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

"Better being better boob." 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, "Dryery, sandy, wild, inhospitable spot." The wood abounds in mosquitoes, sand flies, 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 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 gonna have these fairies or tourist boats heading out to Horn Island as scheduled a few times a day so you can see Shell and take pictures. They don't necessarily do tours of Horn Island because they're not gonna take you out to Horn Island because eventually if you have a whole boat of tourists, eventually someone's gonna need to pee and the entire island is 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 kinda walk. Yes, 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 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. 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 crane 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, Lily, 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 under water 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 or 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 this 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, facedown in the water. This is the body of an 18 year 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. (gentle music) - We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mingo to support Nolan Wells, GoFundMe, to help assist his family and loved ones as they navigate his death investigation. This 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 rottenmingopodcast.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 wanna mention how current this case is, because very little about this case has been confirmed. We're gonna 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 opinion speculations, allegations and theories should not be treated as facts, 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 wanna make it abundantly clear that not a single person has been implicated in Nolan's Wells's 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 bow 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 dogs, 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 Fourth 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 pitch 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 everywhere else in the United States. It's a very big, complicated ordeal. It's a function with one to many girl 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 date over because it's illegal in your state. But in Mississippi, Horn Island is the go-to spot for Fourth 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 2,300, 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 confused where everyone uses the restroom because there's no way out. 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 4th of July And more on that later, but people think just watching the videos it looks like a very American gathering You see a lot of boats with American flags. They're anchored near the island. There's about three or four rows of boats 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 way steep 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 chained deep. There's people in water where it's way steep 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 fourth of July festivities They get there pretty early like 1030 in the morning Around 4.30 p.m. The boat that Nolan came to Horn 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 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 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 The 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 them 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 like do they know Katie not really do they know that person exists? Yes, 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 Christine is 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 pm 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 the boat And this is all paraphrasing of what attorney crump Benjamin crump 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 am a park ranger that was searching the island called 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 corner 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 cases will 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 coroner's throat being like you gotta tell us I think out of everyone on the law enforcement front the coroner's 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 it's you know It's exhaustive that they want to get everything done and tests 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 no 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 uh not making a lot of sense is the first being the parents have stated that nolyn 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 But 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 no one 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 nolyn 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 way steep 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 nolyn did in fact accidentally drown did he drown by himself Where was he? Why would he just be out in the water by himself? Yeah Or are we to believe that maybe groups of people are so drunk and so distracted that a current swept only nolyn 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 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 nolyn 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 foul 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 cell 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 the 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. They're 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 direction 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 would challenge the narrative that they had been presented. They all came back alive, and Nolan was washed up on the shore, on a live. 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 this 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 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 peaked 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 Walsh's case and Tamla Horsforth'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're playing cards against humanity, drinking, having a good time. In the next morning at 7.30 a.m., Tamla was found lying face down motionless under the porch. It was a 14-foot fall. 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 party goers 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 Comparison Strong with Nolan Wells's 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 a 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-Wonsley, so Nolan's mom. We are from the same community. I have the utmost respect for her and 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 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 3pm on July 4th. They went around 4.30pm 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 Wandsley family or their attorney." However, we are willing to directly communicate with Attorney Benjamin Crump and the Wells Wandsley 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 in 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 posted on Facebook, "Right is right, wrong is wrong." Period. Yeah. My stance on this entire case is that Nolan Wells's 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 roles 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 Tom LaHorse Ford 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 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 time's investigators are trying to come forward and give 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 seen, specifically here, by these people last saw him. He was doing this. Please call us." They have been asking for tips, but they haven't done something where it feels it's a lot of 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 3PM and that this person tracking votes, 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 cell phone tower data." 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 Fourth 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 is out there. Like I 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, 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 Fourth 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 Fourth of July. There's no telling. I mean, roughly probably two, three, 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 10.30 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 Fourth of July. They bring all the drinks and food they need because they've been preparing for the Fourth 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 titrin. 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. 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 bow and rear anchors 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 J-Von. 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 why it, which I guess is another friend, was having boat issues. And the bilge went in 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 or 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 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 like Katie, we were yelling at him get on the boat, but he didn't want to get on the boat. Uh-huh. 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 gives gets us closer, but because we don't even have a clear answer if you 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 that's so difficult. I don't understand. He's saying that night, they're all hanging out. So they get back at 430 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 tow. I guess the boat fixed somehow or got better, but okay. So they drove it back to the other side and they're hanging out over there. 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 Taitam even questions that and he's like, well, if you knew that he was with the 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 Taitam 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 drive 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, hmm, 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 life. 