Nolan Wells’ Mom Reflects on Football Season That ‘Should’ve Been’ as His Brother Honors Him on Field

As a new football season gets underway, Nolan Wells‘ family is mourning the 18-year-old and reflecting on the season he should have been preparing to play at Southwest Mississippi Community College.

On Thursday, August 27, Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, shared an emotional tribute to her son, remembering the excitement he would have felt as his football season began.

“Today we should’ve been talking to Nolan about how excited he was about game day! He would’ve hyping everyone up. He rarely missed any practices, always showed up, and never had any suspensions. He was a dedicated student-athlete,” Christine wrote on Facebook.

Wells’ younger brothers also began their football season that day, making the start of the season an especially difficult moment for the family.

“At 7 pm we would’ve been logging in to watch him play because his younger brothers have a game today as well. But instead there will be no logging in, we will not be traveling to SMCC to watch our boy play. We will miss watching him play the sport he loved.”

“We are almost 60 days out and still have NO ANSWERS,” she added.

While Wells’ family mourned his absence from the field, his younger brother found a way to honor him during his own first game of the season.

The Ocean Springs Football Instagram account shared a photo of Elmore Wonsley, Jr. during the game, showing the high schooler in his uniform and Wells’ first name written across his face in tribute to his older brother.

According to CNN, Ocean Springs High School did not hold a moment of silence or display any other memorial for Wells.

The former Ocean Springs High School student-athlete died after traveling to Horn Island with friends to celebrate the 4th of July. His body was found in the water on July 6, two days after he traveled to the island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.

Many have said that race has played a factor in how the death of Wells, who was Black, was handled. His friends are white.

Last month, the family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, released findings of an independent autopsy that listed Wells’ cause of death as “undetermined pending investigation.”

Crump highlighted one finding from the report: a “focal area of red discoloration of the soft tissue of the back of the head — the occipital region.”

However, the report noted there were “no lacerations of the overlaying skin nor fractures of the underlying skull.” The findings were considered “inconclusive” because of “extensive decomposition and the absence of associate injuries.”

The Mississippi State Medical Examiner also performed an official autopsy, but those results have not yet been publicly released. Toxicology testing remains pending, and officials said that those results can take several weeks.

Late last month, an Illinois man was indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the case. Edward James Porter of Berwyn, Illinois, was charged with transmitting threatening communications in interstate commerce after allegedly calling Bart Edmiston Jr. — a friend of Wells’ — and his father on July 31 and threatening to kill him and their families.