Death of Black teen who partied with white friends ignites civil rights group

Black teen Nolan Wells went to a party with white friends and didn't come home alive. His death is now shrouded in rampant speculation and an air of racial division. The death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells, pictured here with his parents Elmore and Christine Wonsley, has rocked a bayside town in Mississippi.

( The mysterious death of Black teen Nolan Wells on an island off Mississippi has become shrouded in rampant speculation and an air of racial division. The 18-year-old travelled by boat to Horn Island with friends who, in photographs, all appeared to be white, and while they returned safely, he was found dead days later. Conclusive details of Mr Wells's cause of death have not been released, and civil rights figures are offering a $178,548 reward for information that leads to a conviction.

A Black teen's mysterious death during July 4 celebrations in the United States has become shrouded in rampant speculation and an air of racial division, rocking a bayside town in the Deep South. Nolan Wells travelled by boat with high school friends who, in photographs, all appeared to be white, to an unserviced island off the Mississippi coast for a party that one of the group described as a "final hurrah" before returning to college and work. His friends later made it home, while Mr Wells did not.

His body was found washed up on the island two days later. Nolan Wells's death has attracted the attention of notable US civil rights figures and politicians who have suggested his race may have been a factor in his death. ( David 'Dee' Delgado ) The 18-year-old had elite college football aspirations, and his mother says he wanted to become a dad to daughters he had already picked names for.

His family's search for answers has attracted the attention of notable US civil rights figures, celebrities and politicians demanding transparency in a police investigation into what caused his death. But in a state notorious for its fraught racial history and distrust of law enforcement, the family's lawyer says they refuse to let authorities "sweep [the case] under the rug". The town of Ocean Springs is located about 10 nautical miles from the remote Horn Island, across a patch of mostly flat seawater in the Gulf of Mexico.

On July 4, Mr Wells was seen in now-widely circulated photos smiling with his arms around three friends while sitting on the edge of a dinghy. One of the teen's best friends, Jayvon Williams, told local media he last saw him about 4pm. Another friend, Tracestin Shepherd, told Good Morning America (GMA) partygoers were drunk, and Mr Wells met a girl he wanted to stay with on the island rather than returning home with his group.

Images widely shared online showed Nolan Wells was with white friends during a trip believed to have taken place on July 4. "I've never known Nolan to stay back, Mr Williams, who arrived on the island separately from Mr Wells, told CNN. "He's always been a guy where, if he rode with you, he's gonna [sic] come back with you. Social media videos later showed dozens of people in knee-deep water near boats moored at the island.

The remote Horn Island is located off the southern coast of Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico. One video, widely shared by people theorising online what may have happened to Mr Wells, showed an apparent altercation on the beach, with a person yelling at someone to return their mobile phone. Mr Shepherd later told GMA the voice was his. After 11pm the same day, Mr Wells's mother, Christine Wonsley, received a call from one of the teen's friends alerting her to the situation.

She says she then used a mobile app to track his mobile phone's location. It was later found on the mainland at a house with his friends, and Ms Wonsley claims several Snapchat and text messages appeared to have been deleted. The 18-year-old, who played as a wide receiver for the Southwest Mississippi Community College football team, had aspirations of becoming an elite player.

Mr Wells's father, Elmore Wonsley, also found his son's car keys at a property he stayed at with his friends on the night before the party. After Mr Wells's family reported him missing, a search found his body face-down off the island's western tip two days after he disappeared. In the following days, his family voiced concerns about the investigation in Mississippi.

They retained civil rights lawyer Ben Crump and transported Mr Wells's body to Washington DC for a second autopsy away from the southern state. Mr Crump announced on Wednesday, local time, at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)'s annual convention that the preliminary results were "inconclusive". The post-mortem found no evidence of fractures or deep tissue injuries, and revealed Mr Wells's body had a 30-by-20-centimetre patch of "red discoloration" on the back of the head.