New audio has been released in the investigation into the death of Nolan Wells, the 18-year-old Black football player whose body was found off Horn Island, Mississippi, after his mostly white group of July 4 friends returned to shore without him, and a retired FBI agent cited by Fox News has said the audio shows “nothing nefarious,” which is the assessment that directly challenges the narrative that Al Sharpton, Tyler Perry, Colin Kaepernick, and attorney Ben Crump have spent weeks constructing, funded by a combined $100,000 reward for new information.
Wells’s death produced one of the summer’s most intense civil rights mobilizations. Sharpton delivered the eulogy. Tyler Perry covered the funeral costs and offered $50,000 for new information. Sharpton matched it. Colin Kaepernick paid for an independent autopsy. Ben Crump, who has represented families in cases including George Floyd and Trayvon Martin, took the family as a client. The District Attorney committed to presenting the completed investigation to a grand jury. The family alleged that messages had been erased from Wells’s phone before they received it.
The retired FBI agent’s assessment that the new audio shows nothing nefarious does not resolve the case. It is one expert’s opinion about one piece of evidence in an investigation that remains open. The independent autopsy results have not been made public. The grand jury process has not concluded. The DA’s commitment to the process remains in place. The $100,000 reward remains active. None of these are settled by a retired FBI agent appearing on Fox News to characterize new audio.
Wells was 18. He was a wide receiver on the Southwest Mississippi Community College football team. He spent July 4 on a barrier island with a group of mostly white friends and did not come home. His parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, said they want “a thorough, honest, clean investigation.” A retired FBI agent has offered an assessment. The investigation continues.
When the audio shows nothing nefarious and the investigation is ongoing and the $100,000 reward is still active, what exactly is still being investigated?
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