Rotten Mango - Drowning or Foul Play on Horn Island? Inside the Conflicting Stories in the Nolan Wells Case

Episode Date: August 1, 2026

July 6th, at the northwestern tip of Horn Island, a body washes ashore face down in the water.   It’s the body of a missing 18-year-old, college football player Nolan Wells who disappeared after taking a boat with friends to celebrate the Fourth of July.   Since then, there have been more questions than answers. Witnesses share vastly different accounts of what happened on the island with Nolan. Some of his friends shut down their social media, some opt to do interviews, and some quietly post tributes on Instagram.   But Nolan Wells’ loved ones are still looking for answers that investigators aren’t providing… Were there things on his phone that were deleted from the day he went missing? If he stayed behind on the island, why didn’t he have his phone or keys with him? And what’s with this circulating audio that netizens swear they can hear people shouting, ‘Nolan’s freaking dead!’         Full show notes available at RottenMangoPodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Batabing, baddaboo. People back in the day were quite dramatic. There's this old fisherman's diary where it reads like he's suddenly in a Christopher Nolan film. This is from back then. He writes in his little journal that he has just gotten to this island off the coast of Mississippi. And he writes that this island is, quote, dreary, sandy, wild, in hospitable spot. The wood abounds in mosquitoes, sandflies, and every insect that human flesh is food for. It's a tad bit dramatic, especially when you realize he's just writing about Horn Island in Mississippi.

He's not writing about some giant hunk of land in the middle of the ocean where those Agatha Christie books take place. This is just Horn Island. It's a remote barrier island about 10 miles off the coast of Mississippi, which a barrier island is essentially a deposit of sand. So that runs, it runs parallel to the mainland coast. Horn Island is technically part of the Gulf National Seashore. you can really only get to it by boat and probably a little bit of dedication. It's not a treacherous journey, but it's also not necessarily a tourist destination, meaning you're not going to have these ferries or tourist boats heading out to Horn Island

scheduled a few times a day so you can sea shell and take pictures. They don't necessarily do tours of Horn Island because they're not going to take you out to Horn Island because eventually, if you have a whole boat of tourist, eventually someone's going to need to pee and the entire island is unlawful. uninhabited. There's no bathrooms, there's no restaurants, businesses, nothing, nothing but cacti on an island. However, a lot of locals in Mississippi will ride their personal or they'll charter a boat out there. Anchor it near the shore. You can't even dock it. There's no dock. So you have to anchor your boat near the shore. Jump off your boat and kind of walk. Yeah, swim or walk, depending on how big your

boat is. You can't dock it. And they'll usually go to get drunk or party on the island. That's what the locals do. The island's dimensions get reconfigured every now and then, but it is a pretty, it's a pretty substantial piece of land, okay? As of today, the island is about 10 miles long, and the width of it, the longest point is like a little less than a mile. It's not huge, but it's not small. Yeah, yeah. There was a point where it was recorded to be much larger. It was about 17 miles long. It's shrinking. The island is shrinking. Also, it's moving. So as the current is wearing down on the eastern side. It deposits sand on the western side. So it's slowly moving. It's like shrinking and moving to the side. It's kind of interesting. But it is now the largest island

in the Mississippi-Alabama barrier chain. And it is also protected by the National Park Service. Meaning legally, you cannot go in there and build a bathroom. You can't bring in motorized equipment or build any sort of infrastructure on the island. Not that any of that will even matter come 2100 because it's said if sea levels continue to rise the majority of the island is going to be underwater by then. But the interesting thing about Horn Island is a lot of people, the locals, they treat it like a second home. It's been described to have these really white sandy shores. When you go out there, it's weirdly loud and silent. They describe it as all you hear all day, all night long are like the crashing wave noises, but then nothing else. So it's once you block out,

the wave noises, there's no other sound. The entire center of the island is filled with thick brush. It's just cacti, which is crazy because it's essentially a functional desert in the middle of the ocean. It's just cacti. And weirdly, there's alligators living on this island, which is alarming because alligators are freshwater predators. What are they doing in the middle of the ocean? But there's ponds, there's marshes in there. You don't really go in there as a local. You either camp, because camping is permitted. You either dock your boat and set up a tent. and camp on the shoreline, but you never really go in. It's just kind of, it's a lot.

But people treat it like a mini vacation, a second home, a party spot, and people have nothing but positive things and feelings towards Horn Island. Until July 6th of this year. At the northwestern tip of the island, a body washes ashore, face down in the water. This is the body of an 18-year-old. old boy, a college football player, Nolan Wells. This is the current ongoing case of Nolan Wells, where 18-year-old Nolan Wells had gone missing while out with his friends on a boat during the 4th of July. Two days later, his body is found in the water. And every single day since,

there have been more questions than there have been answers. Witnesses are reportedly sharing vastly different accounts of what happened on the island with Nolan. His friends that he was with that day have had varied public responses to his passing. Some have shut down their social media. Some have talked to media. Others have been quietly posting their tributes on Instagram. And because there's so many unanswered questions, like, were there things deleted on his phone the day that he went missing? Why didn't he have his phone on him? Why did his friends have his phone? There's so many questions. The internet has taken it upon themselves to come up with their best theories on what they believe happened to Nolan. But is that even helping the case?

This case has unfortunately become so divisive, so complicated on all fronts that it feels like it's only getting harder for the family to get the answers that they want. This is the current ongoing case of Nolan Wells, as well as all the internet theories about what happened to who, who's lying, and why. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support Nolan Wells GoFundMe to help assist his family and loved ones as they navigate his death investigation. episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mingo's team of dedicated researchers. We'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support.

As always, full show notes are available at Rotten Mingo Podcast.com. As we cover Nolan's death investigation, please know that this case is currently ongoing and developing as we speak. If there are any new updates, we will be sure to leave a pinned comment. But I also want to mention how current this case is, because very little about this case has been confirmed. We're going to be doing our best to separate distinguishable facts from fiction as well as try and navigate all the netizen discourse, but a few disclaimers for the online discourse.

There are lots of discussions from netizens surrounding race and potential race-based violence. These topics can be undeniably heavy, so please take a break if you need to. Additionally, all netizen opinions, speculations, allegations, and theories should not be treated as fact, but rather as potential context for the conversation surrounding the case and surrounding the investigation. statements and quotes may be condensed for brevity. And also, I do want to make it abundantly clear that not a single person has been implicated in Nolan Wells' death. This is an open investigation.

Nobody has been listed a person of interest. Nobody has been listed a suspect. Nobody has, at least to the knowledge of the public, there is no indication that a singular person or multiple specific individuals had committed any wrongdoing or played a role in his passing. So with that in mind, let's get started. The boat right back home from a party is usually a very niche feeling. I mean, it's getting dark. You're almost like flying on the water.

You see the docks. You see all the lights. You're trying to get there, but it's not like completely dark. So you're just enjoying the right back. It's much colder. Your skin is probably burnt from all the sun. So the cool wind feels nice. And it might even feel like a sobering feeling.

Not saying that someone has to be drunk, but I guess if you were it would also be sobering. People say the boat back from an island party is like a reinvigorating feeling. When you go to the island, when you go to the party, you're more excited. Maybe everybody's on their phones. Maybe everyone's playing music and taking pictures. On the way back, everyone's exhausted and it's the type of boat ride where they say it compels you to have these deep, introspective conversations about life and overly positive feelings about

the future. Fourth of July, one by one, the boats that were at Horn Island, Mississippi for the 4th of July weekend, they come back ashore to dock. And the island that everybody was on that just was so crowded is going to be pitched back. It's going to be dark. And one person is going to be left behind, Nolan Wells. And even if he could, he's not going to have a way to call for help, even if he could,

because his phone and his keys are not with him. They're in his friend's boat, the boat that he came onto Horn Island with, the boat that he did not leave Horn Island on, his phone is on there. Really? Yeah. Fourth of July weekend in Mississippi, like everywhere else is, well, everywhere else in the United States, is a very big, complicated ordeal. It's a function with one too many grilled hot dogs and your dog hiding in a blanket while your neighbor decides that their driveway is the perfect place to attempt to replicate the sound of a nuclear bomb using pretty much every single firework that they could purchase from the next state over because it's illegal in your state. but in Mississippi, Horn Island is the go-to spot for 4th of July weekend.

There's probably some estimates put it in the larger area of 4,000 people on the island throughout the day, whether that means simultaneously or that's just the incoming traffic throughout the day. It's unclear. Some people have put it closer to 200, but that seems like it's just one section of the island. I mean, this is still a 10-mile-long island, which I will say I was kind of, of confused where everyone uses the restroom because there's no way you're getting the anchor out and driving back to shore to use the facilities but nevertheless maybe some boats have bathrooms i don't know probably just in the bushes no yeah maybe or in the water i guess i don't know but

it's the land of the free if you will there's a few circulating videos from horn island on fourth of july and more on that later but people think just watching the videos it looks like a very american gathering. You see lots of boats with American flags. They're anchored near the island. There's about like three, four rows of boats. That's how many, that's how many people are there. So it's not even just one singular line of boats docked or anchored in the water. It's about three rows. They're lined up behind. So next to each other and then three rows. There are people waist deep in water. The people with the boats further back that have to park. So you see people all around. Like it's all around. I mean, There's people are on the boats.

People are next to their boats in the water. There's people in water where it's chin deep. There's people in water where it's waist deep. There's people near the shore. There's people not in the water completely on the island. People are playing music, swimming. It seems like a lot of the people know each other, but this is definitely not some organized private event

where everyone knows who's coming. It seems like a lot of big groups of friends were just like, let's go meet up there. And they all happen to be in the high school, college, maybe freshly out of college age group. I'm sure there's, I mean, this is not like a census, so I'm not entirely accurate, but that's the vibe it gives. It's like a bunch of people from college.

And then they all kind of know someone who knows someone. So that's how they're all interlinked. Some people run into more friends or friends of friends. Nolan and his three friends get on a boat and they make it out to Horn Island for 4th of July festivities. They get there pretty early, like 10.30 in the morning. Around 4.30 p.m., the boat that Nolan came to Horn Island. Island on leaves Horn Island with Nolan's phone and keys on board, but not Nolan.

It is not. 4.30 p.m.? Yeah. Is that early? It is early and there's a reason. Okay. Now, it's not until around 11 p.m. that night, Nolan's mom, Christine, gets a phone call from one of the friends Nolan was with that day, that Nolan is missing. Now, according to Christine, Nolan's mom, she's really confused by this.

She's, I mean, which understandably, she's like, what do you mean he's missing? Like he had told her what his plans were for Fourth of July, and now you're saying he's missing. I mean, it's unclear if Christine received all this information in this order that night. But eventually, the explanation she gets is the original boat friend group, the three guys Nolan came out on the boat with, they decided that they were going to head back to mainland around 4.30 p.m. So I guess the night is still young, right? Nolan is talking to this girl, Katie, on the island, who he just met. And he decides, this is what they say, right?

This is what Christine says they said. he decides that he's just going to stay on the island a bit longer to talk to this girl and maybe come back on a different boat. So their version of events, at least how it's been reported thus far, is that Nolan tells him that he's going to hang back with Katie and catch a ride with another group later. Apparently, they had other friends that were on the island with different boats. So maybe it's safe to say that it's not like, it's not like Nolan doesn't know a single person on the island and he's going to catch a ride with a stranger. It seems like if this is true, his intention was to catch a ride with someone he knows. According to Christine, Nolan's friends tell her that they don't know where Nolan is anymore. And they also don't know where the girl Katie is.

So it's like, do they know Katie? Not really. Do they know that person exist? Yes. Oh, okay. So they saw her. But then like, Christine is kind of confused. She's like, they're both missing.

Christine says the friends inform her, well, we don't even know who she is. Christina's, you know, she reports that she's very confused by this because she's kind of like, well, how do you not know where she is if you don't know who she is? None of this is really making sense. Katie is indeed not missing. She will be located, but Nolan will not be. Nolan is missing since 4th of July. Christine starts frantically posting on Facebook for everyone to help. She's trying to post pictures of Nolan of what he was last seen wearing so people can be on the lookout.

