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(NewsNation) — A new video released Tuesday appears to show the late Mississippi teen Nolan Wells in the final hours before his death on Horn Island.
TMZ exclusively obtained the video, which you can watch below. It has been handed over to investigators, according to a law enforcement official.
The video shows a Black man on a boat wearing trunks matching the color of the ones Wells was wearing in a July 4 picture with his friends. The video shows the man standing on the back deck of a boat, bending over, alongside what appears to be a couple of older adults on board.
The camera pans, showing multiple boats and many people partying. The back of the person who appears to be Wells faces the camera at a distance, and his face is not shown.
The video, which was recorded at 2:23 p.m., could be the last known image of the 18-year-old. Metadata reflected that time, about two hours before his friends left the island on a boat.
The person who shot the video handed the video over to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, the outlet reported.
Nolan Wells’ friends reportedly called for help from broken-down boat
Wells’ friends called for help from a broken-down boat on the day he went missing, according to phone call audio.
“Hey, we’re at the west tip of Horn, and our bilge pump stopped working. We’re going. We’re sinking. Can you all please come?” the boat’s operator said. “I want to get this boat unsank and towed back.”
The boat began having problems around 4 p.m., about an hour and a half after the possible video of Wells was recorded.
When they called for towing assistance, the dispatcher asked, “Is everyone on board in good health otherwise?” The caller responded, “Yeah, yeah everybody is on board.”
The boat returned to the original departing location at 5:44 p.m.
What happened to Nolan Wells?
Wells, 18, was found dead July 6 on Horn Island, Mississippi, where he was on a boating trip with friends for the Fourth of July weekend. He didn’t make the return trip on July 4 with his friends, one of whom told ABC News that Wells had stayed back with a girl he met.
His parents question the details surrounding his death, saying things “don’t add up.” They called for an independent investigation.
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