A forensic examiner hired by Nolan Wells’ family Today that Snapchat messages were deleted from the teen’s phone after the last time he used it, and that someone had to take a deliberate action on the device to delete them. Andrew Garrett of Garrett Discovery said he could not determine who deleted the messages or why. Wells, 18, disappeared during a July 4 trip to Mississippi’s Horn Island, and his body was found in the water two days later.
That finding runs straight into the official account. Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath has said the phone reports showed nothing had been deleted since Wells last used the device, and that no one except his family accessed it afterward. Two readings of the same phone now point in opposite directions, days after a grand jury declined to charge anyone in his death.
What did Nolan Wells’ phone data show?
Garrett said his team spent about 30 hours pulling data from the phone. The examination recovered more than 1 million digital artifacts, including Snapchat and Instagram data, GPS records, Apple Health information, phone logs and traces of deleted or unsent messages. It also recovered nearly 300 Snaps between Wells and his friends.
Garrett said Wells used Snapchat and Instagram for about 95% of his communication. His last text message was sent the night of July 3, which his parents said was normal for him. Wells last used the phone directly on the afternoon of July 4. Garrett said the phone appeared to stay on the boat for most of the day while Wells stepped away from it at times. Some friends in one group chat kept sending messages after his death, apparently unaware their texts were still reaching his phone.
A digital forensics expert confirmed that Snapchat content was deleted from Nolan Wells’ phone between the time he last had it and the time his parents received it. pic.twitter.com/wUh4l5x3me
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) September 24, 2026
Where did Nolan Wells’ phone go after he disappeared?
It did not stay with him. GPS data shows the phone crossing the water, stopping at a boat ramp and then sitting at a residence until his parents recovered it around 3 a.m. They had tracked it through Life360. The grand jury wrote that phones riding back to the mainland without their owners is not unusual on Horn Island, and that Wells’ phone was not the only one that did so that day.
Garrett told reporters he offers facts, not opinions, and he did not accuse anyone. He said the family was shut out of the state’s own examination of the phone, so they had their team make a copy at home and sent the results to prosecutors before the grand jury met.
What did the grand jury decide in the Nolan Wells case?
The 23-member panel met Sept. 14 through 18. It issued 132 subpoenas and heard from 43 witnesses. It found no credible evidence that anyone who traveled on the group’s three boats committed a crime tied to Wells’ death. Jurors also found no evidence of a fight or argument that day, and they said the people on the boats cooperated with investigators. They concluded that the position, condition and location of his body were consistent with drowning. Even so, the state medical examiner and the family’s independent pathologist both listed the cause and manner of death as undetermined.
What do the autopsies say about his injuries?
Both autopsies documented bruising on the back of Wells’ head, and both pathologists said those injuries were not fatal. A witness told investigators Wells slipped awkwardly from the side of a boat that afternoon but kept socializing and did not seem hurt. The grand jury could not link that fall to his injuries.
Crump’s team said the state report found no water in Wells’ lungs or throat and no white blood cells at the injury site. The team argues that points to an injury shortly before death, though that is their reading of the report. Tests also detected alcohol, but the independent pathologist cautioned that decomposition makes that result unreliable.
Did race play a role in Nolan Wells’ death?
The grand jury found no evidence of racially motivated wrongdoing, and McIlrath rejected that claim. The panel also called false the widely shared claim that Wells was the only Black person on the island. Recovered messages show Wells and his friends discussing whether people they met might be prejudiced, including a mention of a sheriff’s warning to his father. Crump said there is no definitive proof race was a factor.
For many Black families, a Black teen who went out for the holiday and never came home is not an easy story to let go of. That explains the $125,000 reward, backed by Terrell Owens, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Tyler Perry, and why the family refuses to accept a drowning nobody saw.
What happens next in the Nolan Wells case?
Mississippi has no statute of limitations on homicide. The grand jury said the case should return to jurors if credible new evidence emerges. The family wants the full investigative file and a federal review. The hard question is whether the deletion finding counts as new, since jurors already reviewed the family’s phone reports. The next move belongs to the DA.
