The Nolan Wells investigation has produced a growing pile of documents, recordings and witness statements, and almost none of it lines up cleanly. The 18-year-old college football player disappeared during a Fourth of July trip to Horn Island off the Mississippi coast and was found dead two days later. Nearly a month on, the official cause of death remains unstated, and the accounts of what happened that afternoon continue to contradict one another.

What the New Documents Say

ABC News obtained preliminary material from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources on Monday, July 27. According to that document, witnesses told investigators that Wells had been drinking heavily with friends on the day he vanished.

The information appears in an email dated July 5, written while search efforts were underway. Wells was reported missing on July 4 and his body was recovered on July 6.

That characterization has not gone unchallenged. A member of the volunteer team that helped recover his body has previously disputed the claim that Wells was heavily intoxicated before his death, pushing back on the account publicly.

It is worth noting what this document is and is not. Preliminary field information gathered during an active search is exactly that: early, unverified, and collected under pressure. It reflects what people said in the first hours, not a settled conclusion about anyone’s condition.

The Question of Why He Stayed

A separate police report from the Marine Resources department, also obtained by ABC News, addresses the departure itself. According to that report, several of Wells’ friends told authorities that he was with a woman they did not know when the group prepared to leave, and that Wells chose to remain on the island rather than board the boat.

That version matches what his friends have said publicly and consistently since the beginning.

His parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, do not find it persuasive. Their position has been that it seems unlikely their son would have stayed behind while the group he arrived with headed home.

That disagreement sits at the center of the case. Everything else, including the timeline, the audio and the autopsy, is being interpreted through the question of whether Wells stayed voluntarily.

The Timeline as Currently Known

The sequence assembled from reporting by CBS affiliate WLOX and other outlets runs roughly as follows.

On the morning of July 4, Wells traveled to Horn Island with friends. The boat departed at approximately 9:56 a.m. He was last seen near the island around 3 p.m.

TMZ obtained enhanced audio earlier this week of a teenager aboard the returning boat placing a call to a private towing company at roughly 4 p.m., as the vessel had begun taking on water. Reporting indicates Wells was asked to get aboard before the boat left the island.

His body was recovered from the water near Horn Island on July 6.

Two Autopsies, No Answer

Investigators have said drowning is suspected. They have not released an official cause of death, and the case remains open.

The family retained civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump to conduct a separate inquiry. At a press conference last week, Crump said an independent autopsy had been performed and that the result listed the cause of death as undetermined pending further investigation.

“Undetermined” is a specific finding rather than a placeholder, and it carries real meaning. Drowning is notoriously difficult to confirm through autopsy alone, because it typically leaves no distinctive signature in the body. Pathologists often reach a drowning conclusion by ruling out other causes and weighing circumstantial evidence: where the body was found, how long it was submerged, what the water conditions were. Extended time in warm salt water complicates that further by accelerating decomposition and obscuring injuries that might otherwise be visible.

That is why an undetermined ruling is not the same as a suspicious one. It frequently means the physical evidence simply cannot answer the question on its own.

Where the Investigation Stands

District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath has said authorities are doing everything they can with the case.

That statement, unaccompanied by findings, has done little to settle a situation in which the family and the public are working from fragments. What exists so far is a preliminary email disputed by a volunteer rescuer, a police report reflecting friends’ accounts that the parents question, enhanced audio from a boat in distress, and two autopsies that have not produced a cause of death.

Why the Case Has Drawn National Attention

Several factors have pushed this story well beyond the Gulf Coast.

Wells was 18 and a college football player, which alone generates broad interest. The setting is unusual: a barrier island reachable only by boat, on a holiday, with a group of young people and a vessel that was taking on water during the return trip. The involvement of Benjamin Crump, one of the country’s most recognizable civil rights attorneys, signals that the family believes the official process may not deliver a full accounting.

Attention has also brought ugliness. Reporting indicates that Wells’ mother’s workplace was targeted with negative reviews, an episode the family has pointed to as evidence of the hostility surrounding the case.

Cases like this tend to generate more theories than facts, and social media fills the space that official silence leaves. The Snapchat activity of Wells’ friends has been scrutinized publicly, with his mother raising questions about content that was removed and at least one friend responding that there is nothing being concealed.

What Would Actually Resolve It

The unresolved questions are narrower than the volume of commentary suggests.

Investigators would need to establish whether Wells entered the water voluntarily or otherwise, whether anyone was present when he did, and whether his physical condition that afternoon contributed. The unidentified woman friends described has not, based on public reporting, been identified. Toxicology results, if they exist and are released, would speak to the intoxication question more reliably than recollections offered during a frantic search.

None of that is available yet.

For his parents, the practical reality is that nearly four weeks after burying their son, they still have no official explanation for how he died. Two investigations are running. Neither has produced an answer.