Nolan Wells’ Family Expected to Take Legal Action as Friend’s Dad Offers Massive Reward for Details

The family of Nolan Wells, the late Mississippi teenager who mysteriously vanished on the 4th of July during an outing to Horn Island and was later discovered dead, is expected to take legal action.

The Sun Herald reported on Monday, July 27, that Wells’ friends and their families — as well as other people connected to the ongoing investigation — received a notice of intent to pursue litigation from attorneys representing his estate on the day of the 18-year-old’s funeral.

One letter, which has been uploaded to the newspaper’s website, states that “litigation concerning the death of Nolan Wells is reasonably anticipated.”

Those who have received a letter are instructed to preserve all evidence and suspend any automatic deletion or overwrite functions that could destroy information. The newspaper shares the lengthy list of what is sought, including chat history, photos, videos, Snapchats, GPS history, browser history, internet searches and much more.

According to People, Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, also sent subpoenas to Meta, Life360, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp seeking related data and content from her son’s account.

Meanwhile, Dr. Benjamin Hudson, the father of Warren Hudson — whose stepmother Ashlee Cole received a letter — told TMZ that he’s offering a $50,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of any person responsible for Well’s death, if that were to be the case.

“We don’t know that anyone had any involvement,” he told the outlet, “but we care about Nolan and want to find out what happened.”

Warren recently took part in an interview with conservative commentator Brandon Tatum on The Officer Tatum YouTube channel and said the last time he saw Wells was on July 4 around 3 p.m. local time, when the late teen was “cradling a girl in his arms.”

Wells’ friends have maintained that the Mississippi college football player opted to stay on Horn Island with an unknown female despite the others getting on the boat and heading back to the mainland.

On July 4, Wells traveled to Horn Island with friends, and the boat left around 9:56 a.m., according to CBS affiliate WLOX. He was last seen near the island around 3 p.m. He was found dead on July 6.

While investigators have said drowning is suspected, they haven’t released an official cause of death, and the case remains under investigation.

Wells’ family hired civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump to conduct a separate investigation into his death. Crump said at a press conference last week that an independent autopsy was conducted, but Wells’ cause of death was “undetermined pending investigation.”

The three friends who accompanied Wells to Horn Island have retained attorneys.

As Globe previously reported, Al Sharpton and Tyler Perry have also offered $50,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved.