Nolan Wells Update: More Witnesses Questioned After Bombshell Report Surfaces

A major update in the Nolan Wells case. The new timeline, plus the unnamed witnesses now exposed. >> There’s been a lot of people that have been contacted and interviewed. There’s a lot of people who were there that day that voluntarily came forward to tell what they know. >> This report goes a long way in identifying, you know, who may be a witness uh to those critical hours and minutes uh that there are gaps of information.

 An international missing person search and rescue expert reads between the lines in this latest bombshell report, plus shares what’s happening behind the scenes of the investigation. Thank you for being here. I’m Matt Johnson. Please hit the like and subscribe. This is Justice. [music] It’s a timeline and some people have called it an investigative report and that’s not accurate because as you know we’re not investigators.

>> That’s the United Cinjun and Navy Vice President Brian Trasher on Nancy Grace spelling out what is in his bombshell latest report which actually raises more questions in the case. And what what we did, Nancy, was we asked our followers, “Hey, if anybody was there that day, you have pictures, videos, whatever, send it to us just so we can go through it, see if there’s anything relevant.

” We took all that information and compiled it into a just one digestible report of things we thought were relevant and could be helpful. The report spells out major gaps in the timeline. The last reported sighting of Nolan Wells and it spells out a long list of unnamed but potential dozens and dozens of witnesses. >> You know, I’m told and we, you know, were asked to compare notes with the uh with the sheriff’s office, which we’re doing.

 Um, but I was told that there’s been a lot of people that have been contacted and interviewed and there’s a lot of people who were there that day that voluntarily came forward to tell what they know. Um, and because they might have seen their boats and pictures said, “Oh, we, you know, we might want to go ahead and call them, let them know, you know, where we were, who who was with us and what we know.

” So, I commend those people for coming forward. Uh, cuz it’s not always easy. >> Here to help break it all down, we have a very special guest. We have Brian Fitz Gibbons, director of operations at USPA, Nationwide Security and Investigations. You have led search teams not only in the United States searching for missing people, but around the globe.

 I appreciate your time. Um, this new report uh released by um the United Cinjun Navy, what sticks out to you about the Nolan Wells case? Yeah, first of all, this was uh you know very comprehensive uh working an analytical document put together by the United Cajun Navy. Uh these guys have a ton of experience uh doing this type of work and uh put together a pretty uh remarkable work product here that I believe paints a picture um for everybody, you know, across the nation to see, you know, what Horn Island looked like, what what was the geography

we were dealing with here. Um what uh what was the dispersion of these vessels as they were parked up on the beach? And and I think one one other thing that I’ll add uh where it may help to answer some questions is that this report goes a long way in identifying, you know, who may be a witness uh to those critical hours and minutes uh that there are gaps of information that this this report really helps provide a framework to build that investigation off of.

>> Yeah. because I think that that’s really the heart of all of this and the confusion and the misinformation is the timeline as it’s be as it’s unfolding, right? Um and we’re trying to fill in the gaps and what you’re saying is that this new report kind of helps with all of that.

 What’s not been disputed is the fact that, you know, he was at his home on July 3rd with his family July 4th goes out on the voting trip, but it’s really what happens after, say, 3:00. I do have a little bit of an interview that one of the friends that was out there with him gave, and we’ll talk about it on the other side. The last time I saw Nolan was 3:00.

 And Nolan was cradling a girl in his arms, Katie. That you know, Katie. And Katie Nolan was sitting there and the last time I saw him, I looked at Nolan and Nolan was like shaking his head, laughing, and I was like, “Dude, you crazy.” I was like just joking with him. And uh but anyway, Nolan, that was the last time I laid eyes on him.

 But when we were leaving, obviously no one is getting left at the island that came with us. >> So, we’ll talk about Katie in the report, but uh this kind of starts to establish the timeline. And this is an eyewitness account from Warren Hudson, and this was on the Officer Tatum show on YouTube. If anyone wants to watch the full interview, that’s a clip from it.