Go through their phones, which is a smart suggestion. She posts on Instagram, please continue to look through your photos and videos specifically starting around 4.30 p.m. We have received pictures around that time showing him walking on the beach. again, please only private message me if you have information. But the information that keeps coming out is confusing at best and maybe at times even conflicting. Nolan's parents will later retain a very famous attorney who points out that during this chaos, that the three original friends from the boat, we're going to call them the three boat friends, allegedly stated that Nolan said he wanted to stay back to hang out with this girl, Katie,

that he had just met. But Katie allegedly reportedly states that Nolan was telling her he's going to go back on boat. And this is all paraphrasing of what Attorney Krumb, Benjamin Krump, Nolan's family attorney has pointed out. He says, you know, they're not saying the same thing. One of them is telling the truth. One of them is not. We have to get to the bottom of that. Since Nolan's disappearance, they went through and searched the waters between Horn Island, Ship Island, another barrier island. They had to conduct aerial searches south towards the Chandelier Islands. And it's not until July 6th at 8.45 a.m., a park ranger that was searching the island, calls the alert in.

They find Nolan. He is reportedly found face down near the northwestern tip of Horn Island. When Nolan's body is found, the Jackson County coroner, it pretty early on tells CNN. There were no obvious signs of trauma on Nolan's body. This has then been interpreted as really there's no immediate signs of foul play that's suspected. So quickly, one of the first narratives to sprout from this case is, well, this must be then a case of accidental drowning if that's what the coroner is saying. You have a body of water, you have a body. It's a natural theory that people are going to consider.

However, however, a lot of netizens take issue with this whole drowning narrative. Because as of right now, aside from his body being found in a body of water, it has not been publicly determined that he drowned. Furthermore, I will say it is weird for the coroner to come out so soon in the investigation to say something that feels so definitive. And it's, you know, you don't typically have a lot of press and media shoving a mic down the corner's throat, being like, you got to tell us. I think out of everyone on the law enforcement front, the coroners get a lot of leeway with media and the public of no one is pressing their finger to the stove demanding they give us everything. Like you should completely finish your examination and then. Yeah, and it's very common that a lot of autopsy results are not released immediately because they do take weeks.

Lots of, it's forensic testing is, you know, it's exhaustive that they want to get everything done and test for all the possibilities. So it's kind of odd that he did come out so quickly to just be like, well, we don't think there's no obvious signs. So people are kind of thrown off by that. Like, why are you so quick to say that? And because I think he was so quick to say that, a lot of people started coming up with, okay, that means he drowned. But there's nothing to support the idea that he drowned. There's no evidence saying that he drowned. I'm not saying definitively he did not, but it's just weird that this is the thing that people initially were, it's just weird. It's weird. So a few things that stand out, not making a lot of sense, is the first being the parents have stated that Nolan is a college athlete.

He's a football player. He's very fit. He's athletic and he's a strong swimmer. They don't think that he could have drowned. I will note, I do think that that's a huge misconception that strong swimmers cannot drown or it is somehow harder for them to drown. I think if the current decides to take down, even someone like Michael Phelps, it will take him down.

Even in the calmest waters, people have been strong swimmers and they have still drowned. The ocean does not give really a formula or reason for how it behaves. However, I think maybe it's the family is trying to say that he is not the type to also go into certain areas of water. I think that would also make more sense. A park ranger that was searching the island called the Alertin. And it's not unusual for someone to drown and to be washed up in that area. Then another point of contention, which I personally think holds a bit more weight, is that if Nolan drowned, how did nobody see?

Again, if you see videos of this gathering, and that's not to say that, This is, you know, it was like this the entire time that Nolan was there. I wouldn't be able to tell you. But it seems like, it seems like a very populated area. Nobody's really swimming. No one's out here doing laps. Everyone's just kind of hanging out and waste deep water holding a beer can in one hand. And there's just chit chatting.

This isn't really the place or time for people to just go off by themselves. The whole point of this is it's a social event. If Nolan did in fact accidentally drown, did he drown by himself? Where was he? Why would he just be out in the water by him? himself. Yeah. Or are we to believe that maybe groups of people are so drunk and so distracted that a current

swept only Nolan away and nobody saw, but he was standing right there talking to them. Like, it's just, I'm trying to fathom, like, what scenario would he be taken by the current and nobody would see? Yeah, yeah. Because it's a social event. It's just weird. But more than that, people also feel it's odd that the authorities were so quick to kind of lean towards this narrative that it's an accidental drowning when it seems like they can't

confidently or won't confidently tell the public what they believe happened to Nolan. So if you don't really know what happened to him, why are you so quick to rule out foul play or to even insinuate your ruling out file play? Why are you so quick to publicly say something that shifts the narrative to that that this is a case of accidental drowning when you don't even really know what happened? But to a lot of people, this case does not feel like a clean-cut, tragic accidental drowning case. A lot of people think it's weird that his friends would just leave him on the island, even if he told them that he would catch a ride later. More people feel it's strange that Nolan didn't want his phone when he's going to be left on

the island without a guaranteed ride back. Again, it is an uninhabited island, but there is like spots of cell service that you can get. But also like it's 2026. Everyone has their phone. Even if there's no self service, I feel safer with my phone on me. Yeah, that's weird. The family and the family's attorney are alleging that witness statements aren't adding up, and there is, of course, this undercurrent of justified anxiety and doubt that's

forming in a lot of netizens, because Nolan was the only black friend on a boat with three white friends. He is, for whatever reason, left on this island, whether it was by his choice, his agreement, a lot of people still feel he was left. Nobody went to check up on him, like nobody made a confirmation that he was getting another ride. And those feelings are only getting stronger when it feels like the police are very like, it almost feels like they're trying to quickly wrap this case up, which is just a feeling that a lot of people have initially received. I will say the local authorities have been vocal

about how seriously they're taking this and how they plan on being diligent and taking as long as they need to figure out what happened to Nolan. But those types of statements come a little bit after the social media intensity. In the beginning, there is, and still now, a lot of growing public mistrust. It seems like the investigators don't have much information that makes sense. Nothing is really clear, at least to just people on the internet like us.

I would imagine that maybe the police are privy to a lot more information than us, but the timeline is confusing. Some say he was last seen at 3 p.m. Others were saying, well, no, I saw him at 4 p.m. It just seems messy, and it seems like there's not really a sense of urgency with the investigators, at least initially with this case. The family attorney, Attorney Crump, expresses frustration, probably at the direct. of the investigation. He says in an interview about this case, we don't know the level of cooperation the friends are engaging in because they have all retained attorneys. But when Nolan's

family and friends feel like, had the rules been reversed and that these had been three young black men and there was only one young white man and he ended up dead, that the investigation would be much more zealous, that there would be interrogations, they would be separated, they would be held for all kinds of crimes and misdemeanors until somebody started to talk that that would challenge the narrative that they had been presented. They all came back alive, and Nolan was washed up on the shore, unalive. Just because Nolan's three friends were white and Nolan was black, does not, that's not an implication of guilt.

That's not an implication of any wrongdoing at all. But I do think that a lot of people agree with the sentiment. It's not even really about his friends, but it's more so, yeah, if the roles were reversed, we probably would have a much more passionate, feverish, aggressive, aggressive, investigation into the three friends on the boat, which again, that's not me saying that they are guilty of anything. And the fact that this is happening in a southern state like Mississippi, it has piqued a lot of people's anxiety and suspicion that it likely stems from societal patterns, the history of racism in this country, as well as personal experiences, and some other cases

online. A lot of comparisons have been made with Nolan Wells' case and Tamla Horstford's case. If you guys remember, that was another southern case that took place in Coming, Georgia. she was the only black woman at a slumber party of football moms. And the case was notable because all the other individuals there were white. And it was a slumber party. They were playing cards against humanity, drinking, having a good time. And the next morning at 7.30 a.m. Tamla was found lying face down, motionless under the porch.

It was a 14 footfall. Witnesses state she got up at 2 a.m. to smoke a cigarette on the back porch. The case was officially closed and ruled an accidental death. but a lot of people online disagree with this finding. They think it's weird. She has all these blunt force injuries. Sure, they're saying it's from the 14 foot fall, but she also has these scratches and cuts on her face,

wrist, hand, lower legs. It just doesn't really add up. Now, I'm not saying that any individual at that party or that night is guilty of anything. Legally, they're not. I'm just saying the investigation leaves a lot to be desired. The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office states, it was a party.

They were drinking. She was drinking. Most of the partygoers had gone. to bed at that time. She was on the deck alone. Hardly seems like a satisfying answer to the case. There have also been comparisons drawn with Nolan Wells' case and Alec Murdoch's case, where a boat crashed in South Carolina killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach. The boat was owned by Alec Murdoch, who he wasn't on the boat, but his son Paul Murdoch was on the boat. The same Paul that would be found dead with Alec Murdoch's wife, Paul's mom, shot dead outside their house, which Alec Murdoch

was found guilty of. However, that conviction was overturned, and prosecutors are going to retry the case April of next year. So there's that. The online comparison of the two cases only gets stronger when one of the alleged boys on the boat, one of the three white friends that Nolan was with that day, when one of their mother speaks out on Facebook

and she happens to be a judge in the same district of the investigation. One of the boys' mom is a judge? Yes. Judge Ashley Cole has taken to Facebook the day after Nolan's body is found and she writes, Our family along with the community grieves the loss of Nolan Wells. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nolan's family. Our son Warren love Nolan dearly. Unfortunately, I feel that it is appropriate for our family to dispel some rumors with facts based upon the social media attention

that is being diverted away from the Wells family and their loss. Yes, I deactivated my Facebook. Given the very heightened emotional state of social media right now, I fear for the safety of my child and my children. My husband and I have six children and we covet their privacy. We do not believe it is appropriate for our minor children's photographs to be circulated throughout the internet, presenting potential threats to their safety. I graduated high school with Christine Wells Wansley. So Nolan's mom. We are from the same community.

I have the utmost respect for her in all the Wells family. We mourn the loss of Nolan with them. Our prayers have been and will continue to be with them. My husband and I were not at Horn Island at any point on 4th of July. No one in our family is trying in any way to impede with them. the investigation by law enforcement or to otherwise hamper the family and law enforcement's quest for answers. Warren was interviewed by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department and cooperated fully. He saw Nolan last at around 3 p.m. on July 4th. They went around 4.30 p.m. when the boat

was taking on water and they had an issue with the bilge pump. Nolan made a decision to stay on the island and return inland later with another group of friends. Yes, I am a judge. I also value transparency. I apologize if anyone was offended that I deleted my social media. There were no nefarious motivations in my deleting my social media. Social media has a lot of positives, but a whole lot of negatives. We live in a world of clickbaiting. Sad, but true. My family is hopeful that this information will help redirect the attention to the Wells family,

their grief, and their need for our community's support. Everyone seems to take her Facebook post and use it to bolster the theory that they believe the most. Some have taken it to the extreme. Judge Ashley Cole has posted screenshots of some of the graphic death threats she and her family have been receiving. She writes on Facebook that she will not be speaking. to press or media. She writes, we have not had the opportunity to speak with the Wells Wansley family or their attorney. However, we are willing to directly communicate with Attorney Benjamin Crump and the Wells Wonsley family. We will provide them with all the information known to us so their family can rest and properly mourn. We also want to know what happened to Nolan. We will do everything within our power to assist Nolan's family in their quest for answers. Interestingly, more recently, the only other post that she had was July 21st, she posts on Facebook, right is right, wrong is wrong.

Period. Yeah. My stance on this entire case is that Nolan Wells' family deserves answers, and they deserve to live in a world where they can fully trust their local law enforcement agencies to help them get those answers as quickly as possible. And again, that's not to say that the law enforcement agencies in this case are not doing their jobs, but we live in a society where there's already so much distrust placed there, especially for black individuals and families.

And Nolan's parents, they just want answers. And the way that this investigation first kicks off, I will say, I don't think it's, I don't think that they would have done the same thing if the rules were reversed. And I grew up in the South. If there was a case in my hometown where it was a white 18 year old college football player ends up dead after he hung out with a bunch of his black friends, that my hometown would have been turned upside down. They would be going door to door. Everyone's getting arrested. So I just, I think it's weird. I think it's weird and I think it's completely understandable that Nolan's parents feel like something is off about it. And they don't necessarily have the full hope and trust that the investigators are going to get them the answers they desperately need. They have stated multiple times that they feel like so many things are not adding up.

