Newsletter Subscribe
Enter your email address below and subscribe to our newsletter
Nolan Wells’ Family Ready To Submit Phone For Joint Forensic Examination
Share your love
Nolan Wells’ Family Ready To Submit Phone For Joint Forensic Examination
The family of Nolan Wells says it is ready to make the 18-year-old’s cellphone immediately available for a joint forensic examination involving experts representing both the family and law enforcement.
Attorneys representing the Wells family sent correspondence Monday to Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath offering four possible days for the examination. The family’s legal team asked prosecutors to select any time between Tuesday, August 18, and Friday, August 21. Both sides reportedly require at least 12 hours’ notice to assemble their forensic experts.
The examination could take place at the Digital Forensics Lab at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, a location the family’s attorneys say was previously selected by the district attorney’s office. Family attorney Ben Crump said the examination would include experts representing both sides and could potentially involve the FBI, though federal participation has not been publicly confirmed.
Wells disappeared July 4 after traveling by boat with friends to a large gathering on Horn Island, located off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His body was discovered in the water near the island on the morning of July 6. His cellphone was not found with his body; the device was reportedly returned to the family by one of the friends who had traveled to the island with him.
Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, previously said she became concerned after finding no photographs or videos from July 4 on either of her son’s Snapchat accounts, saying that appeared unusual because Wells regularly documented social gatherings. The absence of material on the phone has not been established as proof that anyone deleted or altered its contents. A forensic examination could potentially determine whether information was removed, when the phone was last used and what digital activity occurred before Wells disappeared.
The family and prosecutors first agreed to a mutual examination of the phone during a July 15 meeting. However, the examination was delayed while the parties disputed how the phone would be transferred and how the process would be conducted. The family’s attorneys said they requested a written protocol addressing the scope and method of the examination, chain of custody, preservation of extracted data, access to the results and return of the device.
According to the family’s legal team, prosecutors sent a letter shortly before midnight on August 12 directing the family to deliver the phone by 9 a.m. August 14. Attorneys said Wells’ parents were outside Mississippi and could not comply with that deadline. The family pushed back against suggestions that it had refused to cooperate, maintaining that it wanted both sides’ experts present during the extraction. On August 17, the family offered to make the phone available on any of four consecutive days and said its forensic experts were standing by.
As of the latest public statements, the district attorney’s office had not announced the final date, location or forensic protocol for the examination. The official autopsy of Wells has been completed, but the results are being withheld while the investigation remains active and awaits grand-jury review. A separate examination requested by the family did not determine a cause of death.
The NAACP’s Office of General Counsel has also joined the family’s legal team and says it will provide additional investigative resources while seeking greater transparency surrounding Wells’ death.
Trending Now
- 1Update: Power has been restored.
- 2Northshore Community Mourns Loss of Respected Realtor Yvette Catoire Sehon
- 3Louisiana Sheriff Warns Parents About Threatening “Cat In The Hat” TikTok Reel
- 4Louisiana Sheriff Warns Parents About Threatening “Cat In The Hat” TikTok Reel
- 5Louisiana Sheriff Warns Parents About Threatening “Cat In The Hat” TikTok Reel