Law&Crime Sidebar - Nolan Wells Death: New GPS Data, Audio & Even More Questions

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

The investigation into the tragic death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells in Jackson County, Mississippi, has entered a critical new phase as prosecutors prepare to potentially present the case to a grand jury. Newly released GPS data and chilling dispatch audio from the boat have raised pressing questions about the timeline surrounding the young college football player's final hours. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber breaks down the latest evidence and what this grand jury review means for the case alongside criminal defense and civil rights attorney Tyler Bailey.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Make your summer wardrobe easier. Go to  https://quince.com/lawcrime for free shipping and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There will be a grand jury that she will turn this case over to once they have collected all the information. The investigation into the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells is picking up speed, as it's now being reported this case may be headed to a grand jury. Just as newly released GPS data and dispatch audio are raising new questions about what happened in Nolan's final hours. We're going to break it all down and what this could mean right now. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Okay, so we have to talk about a huge new phase that we're now entering in the investigation into the death of Nolan Wells. If you recall, 18-year-old college football player disappeared while outboating with friends on the July 4th weekend.

They were going to Horn Island. This is off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His body was found nearby two days after he vanished. Now, the family has met with the district attorney, and this investigation, it is now being reported, may be headed to a grand jury. If that is true, we are one step closer to possibly finding out who, if anyone, is responsible for Nolan's death or whether anyone committed any crimes in connection with this investigation. And to be clear, I'm not saying that's the case. But when you hear the reports that this may be going to a grand jury, that's what you have to be thinking, right? Because when you think of a grand jury and potential crimes, it could mean a whole host of things. But let's not forget, there is still a lot of mystery that needs to be solved here. Key pieces of the timeline seem to be still being debated. Some of the most important evidence hasn't been fully analyzed yet.

And we also, and maybe most importantly, we still do not know Nolan's official cause of death. We don't know when the results of the family's independent autopsy is going to be released. Last week, we were hoping to have that update for you on July 10th when the family's attorney, Ben Crump, said he'd initially expected to have the preliminary findings, but for now, we're still in the dark on them. Crump has said that flight cancellations are causing transport issues in getting Nolan's body to DC for that examination. And at the same time, there is no autopsy results that have been released as part of the official state investigation either at last. check, the toxicology reports are still pending. To be clear, by the way, last week, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter indicated there is no reason to suspect foul play. We have no reason to believe

that that conclusion or belief has changed. But as we know, investigations do develop. They evolve. And yes, we're learning some things. But here is another big update that we got to talk about. We have learned from Ben Crump, again, the family's attorney, that Nolan's phone will undergo a quote, mutual inspection, meaning both the state investigators and the family's own experts are going to analyze the phone. So that could potentially be a game changer here. It does raise questions about how this would work. It does raise questions about how the evidence is being processed. Does it contaminate the evidence in any way? How do you have this dual investigation? And I mean, the family reportedly believes that data may have been deleted from that phone.

So that raises an interesting question as well as why not? Nolan didn't have his phone. We've talked about the before. You're going into the water. Maybe you wouldn't have your phone. Maybe you leave it on board. But then again, if he was planning to go out and hang out with this girl as the reports have been, why wouldn't he have taken his phone?

So some interesting questions there. And we should also point out that the phone is currently in the hands of Crum's independent investigators. That's what the reporting suggests. And by the way, the family recovered Nolan's phone using the Life 360 app. and they have apparently had it since. And then we have this. This is big, too.

This is a big update. New details are emerging about the timeline surrounding Nolan's death. What do I mean? NBC News has obtained audio of what seems to be Nolan's friends calling for help when that boat that he was in was in trouble.

Listen to this. We're thinking, can y'all please come? And is everybody on board and good health otherwise? Yeah. Yeah, everybody talks about. So from that little bit and reporting by outlets like NBC News

in the New York Post, it seems that boat likely had seven people on board. The boat was having trouble at around 4 p.m. The boat operator reportedly said, hey, we're at the west tip of horn and our bilge pump stopped working. I want to get this boat unsank and towed back. That boat was reportedly towed for three miles. It picked up speed less than an hour later. We're actually going to talk about that a little bit more. And look, we also know from the Jackson County Sheriff, again, John Ledbetter, that Nolan did not come back on that boat. We don't know for certain if Nolan was on that boat during the call or if he was already off the boat at that point. But look, as far as we can tell, what we seem to know is that at some point between that call and 4.31 p.m., when the boat left,

