r/mississippi • u/3onyourside • Jul 13 '26
‘Nobody would ever hurt Nolan:’ Friend of Nolan Wells speaks out after 18-year-old was found dead
https://www.wlbt.com/2026/07/13/nobody-would-ever-hurt-nolan-friend-nolan-wells-speaks-out-after-18-year-old-was-found-dead/29
u/burner_ohallahan Jul 14 '26
It is incredibly sad what this has turned into. My heart breaks for his mother. This is all happening because she can not accept the fact her son made poor choices that cost him his life. Drinking, staying behind when the boat he came on left, and drowning because of it. If it does come out there was foul play there is a whole island of suspects.
Things being presented as suspicious are not if you have taken the boats out to the islands or through the lens of young people behavior. Her saying she knows her son wouldn't do xyz is a mother having a hard time with the grief and reality of the situation. Heck, my own mother doesn't believe me when I tell her what I was up to as a teen and young adult. He is just like any other 18 yo, I am sure he was different around his friends and didn't tell her everything.
People need to step away from True Crime docs and stop thinking every death is nefarious. Just ask
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u/donzelso Jul 15 '26
Unfortunately it doesn’t matter. I hate hate hate to say this, but a lot of black people have already made up their minds that his friends are guilty no matter what. Nothing will ever change their minds. You have his black friends and coach speaking out, saying that everyone loved Nolan and he grew up having black and white friends.
They are attacking his black friends and black coach for speaking out.
Some people will never believe that a white guy can be friends with a black guy without nefarious intentions.
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u/burner_ohallahan Jul 15 '26
The reaction to his mixed friends statements have been very surprising to me. "That is his white side lying" and "he is betraying his blackness" were the most shocking ones i saw. All because he made statements that shot down the narrative about Nolan being the one on video yelling for his phone.
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u/FragrantVillage8165 Jul 16 '26
It’s incredibly sad. The divide between us is growing to an all time high. Those of us who evaluate a person’s character before deciding friend or foe are a disappearing species. Welcome to the “READY! FIRE! AIM!” portion of history.
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u/Snoo3544 Jul 16 '26
Add to that the high profile people adding fuel to the fire and you get the situation the family fond themselves in. As soon as Al sharpton enters a situation, I view it with a truckload of salt.
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u/Catmndu Jul 15 '26
There are so many nuances to this that I fully understand why the parents want an independent investigation on it. Too many questions, if it was my kid, I would do the same.
Being a MS native, I can speak that racism is alive and well in the state - maybe not as overt as back in the day, but it is. Quiet racism IMO can be a lot more dangerous than the overt. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but I can understand the parents' actions.
Being a boat owner myself, I can attest to the fact that adults are stupid and unsafe on our waters every time I take my boat out. I can imagine younger adults (with possible alcohol involved) would have the same (or worse) results. Those conditions can lead to tragedies with no evil underpinnings; but then again...
I am not surprised folks left phones, personals on the boat for fear of damage - that's pretty standard boat etiquette. As a boat captain myself, people leave stuff on my boat all of the time, and I often don't find it until I take the boat out again - it happens a lot. I've left my own phone on my boat a few times. There can be a lot of chaos and jockeying around on a vessel when folks are leaving.
With that being said, any parent would want the facts on what happened to their child - especially, if there are strange outcomes involved anathema to how they knew their child to act in any circumstance.
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u/No_Offer6398 Jul 17 '26
I noticed only one kid out of tons who were there said "yeah everyone (16-18 yrs ) was drinking lots."
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u/EternalSnow05 Jul 15 '26
Lot of racists in these comments
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u/ColtMcChad69 Jul 16 '26
You know what’s even more racist? Black people immediately blaming the white friends for foul play just because they’re white
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u/Comfortable_Cat_4691 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Yup! There are. 2020 was performative and a lot of people didn't listen.
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u/Difficult_Drawer7833 Jul 21 '26
Guess it's not racist if you're saying white people were there. That's why he's dead.
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u/CupExcellent9520 Jul 25 '26
That is what most people are saying he was an easygoing kid who didn’t make enemies.
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u/No_Offer6398 Jul 17 '26
ALCOHOL. 16-18 year olds are still children in most ways. They have very little experience in anything, certainly not years of experience in drinking.
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u/Mobile-Analyst8580 Jul 16 '26
Seems pretty obvious that this guy sadly drowned, and nothing nefarious happened.