This past Sunday, a week after Mississippi teen Nolan Wells was found dead following a July 4th boat trip, a photo of the teenager went viral. Social media users circulated a photo of Wells in the middle of a group of people at a pool party that had been posted to Instagram by another young man on July 5. People who found the photo online assumed it had been taken the night before, when Wells went missing. But, in reality, the photo was taken the Saturday before, on June 27 at 11:58 pm
One person posted: “One of the 'friends' posted this to his Instagram on July 5th before he deactivated his account. Notice anything?? this is proof that Nolan made it off that island alive. They placed his body back on the island after something went down at that house!”
Tracestin Shepherd, a close friend of Wells, confirmed that the pool party photograph was taken on Saturday, June 27. A separate person provided Rolling Stone with metadata from the pool party photo, as well as similar group photos taken that night.
“Our friend group had been planning to go to this party way before June 27, before it took place,” says Shepherd, who didn't end up going because he'd been working all day and had church the next morning. But Shepherd says he knows Wells and their other friends went to the party and identified them in the photo. Shepherd says a friend of his posted the picture as part of a photo dump of recent events, but deleted it once social media rumors around Wells' death began to spread.
Shepherd adds that it's been “unbelievable” and “heartbreaking” to see misinformation like the pool-party photo spread online. He says it's been difficult to grieve the loss of such a close friend while watching false theories go viral.
The pool party is the latest in a string of misleading images swirling around the disappearance and death of 18-year-old Wells. Over July 4 weekend, the Wells story became national news after the college football player didn't come home from a trip with friends to Horn Island, a barrier island off the coast of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where Wells grew up. After days of searching, Wells' body was found on Monday, July 6, not far from where he had been hanging out with his friends on Independence Day.
While an investigation is being conducted by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, as well as a private investigation by the Wells family attorney, online sleuths have dug into social media posts they believe to have been associated with Wells or his friends to try to surface evidence that could lead to answers about the hours after he was last seen on the island. There are videos that have been misconstrued, photos that have been taken out of context, and completely fabricated images made with AI.
Another stark example of the misinformation around the case was a video that was believed to have been the last known footage of Wells, taken at around 3:30 pm on July 4. People believed that it showed him engaged in a heated discussion on the shore of Horn Island and that he could be heard yelling to another person to give him back his phone. In fact, Shepherd told Rolling Stone that it was his voice that could be heard on the recording and that he didn't believe Wells was shown in the footage — that he was just out of frame, hanging out in the water along the shore.
“Those were not Nolan's words, they were mine,” Shepherd said. “I get that everybody wants justice for Nolan. Everybody wants to know exactly what happened.”
Wells' mother, Christine Wonsley, addressed the misinformation that has surrounded this case, debunking AI-generated content on her Facebook page and asking people to respect her family's privacy. On Saturday, July 11, Wonsley wrote, “The internet is unhinged. To my family, friends, and to Nolan's friends please do not engage and take care of your mental.”
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office stressed the importance of submitting original, unedited photos as tips for the investigation.
“We recognize that a significant amount of information, speculation, and commentary has been shared on social media and throughout the community,” the sheriff's office said in a statement. “As with any active investigation, our investigators are working to establish the facts through eyewitness accounts, physical evidence, and other reliable information.”
On Sunday, Wonsley returned to Facebook asking for more information on her tragedy. “Elmore Wonsley and I are desperately asking that if you have any information, videos, pictures regarding our son, Nolan Wells from July 4th please contact local authorities at 228-769-3063 but also contact my legal team at 1-800-691-7111,” wrote Wells' mother. “We need to know what happened to our baby.”
She added, “For those of you making light or joking about my son's death I pray you never have to go through this pain,” Wonsley wrote. “Losing my son is not a joke.”