it seems Nolan was no longer with them. So what happened in that window? And by the way, there was also this. There's also newly released information regarding GPS data tracking the boat's movements that day. So these little missing pieces of the timeline are starting to come together. we're going to talk about what the GPS data seems to show. This is all trying to go to answer the questions that the family has, right? That's all that matters. Can you answer the questions that the family has? Now, we're going to get into it all. I actually want to start with what we learned at this press conference about this grand jury. So Ben Crump announced that the family met with Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McGrath and arguably the biggest takeaway from that meeting came directly

from crumb. She shared with the family that there will be a grand jury that she will turn this case over to once they have collected all the information and finished their investigation. We also agreed that we will have a mutual inspection of the cell phone with our experts and their experts. Attorney Eric Hertz is helping leave the investigation team with former law enforcement experts who are going to help us with the cell phone download. So everybody would be able to see at the same time what the cell phone has. We also talked about trying to make sure we doubt every eye and cross every T. I know that we're getting about 50 calls a day to 100 calls a date from people who were there on Horn Island, people who are familiar with individuals that were there on Horn Island. And so we continue

to be steadfast in trying to get to the truth of why Nolan Wells is dead. Now, I got to be clear about something. This grand jury doesn't mean that they're charging someone, but it does seem to mean that the DA could present the evidence to a group that will decide whether charges should be brought. And it also becomes a question whether the DA would actually move forward with that. Look, as we previously discussed in this case, there's been a lot of misinformation that has been spreading online. You know, in our last episode, we addressed this viral video that has been circulating, the one that was initially believed to show Nolan in some sort of argument over his phone. But a friend of Nolan's later came forward to the media and said, it wasn't

Nolan in the video. It was him. He had this argument. And Ben Crump acknowledged that they're getting conflicting accounts. That's what a witness told us. And that's what we reported out. Then another witness that said, no, that was it for us. We have other witnesses said there were other altercations. So as Mr. Hurd said, we're trying to go through it all and so forth. And we'll be even more careful to say, this is what a witness told us in the future.

Now, we have audio people doing it, but we know certain people said it was him. And there's certain people said it was not him. So yeah, conflicting witness accounts. police are still searching for any images or videos unedited that could provide insight into what happened that day. And the family, again, is still waiting for answers while planning their son's funeral. Nolan's mother, Christine Wansley, spoke about what the family has been going through. Thank you so much. Just the outpouring of love, support. We've had some local officials. Mayor Casey Vaughan from Gosey has reached out to us. Oh, my gosh.

I can't even tell you. He has almost been every day. He's been texting to check on us. Also, Jeffrey Hullum, thank you so much. He's been texting pretty much every day. Receiving a lot of stories from Nolan's teachers, which just warms my heart, his classmates, teammates. So to help make sense of everything that we've been talking about,

I want to bring in Tyler Bailey, criminal defense attorney, civil rights attorney. So good to see you. Thanks for taking the time. I think this is the first you and I have talked about this case. And I want to start with arguably the biggest legal update, the grand jury, this idea that according to Ben Crum, right, that this may go to a grand jury once the investigation by the sheriff's office is complete. What do you think that would look like? I mean, what could the grand jury potentially be looking at here? What kind of evidence, what potential charges. Well, ideally, they should look at all relevant evidence here that could lead them to make a conclusion whether they believe there's enough probable cause for criminal charges

or not and not be a grand jury that spoon-fed particular information. And I think that's a big update because initially we know that the sheriff announced, I believe about a week ago, that they suspected no foul play. I do think this independent investigation, some of the pressure, has allowed the DA to come to a different conclusion where there seems to be a joint agreement that this is going to go to a grand jury. So it could be text messages. It could be the lack of text messages, could be cell phone data, it could be statements from different witnesses who can testify. In other words, you're saying anybody looks at that and looks at a headline, like, oh, my gosh, you're talking homicide charges, but not necessarily. It could be something with respect to the

investigation, like whether it's tampering with evidence or misleading police. I'm not saying those things happen, but that's what you're suggesting. Right. Anything that's a criminal charge pertaining to the disappearance and the death of this young man here could be a criminal charge. It could be obstruction to justice. All right, you can have some accessories after the fact. We don't know if it's going to be homicide and murder, but there could be some criminal charge that could come out of this. And I think that's all the family has been asking for it is a fair investigation so they can know the truth. Going to the idea of a homicide charge, look, it's difficult for me to say anything

