on there. Why is there nothing there? He's missing. We don't know. Yeah, it's somewhat reasonable until you start looking at where he was and what people do with their phones when they're there. They tend to leave them on boats. They don't tend to use them in areas that have zero service where they can't even connect to Snapchat. And they don't want to lose their thousand dollar some devices in the ocean. That might be why there's nothing there. Not nefarious. It was in plain to the narrative of race baiting.

Not as exciting either. Doesn't get the rage and everybody, whoo, about what happened.

But it does answer the question. And look, I'm not here to tell you I know, because I don't. I don't have the phone. I don't have access to the data on the phone. There's one group of people that do, and that's the family of Nolan Wells. Why, in six weeks, with the extended power of BenCrump and all of the folks who've been rallying around and GoFundMe's and hundreds of thousands of dollars that have poured in that could easily have been used to get the phone data independently revealed. Why that hasn't happened, I don't know. Or has it happened just behind the scenes and that data?

Again, doesn't quite support a narrative that was originally pitched and nobody wants to look stupid.

As of now, from what we know, the phone has not been forensically examined, not by the DA's office, not by the FBI and not by the Family Zone experts, allegedly. On July 15th, Nolan's parents sat down with Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McGrath and agreed to a joint forensic examination. The plan was specific. The Digital Forensic Lab at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College would handle it. Both sides should bring their own experts. The FBI could participate. Nobody set a date.

The family's legal team contacted the DA's office on July 25th, and they were traveling abroad. I don't know. I don't know. Your son just died, and now it's time to go on a trip abroad. I'm not here to judge a family trying to heal. And maybe that's the answer, maybe going on a trip, and let's take a breath here and re-center ourself on the world that we have going forward, now that our son has tragically left us. I don't know.