Friend Responds: A close friend under scrutiny by Nolan Wells’ family insists they never intended to leave the 18-year-old alone at the party
But Wells’ family doesn’t believe the accounts that he wanted to stay behind: “I know he wouldn’t do that … You’re lying to me,” his dad has said
One of Nolan Wells’ close friends is sharing his view on why the 18-year-old didn’t have a phone on him and split from his group before his disappearance amid a raucous Fourth of July party on a remote Mississippi island.
Wells’ parents have drawn national attention to his case — saying there are key unanswered questions about how their son, a beloved college student and athlete, ended up dead on Horn Island after traveling there by boat with friends for the holiday.
In particular, Wells’ parents have said they are perplexed that he somehow separated from his friends that day and didn’t have his phone, which his parents only retrieved from his friends back on the mainland once they reported him missing.
Warren Hudson was one of Wells’ friends with him that day. Like some other people on the island, he has attracted intense online scrutiny. Wells’ family has also singled out his friends, wondering what they know.
Hudson recently spoke with conservative commentator Brandon Tatum, known as The Officer Tatum, who has been publishing parts of the interview on YouTube.
In the latest installment, Hudson and Tatum traveled to Horn Island where Hudson recalled some of what happened at the party.
Hudson said that Wells — whom he described as a “best friend” and like a “brother” — was one of roughly two dozen friends who took three boats out to the island that morning to celebrate. They stopped on the northwest part of the island, where Wells’ body was found two days later.
“Everyone just got on the water,” Hudson told Tatum. “Then eventually, next thing you know, it’s our group and then next thing you know there’s 50 other people around us. And then it just grew and grew as the day came on.”
“Everybody’s drinking. I mean, it’s Fourth of July. Everyone’s just trying to enjoy themselves,” Hudson continued, “and it’s a big party, basically.”
Very few people who spent time with Wells that day, or were on the island at the same time, have spoken publicly amid an ongoing official investigation and an independent probe by Wells’ family.
Much also remains unclear about Wells’ final hours alive after he seemingly disappeared in plain sight.
“Somebody knows something,” his family’s attorney, Ben Crump, said earlier this week.
Those few people who have come forward have, like Hudson, described a bustling party of hundreds — if not thousands — of people on the undeveloped island which is a favorite local recreation spot in the summer.
Hudson (whom PEOPLE has not been able to reach for comment) told Tatum that Wells “was drinking” that day but “seemed completely fine every time I talked to him.”
He said that he spoke to Wells “a couple of times” over the course of the party but also spent a lot of time mingling with numerous other friends on the island.
The water around the island, Hudson said, could change depth quickly — from waist-deep to neck-deep — and he noted that there is a “very, very bad” current in the area, which some other locals have also said.
Wells didn’t have his phone with him when he went missing — another detail that his family has highlighted as concerning.
Hudson told Tatum that during the party it was typical for people to leave their phones in their boats to protect it from the ocean.
“I never saw someone in the water that day sitting with their phone in their hand scrolling on anything or even taking pictures in the water,” he said.
That afternoon, one of the boats that Wells’ friend group had traveled in experienced an issue with its bilge pump.
They called for help, according to records previously obtained by NBC News.
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Hudson told Tatum that the group wanted Wells to come back with them but he decided to stay — an account that his parents have sharply challenged as out of character. (Another friend on the island that day, Tracestin Shepherd, gave ABC News a similar account as Hudson.)
“I know he wouldn’t do that. I preached that to him every day … You’re lying to me,” Wells’ father, Elmore Wonsley, previously told TheGrio.
“We always taught him that if you go with a group, you stay with a group,” Wonsley said on Good Morning America earlier this month. “If you go with five, you come back with five. Do not separate from the group. Because I always said, ‘Safety is in numbers.’ ”
Hudson offered a different view.
“We were in emergency. The boat, we’re trying to save the boat. It’s not like we didn’t ask Nolan or we just left Nolan,” he maintained to Tatum. “Nolan decided to stay on the island with the girl that he was with. And the girl is a witness to that too.”
The young woman he’s referring to has not spoken publicly, though Wells’ mom has said she “did reach out to me initially, just saying basically like it was a ‘hey and bye’ type situation [meeting with Wells].”
It’s not yet known what happened to Wells after he was last publicly seen on the island on the afternoon of July 4.
That night, Wells’ family has said, Warren called them to say Wells was missing and his mom then called authorities. A search ensued.
Wells was found on the island on July 6. He was face down and wearing his swim trunks, according to some members of the search team.
Authorities initially said they didn’t see signs of foul play and thought Wells could have drowned. Wells’ family has criticized that as a rush to judgment without a thorough investigation.
They believe race could be a factor, given Mississippi’s fraught history.
Because Wells was not with his friends and didn’t have his phone, his parents suspect something more nefarious could have happened and been covered up.
They have also said it’s strange his phone didn’t have more content — like photos and messages — on it from that day.
As Wells’ family demands answers, law enforcement has gone quiet about their work. The results of the official investigation will be presented to a grand jury.
“I think it’s important we don’t put ourselves on a timetable, that we don’t rush ourselves,” the Jackson County sheriff, John Ledbetter, told ABC News. “But I do think it’s important to be diligent in gathering all the facts. That’s what the family deserves.”
An independent autopsy commissioned by Wells’ family did not find severe injuries on his body — but the examination had some major limitations, according to the forensic pathologist who conducted it, including the amount of decomposition the teen’s body had gone through.
The pathologist said he couldn’t rule out that “non-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death” and could not determine if there were signs of drowning, given that Wells’ organs and parts of his throat are still being examined by the official medical examiner. (Those results have not been released.)
The outside pathologist said a cause and manner of death could not be determined either, without further analysis and investigation.
“This has been a difficult journey. Losing a child, it truly breaks your heart,” Wells’ mom, Christine Wonsley, told reporters this week, remembering her son as a source of “joy and light and life to everyone.”
“The only question we have,” she said, “is what happened to our son?”