about this because we don't have a lot of. of information. We don't have the cause of death. But we also have the reality that if someone is found in the water in that way, it may be difficult to know whether there was blunt force trauma. It may be difficult to know whether somebody was thrown in to the water or was drowned, right? I mean, those can be difficult for medical examiners to ultimately assess. What are potential homicide charges here? Is there a theory of a case where if they can't prove that someone killed Nolan, but that was negligent in some way. What are some potential theories that you could see a homicide-related charge with what happened to Nolan? Again, I know we're speculating here,

but I'm just trying to understand what we could maybe see, manslaughter, negligent homicide, murder, I don't know. Well, there's so much still we don't know, but we do know there was some statements about there being an argument, whether that was Nolan in the argument or somebody else. So we don't know if there was some sort of altercation or fight. There was no interrogations of by law enforcement of the individuals who were with him the day afterwards, right? There's been none of that we know of that law enforcement has questioned any of these people who are out there on this boat at the island with Nolan Well. So we don't know what happened, whether it was an argument, whether it was a fight, whether they knew that he was in a position where he could not swim and fit for himself in the water. So all that's the stuff that we don't know and hopefully from this independent investigation and hopefully from the Sheriff's Department, D.A. to get some more information, that can lead them to come to a definitive conclusion.

And to be clear, when we say we don't know, right, like there's been reporting and there's been one narrative put forward by people who are involved in this about speaking with law enforcement, but it's not like we got an official report or oppressor saying these people, X, Y, and Z were interviewed. This is what they said. they're not suspects. We're kind of reading between the lines a little bit. I just want to take a step back. Is it significant that the DA met with the family or the DA met with the family's lawyer? Is that common? Does that signify to you something? I mean, we're kind of jumping here and saying it's possible that evidence could be presented to a grand jury,

but it could very well not be presented to a grand jury. I'm curious how significant is it that the DA reportedly met with the family? This DA said that she commonly meets with families who have lost loved ones. That's one thing that she did say. But out of this where you have a sheriff that said there's no foul play initially, and then you have the family demand and independent investigation, and then you have a meeting between the family and along with the family's lawyer, that is very significant.

I think that shows that the public pressure and the national attention to this area of Mississippi has made the DA change some of the way she's addressing this by meeting with the victim's family and even coming to the extent of doing some joint things together with the victim's family and their attorney. That's not common in situations like this. What would it say to you if they don't impanel a grand jury, if they don't present evidence to a grand jury, or they do present evidence to a grand jury and the grand jury chooses not to indict? A, two parts of that. What would that signal to you? and B, would we know about any of that?

Grand jury proceedings are secretive. So there will be, for example, no media coverage of the grand jury. There's no defense lawyers are not allowed to be there. The victim's family attorney Ben Crump won't be able to be there. It'll be a prosecutor who's presenting the case to the grand jury that's been impaneled. If they declined in press charges, there will ultimately be questions. People may wonder whether this grand jury was spoon-fed information that would lead them to come to a conclusion. of there being no probable call for an arrest.

But I do believe if they do find that there's criminal charges out of the materials that are presented to them, it would affirm some of those suspicions that so many people have about how this has been handled and all the gaps that appear to be present in this investigation in the aftermath of Nolan's death. But it's potential that the DA could choose not to go to a grand jury, or even if the grand jury does indict, does the DA have a legal obligation to move forward with the case? prosecutors have prosecutory discretion so they do not have to go to the grand jury i believe it's my understanding that they have actually reached a joint agreement that this they will present some evidence to the grand jury one way or the other but the prosecutor can say well we decided not to do that we don't believe there's

anything so they have discretion to pursue charges not pursue charges present evidence to a grand jury or not how long typically timeline wise would it take a grand jury typically to reach your decision once a case is presented It really depends. It's no telling. It matters how many witnesses will be testifying before the grand jury, the amount of evidence that's going to be presented to them. So it's kind of too soon to speculate as to how long the grand jury would be impound on what they would hear. But I do think there's a couple of things that show that they may not even be there yet. The incident report, I believe, has not been given to the family yet. So usually those are available within 72 hours of the death or initial incident. The family has received the incident. report. There's still cell phone data that I believe that has to be collected from at least Nolan Wells' phone. So there still may be some time for grand jury is actually in panel. I want to go to this next part. I mentioned this earlier. NBC News obtained this audio of what appears to be Nolan's friends calling for help for the boat, right? The boat was apparently having problems. I want you to take a listen to this.