But um right there I guess as an investigator and as someone that uh has searched for missing persons and put together a timeline yourself, is this where you start? >> Yeah, I mean, hey, what we have here is uh you know, a key eyewitness. Uh this is an individual that uh Nolan arrived to Horn Island with and he’s describing uh the final moments of of their interactions uh upon departing the island.

 And and I think it’s important to note in this case, you know, eyewitnesses uh to a missing person case like this when there isn’t a marked event, uh you know, there weren’t gunshots or there wasn’t an explosion that happened, right? You know, they weren’t aware that Nolan was missing for quite some time uh after they returned uh to shore.

 So, you know, this this individual and the other witnesses were not aware that they were witnesses at the time. So, it doesn’t surprise me that there have been conflicting stories. This is uh actually to be expected that eyewitnesses are going to remember times different. You know, they weren’t looking at their watch or their phone to to annotate the last time you saw somebody.

 Um it would be concerning if every eyewitness had the same exact story in the same exact timeline. That would actually stand out as a red flag. So, you know, the the simple fact that he’s describing this, this sounds just like any other group of of young folks going out to have a good time.

 Hey, he wanted to stay back for some reason. And we wouldn’t have left without him if we weren’t sure he wanted to stay back. [snorts] >> So, around 4:30, he says that that’s when the boat was taking on water. That’s when someone on the boat made the call, which I’ll play for you. But um in the same interview he said this about trying to get Nolan on the boat.

 And this is again around the time stamp at around 4:30 according to his account. Nolan was sitting by the boat with that Katie girl and my buddy yelled at, you know, yelled for Nolan, “Nolan, get get on the boat. We’re leaving. The boat’s about the boat’s having issues.” And like no, he didn’t say that, but he was panicking. Nolan, get the f on the boat.

Get on the boat. And no one said, “No, I’m staying out here. I’m gonna ride with somebody else.” And it’s not uncommon to hear, but it’s not like my buddy asked him one time. My buddy asked Nolan multiple times to get on the boat. Nolan, get on the boat. Get on the boat. We’re leaving.

 If you’re coming, you got to come now. And Nolan made a decision to stay out on the island. I guess one of the big questions for a lot of people as they’re, you know, trying to search for answers in all of this, did he ever make it on the boat? [snorts] So, and that’s where this timeline is so critical, right? Because then you had TMZ um posting this the other day and it’s from the same podcast, but it alleges to show the boat with seven people on board and Nolan is not on the boat.

 And this is around the time that the SETO call is made. >> New video that is surfaced in the Nolan Wells case um that seems to support uh what we were told by uh sources directly uh with direct knowledge of the investigation that after Nolan’s friends left on their boat at 4:30 that Nolan remained at the island. And in fact, there was one report that claimed that he was there as late as 6:00 still on the island.

 Um, this new video is it shows the boat that Nolan’s friends were on when they left the island. This is the boat that Nolan arrived at Horn Island on on July 4th. >> Same friends. >> Same friends. Uh, seven seven people, which is what we heard um them describe on the call to the tow company. And they are all on the boat there.

 This is as they are trying to get it started. And there’s no Nolan in sight, right? I guess as an investigator, is your first step trying to establish that this is a real video and that and figure out when what the time stamp of that video is or what would you be doing as an investigator? >> It looks apparently came from STO or was right around the time uh that that call to STO was made.

 Uh, so I don’t have any immediate reason to uh question the veracity of this video, but you know what it what what does this video do is it corroborates the statements that have been consistently made by the other passengers of the vessel that Nolan was not uh did not board the vessel to return back to shore with them. Um, and that this uh is a piece of information uh that certainly attests to that uh statement that has been made.

 Now, let me play the SETO call for you, and I’m going to ask you what sticks out about the call. [music] >> See, assistance, Vicki speaking. How can I help you? >> Hey, we’re at the uh west tip of Horn and uh our billagege pump stopped working. We’re going. We’re sinking. Can you all please come? We have a membership. >> All right. Of course.

