By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-07-25 16:14:08 | Updated at 2026-08-10 12:56:22
2 weeks ago
A teen who said he was Nolan Wells' 'best friend' has spoken out about the captivating case and addressed claims that content was deleted from his phone before he vanished.
Nolan Wells, 18, was found dead after he disappeared while on a boating trip with his friends off the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the Fourth of July holiday.
Questions have loomed over the events leading up to his tragic death as his family has launched a desperate search for answers, hiring famous civil rights attorney Ben Crump to advocate for full transparency in their son's death investigation.
Now, a friend of the teen, Warren Hudson, has addressed speculation that the group deleted content on Wells' phone during the trip.
'There was no reason for us to get on Nolan’s phone, no one touched Nolan’s phone… If none of us had touched Nolan’s phone then y’know there’s no reason for anything to be deleted,' Hudson said in an interview on the YouTube show, The Officer Tatum.
'No one even was in contact with his phone until it was moved from the boat to the truck, and none of us have access to Nolan’s password to get on his phone and delete anything.'
'We had no reason to delete anything… There’s nothing to hide here.'
The group of friends went to Horn Island for a Fourth of July party, but Wells decided to stay back and was found dead on July 6.
Nolan Wells, 18, was found dead on July 6, two days after attending a Fourth of July party with his friends on Horn Island, which is off the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Wells was on Horn Island with some of his closest friends to celebrate the Fourth of July before he was found dead
A funeral for Wells was held on Monday. His mother, Christine Wonsley, center, with her husband, Elmore, second from left, attorney Crump, left, and Reverend Al Sharpton, right, are pictured above
Crump previously said that Wells' friends had his phone when they left him on the island, which he alleged included a video of the teen and another individual 'yelling at one another on the boat.'
The attorney also claimed that when the family got Wells' phone back, messages had been deleted.
However, Hudson disagreed with the sequence of events, recalling in his recent interview that many of the partygoers left their phones on the boat.
Hudson said that he then put Wells' phone in his truck and gave it back to his mother on the night of the Fourth of July.
He doubled down that no one on the trip touched or deleted content on Wells' phone. Hudson said the only time anyone came in contact with the phone was to bring it from the boat to his truck.
He clarified that the last time he saw Wells was at 3pm on the Fourth of July, but that 'dozens of boats' were still anchored at the island when the group left.
Tatum then asked Wells a series of questions, including whether he 'killed Nolan,' to which Hudson replied, 'absolutely not.'
When asked why he did not attend Wells' funeral, Hudson said he did not want to take the attention off of Wells because of the speculation surrounding his friend's death.
Wells was a football star at Ocean Springs High School and attended Southwest Mississippi Community College
'It breaks my heart that I can't go. And it hurts me more than anything because, I want to say my last goodbye to one of my best friends,' Hudson said.
'But if I'm getting crazy death threats of people saying they're going to kill me and do crazy things to my family and I, I just couldn't bring myself to go. I gotta put my own safety first, even if that means missing my friend's funeral,' he continued.
'It's horrible and I wish I could've been there, but that's what's been going on.'
Hudson's mother Chancery Court Judge Ashlee Cole previously spoke out about rumors surrounding Wells' death, writing on Facebook that her son and his friends departed the island due to a mechanical problem around 4.30pm on Saturday.
She added that her son last saw Wells at 3pm and she and her husband were not on Horn Island during the holiday weekend.
Cole said she graduated high school with Wells' mother and had the 'utmost respect for her and all of the Wells family. We mourn the loss of Nolan with them,' she said, adding, 'Our son, Warren, loved Nolan dearly.
'My family is hopeful that this information will help to redirect the attention to the Wells family, their grief, and their need for our community’s support.'
The Daily Mail has reached out to Ben Crump for comment on Hudson's interview.
This is a breaking news story...
