The Nolan Wells investigation just found another reason for everybody involved to start asking some very uncomfortable questions.
According to USA Today reporting, a forensic examination of Nolan’s phone by Garrett Discovery uncovered Snapchat messages that had been deleted or “unsent” by the people who originally sent them. And before anybody starts running with the idea that somebody snatched Nolan’s phone and started cleaning up evidence, there’s an important distinction to be made here. The forensic investigator, Andrew Garrett, clarified that his examination did not establish that someone physically accessed Nolan’s phone and deleted the messages. Instead, the messages were removed by the Snapchat users who sent them.
Still, that does not make the discovery irrelevant.
According to the forensic examination, Nolan was an active Snapchat and Instagram user, and messages from group conversations continued syncing to his phone even after his disappearance because other people in those chats were still communicating. Some of those conversations reportedly included discussions about two men in nearby boats whom Nolan’s friends considered suspicious. In one exchange, someone described the men as “sketchy-looking” and possibly felons. Another person reportedly recounted that a sheriff had warned Nolan’s father that he would not want to be left alone with the men, particularly if they were intoxicated. Other conversations reportedly included concerns about racism on Horn Island.
Now, none of this magically produces a smoking gun. The forensic examination cannot establish who deleted individual messages or why they were deleted. It also does not prove that the deleted conversations contained evidence about what happened to Nolan. However, considering the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, the existence of conversations involving suspicious people, and concerns about what was happening around Nolan, it is absolutely something worth investigating.
And then there is Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath, who has apparently had enough of ubiquitous civil rights attorney Ben Crump’s public commentary.
McIlrath pushed back against Crump’s interpretation of the Snapchat evidence, emphasizing that the messages were deleted by other Snapchat users rather than someone gaining access to Nolan’s phone. She also accused Crump of presenting a misleading narrative about the investigation and went considerably further, saying that based on her interactions with him and his conduct surrounding the case, Crump was “not worthy of our trust.”
“Again, if the Crump team genuinely has new information or evidence that Nolan Wells was murdered they should stop playing and immediately provide it to me,” she said.
The deleted Snapchat messages may eventually prove meaningless. They may also contain context that investigators need to understand what happened before Nolan disappeared. Either way, when messages connected to a missing person are disappearing from conversations, people are understandably going to want to know why. And after everything that has happened in this case, “trust us” is definitely not going to be enough for Nolan’s family, nor the general public.