Nolan's parents have come out to state that he would never not go on the boat when his friends are leaving. Like he was always taught that if you go somewhere, with five people, you come back with five people. I mean, in this case, it's four, but you get what they're saying. Nolan's dad reiterates, he always taught Nolan, do not separate from the group. I always told him, safety is in numbers. So he knew to stay with his group. Why would he split from the group? I don't know. It's just one thing to note, though, is that some have argued he's not just staying behind in a random location downtown where he doesn't know anybody else. Technically, there are other friends on the island, friends of Nolan's. So I'm not sure if maybe that was a different

situation where Nolan felt like maybe I could go back with a different friend. Maybe that's why he could have felt comfortable staying on the island to talk and hang out with other people, but I don't know if that's the case. This case is also just incredibly tricky. I do find myself comparing it frequently to the Tamla Horseford case and feeling a lot of emotions based off of my own personal lived experiences. I do think asking questions and putting pressure on the investigators is perfectly warranted, if not welcomed. I do think that the majority of netizens feel that sentiment. They're just frustrated with the investigation.

They're frustrated with the investigators. They think it's weird. They think it's confusing. It just isn't sitting right with people. Had the investigators gone in full force, locked down everyone's statements, grilled everybody that was there that day, and they came forward to the public and said,

hey, we've got everyone's alibis. We're talking to everyone. This is the timeline of events. and we've confirmed the timeline of events, I don't think so many people would be turning their heads. A lot of the times investigators are trying to come forward and give like a very concise timeline. And they also do that for people to give more tips.

They're like, here's the timeline. Here's the time we think that he was last seen specifically here by these people last saw him. He was doing this. Like, please call us. I mean, they have been asking for tips, but it just they haven't done something where it feels, it's a lot of like media doing the work.

It's a lot of media getting people's statements and then coming up with their own timelines based off this person said this at 3 p.m. And they're at this person tracking boats, tracking people's movements. But it's not like the investigation is like, oh, let me tell you guys, everything we've done and we've cleared all these people through their alibis and this and like cell phone tower data. Like it's just. And as of recently, one of the boat friends has come out to do an interview with a YouTuber by the name of Officer Tatum. Warren shares his experiences with what it was like being Nolan's friend. And he says that they would go to Waffle House once a week together to eat. They've known each other since high school.

And now it seems like there are different colleges and they still hang out when they come home on the weekends. Warren states that going to Horn Island together for the 4th of July is super common. He says, quote, we went last year. Nolan was on the boat with me last year. I mean, this was a common thing. This is one of the three friends. Fourth of July, you know, everyone was out there. said, Nolan was always trying to go out on the boat, trying to go out there with us, and he was always welcome to come.

He explains that the boat trip was not just, oh, four guys on a boat. He describes it as, we had roughly 20, 30 people coming with us. So, we were on three separate boats. He describes it as they all met up, and the plan was all 20 to 30 of them. We're going to get on three separate boats and go to the island. So it's not just four people on a boat that's like, let's go to the island and see who else is there. Okay. He says, we were all following each other out there as one big group. It wasn't just me, Nolan, and a couple of my other buddies. There was 20 to 30 people spread out where we all met at the dock before. And then we departed to go to Horn Island.

Horn Island on the 4th of July is the most popular day to be on the water throughout the entire Gulf Coast. I mean, everybody and their mom is on the water on the 4th of July. There's no telling. I mean, roughly, probably 2, 3, maybe even 4,000 people out there. There were boats lined up on the island. There were three rows of boats all the way until my vision ended. we were parked on the north side of the west tip. It wasn't just there, though.

I mean, there were tons of people packed on the south side, on the east side, in the middle of the island. He says they got to the island 10.30 a.m. We pulled up 10.30. I mean, it was an early afternoon, but 1030 is still pretty early in the day. And when we got there, there was already three rows of boats lined up all the way. Like I said, until I could see. He says, there's people on boats grabbing drinks and food, whatever else. I mean, everybody's fully prepared for the 4th of July.

They bring all the drinks and food they need because they've been preparing for the 4th of July for a little while now. But when we got there, I helped my buddies tie the boats up because the, you know, the line was right here. The Palm Beach was, you know, in the middle. And then the titran, so he's talking about the other boats. It was on the other side. There was about a drop off from where the bow was.

I mean, he seems like he fishes a lot, so he knows a lot about boats. Like, he's really into boats. He was like, if you jumped off the bow, you were probably about neck deep in water. But if you jumped off the stern, you were probably. waist deep in water. So like the boat is anchored where there's a drop. I see. Right. But, you know, when we got there, we tied up, got boat and rear anchor set and we tied up all the boats, made sure that we were good. And everybody just got in the water. He says that Nolan was drinking. Everybody was drinking. They're all, it seems like a lot of them are not 21 yet. And I mean, Nolan seemed completely fine every time I talked to him. We just had regular conversations and Nolan was making me laugh. I had a couple conversations with Nolan and Jayvon. Nolan and my buddy James. I could tell you, I mean, I talked to Nolan a couple times, but it wasn't like I was strictly sitting there talking to Nolan the whole day.

I mean, there were like hundreds of people I knew out there. He says about leaving Nolan. He says, so Wyatt, which I guess is another friend, was having boat issues. And the bilge wouldn't pump. So the bilge is basically a pump that releases water from your boat when water comes in. So I opened the back hatch and there's water up to the batteries and that is obviously not good. There's water almost coming over, you know, which is where your motor sits, which is, you know, is by the stern in the back of the boat.

So obviously we were in emergency. We're trying to save the boat. It's not like we didn't ask Nolan or we just left Nolan. Nolan decided to stay on the island with the girl that he was with. And the girl is a witness to that too. He says that they were yelling at him to get on the boat, but Nolan said that he wanted to stay. Katie apparently texted a friend of theirs later in the chaos.

And she said that the last time she saw Nolan was when someone was yelling at him to get on the boat. Meaning what? He got on the boat? It seems like he didn't. But then other reports were saying that Katie said he got on the boat. We don't have Katie's statements. And I think that's another thing that the investigators are kind of dropping the ball on. So that statement you just said, where is that from? That's from Warren.

Warren is saying, like, we have proof that Katie, we were yelling at him get on the boat, but he didn't want to get on the boat. And then Katie told a friend that that was the last time. she saw him too. Yeah. So both parties say that they saw him last at yelling at him to get on the boat. It seems like it. But again, we can't be sure.

Right, right, right. Okay. Because, I mean, we didn't talk to these people. But also another thing is interesting is I think that would clear up a lot of the theories and rumors online if the investigators just straight up said, hey, so we talked to the girl that he was talking to. And she said he did or did not get on the boat. That's like a huge point of contention.

because if he got on that boat, the three boat friends have a lot of explaining to do. If he didn't get on the boat, then maybe a lot of other people on the island could potentially have a lot of explaining to do. Or this really is a case of accidental drowning. I mean, it just gets us closer. But because we don't even have a clear answer if he got on the boat or didn't get on the boat, it's like, well, now we feel like everyone's saying different things. Did he get on the boat or did he not get on the boat? Like, it's not that hard. Did he get on the boat or not?

Just give us the answer to that. It's why is that so difficult? I don't understand. He's saying that night they're all hanging out. So they get back at 4.30 and then I guess some other guys come back. And they're all hanging out. And Warren says they start talking about Nolan. And they're like, oh.

So you're saying they left at 430 because of the boat was breaking down? Yeah, they do send out a distress call too. Where they're like, the boat is sinking. But then eventually they don't like they don't really need a toe. I guess the boat fixed somehow or it got better. Okay. So they drove it. back to the other side and they're hanging out over there now.

Yeah. Okay. And then I guess other friends make their way from Horn Island back to where they're hanging out and everyone's like, wait, where's Nolan? They're like, wait, I thought Nolan was, I guess it seems like the conversation is more so, well, I guess Nolan, I thought Nolan was coming with you. I thought Nolan was coming with you, right? And so they're freaking out and Warren says, well, if nobody's seen Nolan and he's not,

like, I'm going to call Christine, his mom, and I'm going to call the Coast Guard. So he calls Christine and he's the friend that seemingly informs Christine that Nolan is missing. Warren? Yeah. And he also calls the Coast Guard, which is interesting that he calls the Coast Guard. So Officer Tatum even questions that and he's like, well, if you knew that he was with a girl, why did you call the Coast Guard? Because what if he's with the girl? I'm assuming he called the girl, no?

I don't know. It doesn't seem like it. It seems like Katie was texting them after the fact. Oh, so he didn't contact Katie. No, because they don't really know. Katie. Oh. So I think they found Katie like through friends of friends of friends or something. That seems like

what it's being insinuated and again, I have no answers for anything, okay? So Officer Tatum is like, well, why did you call the Coast Guard? And he's like, because I've like, I've lost people I know out at Horn Island to, from drowning. And he's like, I'd rather be the guy that does too much and calls the Coast Guard

than not. And it is interesting. So some people think that the way that he talks about boats and fishing, he seems like very well versed in boating. He also emphasizes a lot of, I guess, boating safety quite frequently. So some people believe that's the right call. Like if you're in that life where you're fishing all the time, on a boat all the time, on the water all the time, you call the coast guard. You're not taking chances. Other people are saying, it's weird that you call the coast guard

right away. Interesting. As we're editing this, there's just been a bunch of updates. And I just wanted to come in here and fill you guys in because I think the full context is super important here. For the sake of full transparency of when these episodes are filmed, when the audio podcast goes live, when the video podcast goes live, this audio podcast on the podcast feeds is probably going to go live in like a few hours, like the minute that we're done editing this. However, the video takes a little bit longer, so that's going to be like another two days for the video to go live.

If there's any updates from when the audio is posted to when the video is posted, we're going to leave that in the pinned comments on YouTube. Just keep a reminder of that. there's been a lot of updates. It felt like for a long time there were no updates, and then all of a sudden they start rolling out, and there's just a lot of discourse we need to cover. So let's get into the distress call.

Originally, when we were talking about the distress call, it just came out as, hey, there was a problem with the boat. Judge Ashley Cole even mentioned it in her Facebook post later. There seems to be something with like the bilge pump, the boats taking in water. Warren does a whole podcast episode on Officer Tatum's YouTube channel about it, and there was clearly some sort of story with the boat being in distress.

Like at that point, there were conversations that there was a phone call made to possibly get towed. It was confusing whether or not the boat was actually towed or not. However, the full phone call of the boat calling in a distress call has been released, or at least what I think is the full phone call.

So I'm just going to try to be as up to date in the reporting and all of this. We're going to go in full depth onto the phone call and what people think they hear from the phone call. and it was released by WLOX News. This is a local Mississippi Gulf Coast news station, and the published audio recording of the phone call was made to the C-toe dispatch on July 4th.

It's made presumably by the teenagers on the boat that had originally brought Nolan to Horn Island earlier that day, but then left, they say, preemptively, because the boat was taking on water because of the bilge pump. Before we go over the contents of the phone call, I just want to be clear about the legitimacy of this call, because even that has been called into question. WLOX News did report that they got the recording

from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. What is WLOX? It's like a local news station. Okay, okay. So this is like a, I don't know if I would go as far to call them like legacy media, but it's a huge news station, right? And so they said that they got it from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. Now, had someone like TMZ said that they got it from MDMR,

I don't know, maybe some people would be more or less inclined to believe it, But with WLOX, I will say I am inclined to trust that the MDMR did. Do you say people were more inclined to believe if TMZ posted it? Would be more inclined to question the authenticity of where they got it, right? But I mean, WLOX, if they were just flat out lying about this, the journalistic consequences would be pretty grave. However, I will just note, MDMR has not officially come out and said that they did release this phone call. So this news station said they got it from this marine people in that. But okay, so it's directly reported from this news station local.

Yes, but there's just a lot of, some people are calling into question the authenticity. Some people are, it gets more and more complicated as we go on. But this is just like the first layer. Now, as far as we know, this is an eight minute, 50 second audio recording. And just to give any clarifications just in case, I think this definitely is a case where it is panic and So I think, you know, a lot of things, we just get a little bit more emotionally riled up with this case. There are going to be moments of just pure silence in this original or like as original as we're going to get audio. And that is for the purpose of redactions to protect private numbers like phone numbers.

So I didn't see any redacted moments of silence where they shouldn't be. So far from the context, it seems that they all line up with phone numbers. Now, another thing we can confirm about this call is there are no reports from investigators, identifying which teen exactly was the caller. The internet has their suspicions that the caller may be a teen named Wyatt because it seems he's the one, you know, context clues, deduction. He seems to be the one that owns the boat or his family owns the boat, but it has technically been unconfirmed as of right now. So why is this distress call notable? Well, first, the call was kind of just general confirmation that the teens who were with Nolan that day did seem to have boat

issues, at least according to the call. There's suspicions whether or not that is real, though. If the problem is real or not. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, there is no official time of when the call was made that has been released to the public, but in short, some teenager on the boat called C-toe Dispatch, they report the situation, they say that the boat is taking on water. They say that there's about seven people aboard, and the whole like seven people on board is, it is weird. Like, the phone conversation about it is kind of strange. They provide their coordinates or their alleged coordinates, so some netizens say. And ultimately, once the teens hang up, the dispatcher calls her captain. Okay, so the dispatcher is probably on land somewhere. And she's taking these calls.

