The heartbroken mom of Nolan Wells has revealed what she found on her missing son’s phone that made her suspicious that messages were deleted.
Wells, 18, was found ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Monday after vanishing on a Fourth of July boating trip to Horn Island, Mississippi, police said.
His mom, Christine Wonsley, told “Good Morning America” anchor Michael Strahan in an interview Friday that they “just want honesty and transparency” and a “thorough investigation.”
“We want that same respect that would be given to anybody else, and that’s it. We just want answers.”
Wonsley said she tracked Wells’ phone on the Life360 app after his disappearance, but when she recovered it, suspicions were raised.
“When we finally got his phone, me and my sister went through the phone. We went in his Snapchat. He had two accounts. Absolutely nothing,” she said.
“It wasn’t even 24 hours, which is how long videos and pictures stay on Snapchat, and I was just like ‘that can’t be’.”
“I’ve seen Nolan whenever he Snaps – like when he goes and he’s having fun, like he does videos… there was absolutely nothing… even my sister was like… ‘that’s suspicious’,” Christine Wonsley said.
His mom later added during a press conference in Harlem on Friday afternoon that “there were no saved pictures. There were no snaps from that day…”
“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’,” she explained.
“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.”
The Southwest Mississippi Community College football player was visiting the remote island with friends, but Wells decided to stay behind while they returned inland due to a mechanical issue with the boat, according to the mother of one of his friends.
However, Wells’ parents said this explanation flies in the face of everything they taught him about safety.
“That we cannot answer,” Christine Wonsley told Strahan when asked why her son would have stayed behind. “I just, I can’t — I can’t fathom why he would.”
“We always told him, if you go with a group, you stay with a group,” Wells’ dad, Elmore Wonsley, said.
The teen’s body was recovered on Monday and identified through dental records the following day.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter nothing from the evidence “yet” points to foul play, and urged patience as the investigation presses on.
“We’re working towards the same goal as the family. We want a thorough investigation. We’re trying to find out everything,” he told ABC News on Friday.
“We are providing a thorough, professional, and accurate investigation. That’s what we’re going to continue to do, until we arrive at the answers that the family deserves.”
The family has retained civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who says the biggest unanswered question in the case is what happened to the teen.
“I think the reason this… case has caught such fire is because [people] see the pictures, they see the video, and they’re saying, ‘Hold on. You’re trying to tell us just accept this an accident and sweep it under the rug?’ His mother, Christine, his father, Elmore, say no, they will not allow that to happen,” Crump told ABC News Wednesday.
Crump said the family is aware of an alleged “altercation” recorded by the students on the boat, where “Nolan and somebody” were “yelling.”
Wells’ mom told the press conference later that the last time she saw him alive, he had baked a salmon dinner for her before leaving to spend the night at the house of one of the friends he was going on the boat trip with.
“After that he was just like ‘Hey mom, I’m about to go, I Iove you’ – it was a hug, kiss and he left,” Christine said, answering a question from The Post.
The youngster’s father told the press conference there had been a “tense” moment when he had tried to recover Wells’ car keys, which had been left at one of his friend’s homes.
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.
Sharpton added that he would be officiating the funeral, but a date has yet to be set.
Meanwhile, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was helping with the costs of an independent autopsy in Washington DC, according to Crump.