What Nolan Wells' Friends Wiped Before Anyone Called Police

**SPEAKER_1** (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, here now, Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:16)
Nolan Xavier Wells cooked his mother a baked salmon dinner on the evening of July 3rd. Christine Wansley had a long day at work, and her 18-year-old son wanted to do something nice for her before he headed out for the night. He was sleeping at a friend's house. In the morning, they were going out to Horn Island for the 4th of July, and Christine hugged her son goodnight. She will never hug him again.
The next morning, Nolan and three friends from high school took a boat 10 miles off the Mississippi Gulf Coast to Horn Island. And if you haven't heard of it, picture this. A federally protected barrier island with no buildings, no running water, no cell service, no staff, and no way to get there or leave except by private boat. It is a popular local spot on holidays. You've probably seen pictures of it by now. It looks like a paradise. Nolan had been there before on the 4th of July, the beach at the northwest tip. It was packed. Boats along the shoreline, young adults drinking, swimming, hanging out of the sand like they have forever.
It's the summer before everybody goes off. When I was first absorbing this story, it kind of made me think of, for those of us of a certain age in our thirties, forties, American Pie. Remember that movie? Summer Before You Go Off. Crazy things happen.
Not this crazy.
But that's to give you an idea of the environment, if you will, of that point in everyone's life and what's going on. That's the, that's the energy. Okay. Kind of, kind of set the scene there. In photos from the boat that day, Nolan towers over his friends at six foot one. Arms draped around their shoulders, big smile, blue swim trunks and sunglasses. He was from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, a coastal town just east of Biloxi, a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College, a good swimmer, standout athlete, due back at school for football training on Monday. His best friend, Javon Williams, tried to get on the same boat, but it was at capacity. Javon took a different boat and met the group on the island. When they met up on the beach, Nolan told Javon, they loved him, you know? Love you, man.
So good to see you. That love camaraderie, the feeling you have with friends. 18 years old, 4th of July, standing on the sand with his best friend and he says those words. Hold on to it because it's gonna mean something different by the end, maybe. Nolan's friends say he was last seen around 3 p.m. He'd been talking to a young woman named Katie on the beach, allegedly. Around 4.30, the group left the island without him. The explanation came days after from Ashley Cole, the mother of one of the friends who posted on Facebook that the boat had a bilge pump issue and was taking on water. She said Nolan made a decision to stay on the island and return inland later with another group of friends. This I want to preface this in this piece here, okay? This is the current information as of this recording. Now, could you be watching this and more information has come out? Without a doubt. As of this recording, here's where the alleged, I don't want to say facts, but the allegations, I guess, at the stories, the alleged stories sit.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:27)
Okay?

**Tony Brueski** (4:29)
I need to stop here because this is where the story starts falling apart and I want to be clear about what we might be looking at here. I don't know. I don't know.
Could it be a conspiracy?

**SPEAKER_3** (4:41)
Maybe.

**Tony Brueski** (4:44)
Is this an organized criminal act? Probably not.
What it looks like to me? And look, I am fine with being wrong.
But my gut as of right now, it looks like a group of young people who let something happen or were involved in something that went wrong and panicked. And everything that's come out since looks exactly like what it looks like when people are more afraid of the consequences than they are sorry about the outcome. Could I be wrong? Yes. My opinion doesn't really matter. But when I'm looking at the facts, looking at this story, looking at it all, people who don't want to be accountable is what comes to my gut. Could it go darker? Could it go worse? Sure. I hope to God it doesn't. But if it does, we're going to hear it and we're going to talk about it. But as of this moment...