Her name is Vicky. And she's, you know, taking calls from a bunch of people. And then she has to call the captain. And if the captain needs to tow someone, it's the captain that goes out. Oh, I see. And that is recorded as well. So Vicki calls her captain, who is just like her boss. right and she reports this distress call and the captain is recorded telling Vicky the dispatcher well I just got off the phone with like the grandfather of the teenager that called you. At the same time.

We don't know how much time has passed but I would imagine that Vicky called him immediately. Yeah, it's urgent. Yeah. And he says the grandfather said they have the situation under control and did not need towing. So that's, you know, ultimately as we know, C-toe confirmed that they never towed the boat.

So the grandfather wasn't at the island No And so the kids called the grandfather too Yes But that's okay How is that in the time frame The bow got fixed That's what okay

That I also think is weird Because I mean I've listened to this audio So many times I couldn't really put together Someone else in the background Having a phone conversation With the grandfather Yeah

The caller that called the C-toe dispatch Didn't appear to be having a conversation On a separate phone line Or maybe he was texting I really don't know Like, I don't know. Or maybe somebody else was and we just can't hear it. Okay.

So it's unclear. Now, the enhanced versions of the audio have started catching fire online. Some netizens are wondering, you know, why if the teens called a seat tow? Why hasn't the audio from the phone call between the captain and the grandfather been released? Now, this is where it gets interesting because people are like, well, it wouldn't be released if it were a private phone conversation. So when you call dispatch and when disbatch and when disqualify, you're, dispatches calling her captain and all of these things, these are automatically recorded. But let's say, I, a regular civilian, am calling another civilian who happens to be a captain on the job

on his private phone number, it's not going to be recorded automatically. Meaning maybe they had a conversation on personal cell phones and not through the dispatch lines, which then brings up questions for netizens of like, how connected are the families of the teens who were with Nolan on Horn Island? Now, merely being well-connected does not have any sort of implication of guilt. I will say that. But obviously for a case like this, it's a huge question that netizens want answered. They want it answered in the sense of, did that connection play a role in any sort of investigation into this case? Again, not saying that somebody is guilty just because they're well-connected, but they just want to know.

People want to know. People want answers. That's it. Like, they just want answers for Nolan's family. and Nolan's family desperately want answers for their process of grieving and for the memory of their son as well. Now, I will say on the flip side,

this could be explained by a simple explanation of all members with Cito have a private line to the captain. Because I know there's lots of memberships where you do get private lines. Or even with like, some people are bringing up like concierge doctors. You get a private line to the doctor.

You don't go through like the wait room and the, you know, the receptionist desk. But again, I guess that would also point to Are they super well connected, which again, is not an indication of guilt, but like people are just wondering. I just don't understand how the boat was sinking. And then not sinking? And then it was good. So there's, I also thought it was really weird.

Now, some people could say my feeling of weird stems from the fact that I have no experience on boats. But they said that they did eventually get towed by a third party for a short period. Apparently, they were saying, like, if you're getting towed on the water, water starts coming out of the boat, whether it's the moving at a certain speed, it forces water out of the boat. But it seems like they were standing kind of still and the boat was taking on water.

A nearby boat came, helped tow them a little bit. How do we know this? It's in the report later. Yeah. So like that's what they're saying. But then again, with even things like the report, people are saying, well, it's he said, she said. I guess everyone is, you know,

there's a lot of skepticism of every aspect of this. case. The skepticism is made even more clear when netizens start to isolate and enhance the audio to see if they can decipher the background shouting happening on the caller's side. And what they believe they have deciphered is netizens, well, some netizens believe in the background, you can hear the teens shouting and people believe they hear things that implicate the teenagers. Obviously, as of right now, this is unconfirmed, and unconfirmed just means unconfirmed. by authorities, right, and unconfirmed by the parties on the boat. It doesn't really mean anything other than that. These are unconfirmed. These are just netizens speculations. We will go

over the enhanced audio and evaluate the legitimacy, but I do want to share. I think if you have not listened to this audio, it would be incredibly valuable to listen without any sort of context. You don't even have to listen to the enhanced version of the audio to isolate the background. of this call. You can do it yourself. So that was a huge point of contention. People have been coming out and saying, look, I've isolated the voices, I've taken away the background music, I've done these, I've tried to enhance the audio. Some people are saying, well, if you used AI, of course it could alter things and AI likes to hallucinate. You can do this by yourself. No AI, no isolation tools, no final cut pro, no editing software. If you go to the audio, as is,

posted by WLOX News, which I'm going to link in our show notes, they have left it. as a dual channel, like two channels. So you just need a pair of earbuds. If you have your left ear button, you can hear the dispatch in the background music. If you have your right ear button, you just hear the callers. So you just hear the teenagers on the boat. Okay. Obviously, if you have both, you hear the full conversation.

But if you just keep one ear button, it's basically isolated. Now, it's not enhanced where you cut away the background noises of like the water and stuff. But I don't necessarily know if you need that because people are hearing things. without isolating anything. And again, before I tell you what people think they are hearing, I think you should listen for yourself because there is a lot of conditioning that can happen. And I've dealt with this when we go through like body cam footage

and this is a huge point of conversation online. When you go through your body cam footage and you have a transcript you're matching it to, your ears are going to kind of try to make those connect. Even if those are not the words being said, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying this is something that happens to humans. Like we like to visually fill in the blanks

We like to audibly fill in the blanks So right now if you have not heard anything about this Listen and see what you hear I can connect you I'm thinking See tell assistant Vicki speaking How can I help you

Hey we're at the West tip of porn And our village Pops stopped working We're going We're sinking Can y'all please come We have a membership Oh, right, of course.

How far is the water coming up, sir? Can you give me a description? Ancles. Hello? Hey. Yes, how far is the water coming up, sir? It's coming up. We're just thinking, I don't know, like, we're going down there.

So dispatch Cito picks up, and she's like, Vicky speaking, how can I help you? This teenage boy is on the other line, and he's like, we're at the west tip of horn and our village pump stopped working. we're sinking, can you please come, we have a membership. Yeah, all right, of course. How far is the water coming up, sir? Can you give me a description? Ancles? Hello?

Now, I don't know if the teens are like frantically doing something in the background or if the cell service is not good, but they're not really paying attention to the phone call. Because he's like, what did you say? Yeah, hey, yes, how far is the water coming up, sir? It's coming up. We're just sinking. I don't know. We're going down there.

All right? Well, let's get you going. membership number or phone number listed on the account sir i don't know the phone number it's either redacted i think it's redacted try that all right i know we have a membership guaranteed i don't have the tag on me all right you have a membership number or anything uh it's okay i'll um get you over to the captain what's the best phone number to reach you at redacted all right and is everybody on board in good health otherwise yeah yeah everybody's oh good all right do you need the united states Coast Guard? What? Do you need the United States Coast Guard? No, we don't need that. Can I just like

take a moment and pause? Okay. So I'm sorry, this whole like editing mess has been a jumble in my head. But later on, one of the kids that was with Nolan that day on the island. And again, just me pointing out things that I personally think are weird are not me pointing the finger and insinuating guilt. It's just I myself in that situation would not behave in that way is all I'm saying. So he, for example, says that night when he realizes nobody brought Nolan back on any of their boats, it's dark outside. He said that he immediately called the Coast Guard just because he'd rather be safe than sorry. Now, I think this is a different individual than who is on the phone right now, but he did say that he was on the boat back when the village punt was not working. So Warren was

on the boat back. But I don't know if he's the one on the call. I don't think he is, right? But I just think it's interesting that you go from, well, you know what, get the Coast Guard just in case. You'd rather be safe than sorry. You'd always rather be safe than sorry. To all of a sudden, we're sinking, but we don't need the Coast Guard. Because, I mean, wouldn't you rather just be safe than sorry? Now, of course, you could factor in maybe these kids don't want to get in trouble by their parents. Maybe calling the Coast Guard, their parents would take away their boat. I really don't know. There could be other factors, but, and again, they're, I guess, 18, 19, who knows how old. I just thought it was weird. Yeah. All right, all right. Do you have your current GPS coordinates?

Let me go look. If not, I can send you a text. message. Oh, are you ready? Yes, sir. I'm available. North 70 degrees by 4672. All right. And you're breaking up a little bit. Can you just repeat it one more time to make sure I have it correct? Sorry? Hello? Can you hear me? Yeah, what? So you're breaking up. If you need assistance, do you have a VHF radio? No, we do not have VHF. All right. Well, let's try to get you going because you don't have good self-reception. Can you verify your coordinates one more time? Okay, my coordinates are 30 degrees. by 14.684 north and then west by 88 degrees by 46.79. It looks like you're on Horn Island, correct?

Are you on Horn Island? Yes. All right. Is the both sinking or you have it a ground? We are sinking, yes. Is it a ground is the question? No, we're not a ground. We are in 17 foot of water.

We're in 31 foot of water. All right, I have to ask. And what do you want to do? Do you want to be towed back? I want to get this boat and unsank and towed back, yes. All right. What would you like your tow to, sir? You can tow it to Ocean Springs, or Fort Bay you want.

All right. How many adults and children on board? No, there's no children. So is there anybody on board? How many adults, sir? That was the question. Hello, can you hear me? try to jump in and pull the plug while you're going.

So now it sounds like he's yelling at somebody else on the boat to pull the plug of the boat or something. Hello, sir. Hello? Yeah, I just need to answer a few questions so I can get you over to the captain. How many adults on board? There's zero adults on board. What? Yeah.

So it does seem like most of them are over the age of 18. Again, I don't know exactly who's on this boat right now. It has not been publicly confirmed exactly who in their ages, but it just, I don't know if they just don't categorize themselves as adults, but they also don't categorize themselves as kids. So I don't really know what's going on. Okay, it just doesn't make any sense. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the person on the call sounds slightly intoxicated, but that's just an opinion that I have. Okay. Now, there's nobody on board the boat?

No, nobody here is over the age of 21. Oh. So like I, that's also. Yeah, that is really weird to me because I've never. Yeah. 21. Well, clearly it sounds like they're asking how many people's on there. Mm-hmm.

But he emphasizes on nobody's over age of 21. Now people, some people think it's really weird and evasive. Other people think that this is just a bunch of bozo kids who are trying to get away with Andrej drinking and driving a boat. But like that also doesn't like, none of the. makes sense. Yeah. If you want to get away, you wouldn't even mention the age. Yeah. You would just say, okay, there are seven people on boat. Why? Anyways. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. So that was not the question. Is there a person? Now, this is the part where it's weird.

Like, I don't know if Vicky was maybe getting frustrated with the phone call or it's just very odd. And of course, in this situation, everyone has been nitpicking this sentence because it's weird. she says is there a person a living individual on the boat because i guess she's trying to get to the answer of how many individuals are on the boat he's like is there a person on the boat but is kind of what it yes but it's also kind of weird like the conversation is like when you read a really bad book with bizarre dialogue where they're not even having like i just don't know how to pinpoint usually i can pinpoint oh i think this person was trying to say this or they're getting frustrated but this one i'm like all of these answers are so weird like what do you mean

no one's over 21. And then she's like, is there anyone alive on the boat, which is also weird. If I were Vicky, I would just say, how many people, how many persons? One, two, three, like count. You know, instead of, is there people that are alive, living persons on the boat? It's kind of a weird question to ask as well. And again, weird question does not mean anything other than I just thought it was a weird question. He says, hello?

Is there a living person, someone breathing on the boat? Is there anybody on the boat? Yes, there's lots of people breathing on the boat, which is such a weird response, because I, again, if I heard that, I'd be like, what are you talking about? Everyone's breathing. What is this? What is this question? Right. There's seven people on the boat. Yeah. They're, okay. Yeah, the whole, this whole back and forth, I've listened to it so many times trying to pinpoint. Maybe this person's at this because of this, but it's just weird. The dispatch says, all right, how many people, sir? Like seven. All right. Thank you. does everyone have life jackets? I will say just another disclaimer. Maybe the self-service is really that bad. So, like, they, maybe we're just hearing a very clear version of it, but in real time they couldn't hear any of it.

