Nolan Wells was an 18-year-old football player at Southwest Mississippi Community College. And what should have been an ordinary summer weekend instead became a missing person’s case that grabbed the nation’s attention.

On the Fourth of July Nolan Wells boated to Horn Island in Mississippi with his white peers to celebrate the holiday that Saturday afternoon. While his friends returned home safely, hours later Nolan was reported missing.

Details like Nolan’s friends leaving with his phone, a mystery woman, deleted text messages, and a possible altercation are all clues that contribute to the suspicious disappearance of Nolan Wells.

Wells’ case isn’t the first time a Black person’s death or disappearance while in the company of white peers left Black Americans asking questions. 

At its core, Black Americans have witnessed a pattern of cases where a Black person’s disappearance or death is followed by unexplained details. Over time, it’s become difficult to ignore how often these tragedies end with explanations that do not satisfy the Black community.

For example, in April 2004, 23-year-old Alonzo Tyree Brooks disappeared after attending a predominantly white house party in Kansas. It was reported that a fight occurred after Alonzo was called a racial slur.

Sometime during the party Alonzo’s white friends left him behind. He was reported missing the next morning and his friends stated they knew nothing of his disappearance. A month later he was found deceased in a creek — Alonzo’s case was never solved.

Even more recently, in 2018 Tamala Horsfdord went missing after a slumber party with all white peers. The next morning Tamala was found faced down in the grass with both her arms and legs appearing to be ‘positioned’. She was found to have suffered multiple head injuries, dislocation of the wrist, cuts on her arms and legs, a broken neck, and even a laceration on her heart. Her death was ruled an accident.

Similarly, Tamala’s white peers claimed to be unaware of her final moments and local investigators left the case unsolved. 

Nolan’s family has since hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Crump stands on the idea that Nolan’s case may be more than an accident and intends to discover the truth.

“We’re trying to be very transparent because the family has some concerns about the state of Mississippi doing an investigation of the death of a young black man where young white students may be looked at as having some culpability,” Crump said. “The family is concerned about that. So, we’re going to have an independent autopsy. We have investigators talking to witnesses that have no alignment or no allegiance to the state. And that’s important,” Crump added.

The main idea here is not that incidents like Nolan’s happen every day, but that the explanations that follow a Black person’s disappearance or death around their white counterparts leave room for doubt. It’s a concern that’s regrettably recognized in the Black community.

Nolan’s parents Christine and Elmore Wonsley have since ordered for Nolan’s body to be flown to Washington D.C for an independent medical examination. Former NFL star Colin Kaepernick has also helped fund the autopsy.

Anyone with direct information about Nolan Well’s disappearance is asked to contact the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office at 228-769-3063.