Key Facts: The most important evidence, conflictin...

Both an independent and official autopsy are pending. Few details have been confirmed about either the official investigation or the parallel investigation being conducted by Wells’ family, which has raised more than $650,000.

Here are some key facts, discrepancies and questions in the case so far.

When was Nolan Wells last seen and what was he doing?

A community college student and football player in Jackson County, Miss., Nolan Wells had gone with some friends to Horn Island for a Fourth of July celebration — a party that had numerous people at it: Video from that day shows approximately 100 people in the sand and surf and Wells’ family’s attorney has said there were 200 gathered.

Wells took a boat with some friends, which was typical. His parents didn’t expect to hear from him that day during what they considered a “last hurrah” before he went back to school for football training.

According to Ashlee Cole, a local judge, her son Warren last saw Wells around 3 p.m. local time on the island that Saturday. Cole said Warren left about 4:30 p.m. because the boat he was on began taking on water and experiencing problems with its bilge pump.

Wells was photographed holding an alcoholic drink, and a friend has described the party as getting rowdier over time, though it’s not clear Wells himself was intoxicated.

“My understanding is that even though there was pictures of the boys drinking beer and stuff, Nolan’s blood alcohol level was not at an intoxicated level,” Brian Trascher, vice president and spokesman for the United Cajun Navy, which assisted in the search for Wells, has told PEOPLE.

How did Wells separate from his friends and why?

“Nolan made a decision to stay on the island and return inland later with another group of friends,” Cole said.

That account was echoed by another friend, and the Jackson County sheriff, John Ledbetter, has cited the same sort of statements.

Tracetin Shepherd, who said he is Wells’ friend and was on the island that day, told ABC News that Wells met a young woman and wanted to stay behind.

“They met that day and it’s kind of one of those things,” Shepherd said. “He did come off that day that he really did like her, but that was the only time they ever hung out.”

But Wells’ parents don’t accept that, calling it out-of-character, reckless behavior.

“We always taught him that if you go with a group, you stay with a group,” dad Elmore Wonsley said on Good Morning America. “If you go with five, you come back with five. Do not separate from the group. Because I always said, ‘Safety is in numbers.’ So he knew to stay with this group, so why would he split from the group? I don’t know.”

They consider this story evidence of something more troubling.

“When they said that, that automatically just — it turned me off but it turned on a question like, I know he wouldn’t do that. I preached that to him every day … You’re lying to me,” Elmore told TheGrio.

What about the witnesses on the island?

Very, very few of them have spoken publicly.

One friend, Shepherd, said it was because of the intense online scrutiny and even death threats they’ve received.

Some of the community members involved — like Cole, the judge — said they deleted their social media pages for the same reason.

Presumably, the people on the island are being interviewed by the sheriff, who has appealed to the public for any further leads.

“I think it’s important we don’t put ourselves on a timetable, that we don’t rush ourselves,” Ledbetter told ABC. “But I do think it’s important to be diligent in gathering all the facts. That’s what the family deserves.”

Wells’ family attorney, Ben Crump, has said their outside team has spoken with “dozens of witnesses,” too.

It’s not publicly known who all has been interviewed by authorities or Wells’ family and what they’ve said. Crump said they planned to speak with the young woman from the island, and Wells’ mom, Christine Wonsley, told TheGrio the woman “did reach out to me initially, just saying basically like it was a ‘hey and bye’ type situation.”

“I was like — that’s not what I’m getting from other people,” Christine said, calling it another example of the “inconsistencies” around her son’s death.

When and where did Wells die?

That’s not known.

One of his friends who was with him on the island, Warren (the son of Cole, a local chancery judge), called Wells’ mom on the night of the Fourth and she alerted law enforcement.

A search began in the ensuing hours. Wells’ body was found on July 6 on the island.

The sheriff initially indicated that Wells’ body did not have homicidal trauma and thus it seemed he had drowned.

But the coroner has told PEOPLE he will not speculate yet. The results of both the official and outside autopsies, including toxicology, haven’t been released.

What about Wells’ phone?

Shepherd, Wells’ friend, said Wells kept his phone inside the boat during the island party on July 4 so as not to get it wet while he was in the ocean.

Later, the phone remained there and Wells’ parents used a tracking app to locate it with a friend back on the mainland.

Wells’ parents consider him leaving his phone in the boat highly unusual and potentially a clue to something else. As their attorney said: What teenager puts their phone down?

They have also said it was odd to discover Wells’ phone didn’t include more messages, photos or videos from his outing with friends, which may have shed more light on what he did that day.

However, Shepherd offered a different view, telling ABC that it was normal to leave a phone in a boat to protect it during gatherings like the party: “All our friends are out there. Who are we communicating with? And we’re in salt water. We’re not in fresh water.”

What about the viral video and photo?

Crump, the Wells family’s attorney, has singled out both a video from the party on the island and a separate photo of Wells from a pool party back on the mainland.

In a social media repost, Crump suggested Wells could have returned home early on July 5, died later and then his body returned to Horn Island by July 6 — a timeline that now appears to be contradicted by other known facts, including when his parents say they were first told he was missing and found his phone.

Crump also said the viral video recorded Wells in an argument, but that was later disputed by Shepherd, who said it was him who was being recorded. (Crump later said that his team continues to receive tips and claims that Wells was in some kind of argument.)

The photo Crump circulated is also, per Rolling Stone, actually from June and not July 4.

And about the rip currents

Currents are dangerous and a very real problem on the Gulf Coast, including around the barrier islands where Wells was partying.

A teenage girl was reportedly hospitalized in critical condition on Dauphin Island, not far from Horn Island, in 2022 after being stuck in the water.

More broadly, drowning is a frequent public danger: More than 4,000 people unintentionally drown in the U.S. every year, according to the federal government. That’s more than 10 each day.

Has the Wells family uncovered anything?

Not that they’ve said yet, but their work continues in what their lawyer called a “ferocious search” for truth and justice.

They’ve had custody of Wells’ body for nearly a week along with his phone.

Crump told reporters that the case will be presented by officials to a grand jury — as part of the investigation, not necessarily as indication of suspicion of a crime — and that Wells’ cellphone would undergo “a mutual inspection” by experts for the family and the district attorney’s office.

Speaking with TheGrio, Wells’ mom had this message for parents of any young people who may know something more: “Don’t be scared to speak up.”