Anyway, he verifies it's a triton, a 22-foot triton that is in sea flight, offshore sea flight hole that is sinking, taking on water, and she says, okay, I'm going to transfer you to the captain right now. So it does seem instant because she keeps them on hold. Yeah. So then she calls captain and the captain is like, this is Captain Seth. And she, okay, this is another thing that I also picked up, which was really weird. I actually haven't seen this in most cases outside of East Asia.

So like in the United States, when you call your captain or you call your boss, yeah, you're probably not going to talk to them like, hey, this is what fucking happened. Like you're probably not going to have that tone. You're going to have a professional tone. But she almost sounds like weirdly apologetic. I just thought it was weird. Okay. She's like, this is Zicky from International. How you doing today?

Doing good, how are you? Good, good. I apologize ahead of time. I really do. Which I think it's weird to apologize. That's his job. Anyway, you're going to have a fee for service come up under. Okay, it sounds like a bunch of kids on board on Horn Island. He's letting me know that his father's a member, but he can't give me any information. And he's saying the boat is sinking and he's on Horn Island. It's just unfortunate. He's just a kid. There's a lot going on. So he said there's a lot of people on board. He says he thinks he thinks, about seven, I'm guessing they're all under 18, and I'm not trying to be rude. He wants you guys to go out there and unpump the boat and then tow it in. I don't know how that's rude. Yeah, yeah, why is she apologizing for doing her job? The only context I was trying to pick up on is it seems like it was swamped because it was 4th of July and maybe the captain is getting agitated and maybe the captain is getting agitated by a bunch of drunk people on boats like causing a stir. Okay, okay. So I don't know, but it just, that's, not her fault either, but the whole dynamic was just kind of weird. Do you know what kind of boat it is?

Now, the captain, I will say, doesn't sound mean like or anything and Vicki doesn't sound weird either. It's just like, I thought the tone was interesting. Do you know what kind of boat it is? He said a Triton 24 footer, but that's all he can give me. Okay, all right, yeah. I actually just got off the phone with his grandpa, who I'm guessing is the owner of the boat. Yeah, he said I, I mean, literally, I just hung up with him. He said that they don't need any help right now, but if something changes, he'll call back. So I'm... That is crazy. So I'm guessing that they may have figured it out because that's what he said.

So they're in a panic and their boat won't crank. Yeah, they're in a panic. He's saying the village's not just not keeping up. I asked, you know, for Coast Guard, he said no, but he's just really upset on the back end. And I get it. It's a kid. He just doesn't understand. Okay.

Do you still have him on the line? Yeah, I still have him on the line. And again, he couldn't give me anything regarding his grandfather's membership. So it's just an under fee for service. Okay, all right. Yeah, I just talked to, if you want to, I mean, we're so tied up right now. We can't really do any non-member jobs right now. Is he a member? Did you find out if he was a member or not? Yeah, I'm not sure if it's his boat or what. I'm not sure what's going on with it. But yeah, transfer the kid over. I'll talk to him and then I'll call his grandpa back as well. All right. And did you want me to look up his membership number or anything like that? I know you guys are, you know, swamped. You can try his cell phone number. So he's giving grandpa's number, it seems. Yeah.

And he's like, did you get anything? And she's like, okay, yeah, hold on. Yes, he's an active member. And what kind of boat do they have on there? So he's trying to match the number with the boat because I guess, you know, if you're a member, but it's not your boat, whatever. She's like, yeah, yeah, he's one of the members, 22-foot Triton. All right, I'll just disregard this one. I'm going to send you over an accurate one under this one.

And he's one of your members. We'll get in a couple of minutes, okay? So she's probably sending some sort of member file. Okay, perfect. All right. And yeah, just transfer this kid over whenever you get the number. the chance. All right, transferring him now. Thank you again, Captain. And she goes back over to talk to the kids, but it seems like they're not responding. So she's just like, okay, well, they're not responding.

She's like, hello, are you there? Hello. And then she says, I will be disconnecting due to lack of response. Is there noises on the phone or is it silent? It's not like dead silent. It doesn't sound like it's an active line. The first layer of suspicion that a lot of netizens feel with this phone call is the layer that we discussed of the actual conversation that's happening between dispatch and the teenagers and the whole grandpa element. So again, people think it's weird that they don't want Coast Guard to come. People think it's weird that the grandpa is on the phone with the captain. Who's the grandpa to the captain? Do they know each other? People just think this whole situation is a little bit bizarre. They need towing. The boat is sinking. They need it unsank and towed,

but then all of a sudden they don't need a tow. But we don't know what's changed. So it just, that's the first layer of suspicion. Now, what really sends this call into orbit online is this enhanced audio version that began doing its rounds. These clips were processed and re-released by Janetta Brantley. She is an audio engineer in the entertainment industry who used isolation techniques. She has stated that she did not use any AI.

Now, Janetta first posted a clip from the beginning of the call to her social media and that's where it starts getting viral. One thing that I will note is that even though she does, request viewers to listen for themselves, the initial post got a lot of flack from other individuals because she added a transcript of what she believes she heard from the audio alongside the enhanced audio. So some people didn't like that because, you know, there are things like conditioning of your mind. It's called top-down listening effect or transcript priming. Your brain tries to match the unclear audio to the transcript that you are given. Now, normally, I don't know if I would

agree with this because I would like to think that we're smarter than that. But then after just watching so many body cam videos and trying to like match transcripts to a bunch of like court live stream footage, I will say it's it is hard. But I don't know if that's what's happening in this case. But because of that, a lot of people were upset saying like Janetta, you should have just released the audio enhanced version instead of telling everyone what you heard because now people can only hear what you heard. But again, if you haven't listened independently, I highly recommend you doing so now because we're about to go over the transcript that Janetta believes she heard in the enhanced audio.

And this is background. So this is someone behind the caller on the boat, but not the caller himself saying this, or allegedly saying this. This is what people think that they hear from the audio. Is someone in the background of the boat saying something along the lines of, can we cover it up? Yeah, I thought all about that. Oh, you killed him. He's already dead.

Is he dead? Yeah. Nolan. Oh my God, Nolan, wake up. Wyatt. Get, wake up. Get the fuck up. Damn it, Bart. No-no's really dead now. A lot of netizens who are already suspicious of the other teens present with Nolan pretty much believe that this is the smoking gun in this case. They're calling for arrests of the teens, their parents, perhaps even, you know, the Emmy or investigators that are involved in this case. But there are lots of netizens who are also very suspicious of the actual contents of the call that have. have been cited, a lot of other people are saying, well, it is weird, but we cannot confirm. So, you know, you have about like three groups of people, I would say. I will say a large group of people who believe and can hear this. And I will say, like, when I'm listening to it and I'm reading the transcript, I hear it. So I totally see that.

Like really clearly? Yes. But then, like, it's tricky because I'm like, okay, now I need to factor in top-down priming or whatever. But then, like, once I hear it, I can't unhear it. And then I try to listen to it over and over again. And then I'm like, okay, well, now I'm trying to unhear it. And it gets really weird.

And I would say it's just difficult. I think the first time listening to it without any transcript is probably the best. Now, there's a large group of people who hear it and they want the right people to be arrested, identified, and for justice to be served, which a lot of people agree with. If that is actually what's happening in the phone call, yeah, for sure, that needs to happen. Then you have a group in the middle where it's like, I heard it, but I don't know if I heard. right. I don't know if it's my ear playing tricks on me. Like, I don't know what's going on. I think that there should be further heavy investigations, but I don't know if that's exactly what I heard. I don't know who's saying it. It could be something else. Like, we don't know. And then you have another group of

people who are saying you could basically hear someone plotting JFK's assassination if you really wanted to because that's how little you can hear. So you've got this very wide range of speculations that are sweeping the internet. And some people have just made it a moment to attack Janetta, which I think is very bizarre. Some people accuse Janetta of lying, of releasing fake audio. I don't see why Janetta would lie, especially if there are any legal consequences, and especially if her career is going to be at stake. I just don't know why she would knowingly lie. Like, that doesn't make sense to me, but there are people just using it as a moment to be racist because Janetta is a black woman. And again, you don't have to go through Janetta's version.

if you're like, oh, well, maybe she has skin in the game, right? Like, you can just go through the version that WLOX posted on their YouTube channel and just listen with one ear button and decipher for yourself. But people have accused her of trying to start some sort of race war. I mean, that's just been like an accusation that's been very loosely thrown out to pretty much everyone that's been outspoken about this case, when in reality it just seems like a lot of people want answers. So that's been a whole thing.

So after that, Janetta posted a longer cut without a transcript alongside the post. But even that, I think, because how she audio enhanced it, lots of people are coming after her. So some people are saying, like, she's blowing the case wide open and investigators are going to come after her. Other people are saying, like, how do we know your process is real and accurate? Now we're just muddying the waters even more. Some netizens believe that the audio itself is damning. They say that you can hear someone say Nolan's freaking dead. Some netizens say that they even hear splashing as if something large is hitting the water.

Some netizens say that they can hear the caller say that there's seven people on the boat and someone appears or sounds like they're counting and it sounds like they're going up to eight, but then it's seven and, you know, that they accidentally counted Nolan. Netizens claim that the caller's denial of the Coast Guard is very suspicious and suggests that the call was simply a means to record an alibi. though netizens say the background noise exposed them for what they were really doing, trying to figure out how to throw Nolan's body overboard. Again, a lot of this is, you know, there are even netizens who say that the boat is sinking

and there's too much weight on the boat, so they threw Nolan overboard. You know, there's just a lot of rumors, a lot of speculations, and as of right now, it is conjecture based on what people hear when they listen to the audio clip. These are theories. They're unconfirmed, but a significant amount of netizens. have been talking about these theories. Some netizens are even suspicious saying that they believe they heard a female voice in the background, and they sounded older. Some people are saying it sounds like someone is video calling their mom then.

Others are saying it could be this person or that person. Others want the dispatcher of this call to be interviewed by authorities saying she is a witness. Now, I don't know exactly what they mean by the term witness. I do think that she should probably be interviewed. Yeah, I mean, I think she is an important. element. I don't know if she knew anything beyond just a dispatch call. Some people were accusing her of knowing because she heard these things and was helping to cover it up. I mean, there's just a lot of huge accusations being thrown out online. Others want actual forensic audio analysts who

review the enhanced and original audio. And some netizens are saying, I just can't make out anything. And that people just want to hear what they want to hear. I think the only undeniable part of this audio being released and the social media conversation around it is I do think that if the roles were reversed and if this was a young white man who drowned and not a young black man on a boat full of young black boys, I don't think there would be as much conversation online of you're just hearing what you want to hear. I think there would be probably a more streamlined online discourse of we need justice rather than like this whole fight about it almost. on the internet. That's really the only undeniable thing that has come out of this audio footage

as of right now. Now we're going to go back to the other elements of the case that was filmed a few days ago and at the very end of this audio podcast there's going to be more updates. In this interview, I mean, it's a series of interviews, again posted on the YouTuber officer Tatum's YouTube account, but people have a lot of mixed feelings about it. And I think that this interview didn't change anyone's feelings. I think people went in, believing one thing and this interview just reinforced their thought. So some people went in believing that these three original boat friends are being targeted by mobs when there's no evidence so far that they're involved.

And they say, look at him doing this interview. This is so forthcoming. This is, he's... What do you mean by targeted by mobs? It's actually become such a political conversation where people think that this is a racial some people are saying, well, don't bring race into it. Other people are arguing, how can you not bring race into it when a black boy is dead? And race is like the undercurrent of everything in the United States, especially criminal justice systems.

Like there is, you can't take race out of anything. Like it's impossible. And then some people are saying, well, because, you know, people want to make it about race, we're just going to target these three white boys, even though there's no evidence that they're involved. and they did lose a friend, and now they're getting sent death threats. And then other people are saying, well, that's not, it's just like a very, it's become very.

It's not actual mobs. You're saying the mobs of people, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's just very complicated. And so some people are saying, like, this is very admirable that he would come forward and do this because they're saying the original narrative was that he lawyered up. It was almost insinuating that these guys,

guys were not cooperating with law enforcement, but he's doing these podcast interviews, so it seems like perhaps he's trying to be as open and transparent as possible. Some people also believe that his demeanor comes off very trustworthy. I'm not certain. I don't think I can be the one to make a call on that. Then you have other people who came in, definitely a bit more suspicious of these friends. And one comment writes, how does he not shed one tier while he talks about his friend? Like, that's weird. You're saying this is such a close friend of yours. Others are saying, you're saying this is an example why so many lawyers would advise against doing interviews like this. Mother of holy hell, this was incredibly stupid. Why are they doing this?

