The Nolan Wells funeral will be held Monday in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, with the Rev. Al Sharpton leading the service. Nolan Xavier Wells was 18 when he was found dead after a July 4 boat trip with friends to Horn Island, and his family is using the funeral to put his life, not only his death, at the center of the day.
Christine Wonsley said the family would rather mark the day with celebration than only grief. She described her son as a "bright light" and a "sensitive soul," and said, "He would not want us to be sitting around crying and eating, and so what we're gonna do is kind of have a party to celebrate him".
Ocean Springs on Monday
The service is set at a church in his hometown, which keeps the focus local even as the case has drawn national attention. Ben Crump, the family lawyer, will deliver a call to justice at the funeral, while Tyler Perry is helping pay for the funeral and Colin Kaepernick is helping pay for the independent autopsy.
Wells played wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, Mississippi, and hoped to play at a high-level Division I program. That makes Monday more than a memorial: it is also the public point at which the family and its supporters will press the case for answers while they honor an 18-year-old whose athletic future ended before it had time to develop.
John Ledbetter and Crump
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said Wells' friends are cooperating with the investigation and that initial interviews suggested Wells chose to stay on the island. Ledbetter also said the friends believed he would get a ride with someone else, which is different from Crump's account that another witness reported Wells planned to leave on the boat with his friends.
Crump has also alleged that messages appeared to have been deleted from the phone found with Wells' friends, along with his keys, and said he would work alongside the local prosecutor to inspect the device. The prosecutor agreed last week to present the results of the investigation to a grand jury once it is completed, so the funeral now sits beside a legal process that is moving toward the next formal review.
Wells Family and Supporters
Spike Lee attended a news conference last week in support of the family, joining a response that has widened beyond one household. Les George, the coach at Southwest Mississippi Community College, said to WAPT-TV, "He was very sociable with everyone, didn't meet a stranger," and added, "He would pop up at my office and come sit on the couch just to hang out and talk."
Wells was Black, and the concern surrounding his death has reached into questions that now sit alongside the memorial itself. Monday's service gives the family a chance to celebrate him in public, but the unresolved part is still the same one that has hovered over the case since the body was found 2 days later off Horn Island's coast: what exactly happened after he stayed behind or was left behind.
