Ben Crump: Colin Kaepernick Assisted in Funding Independent Autopsy for Nolan Wells
Everyone has a different version of Nolan’s last hours. None of them line up.
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and Nolan Wells’ parents, Elmore and Christine Wonsley, shared their son’s story on Good Morning America.
While there, Ben Crump shared that Colin Kaepernick is helping cover the cost of an independent autopsy for Nolan Wells, the Mississippi teen who disappeared during a July 4th trip to Horn Island and was later found dead on shore. Crump said the exam is being conducted in Washington, D.C., by an examiner with no ties to Mississippi law enforcement, to keep the findings free of any question of bias.
The attorney also addressed the video circulating online in which a voice can be heard asking for a phone back (he confirmed that voice is Nolan’s).
Christine Wonsley said she and Nolan’s aunt retrieved his phone and found a discrepancy between the geolocation data from Snapchat and from Life360. His mother also said Nolan was an active Snapchat user, but when the family got the phone back, there were no saved Snaps or videos on it.
Crump pressed the question the family can’t get past: with so many people on Horn Island that day, how did no one see Nolan drowning? Referring to what authorities are suggesting happened to Nolan.
“We just want answers,” Christine said.
Adding to the confusion are conflicting accounts of Nolan’s final hours. Friends say Nolan chose to stay behind on the island, speaking with a young woman. That same young woman reportedly told investigators Nolan said he was heading back to the boat with his friends.
Elmore Wonsley said his son knew to leave with the same people he arrived with — a rule his father drilled into him repeatedly growing up.
Crump is set to hold a press conference today alongside Rev. Al Sharpton, where the family is expected to call for a full, transparent investigation and the release of all investigative records and findings.
A Black teen, surrounded by an all-white friend group, never made it home. What happened to Nolan Wells?