 How far is the word coming up, sir? Can you give me a description? Ankles. >> Hello. >> Hey. >> Is the Yes. How far is the water coming up, sir? >> Uh, it’s coming up. It’s It’s We’re just sinking. I don’t know. Like, we’re just We’re going down there. >> All right. Well, let’s get you going. Membership number or phone number listed on the account, sir? Okay, first off, it doesn’t sound like the caller is panicking at all.

 I know that some outlets have reported that it was a frantic call. I probably wouldn’t use the word frantic. Your thoughts? >> Yeah. No, this is not a a panicked or frantic call. Um, you know, you and I have heard many of those uh in in any cases that we’ve analyzed and covered or investigated. Uh, this is a pretty calm call.

 Uh he doesn’t sound to be intoxicated to me at least evidently. Um you know this is a pretty routine uh call. He’s dealing with a a serious situation. He’s taking on water. Um this is a call to STO uh which is you know uh not a 911 call. This is a call to a membership service uh that he can get uh assist basically like a roadside assistance uh type call.

 This is a call for a membership-based organization that’ll come out and give him that uh assistance while he’s underway. >> Let me play a little bit more because we’ll get to the part where he says um the number of people are on board and whether or not they need the Coast Guard, meaning do they need any sort of aid? >> All right.

 And is everybody on board in good health otherwise? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> How many? >> All right. Do you need the United States Coast Guard? >> What >> do you need? the United States Coast Guard. >> No, we do not need that. >> All right. >> Okay. So, right there he says that he doesn’t need the Coast Guard and everyone is on board.

 Um and again, he appears somewhat calm in answering the questions. Not a 911 call, not a call to the Coast Guard, it’s to the tow agency. >> Yeah, he’s calm and deliberate, you know, and like I said, this is a serious situation. He’s taking on water. Uh but he he doesn’t seem to be frantic or panicking.

 I think that would be a um a mischaracterization uh of that call uh if one were to make that uh assessment of it. >> So that happened at around um 4:30 again um around 4:00 4:30. No one’s disputing that. Um so where does that put us in our timeline right here? What sticks out with the report? Does anything get corroborated here? >> [clears throat] >> Yeah.

 So, it it corroborates, you know, what uh the the passengers of the vessel have said or at least one has said publicly. Uh it lines up uh with that video. Um you know, the number of passengers that nobody was experiencing any type of medical emergency. Uh the reason for the call was limited to the boat taking on water. There wasn’t anything else happening.

 Um, and I I think the next uh the next thing that I’ll say is, you know, the this timeline, the gap in that timeline uh identified in the Cinjun Navy’s report. Um, this doesn’t impact that at all. This is on the other end of that, right? So, this is this is on the the north end of that timeline at 4:31 when that call is made.

 And the the the real uh critical time is going to be after 300 PM on Horn Island, right? Who who saw Nolan? Who was he with? Who is he staying with? Did he talk to anybody about going back with them? um you know what what other interactions did he have with witnesses who remained on Horn Island after um I believe it’s the Triton uh was the name of the boat that he came on after the Triton departed.

>> What sticks out to you? Is it the the 3 to 4 p.m. or is it the 4 to 7? What what’s new and what questions do you still have? This report provides a a really clean framework uh to operate with and and to identify what questions need to be answered and resolved. um you know particularly in those time frames of where where were witnesses, what other um you know, social media posts can be scraped and can we identify any other individuals who were there um based on the the photography uh presented and uh the timeline and

geocoordinates. So I I I don’t think that this report uh ever sought to, you know, crack or solve the case per se. Uh but it does provide a framework on where investigative efforts can be uh focused. >> Why do you think we haven’t heard from more people that were on the beach area or in other boats or from the girl that Nolan was allegedly hanging out with and possibly last seen with this uh Caitlyn? I >> I mean, hey, I I can say that there there’s a simple answer to this.

 um the the tremendous amount of media attention and how divisive this case has become uh on social media uh is the clear answer, right? People are getting death threats. Uh you’ve got a lot of rhetoric on both sides of of this investigation um on or really everywhere. Not that there are sides to this, uh, but there’s quite a bit of rhetoric being tossed around and I think that, you know, people have clammed up due to that, uh, due to the public scrutiny, the perceived public scrutiny of anything that would be said.

