Nolan Wells’ Friend Retains Lawyer Amid Rumors a Girl May Have Come Between Them

A friend of Nolan Wells is lawyering up amid the ongoing investigation into the 18-year-old’s mysterious death.

According to TMZ, after a viral photo showed Bart Edmiston Jr. with a woman some social media users are attempting to link to Wells’ death, Edmiston Jr. has retained legal counsel.

Attorney Russell Latino told the outlet that while the old high school photo does show Edmiston Jr. with a young woman, he insists she is not Katie McCormick — the woman Wells’ friends say he stayed behind on Horn Island to talk to and whom some social media users believe was romantically linked to both Edmiston Jr. and Wells. Latino says Edmiston Jr. has never dated McCormick and did not even know who she was before Wells’ death.

Edmiston Jr.’s attorney also fired back at the allegations that Edmiston Jr. had any role in Wells’ death. Instead, Latino claims Edmiston Jr., who was, per TMZ, on a different boat from Wells and his friends, was trying to help a boat in distress at the time, and has fully cooperated with investigators by providing access to his boat, GPS records and phone. He says Edmiston Jr. is now preparing to take legal action against those spreading what his family calls “wholly fabricated” claims.

According to Latino, the young athlete also received a “credible death threat yesterday” tied to the “made-up speculation” surrounding the case. He said the FBI, as well as state and local law enforcement, have been notified.

The update comes as Wells’ family has issued subpoenas to several social media companies seeking his account information and data following his fatal disappearance during the Fourth of July trip to Mississippi’s Horn Island.

As Globe previously reported, the subpoenas, which were issued on Tuesday, July 28, seek information from Wells’ accounts on Snapchat, WhatsApp, TikTok, Meta Platforms and the location-tracking app Life360, according to the Sun Herald.

The subpoenas seek all records and information related to Wells’ accounts, including current and former usernames and passwords, email addresses, phone numbers and display names, as well as all communications on the phone and the IP addresses tied to the accounts.

Wells’ phone has been at the center of the case since it was returned to his family, and while there have been claims that his friends tampered with the phone, Wells’ self-proclaimed “best friend,” Warren Hudson, who was on the trip, denied allegations that anyone deleted content from the young athlete’s phone.

“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 told conservative commentator Brandon Tatum on July 23 during an interview on The Officer Tatum YouTube channel.

“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,” he continued.

“We had no reason to delete anything… There’s nothing to hide here,” Hudson added.