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 and 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 on to the phone call and what people think they hear from the phone call. And it was released by W L O X news. This is a local Mississippi golf coast news station and the published audio recording of the phone call was made to the sea tow 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. W L O X news did report that they got the recording from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources W L O X like a local news station. So this is like a I would 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 W L O X, I will say I am inclined to trust that the MDMR did say people were more inclined to believe if TMZ post would be more inclined to question the authenticity of where they got it, right? But I mean W L O X, 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 new station said they got it from this Marine people in that, but okay, so it's directly reported from this new station. Yes, but there's just a lot of some people are calling into question in the authenticity. Some people are, you know, 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 inducing. 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, their suspicions, whether or not that is real though. If the problem is real or not, 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 call CTO 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 whole 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 Vicki 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. Okay. 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 Vicki, 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 Vicki called him immediate. 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, CTO confirmed that they never told 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 timeframe that the boat got fixed? That's okay. That I also think is weird because I, 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 CTO 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 call the CTO, 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 dispatch is calling her captain and all of these things, these are automatically recorded. But let's say I regular civilian and 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 wanted 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 like 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 weight room and the fur, you know, the receptionist's 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 that 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 they're, it seems like they were standing kind of still in 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 aspects 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 gonna 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 earbud in, you can hear the dispatch in the background music. If you have your right earbud in, 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 earbud in, 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, 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. See, tell assistants, Vicki speaking. How can I help you? Hey, we're at the West tip of Florence and our village soft work and we're going, we're sinking. Can you all please come? We have a membership. Oh, right. Of course. How far is the word coming up, sir? Can you give me a description, ankles? Hello? Yes. How far is the water coming up, sir? It's coming up. We're just thinking, I don't know, like we're just we're going down now. So dispatch CTO picks up and she's like, Vicki 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? Yeah. All right. Of course. 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'd you say? Yeah. Hey, yes. 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 accounts, 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. It's okay. I'll 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? 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, 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. 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. McCordants are 30 degrees by 14.684 North. And then West by 88 degrees by 46.79. If I look like you're on Horn Island, correct? Are you on Horn Island? Yeah. All right. Is the both sinking or you have it aground? We are sinking. Yes. Is it aground? Is the question? Oh, we're not aground. We are in 17 foot of water. We're in 31 foot of water. All right. Have to ask. Where do you and what do you want to do? Do you want to be told back? I want to get this boat on sank and towed back. Yes. All right. What would you like to tow to, sir? Been towed to Ocean Springs. Or Fort bought you on. 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 doing. 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, 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 Pozo kids who are trying to get away with underage drinking and driving a boat. But like that also doesn't like that makes sense. Yeah. If you want to get away, you wouldn't even mention the age then you would just say, okay, there are seven people on boat. Why? Anyway, yeah, it doesn't make any sense. So that was not the question. Is there a person? No, this is the part where it's weird. Like I, 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? It's 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 again, if I heard that, I'd be like, what are you talking about? Everyone's breathing. What is this? What is this question? There's seven people on the boat? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, the whole, this whole, back and forth, I've listened to it so many times I'm just 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 cell 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. She verifies it's a 22 foot train 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. 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, 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 Ziggy from International. How are 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 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. So I. I apologize 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 like I thought the tone was interesting. 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, I mean, 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 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 is 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. And he's like, did you get anything? And she's like, okay. Yeah, hold on. Yes. 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, 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. Well, you'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 chance. All right. Transferring him now, thank you again, captain. 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 this 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 an unsankened toad, but then all of a sudden they don't need a toe, 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 match transcripts to a bunch of like court live stream footage, I will say 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. Oh my god, Nolan, wake up. Why it? Get wake up. Get the fuck up. Damn it, Bart! No, no, it'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 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. So, like, really, clearly? Yes. But then, like, it's tricky because I'm like, "Okay, now I need to factor in top-down timing 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. And 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." But this very wide range of speculations that are sweeping the internet. And some people have just made it a moment to attack Geneta, which I think is very bizarre. Some people accuse Geneta of lying, of releasing fake audio. I don't see why Geneta 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 Geneta is a black woman. And again, you don't have to go through Geneta's version if you're like, "Oh, well, maybe she has skin in the game, right? You can just go through the version that WLox posted on their YouTube channel and just listen with one earbud 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, Geneta 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 gonna come after her. Other people are saying like how do we know your process is real and accurate. Now we're just mudding the waters even more. Some netizens believe that the audio itself is damning. They say that you can hear someone say no lens 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 to 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 gonna 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 loyered up. It was almost insinuating that these 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 tear while he talks about his friend? Like that's weird. You're saying this is such a close friend of yours. Others are 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 loyered 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, the conversation was already so big. The funeral itself was being livestreamed. 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 and 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 gonna show up to the funeral and people are saying, if they were me and if they 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 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. - All right, man. - So, 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 tea. 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 netizen 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, fourth 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 6th, 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 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 a 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. Netizens 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, OK, 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 both 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 happened. 