Nolan Wells Family Confirms Phone Exam as Lawyers Reject 48-Hour Deadline Claims
Updated
Updated · WLBT · Aug 14
Nolan Wells Family Confirms Phone Exam as Lawyers Reject 48-Hour Deadline Claims
3 articles · Updated · WLBT · Aug 14
Summary
Ben Crump and Nolan Wells’ family lawyers said the parents remain willing to allow a forensic examination of the 18-year-old’s phone and denied they have obstructed the death investigation.
A July 15 meeting had set a joint phone review through Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Digital Forensics Lab, with possible FBI involvement, but the family says no exam date was ever scheduled.
An Aug. 12 letter from the district attorney’s office ordered the phone delivered by 9 a.m. Aug. 14—less than 48 hours later—while Wells’ parents were out of Mississippi and unable to return before the deadline.
The legal team said key terms still were unresolved, including forensic protocol, chain of custody, data preservation, access to extracted material and return of the device.
Wells, 18, was found dead off Horn Island on July 6 after disappearing during a July 4 boating trip, and his family says it wants a fair, impartial process to determine what happened.