We're thinking. Can you all please come? And is everybody on board and good health otherwise? Yeah. Yeah, everybody talks about. Tyler, that's significant. That is a significant piece of this puzzle. What does that tell you that there is this reported call about the boat that by all accounts Nolan was on at some point? It's having problems. Caller says everybody's on board. Again, we don't know for certain whether Nolan was on board during that call, but again, I think that's significant that this is happening. What does it tell you? It's very significant. I mean, one, the statements that everybody is on board. And we don't know if no one was on board or

or not at the time is very significant, given that he did not arrive back home safely when that boat reached Doc later on that day. And he allegedly left or wanted to stay behind with a female that he met that day at that island on the lake. So it's very significant. The statements could either be one, if it's not true, of course, it's a lie that everybody was not on board, or if he was on board at the time this call was made, what happened after that? And if you're talking about now dispatch getting involved, there being a towing situation, I'm thinking more witnesses, more witnesses, eyewitnesses to what they saw about the boat or was involved. And by the way, let me go to this part. So CBS News obtained GPS data from the

Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and it tracks the boat's movement. So I want to walk through that timeline. This is information they say they obtained via records request. So it appears to suggest that this boat, this vessel left the dock at approximately 956 that morning, arrived at Horn Island at 1114. According to GPS data, the boat then reportedly left Horn Island at 431 that afternoon, returned to its original departure dock, then traveled into Fort Bayou at around 552 before returning to the dock at 606. Later that evening, the boat went into the Fort Bayou boat launch at 719, traveled overland, which would suggest that it was possibly towed by a vehicle to the owner's residence. And to just kind of put this into perspective, I believe Ben Crump

has claimed that Nolan was last seen on the island at 3 p.m. Tyler, what do you take away from this GPS data? If he was last seen on the island at 3 p.m. And they apparently, not only did they leave there, go to another area, then go to dock and get told, there's a lot that could have transpired between that time, especially putting that in conjunction with the text messages and Snapchat history that was allegedly deleted from his phone.

or missing from his phone. So there's a lot of time for people to get their stories straight, to talk to, maybe counsel or others about what needs to be the narrative when they arrive. Now, I'm speculating to a lot of this because we don't know. There has been no interrogation of these individuals. There have been no official statements that have been issued, but it's clear that there's been a significant period of time between the boat leaving, the last time no one was seen in this boat getting back to his original owner.

And look, it confirms or it seems to confirm, right, this boat left 431. We still have conflicting accounts about whether Nolan chose to stay behind or he was left behind. And this GPS day is going to be an important role, it seems. I will say this, this report, this MSDMR report also indicates that the boat's owner, his mother, and one other individual who is reportedly with Nolan on the day of this incident have cooperated with the investigation. What does that mean to you that they have cooperated? It means that they probably have been accessible to law enforcement, that they at least have their contact information, they're being responsive to law enforcement.

The question regarding cooperating is to what extent. Now, will they testify between a grand jury before a grand jury or will they have to plead the fifth before a grand jury? Just because they are cooperating does not mean they're all being completely forthcoming. We don't know to what extent their role is, what information that they have. They could be cooperating through counsel, which is nothing wrong with cooperating through counsel. But I think it at least shows that they aren't stonewalling the police and they're being accessible.

So let me go on to this other major development from this week's press conference. The family is now going to be allowed to inspect Nolan's phone alongside investigators. There's going to be this mutual inspection where both sides will see the contents at the same time. Tyler, is that unusual? Let's first start there. That's highly unusual. It's highly unusual that a victim's family, along with their attorney, would be allowed to participate with law enforcement and the inspection of a cell phone data that is really the crux, one of the crucial pieces of evidence with this case. I don't think that would have happened without a lot of the chatter going on around the country about how this investigation has transpired. And it shows there's some distrust between the family and law enforcement here. And from my understanding, there has been not the best communication with the DA and law enforcement and the family.

So the concession to allowing a joint inspection, I think, is an attempt from the government or the state here to try to regain some of that trust with the victim's family. And I thought it was also unusual if the reporting is true and if this is accurate that the family has been in possession of this. phone and hasn't turned it over to law enforcement yet. I mean, maybe that's not true, but this is what the reporting seems to suggest. I would again imagine that's a little unusual, but also how does this work? How does a mutual inspection work exactly? So there should be some forensic experts regarding data extraction present with the state, and also there would likely be an independent one that Mr. Crump's office has present, with the DA at the same time.