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 guys 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 miss friend by the way that's not Nolan in it some people are saying it's weird one of the both friend 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 saltwater we're not in fresh water 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 volunteer to stay there and we've had so many people calling our call centers saying that there was an argument then there was another argument ten 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 reposing this footage a lot of people are saying we 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's 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 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 Tristan 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 in 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 still probably get a wet bag or hold it above my head while I'm waddling a shore 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 um that initial discrepancy started causing a lot of star 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 a 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 happen 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 gonna do anything on his phone all day no save photos nothing Nolan's mom states on Good Morning America we went into a 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 purposely but if it was deleted purposely 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 train 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 sippena cell 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 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 way steep 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 gonna 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 the water is murky and they're saying like you're dropping your phone into sea water you're not getting your phone back it's not gonna 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 I've come back there 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 gonna stay behind I'm gonna 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 gonna come back with you and another thing that's all about it is if Katie did say that the last time she spoke to Nolan was when the guys were yelling had 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 stop 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. Also, there are other conflicts. Yeah, it may be 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, 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 random drunk belligerent guy picking a fight with Nolan if Nolan ends up missing a deceased. I feel like that would be a very quick lead that would occur very quick 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's 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 it 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 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 said that he said I'm gonna go back on the boat with the boys. Well the boys say he said that no I'm gonna 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 posted 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. I think like an old photo post? No, I think it's somewhat 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 that simply put. And with that divide the coroner's office did a full autopsy and they have also the family. Nolan Wells's family with the support of former NFL player Colin Kaepernick have sent Nolan Wells's body to an independent medical examiner in Washington DC to do a second independent autopsy which they have just revealed the reports for. So there were two 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 their part that they were able to send Nolan's body and have him transported to Washington DC 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 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 acypital 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 it that's the thing with autopsy's 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 levidity. So the cooling of blood, they say that his body being transported to Washington DC, 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 levidity is not fixed or even if it is fixed, you cannot pooling. So it's difficult to say without seeing the actual red and 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. 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, what does next structure mean? The like his hyoid bone, the things inside of his neck. 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 neck 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 autopsy is 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 neck structures we're talking about the hyoid bone thyroid cartilage, the structures that are often involved with strangulation. They 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're 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's parents. They were there when Attorney Cromp 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 sensationalizing, oh, they're hiding his neck. Something happens in the neck. He has all this 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 wanna 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 where lots of people in attendance, I believe Tyler Perry helped fund the funeral pay for the funeral expenses. A lot of people loved one 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 hardships 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. Yeah, that's what I really like about it. 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 we're 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's 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, just really having love for your teammates. But again, it's just kind of-- it's unfortunately in this 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's States, we have interviewed approximately 60 witnesses. Again, our investigation is ongoing and active. Aside 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 a borrow 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 boat. When according to the report, he helped the Triton, the boat with all the teens who made the C-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 tow. We need a tow. 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, right? - How do they know this? Just some Bart said this is what happened? - Yes, okay. - No, is that what happened? That's 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. - 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 boys on, 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. - 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 timeline. - What exactly is listed in this report about Bart? - He helped tell the boat. - To the other side? - Enough so that the water could get out of the boat. - Did this happen before the grandpa told him not to come or after, right? - He's saying that the reason the grandpa told them not to come is because Bart was gonna help tell the boat. - Oh, it was going to last year. - Yeah, so maybe he just showed up, and it's not like, oh, I'm actively telling the boat, but it was like, hey, I'm gonna help you tell the boat, and then the grandpa was like, we don't need you guys. - Who is Bart? - A friend. - Again, we don't know. Like, we don't know anything, really. That's what I'm telling you. It's like, ripping a page out of a boat 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 time. - Yes, a full picture of the series of events. Yes. The MDMI report says the timestamps of the Triton's data. So. - 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. A 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 timestamps of where Nolan is? Like it doesn't exist. - And then there's even Bart, you just mentioned this Bart guy. And 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 teen's 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. 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 gave 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 gotten 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, did 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? He the attorney has come out said, when a nearby boat suffered a mechanical malfunction on the afternoon of the 4th, Bart Jr gave advice and direct aid to the distressed vessel. As part of this, he boarded the distressed vessel, removed its transum plug, got back onto his boat, and towed the distressed vessel for a short distance. These actions allowed water that had accumulated on the distressed 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 thinking and now it's not sinking, but apparently they're saying when it goes at like 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. 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 McCormick, 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 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. 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, you know, 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 DN police will not come out and say stuff before the grand jury has convened. And there is going to one, going to be one, there is going to be one. We don't know. We don't know. We know that the autopsy on the stateside just concluded, actually, as a 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 any time 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 Russell Latino, the attorney, has posted on Facebook that, 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 asked me to sue them for defaming Bart Edmonds in junior. I love when little dogs think they're big dogs just someone call them to say, Hey, sue me. Yeah. Which, you know what? I also hate attorneys and I think defamation lawsuits. Seasoned asist are the bane of my existence, okay? And I also get like, I lose my marbles 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 say, 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, sue me. But he's like, yeah, we served as seasoned asist, demand for correction and evidence, preservation notices on social media, influencer, commuter, rapper and only fans model Kim Bra 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, you know, 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 TLDR 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 helped 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 Emmy'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. So, 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 Tindell 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, Welles and his family, the answers that they desperately want are still remain unknown. They continue to await the results of the Mississippi Emmys 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 its 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? I just think it's weird. And that is where it's weird. They did have a press release on July 30th, where Ben Cromp, attorney Ben Cromp, has mentioned he has reviewed the full audio from the CTO, 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 are 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 Welles and his family, or at least answers for Nolan Welles and his family, because it just, there's a reason that the confirmation bias exists. There's a reason people feel so uneasy. 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, what would create of 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.