Nolan Wells’ heartbroken mom details final time she saw son alive before fateful 4th of July trip
Nolan Wells’ heartbroken mom has revealed the last thing he said to her before his body was found in the water just days after he disappeared.
The 18-year-old college football player went missing after going on a Fourth of July boat trip with friends to remote Horn Island, Mississippi.
His body was recovered on Monday and positively identified as his remains the following day using dental records.
Nolan Wells’ mother Christine Wonsley speaks alongside Ben Crump and Al Sharpton.James Keivom for NY Post
His mom, Christine Wonsley, told a press conference Friday in Harlem that the last time she saw Nolan, he had baked a salmon dinner for her before leaving to spend the night at the house of one of the friends he went on the trip with.
“After that he was just like ‘Hey mom, I’m about to go, Iove you.’ It was a hug, kiss and he left,” Wonsley said, answering a question from The Post.
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Actor Tyler Perry has offered to pay for Wells’ funeral, the Reverend Al Sharpton said during the appeal at his National Action Network’s headquarters.
Meanwhile, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was helping with the costs of an independent autopsy in Washington DC, according to the family’s attorney Ben Crump.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter told ABC News nothing from the evidence “yet” points to foul play and urged patience as the investigation presses on.
However, Wells’ family is demanding a “thorough investigation” into what happened to the youngster, who played as a wide receiver for Southwest Mississippi Community College.
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Nolan Wells died on an island off the coast of Mississippi.via REUTERS
“It is clear that this situation must have the most thorough and objective investigation to lead to justice,” Sharpton told reporters.
Meanwhile, Crump said that the family had “distrust of Mississippi law enforcement officials giving them a fair investigation where their black son ended up dead after going out on a boat with three white young men.”
Wells was last seen around 3 p.m. Saturday “talking to a girl” at the north end of the barrier island about 10 miles off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department said.
The teen decided to stay behind while the others returned inland due to a mechanical issue with the boat, according to the mother of one of his friends.
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Wonsley told The Post that the last thing her son said to her was, “‘Hey mom, I’m about to go, Iove you.’”James Keivom for NY Post
Crump has said that the girl claims Wells was going back to the boat, describing it as a “glaring contradiction.”
He has also questioned the likelihood that the youngster would have left his phone, while his family suspects that something may have been deleted from his phone.
“When we made it home, my sister and I actually went through Nolan’s cell phone, particularly Snapchat, because that is so popular with the children,” Christine Wonsley said.
“When we opened it up, there was nothing. There were no saved pictures. There were no snaps from that day, and we did open it before the 24-hour expiration.
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“So we found that very concerning, only because anyone who’s ever been around Nolan will tell you at social gatherings, he’s taking videos, he’s taking pictures, he’s even come up to me when I’m getting ready to go to bed, ‘Hey, Ma, come on, take a picture of me.’
“You know, that was Nolan, so that’s why we feel that things may have been deleted, because of the fact that there was nothing in either one of his accounts,” his grieving mom explained.
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Police are investigating a video that allegedly shows a heated argument on the shoreline before Wells went missing.
It shows Wells saying “Give me my freaking phone, what are you freaking doing?”, according to Crump.