So that way, everybody can see it at the same time whether all data is being extracted, make sure nothing's being left behind. Because the big issue here is that the early announcement of no file play, the evidence of the cell phone that the family received, I believe a couple of days after Nolan went missing or the night of, I can't recall the exact time,

and then the missing of text messages and Snapchat data. And by allowing joint experts or joint data extraction at the same time, it's going to help the family feel comfortable knowing that all data is being looked at as not being piecemeal. Because oftentimes, I've seen cases where there's been a cell phone data that's been extracted, and the state says, oh, well, that's other information deleted. We can't get it. But that's not normal when you have, you can, a forensic expert can see what's been deleted, what's been altered in the data. Does this potentially present a legal evidentiary issue? If you have multiple hands on the phone, does that contaminate the evidence in some way?

If there is a case being presented against a defendant, couldn't a defense attorney really hone in on that and say, look, I mean, you have to exclude this evidence. There's a chain of custody issue. Or do you say, look, digital evidence is different. It's not like a piece of clothing, right? I mean, talk to me about that. The defense attorney may, depending on what happens here, let's say there are criminal charges. and they are ones of homicide or something that's very serious and substantial. And this case goes to trial.

The defense attorney would jump on that and likely try to have that data excluded. If anything, the chain of custody is going to have to reference the mutual presence of the victim, the victim being there, the victim's attorney being there along with their own experts. And the jury should be allowed to hear that. And they can make, they can weigh that evidence how they see sufficient. But if it's not excluded, it will be. certainly be an issue at a criminal trial that could weigh to, you know, whether the jury believes it's solid evidence or maybe it could have been influenced by the presence of the family. But I do

believe in the family and how they're addressing this with their own independent investigation, which I believe has even led to this, the grand jury possibly being paneled. None of that would have happened without the efforts that they've done. And I think it's appropriate for there to be a joint extraction for this circumstance. And look, You know, if messages were deleted, I think when you're talking about digital evidence, that can be pretty easy to show. I think it's also just because something's deleted, you may think it's gone, but it's in the ether.

It can be recovered. We cover those cases all the time. I do think the location of the phone is another key component about this, right? So the family has said that, first of all, it was unusual that Nolan would go off on his own, but also the idea that he would leave his phone behind, you know, what teenager puts their phone down. But then you have this friend of Nolans who told ABC News that, look, it's normal to leave phones on the boat. You're protecting them from the saltwater. He said all their friends were out there, that they were not communicating with anyone else. Or else would they talk to?

And he said that when Nolan got in the boat, he put his phone on the boat's dash, along with probably 15 other phones. How do you see it? That's not usual. I mean, even taking, for what we've heard that there was a young lady that he met named Katie and that he was interested in talking to her, you would think that he would want to be able to text her later on or getting contact with her later. I don't know many 18-year-olds who aren't glued to the hit to their phone. And even if they put their phone somewhere, if they're going to stay behind, they would definitely grab their phone. And so I think that seems suspicious, if anything.

I hear the friend's position on it, but it draws many people some ire and gets to the same conclusion of, that doesn't sound like the 18-year-olds, the 23-year-olds that we know. They like to have their phones on them and keep them close by. One more point I want to ask you about the autopsies, right? So we have two things going on here. We're waiting for the results of both, right? We're waiting for the state autopsy. It seems that they're waiting toxicology reports. But then the family is, by all accounts, trying to do this independent autopsy out in Washington, D.C. What should we be thinking about these potential dual examinations of Nolan? If there's a stark difference between the examinations, whether the state's examination leads to simply a drowning with no evidence of foul play or any strangulation or struggle versus a independent investigation from the family that shows otherwise, I think that makes, draw some suspicion.

I think that just from the history of how, unfortunately, things have been in the South historically. still that we deal with today. And the way this investigation has rolled out, the family felt the need to do their own independent investigation. I think the toxicology report is going to be telling as well, because if you're in the water and you have some alcohol in your system, it may be more difficult to swim and things of that nature. So the toxicology report is going to be very important.

And more information regarding the autopsy about his actual, how he actually, unfortunately, lost in life is going to be relevant for both sides, whether the state sees this as evidence of there being foul play or the family sees it as more so evidence of the state not doing a thorough investigation and being willing to pursue charges. I think I said it at the beginning. These are big developments. This is a critical time in this case. I just hope the family gets the answers that they're looking for and we'll stay on top of it. Tyler Bailey, thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it. Anytime. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please,

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