The friends who left Nolan Wells to die on a Fourth of July boating trip “have to answer to” his grieving family, his parents demanded Saturday.
The football star’s devastated father slammed the “excuses” his friends made claiming Wells decided to stay behind on an island — and questioned why the kids were apparently fine to leave him stranded.
“If I was in that situation, Nolan would’ve got on the boat. I would have not left him there,” his father, Elmore Wonsley, said in an interview on CNN’s “First Of All with Victor Blackwell.”
“If you come with me, you’re going to leave with me because if anything happens to you and I was the one that brought you there, then I would be the one to have the answer to your parents. So I’m not gonna leave anyone’s child anywhere if I took them somewhere,” the grieving dad said.
“You can give all the excuses you want, but you do not leave someone else’s child anywhere if they care.”
Wonsley and his wife, Christine, have repeatedly aired their suspicions around Wells’ death and a lack of “transparency” in the investigation.
The 18-year-old went missing after going on a Fourth of July boat trip with friends to remote Horn Island, Mississippi, and his body was recovered two days later.
A parent of one of the boys claimed Wells opted to stay on the island after their boat experienced a problem with the bilge pump, allegedly telling his friends that he would catch a ride with another group of friends who were also on the island.
Christine Wonsley implied that something nefarious may have happened between Wells and his friends in the moments that led to his death.
“Nolan just had such a big heart. That was a concern we always had — is that his heart was just too big. We would tell him, that type of love that you give to others is not always reciprocated,” Christine Wonsley told CNN.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said that nothing from the evidence “yet” points to foul play, but Wells’ family is demanding a “thorough investigation” into the case.
A video filmed shortly before Wells went missing shows the teenager arguing with friends over his cell phone — and captures the frustrated athlete demanding, “give me my freaking phone.”
Christine Wonsley also said that the family recovered Wells’ phone and noticed there were no Snapchat videos, which they believe is “suspicious,” considering the teenager was an avid user of the app.
An official autopsy by Jackson County officials is still pending.
The family has also flown his remains from Mississippi to Washington, DC, for an independent autopsy being paid for by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