A huge point of contention was that a lot of these friends had deleted their social medias and lawyered up. There are reports that they didn't show up to the funeral. And so, again, I think you come in with the idea that you want to have and I think this will bolster and reinforce that idea. So some people have come in and said, well, of course they deleted their social media, because instantly they're getting death threats and they want to be private. And the one part that I will agree with, I do think everyone should lawyer up before talking to police. Okay. I don't know if it's as applicable in this case, but I don't ever think lowering up when talking to police is a bad idea.

So there is that. Some people are saying, of course they would lawyer up. They should lawyer up. And then also not showing up to the funeral. The funeral was held at a point where, I mean, it, The conversation was already so big. The funeral itself was being live streamed. It's a massive funeral.

Some people are saying it makes sense that they wouldn't show up when it almost seems like the family's attorney have also kind of pointed fingers around. And maybe some of those fingers have indirectly landed on them. So why would they show up to the funeral? Others are saying it's really weird. You didn't show up to the funeral because if this is a friend that you loved so much, so dearly,

first of all, why did you leave him on the island? But second of all, you're not even going to show up to the funeral. And people are saying, if it were me and if it were my friend, I don't care if people think I'm guilty. I'm showing up to the goddamn funeral. Like, no one could stop me from showing up to that funeral. Other people are also saying something where this is, again, like I've, I'm typically never sold on the idea of not having an attorney present when being questioned

by the police. But I also agree with the sentiment of if it were my friend and if there is this whole race conversation that has, of course, inevitably happened, I probably would want to be grilled by the police so that they know, and so my friend's parents know, that that was not what happened. Right, right. So, you know, again, you come in with the idea that you already have,

and these things are just reinforcing everyone's idea that they already had. He does state that in the next day, so July 5th, he and his friends were all out there looking for Nolan on Horn Island. And he says about being interviewed. So the first time I talked to the police was July 7th. I talked to the lead investigator and I told him my whole story top to bottom, dotted every eye, across every T, I told them everything I knew, every little detail. I mean, everything I could tell them to try and figure something out.

And just to make it clear, I think right now there's lots of netizens sentiments, theories, and rumors. However, those are just feelings that people have based off of some interview clips as well as some of the things that we know about this case. There's no evidence that any of these people were involved or somehow implicated in someone else's passing. But I think it's weird that he was interviewed July 7th. I'm just saying 4th of July weekend, if someone goes missing, young college football player goes missing. Oh, you say, why is there a multiple day gap? Yeah. I mean, sure, his body wasn't found until July 6, but I feel like why are you not interviewing people that night before people have time?

Not saying that that's what happened. I'm not saying people took this time to do something nefarious, but why would you not question people, interview people, before they have technically, allegedly, the time to, like, get stories in order? And again, I'm not saying that that's what these kids did. I'm just saying, why are you interviewing them July 7th? There has also been a viral video circulating that attorney Ben Crump reposted on his social media that shows the 4th of July gathering on Horn Island.

And the video starts circulating because people are saying, listen, you can hear someone fighting in the background of this video and it sounds like Nolan. It sounds like a confrontation. Notizens who claim to have audio enhanced it say, it sounds like maybe, possibly, Nolan is maybe possibly saying, give me my freaking phone. What are you doing? Which, okay, like people are connecting. Well, if that's true and Nolan was without his phone when they found him,

maybe he got into some sort of altercation with the original boat friends that he came with. Is that a confrontation? Like, is that what happened and they left him without his phone or maybe something more nefarious happen? there is no proof of that, you know, or that this is even Nolan in the video or that's what's even being said. However, one of Nolan's friends has come on to Good Morning America

to state that he's actually the one in the video, not Nolan. Some guy started a fight with him and Nolan wasn't even involved. He tells ABC News, that's me yelling. There was no talk about a phone in that video. Some people believe the friend. Others do not. Some people think it's weird

that the friend is coming forward to say this because they're like, okay, everyone around Nolan, I will say it seems rough. A lot of them are getting a lot of social media backlash, death threats. But like, suddenly you have this guy who's like, oh, I'm his friend. By the way, that's not Nolan in it. Some people are saying it's weird. One of the boyfriend, too?

No. This is a different friend by the name of Tristan. And he continues to state, nobody would ever hurt Nolan in our friend group. We would die for him. We would do everything in our power for that guy. If he needed anything, we would do it. Nolan brought us all together. He also says, it's normal for everyone to leave their phones in the boats.

He says, all our friends are out there. Who are we communicating with? And we're in salt water. We're not in freshwater. When Nolan got in the water, he put his phone on the boat dash, also with probably 15 other phones. Tristan, who is biracial, says he feels like Benjamin Crump, the Wells family attorney,

is framing Nolan's death solely around race before the investigation has concluded. He says, quote, they're trying to spin a narrative that's not there. Everybody just relax and let everybody mourn the loss of Nolan. Let us remember him as the sweet guy he was and not something we're scared of. because of the trauma we've had.

Some people state it's odd that he would come forward just to say all these things. Others are saying, well, he's probably coming forward to say those things to dispel rumors and get investigators on the right track. Even this has become a huge point of contention. Nolan's parents have come out to state. So first of all, we don't know Tristan. We've never met him. So to say, you know, best friend, childhood friend, that's a bit of a stretch.

We've never met him. He's never been to our home. Maybe high school they started hanging out or kind of been around. each other, but again, we don't know him. And not to discount anything he has said, which of course, you know, we're still trying to rule out things. Benjamin Crump states, not only does Nolan's parents, but his friends, you know, they reject this notion that he said he would volunteer to stay. They're saying Nolan would never do that. So Nolan's friends are saying Tristan doesn't really know Nolan if he's saying Nolan volunteered to stay there. And we've had so many people calling

our call center saying that there was an argument. Then there was another argument 10 minutes later, but those people that I have called said Nolan was in an argument. And so now we have to continue to investigate to try and figure out everything that's happened. Attorney Crump reposting this footage, a lot of people are saying, well, he should. Because the investigators don't seem like they're getting answers. So we need to get answers. So he's amplifying this footage in connection to Nolan Wells' death so that maybe someone who was there knew something, heard something, and they can come forward. Or it gives more context or it gives the public an idea of what was happening that day.

Others are saying maybe it's not the best. best idea for an attorney to repost footage that is unverified, is highly speculative. It just seems like it could damage a lot of other people around who may not be involved at all. And then other people are saying, well, why do you care about who's being damaged when a young boy is dead? Is that really? Like we're scared of damaging reputations when a young boy is dead? That's the priority. So it's a lot of back and forth. But a lot of people around Nolan Wells seems to have received death threats. Tracin says that he's been receiving death threats ever since his interviews and he's no longer going to be talking about much of it online. Benjamin Crump, the attorney says,

it's just weird, basically. He's saying, quote, that's what a witness told us. That's what we put out. And then another witness has come forward and said, no, that was his voice. So saying it's like Nolan's voice in the footage. And we have other witnesses who said, there were other altercations. We're trying to go through it all. We have audio people doing it, but we know certain people said it was him, and there were certain people who said it was not him. So it's tricky, it's messy. It's likely further traumatizing Nolan's family. Who just want answers? Then a new video starts circulating by way of TMZ, and they say this is a video of Nolan around 2 p.m. that day. He's seen on the back of a boat shirtless. A few things to note from this video, the boat is anchored pretty deep,

so I guess it would be kind of tricky to get your phone, but I would. I would be kind of tricky to get your phone, but I would still probably get a wet bag or hold it above my head while I'm waddling ashore. But that's just me because I'm like, I'm so attached to my phone when it comes to like just being able to even call 911. I would just want my phone. But that's my personal feeling. I'm not saying that's what happened. That's not what people are focused on though. Some people are focused on the fact that he's shirtless. It was reported that he was found fully clothed. Now that report has been more or less debated. See, it's like everything is debated. We don't even know if he was found fully clothed or just with his swim trunks, okay? But that initial discrepancy started causing a lot of stir online again because he's in the video 2 p.m. shirtless,

but then some reports were saying he was found fully clothed. So he went back to the boat to get his shirt, but he didn't go back to the boat to get his phone. People are saying it's weird. None of this makes sense. Now, I will clarify again, another official with the group that found Nolan clarified with media that he was not found fully clothed, that he was found only wearing swim trunks. So I don't know where that even came. Because we don't have answers, we just have theories. Let's break down some of those theories. The first theory is that the original boat friends, that they don't make sense. The family says that they went through the phone's location history and they think that some of the information is just not adding up with what people have been telling them happened that day.

Also, there doesn't appear to be any Snapchat activity for the 24 hours prior to Nolan going missing. So all day of July 4th, there's no Snapchat activity. No saved Snapchat photos from 4th of July. They think it's weird because Nolan loves taking pictures. That's what the family is saying. So now he just decides that he's not going to take his phone with him, but also that he's not going to do anything on his phone all day. No saved photos.

Nothing. Nolan's mom states on Good Morning America. We went into his Snapchat. He had two accounts. Absolutely nothing. It wasn't even 24 hours, which is how long videos and pictures stay in on Snapchat. And I was just like, that can't be. I've seen Nolan.

Whenever he snaps, you know, when he goes and he's having fun, he does videos, there was absolutely nothing. No save videos. And even my sister was like, yeah, that's suspicious. Again, we don't know if anything was deleted or if this was a setting on Nolan's phone or if it was deleted purposefully. But if it was deleted purposefully, I mean, I would say that would mean that someone would have to answer to why they would do that.

The family want to have their own experts examine the device first before handing it over to law enforcement, which is an understandable measure. The biggest concern, however, is the chain of custody issues and somehow causing the phone to be inadmissible evidence in court. Not that I'm saying that there's going to be a trial, but Benjamin Cromp has come out to state. We also agreed that we would have a mutual inspection of the cell phone with our experts and the police's experts. So everybody will be able to see at the same time what the cell phone has. Another part that's interesting is that the family say the location data just doesn't add up with some of the things that they've said, like people have said that day. I don't know. They haven't really gone in depth specifically about what's not making sense.

However, I think it will be interesting for authorities to subpoena cell tower data or data from phone carriers because I think if it could possibly show if his movement was tracking on the island, moving around on the island. versus staying stationary on the boat. Those are different. And just based off other cases, that seems like a possible thing that they could do. Or another possibility is they could potentially track when phones were last unlocked, used, you know. That was my question.

So if they are able to get to that, that would be a huge break in the case. I think whether it's truly, or at least the right step in the direction of what this case truly is. Or what type of investigation this case is. One thing that gets a lot of people is really would he just leave his phone? That doesn't make sense. Some locals and some of Nolan's friends have come forward to say that it's actually the norm

to leave your phone on the boat when you go to Horn Island. I will note that the water is probably more waist deep, if not a little bit deeper from the videos that I could see if people anchoring the boats. So it's not a situation where you're going to be fully submerged. I imagine people are holding drinks in one hand. Maybe they're holding their phone. I don't know. But others have said, no.

You go to Horn Island, you leave your phone on the boat. It's just, it's not that. it's deep, but the water is murky. And they're saying, like, you're dropping your phone into seawater, you're not getting your phone back. It's not going to be okay. Also, who are you talking to? All your friends are on Horn Island. There's some reports that Nolan and many others were drinking on the island, so maybe Nolan

was so drunk that he didn't really even think about or care for his phone. But then that's also questionable why his friends would leave him when he's that intoxicated. Which is less about criminal liability, perhaps and more so a point about morals. But again, that's just my opinion. which that doesn't mean that Nolan was indeed intoxicated. There are no toxicology reports that have come back. That doesn't mean he was visibly intoxicated that a friend would notice or that the friends did notice and didn't say anything.

I'm just saying the theory, if true, opens up a whole new set of doors to a whole new set of problems. But even the original reasoning for his phone not being on his person doesn't make sense to Nolan's family and friends. They say, I don't know any 18-year-old if you go with their story that he said he was going to stay behind. I'm going to leave my cell phone behind. It's just not adding up.

One of his close friends starts telling CNN, I don't think Nolan would say, bro, I'm staying with this girl on the island. Y'all go ahead and go back. I've never known Nolan to stay back. Watch his friends leave. He's always been the guy where if he rode with you, he's going to come back with you.

