Nolan Wells’ Friends Recall Last Interaction with the Teen at July 4 Party Before He Vanished and Was Found Dead
More than a month after Nolan Wells’ mysterious death following a July 4 party on a Mississippi island, some of his friends with him that day are sharing when they say they last saw him and what he said.
They’re also detailing the initial hours as loved ones searched for the 18-year-old Black student-athlete.
These friends’ account of Wells’ choosing to stay behind without them at the large gathering on Horn Island has drawn intense scrutiny from Wells’ parents, who called it unusual and out of character.
In a new interview this week, the friends expanded on their version of events.
“Nolan was like a brother to us,” Jax Pitalo insisted on The Officer Tatum Show.
Pitalo appeared on the show with Morgan Seymour and Warren Hudson, two other of Wells’ friends who were all together that July day.
Much remains unclear about Wells’ final hours alive, and his death is under both an official and independent investigation by his family.
The results of the state autopsy haven’t been released; an outside autopsy could not determine his cause of death or rule out foul play due to some key limitations with Wells’ body but did not find any severe injuries.
Wells was found on Horn Island on July 6. Law enforcement initially said they saw no signs of foul play and suspected he could have drowned in an area known for rip ties.
His parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, have questioned this and have reportedly threatened litigation against some of the party attendees as they fight for transparency, citing the state’s history of racial injustice.
Both Wells’ family and friends say they’ve been harassed and even received death threats as conspiracy theories fill a void created by the lack of answers.
“Nolan, we love you. We’ll continue to fight for you,” his mom said at his funeral on July 20, adding, “Your absence has left an emptiness that can never truly be filled, a piece of our hearts will always be missing.”
During the interview this week with conservative commentator Brandon Tatum, Pitalo and the other friends gave more of their accounts of July 4, echoing what Hudson has already said.
According to them, Wells met a young woman and decided to stay on the island and get a ride later with another boat while the others left on their boat after it began taking on water.
Wells, these friends say, let them leave even though he didn’t have his phone because he’d left it on the boat to keep it out of the water — another detail that his family says is strange.
“Wyatt [another friend] looked at Nolan, he was like, ‘Dude, come on. Boat’s taking on water. We got to go like right now,’ ” Pitalo recalled of what happened as they were leaving. “And Nolan didn’t want to go, he said he wanted to stay with the girl and Wyatt started yelling at him. He’s like, ‘Nolan, get on the boat now.’ ”
But Wells still said no and told his friends that he had another ride back, according to this account.
“We had no more time to waste,” said Pitalo. “We got to get the boat out of there before it goes under.”
Speaking with Tatum, the three also addressed an emergency towing call that was placed on the boat that was in trouble.
The audio, which is chaotic and garbled, has since been released by authorities and has added to the intense scrutiny of the case online.
Some observers believe Wells’ name can be heard in the call as well as statements like, “Oh my God.”
But his friends on Tatum’s show said that Wells was not on the boat as they made their way back. They said they were simply trying to get the vessel running again, with the help of another boat that was towing them.
Pitalo said that their friend Wyatt eventually hung up from speaking with the towing company for assistance after he became frustrated.
While Seymour had left on another boat, the other two and their friends were able to get their boat running again because the second vessel, operated by Bart Edmiston Jr., was able to tow it from the island.
Eventually they got the troubled boat “on plane,” allowing the water to be sucked off the back and working once again, they said.
As he’s said before, Hudson told Tatum that he was the person to call Wells’ mom late that night when, he said, they realized their friend was missing. Christine has separately given a similar account.
According to Hudson, there was no issue when Wells’ phone and keys were picked up later.
However, Wells’ dad, Elmore, recalled it differently in another interview this week, saying the friends’ behavior and statements made him skeptical from the start.
Speaking with Tatum, these friends described how tension escalated when a larger group of Wells’ friends and family began searching for him and asking questions while retrieving his belongings.
These friends said that the other group of searched the boat they had returned on and also visited Pitalo’s house twice to ask about what happened.
Pitalo told Tatum that he went to his room to “just lose it” for a few hours when he realized his friend was missing, only to later hear people in his home “asking where Nolan is.”
