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Footage believed to show the 18-year-old just hours before he disappeared has reportedly been turned over to investigators as his family continues seeking answers.
A newly surfaced video from the day Nolan Wells disappeared could offer the clearest window yet into the teen’s final hours on Horn Island, and it’s now in the hands of investigators. TMZ reported that it obtained the footage, recorded amid the sprawling Fourth of July party where Wells was last seen, which may point to who he was around before he vanished.
According to the outlet, the video pans across a scene packed with boats and partygoers before landing on a Black man standing on the back deck of a vessel, appearing to bend down for a drink. While the clip never captures the man’s face, TMZ noted that he’s wearing trunks matching the color of those Nolan had on in the widely circulated July 4 photo taken with his friends.
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The boat, anchored in neck-deep water, also carried a couple of older adults, with several other people gathered nearby. Metadata reviewed by TMZ timestamped the recording at 2:23 p.m.
What makes the footage potentially significant is both its timing and how it reached authorities. The person who filmed it reportedly felt strongly enough that the man could be Nolan that they took it to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office last week, leaving a copy with a detective assigned to the case. A law enforcement source confirmed to TMZ that investigators are aware of the clip. If the man is indeed Nolan, it would stand as the last known image of the 18-year-old.
The timeline only sharpens the video’s relevance. Per GPS data cited by TMZ, the boat carrying Nolan’s friends departed the island around 4:30 p.m., roughly two hours after the footage was captured, returning to the Mississippi mainland without him. No witnesses have publicly come forward reporting a sighting of Nolan after that point. His body was recovered along the Horn Island shoreline on July 6.
The emergence of the video comes as the family continues pressing for answers, having commissioned an independent autopsy of their own. Nolan was laid to rest Monday at Center Pointe Church in Ocean Springs, in a service officiated by Rev. Al Sharpton. During the funeral, both Sharpton and Tyler Perry each pledged $50,000 for information leading to a conviction in connection with the teen’s death.
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