And another thing that's odd about it is if Katie did say that the last time she spoke to Nolan was when the guys were yelling at her to get on the boat, it's kind of weird because he stayed back to talk to this girl and then they don't talk again? Yeah, yeah. That doesn't make sense. Like if he stayed back to talk to this girl and then the girl is like, yeah, I didn't see him after he told his friends he was going to stay back to talk to me.

And then we just stopped talking. Like, is that what we are to believe? Is that what that's insinuating? I don't know because I don't have the full statement. I don't even know if these are verified statements. Now, another theory from then is that maybe something could have happened on the island. If someone was already getting into altercations because that video, you know, the friend was like, oh, that's not Nolan, that's me. So he's saying a stranger was getting up in his face.

Oh, so there are other comfort. Yeah, maybe there was some sort of conflict with somebody else. It's not out of the realm of possibility that someone out there was looking to start picking a fight and decided to pick on Nolan for no reason, for no reason. Whether it be race or anything else, it could be anything at that point, right? I do feel like with this theory, the one thing that's confusing me is witnesses have been coming forward. I don't know if they have, I can't imagine someone wanting to shield some of. random drunk, belligerent guy picking a fight with Nolan if Nolan ends up missing and deceased. I feel like that would be a very quick lead that would occur very soon in the investigation.

Or at least we'd see some activity there. Maybe someone would report, my friend was questioned by the police about Nolan Wells' death, or like a friend of a friend I know, was questioned. Then another thing is, Attorney Crump stated pretty early on that Katie had said that she saw Nolan get on a boat and leave. now I don't know where this statement is from Attorney Crump later clarified that that statement was not made to him so I don't know where this statement if it's real if she said that I don't know right

but then another thing is how do we know which boat she's referring to if her statement is real so everyone's pointing the finger at the original three boat friends that came to the island with him but what if he was going on a what if he got on a boat back with other people And then of course there is the theory online that this was indeed just a tragic accident. People say the currents are bad.

One person from the United Cajun Navy that was involved in the search for Nolan says the water goes from two to three feet to 20 feet real quick. The national VP of the Cajun Navy, the team that found Nolan's body states, there's no evidence to suggest that he was dumped on an island and left for dead. The working theory is that he drowned. His body washed right back to where he was last seen. That tells me he didn't go that far out. The wind, the drift patterns, tell a story. I'm not a medical professional. I'm not a professional investigator.

I'm a search and rescue guy. As of right now, the investigation is ongoing, but it's still very complicated. Again, there's so much mistrust. Jackson County Sheriff's Office issued a public request asking anyone who had been on Horn Island that day to provide any photographs, videos, witness accounts. Attorney Crump says there's so many glaring contradictions, and that's why so many people all across America are chiming in saying, this is not adding up. I mean, you have them saying he was talking to a young lady, and she says,

said that he said, I'm going to go back on the boat with the boys. Well, the boys say, he said that, no, I'm going to stay with her. I mean, which is it? And then some people are saying there's just a lot of complicated things that are getting messier with all the voices that are getting involved with this case. For example, there was this whole ordeal with a pool photo that was posted. So July 5th, someone in Nolan's friend group posts a photo online of a bunch of people in a pool. and Nolan was one of those individuals in the pool. Now, because it was posted July 5th, a lot of internet netizens have come up with this new theory

that Nolan made it back to mainland. He actually came back, and then something nefarious happened to him, and then they took him back out to Horn Island and dumped his body. What's the context behind that photo? It's just... Just a post.

Like an old photo post? No, I think someone... Okay, so that photo is actually from June. 27th and I think that individual was probably just posting a bunch of photos. Maybe they hadn't realized that someone in the photo had gone missing and that just the timing, right? Rolling Stone did a whole look into the metadata for it and that photo was indeed from June, like earlier in June. Benjamin Crump had reposted that photo.

Benjamin Crump was asked about that photo and he later clarified, I didn't share the photo, I just reposted it. We're reposting everything. Let's make it clear. We're reposting everything because we're trying to get people to come in. and call. And so we've said from the beginning, we're in a ferocious search for the truth. And so things out there we're trying to post to ask people, do you know something about this? Let us know. Just because we repost does not mean that we authenticate anything.

So you have a lot of people saying, well, see, now you're just adding to conspiracy theories. And it's actually perhaps a little even reckless for an attorney to do these things. But then you have other people saying, well, if the investigators did their jobs, the attorneys wouldn't have to do this. Like it must be nice to come from that place where the attorneys don't have to do that. But in this situation, it doesn't seem like the investigators are doing their jobs.

So sorry, Benjamin Crump is not a certified investigator, but at least he's trying, at least he's trying to get answers. Could you say that about the investigators? So there's been a lot of divide, simply put. And with that divide, the coroner's office did a full autopsy,

and they have also the family, Nolan Wells' family, with the support of former NFL player Colin Kaepernick have sent Nolan Wells' body to an independent medical examiner in Washington, D.C. to do a second independent autopsy, which they have just revealed the reports for. So there were two autopsy done?

Yes. So the state's autopsy is not public. They're still working on it, and things like this do take a long time. But I guess they were done enough with their part. that they were able to send Nolan's body and have him transported to Washington, D.C. for the family's independent autopsy. Attorney Crump says, we have to respect his parents saying that we want an independent investigation

because we're not trusting people who are affiliated with Mississippi law enforcement. We have had too many lived experiences as black people in America. It's not adding up. It's simply not adding up. They have released the second autopsy's findings. They worked with Dr. Roger Mitchell, who is president of the National Medical Association, And there are a few notable things from the autopsy. So the most notable thing is there is red discoloration in the deep soft tissues

overlaying the occipital bones, which it's right here in the back of the head. It's like the back part of the skull, the bone in the back, right? One expert says the findings, that's the thing with autopsies again. A layperson cannot interpret the findings really well. It's really hard to read an autopsy and know what it means. Because the whole point of an autopsy is the least amount of conclusions are made. It's just fact-based confirmation of what is found. And then all of those combined, maybe they can be a cause of death, a manner of death,

but sometimes even that is hard. So the cause of death so far is non-conclusive, you know, undetermined, as well as the manner of death. We don't know about the state case, but for the independent autopsy. But with this, one expert says, it's hard. You know, the findings can be interpreted as there could be settling of blood from decomposition or from lividity, so the cooling of blood. They say that his body being transported to Washington, D.C. He would be laying on his back when he's transported. So the blood could be settling there during transport.

And after death, you can still have pooling of the blood in the dependent areas if the lividity is not fixed. Or even if it is fixed, you can have pooling. so it's difficult to say without seeing the actual reddened area and the deep soft tissues of the back of the head without further photographs or more information. He clarifies, could it be blunt force trauma? Yes. Could it be from something, from transport?

Yes. Hard to say at this point. So again, it's just, we don't know. That's the only thing? Yeah, that was the main thing. They also did not receive Nolan's neck structures. This actually caused a huge stir online because I think it's definitely, very um what does neck structure mean the like his hyoid bone the things inside of his neck um

i think when you just hear that it is very jarring to think that like why would they not give his neck structures if there's something in the next structures that could help them solve the case it's just weird right especially because strangulation any like manual pressure on the neck like that the neck structures are very important to figuring that out and that's a huge thing. It can easily become sensationalized, but Dr. Mitchell says he's not sure why the initial pathologist kept the neck structures,

but it's not uncommon to keep those body parts for additional testing if there are concerns of fractures or neck compression. So it is weird, but I guess the only silver lining of it is perhaps the coroner's office in Mississippi is trying to do a thorough due diligence and they're doing lots of different testing to see if something happened to the neck.

But because the independent autopsy could not test the neck structures, Dr. Mitchell says cannot rule out injury to the neck as a contributor or a cause of death. It's, you know, another expert says this is pretty common. That's often the problem with second autopsies. Structures are kept by the initial medical examiner for further testing or further evaluation. so the second autopsy is often limited by this. So the problem is the next structures we're talking about, the hyoid bone, thyroid cartilage,

the structures that are often involved with strangulation. They can be taken by a medical examiner, dissected, evaluated for fractures or injuries or something of that nature, but then they're kept. And they are also further evaluated by a forensic anthropologist who will look for micro fractures

and things like that to see if there's any trauma whatsoever. People have a lot of mixed feelings about even this autopsy, there's a group of people online that have been very vocal that this is traumatizing Nolan Wells' parents. They were there when Attorney Crump had a whole autopsy presentation where I guess he was breaking down the findings. Some people didn't like that an attorney was breaking down the findings. They had rather wished that it was Dr. Mitchell so that they could give very clear, concise information to the public. Because, I mean, at that point, once the second autopsy results were revealed, a lot of people were running with it, just kind of more so sensational. oh, they're hiding his neck.

Something happens in the neck. He has all this like trauma to his head, the back of the head, right? And I do think that that should be further clarified and further investigated and see what really happened. However, I think to simplify it and say there was trauma to the back of the head is causing a lot more harm to the family because we just don't know how it happened. And then you have other people saying, well, they have to do this because attention is what keeps a case. alive. It's what puts pressure on the investigators and the investigators should know that everyone's got their finger on their necks, like their foot on their necks. And then you have just another group of people, which I think I tend to agree with more is whatever the reason or the case may be, why the

family and the attorney felt compelled to do this, I think that in itself is the depressing thing. Like we live in a world where they feel like, I don't think anyone would want to do that. I don't think any family member parents would want their child's autopsy blown up and presented to the public and dissected bit by bit. But the fact that they're doing this before the investigators have done it is because they're just that desperate for answers. I think that's just the more depressing part. Nolan had his funeral. It was live streamed. There were lots of people in attendance.

I believe Tyler Perry helped fund the funeral pay for the funeral expenses. A lot of people, loved ones spoke up. It's just, it's kind of sad that Nolan's entire life has almost come down to this very divisive political conversation when he just had such a bright life. He did a podcast with his friends a year ago and it's just an episode where they're talking about their current experience in college football. And it's so evident that Nolan's life was dedicated to football. He talks about how his team had faced.

some losses recently. And it's just, he has a very tenacious spirit. He says, I really feel the further on during the season, it's going to really just make us better as a team overall, because we've been through the adversity. We've been through the hardship. So really just stay in the course, keep going, see what makes us a better team. It really starts showing. If you want it, you've got to go get it. He's a receiver. He says his favorite part is, I really just like it's the one-on-one matchup, scoring touchdowns, me versus you, yet that's what I really like about it. One of One of his friends writes a tribute on Instagram, in loving memory of Nolan Wells.

He says that he just keeps looking back on moments that made them, their whole friendship, and he says, The Daily Grind, Morning Rides to School, and post-practice trips home. The traditions are weekly Zaxby's runs and celebrating every victory side by side. The joy, you hanging out at the house,

filling the room with your corny jokes and unforgettable contagious laugh, you were too pure for this world. Nolan's high school football coach said he was a joy to coach. His college football coach in an interview says, I can't speak enough about the type of teammate that he was.

These players here, man, all the guys are heartbroken that were here last year. In his position meetings, the wide receivers, nobody will sit in his chair. Nolan says about football and when it gets difficult, he says, and I feel like it's just a learning curve for us, something we got to get through to get where we want to be.

