Nolan Wells’ Family Retains Attorney Ben Crump After Teen Found Dead Following July 4 Boat Trip

The family of Nolan Xavier Wells, the 18-year-old who was found dead after a July 4 boat trip with a group of teens, has retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump amid controversy surrounding the boy’s disappearance and death. 

Wells’ body was found Monday near Horn Island, Mississippi, where he was last seen with a group of friends Saturday afternoon, the Associated Press reports.

“We will not rest until every fact about what happened to Nolan on Horn Island is brought into the light, and we call on investigators to pursue this case with the urgency and transparency this family deserves,” Crump said in a statement released Tuesday. 

Crump has also been retained by the family of the Mississippi 1-year-old who was shot and killed after a police officer began shooting at a moving car. 

The disappearance and subsequent death of Wells has sparked unrest in the Black community after the Black teen took a boat with three white friends to the island Saturday but didn’t come back with them later that afternoon. Wells was reported missing by his mother later that evening. A rescue team found his body the following morning, Newsweek reports. An autopsy report has yet to be released. 

Wells’ friends are reportedly cooperating with the investigation.

“From the people we’ve talked to, it sounds like he chose to stay on the island with the assumption that he was going to ride back to the mainland with someone else,” Ledbetter told The Associated Press.

Wells, who would have turned 19 next month, played wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College. Christine Wonsley, Wells’ mother, took to social media to ask for videos or any other documentation from the island.

“My heart is broken for our sweet son who was always willing to cheer and uplift others,” she said. “Nolan was a special soul, God took his time creating our son.”

See social media’s onoging reaction to the Wells case below.