Really just show perseverance, hard work, and really who won at the end of the day. He always wanted to play at Mississippi State. That's where his dad played, but he is at a different college. He was at a different college, and he said that he really likes the team. He says, it's like a brotherhood, school, community, classroom, everything,

like just really having love for your teammates. But again, it's just kind of, it's unfortunately in this, like, very depressing quest for Nolan's parents to get justice. I can see how this case has bloomed into something so big. Hopefully, at the end, it will be for the greater good and for the positive good. The FBI seems to be involved with assisting with forensic examinations of digital evidence. Investigators have collected during the investigation. The sheriff states, we have interviewed approximately 60 witnesses. Again, our investigation is ongoing and active. A side note from the future, there have been a few

updates that I want to go over briefly, including the new 15-page MDMR report. It doesn't really tell us much. It's not a smoking gun in any sense of the phrase. It's like if you asked your friend to borrow a book and they ripped out a random page in the book and gave it to you. You're not exactly getting answers. You're getting some context, but not really any answers. There has been new developments on the social media front of this case. In the 15-page MDMR report, a young man named Bart Edmiston Jr. was listed. He was piloting a separate. He was piloting a separate. boat when according to the report, he helped the Triton the boat with all the teens who made the sea toe call, right? That's the boat that Nolan went out on. BART's assistance has been cited as the

reason that the grandfather of the caller, the owner of the Triton, declined requests from help. Does that make sense? So the report is almost making it seem like the boy on the boat called the dispatch was like, we need a toe, we need a toe. And then they put him on hold. They also called the grandfather who owns the boat and then maybe this other boat with bart in it was sailing on by and was like here let me help you i'm right here hmm right how do they know this just so some bart said this is what happened okay now is that what bart said happened right wait but that doesn't make sense because if bart helped them fix the boat did it happen in like two seconds in the middle of those two calls because both of them were calling the the so so

The people who are inclined to believe that this is the complete and utter factual series of events, they believe that when dispatch put the guys on the boat on hold and was talking to the captain, that they were already calling the grandpa who owns the boat. Who's calling grandpa? Someone on the boat is calling the owner of the boat. Sure, of course. Otherwise, how would the grandpa know? You know, people kind of, they split into different.

groups. I've seen people online saying like the grandpa was on the phone with the captain and then his grandson. Like literally we don't have any proof of any of this like of the timelines. What exactly is listed in this report about Bart? He helped tow the boat. To the other side? Enough so that the water could get out of the boat. Is this happened? Did this happen before the grandpa told them not to come or after, right? It's saying that the reason the grandpa told them not to come is because Bart was going to help tow the boat. Oh, was going to. Yeah. So maybe he just showed up and it's not like Oh, I'm actively towing the boat, but it was like, hey, I'm going to help you tow the boat.

And then the grandpa was like, we don't need you guys. Who is part? A friend? Again, we don't know. Oh. Like, we don't know anything, really. That's what I'm telling you. It's like ripping a page out of a book and it's like, I don't know. And then even this, by the way, is a theory of people who believe that Nolan's death was an accidental drowning and not something nefarious.

So they think the timeline adds up and they're filling in the blanks. Just like how people who don't believe it's an accidental drowning are filling in the blanks because we don't have a lot of the information. that Nolan's family needs. Right. Okay. So like none of this, like I can't even tell you. Like if I just tell you exactly what all these verified reports and these things are saying, we get like nothing.

It's a whole bunch of nothing. Like nothing that makes any sense. Not that stories aren't adding up, but I'm just saying nothing makes sense in terms of a full timeline. Yes. A full picture of the series of events. Yes. The MDMR report says the timestamps of the Triton's data.

I also feel like, you know, there are so much data now. There's phone. There's phone calls. There's search histories. There's GPS. There's all of these things. I feel like the event shouldn't be very hard to prove by just listing out every single piece of data, like corroborated through all the people that's there.

Like here, it can literally be put out as a few pages. You can list out every single second what's happening. Right? then everybody will be accounted for. I don't get it either. Right. That's what I think. I have seen lots of people voice that opinion and I have seen pushback on that opinion as well.

People saying, well, if you've never been to Horn Island, you wouldn't know that nobody brings their phones. So there's not really strong documentation because I guess the point that I get stuck on is like, okay, how has nobody come out with pictures or videos that are very clear with time stance of where Nolan is? And there's even bar. You just mentioned this barred guy. this Bart guy should have a lot of data too. And then these data on the boat, like there's just, I feel like there's a lot of data. Yeah. I think so too.

Now, Bart, people took his name and just kind of started running with it. I will say that. It was just like a new name that showed up. And I think the internet got a little overzealous. The report, Bart's age is listed as 21, which then led a lot of netizens to accuse him of being the ones who bought all the teens alcohol. There is no evidence of this. It's only taken from the fact that he is of alcohol buying age.

Other netizens have flat out accused Bart of killing Nolan because he was jealous that Nolan was speaking with Katie McCormick, the girl Katie on the island. Now, netizens even cited a high school photo of Bart posing with Katie McCormick to prove that they had a past relationship. This picture was debunked. The high schoolers in the photo in question it is Bart, yes, but the girl was just straight up not Katie McCormick.

Yeah, not only was the picture false in the relationship rumor debunked, Bart has clarified that he has never once met Katie McCormick before Nolan's death, had zero interaction with her whatsoever. After these rumors gained traction, Bart was falsely named as a suspect in Nolan's case. He falsely named in the sense of the authorities have not named him a suspect, but people online have named him a suspect. and some people have gone even as far to say the authorities have named him a suspect, which as of right now I can't find any evidence of.

So it's just, it would be considered, I guess, factually incorrect, right? Because he and his family have hired a lawyer by the name of Russell Latino to protect their son from defamation and the associated threats as a result of the defamatory statements. Latino has taken to his Facebook, this is the attorney, to debunk all the rumors being spread. And by debunk, again, I think people are even upset with that. type of verbiage. It's just like, people are saying, well, how are you debunking it when you don't provide proof?

The attorney has come out, said, when a nearby boat suffered a mechanical malfunction on the afternoon of the fourth, Bart Jr. gave advice and direct aid to the distressed vessel. As part of this, he boarded the distress vessel, removed its transom plug, got back onto his boat, and towed

the distressed vessel for a short distance. These actions allowed water that had accumulated on the distress vessel to drain, which a lot of boat people have backed up. I don't know anything about boats, so I don't know, right? Because I'm like, what do you mean? It was sinking and now it's not sinking, but apparently they're saying when it goes at such a speed, water does come out of the boat. I don't know, right? Bart Jr. believes that more than 20 passengers were spread across the two boats to witness these events. Others may have also witnessed from the water or shore. Okay.

He also states that Bart assisted the Triton in the towing, and when he was approached by authorities after Nolan's death, he did everything they asked without pushback. that's what the attorney is claiming, saying he gave his phone, told them everything he remembered, you know, all of that. Okay. I will say, Bart did kind of come out of nowhere in terms of the netizen discourse because I'm like, who is Bart? I didn't even know.

Bart knows these people. I don't know if Bart knows these people. Like, I don't know if they're all friends. I don't know if Bart was one of the original friend of a friend. Like, he's just a guy on a boat so far. And I think the only really big piece that people have seen is that picture of him and a girl that is not Katie McCorm. But was circulating to be Katie.

I see. So they're saying that they gave his phone and all of these data to the authorities. Yes, but I don't know, you know, what that means. Right. Yeah. Okay. Let's say they didn't lie, right? Yeah.

So that means there are a lot of data's out there that we don't have right now. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of it we don't have. See, on one hand, it's like you want to push for transparency, especially when you're dealing with a case like this. And there is a lot of, you know, this is Mississippi. This is a young black child that, I mean, he's 18, but like, that's basically a child.

Sorry for anyone who's 18. But you want transparency, but at the same time in Mississippi, any death that is not considered natural or is not considered the result of a non-criminal car accident must go before a grand jury. So if it's not, you know, of old age or a natural cause like a heart attack. And someone's had heart problems for their life. Or it's like someone ran into a pole by themselves in the car. Anything aside from that has to go before a grand jury. And in most districts, I don't know if it applies for this one and how it applies case by case,

but most districts, a lot of the DA and police will not come out and say stuff before the grand jury has convened. And there is going to one? Yes, there is going to be one for this. We don't know. We don't know. We know that the autopsy on the same. state side just concluded actually as of filming this like right now like a few hours ago it was

reported that it was concluded we're probably not going to get the results of that anytime soon until the grand jury has convened and has decided on if there will be charges and against who really if and any right wow okay but wrestle latino the attorney has posted on facebook that um yeah he said that someone actually called him asking him to sue them for defamation You know, he says, I had someone today call me and ask me to sue them for defaming Bart Edmondson Jr. I love when little dogs think they're big dogs. Someone call them to say, hey, sue me. Yeah, which you know what?

I also like hate attorneys. And I think defamation lawsuits, season desists are the bane of my existence, okay? And I also get like, I lose my marble sometimes. And I'm like, okay. But I will say, like, if you guys are out there, just maybe don't call and ask them to see. Like, it is a miserable process if you've ever been through it. Like, and do I think that that miserable process is anything compared to what Nolan's parents are going through? Or the loss of a child or a loss of a friend?

No, but I'm just saying, like, if you're a random small creator online, maybe don't call the attorneys and say to me. But he's like, yeah, we served a seasoned assist, demand for correction and evidence, preservation notices on social media influencer commuter rapper and only fans model kimbra lee today in anticipation of filing a defamation lawsuit against her i anticipate at least two more such notices going out by the end of the week i just bought a new case of toner for my printer is what the attorney said so it seems like and that was like another speculation online it seems like there's going to be a lot of lawsuits civil lawsuits even when and if the criminal case is concluded, if that makes sense. Yeah. Because it seems like everybody wants everyone to sue everyone.

Some people want Nolan's family to sue everyone for wrongful death. Other people want everyone else to sue everybody else for spreading online rumors or whatever have you. You know, there's just a lot of netizens chiming in on who should sue who. So there's just lots of lawsuits being thrown around, or at least talks of lawsuits being thrown around. Basically, in TLD our terms. If you have been keeping up with this case, if you see some kid named Bart being accused as a suspect with an old high school photo of his relationship with Katie as proof, don't repost it. Just because as of right now, it's been completely debunked. The girl is not Katie. It seems that Bart probably doesn't know Katie, and all Bart has been confirmed to have

done so far is help tow the Triton. Yeah. And it seems that his family is pursuing legal action against anyone saying otherwise. Now, as for fully verifiable case updates on the proven and confirmed legal side of things, Jackson County District Attorney has publicly confirmed that, one, Nolan's Mississippi M.E.'s official autopsy report will not be released until Grand Jury Review. And two, investigators and prosecutors

are directed by state rules not to make comments or release information that could affect the integrity of the grand jury review. Interesting, but we don't have a date when that will take place. No. So the grand jury review is when juries, these are going to be residents who are registered voters that are picked, right? They hear evidence by prosecutors to see if anyone should be indicted on criminal charges. And according to the DA, this happens in every county, in every sort of death case except for deaths by natural causes and non-criminal car wrecks. Now, we don't have any sort of date.

We have no idea when they will convene. Even if they do convene anytime soon, we probably, I mean, those proceedings are not public. It's not like you can show up to court. The grand jury is basically bound by NDA for six months. They can't even speak publicly about it for six months after the final adjournment. So that's not to say that we're not going to know for six months. That's just to say that they can't even talk about it for six months. But Nolan's death investigation, which authorities have yet to report as concluded,

is pending grand jury review. One thing that authorities have been quick to share, though, is public safety commissioner, Sean Tyndall has reminded the public that intimidating witnesses and public officials is a felony, which I think a lot of people also took issue with. It's like, oh, so that's like the one statement you're going to really make during all of this. Okay, great. Out of all the statements you could have made, that's the one. But for Nolan Wells and his family, the answers that they desperately want still remain unknown. They continue to await the results of the Mississippi Emmy's autopsy. They will find out before the public. So I think they're trying to set up a meeting with the family in due

time, like probably within the day or two, you'll probably get more updates if the family does speak out on it. But they have subpoenaed for the preservation of Nolan's data on his social media accounts, including Snapchat, Life 360, I believe some of the other big social media platforms. And I think it's so interesting that there are people who are pushing back against the family saying they're doing too much. And I just think that's a little odd of how is that doing too much? And I just think that's doing too much. I just think it's weird. And that is where, it's weird. They did have a press release on July 30th where Ben Crump, attorney Ben Crump, has mentioned he has reviewed the full audio from the Cito. We'll be having it analyzed by engineers, though nothing else has really

been announced about the audio beyond that. And that is really where we are as of right now. Of course, there will be many updates to come and we're going to add a pinned comment. And if there any significant updates, we may have to do an additional episode, but that is it for right now. I also, one thing I do think is something to leave off fun is a lot of people have been citing that there is confirmation bias at play. Like, oh, well, because you want or you think something happened, you're going to hear something in the audio. You're going to see everything in this way. And I think if you just leave this case and think about why that confirmation bias exists and why people have this pattern that they have recognized from the criminal justice system by living as a black individual in America, I think that is perhaps a broader conversation that could be had after we get justice for Nolan Wells and his family, or at least answers for Nolan Wells and his family. Because it just, there's a reason that the confirmation bias exists. There's a reason people feel so.

easy. There's a reason people feel so distrustful of authorities. And I think that is the pain point that a lot of people are just ignoring. They're just saying like, oh, you have confirmation bias. But it's like, okay, well, what created that? So that is where I leave you with this case. Let me know your thoughts on this one. Please stay safe and I will see you in the next one. Bye.