>> Where would you be looking now? Is is the investigation over in terms of searching for evidence on the island or in the boat or in the cell phones? There were allegations that things were deleted off of the cell phone. walk me through what might be happening behind the scenes because you’ve been a part of a lot of investigations similar.

>> Yeah. What what’s of particular interest to me uh having followed this case is the the claim that’s been made about uh communications being deleted from Nolan’s cell phone. Um his cell phone remained on the boat uh that he came out with. Uh and that that that is certainly a red flag, right? if you’re staying behind um on Horn Island, why wouldn’t you at least grab your cell phone? Uh so you’d have some method to communicate when you got back.

 Um so, you know, that that’s certainly uh highlighted in my uh in my mind is, you know, I want to see what comes of that cell phone extraction. This is something that law enforcement certainly is capable of doing and and probably will do. Uh there is a grand jury proceeding uh that’s that’s yet to take place. Um that grand jury by the way is is um is common practice in in that jurisdiction um for any death that is not of natural causes.

 Um so that that proceeding will take place and I believe that we will uh well we won’t see what the what goes on in there that those are always uh private. Uh but you know the the in of interest to me a particular interest is a cell phone. The second point is going to be more eyewitnesses, right? Uh this is something that undoubtedly uh law enforcement has been uh diligent on tracking down everybody that they can find that was on Horde Island at that time in interviewing them.

 Did you see Nolan? Do you have photos? Do you have videos? uh there’s going to be a tremendous amount of digital evidence to go through um you know to try to pinpoint a time frame that he was still there. You know, I’ll throw this out there for consideration. You know, how many Instagram posts or photos or videos were taken after the Triton departed and allegedly Nolan was remained on Horn Island and does he appear in any of those photos uh that could corroborate the story of his shipmates? And that’s why I think that this also adds to the

mystery and why it’s so confusing to a lot of people because it’s like, you know, how come there weren’t people saying, “Oh, I saw him last here or saw saw him last year or maybe um police have already talked to those people and they’re not obviously sharing everything for their investigation.” Right. [snorts] >> Yeah.

 And I I haven’t seen any indication that that there’s anybody who’s uncooperative, right? that that would obviously be a red flag. Uh as far as we know that uh the witnesses, you know, particularly the those that were on the ship with Nolan or on the boat with Nolan have been cooperative as have been others uh that were on the island.

So, you know, I think that a lot of conclusions have been jumped to in this case. And it’s important to remember that the reason why this has so much attention is that this is a terrible tragedy. This is a young man who uh was had his whole life ahead of him. He was uh you know all of his coaches and teammates said he was just a not only a tremendous player but a tremendous leader on the team uh and uh you know was pursuing his degree and you know playing college football and and this is a really tragic event for somebody who

you know had a lot of great things ahead of him. >> Yeah, it’s absolutely just heartbreaking. Um and we do want answers. Um, I find it fascinating that in that jurisdiction that the grand jury is common because a lot of people, including journalists like me, you know, we talk about it after there’s already quote unquote a suspect or a person of interest and then the grand jury is assembled for evidence against that person whether or not to charge them, right? Um, so I think that that’s interesting in general that that’s just

kind of what they do and it doesn’t mean that they have someone of interest yet um even involved in all of that. The other question that I have uh that you may know, how come the autopsy is not being released um yet? >> You know, that that’s a good that’s a question that I have as well. Um you know, it could have something to do with this grand jury proceeding and that it’s sealed until after that.

 um you know and you have uh an independent autopsy was done. So there there’s been two autopsies in this case um you know one by this the uh the government one uh conducted uh I believe and paid for by uh the legal team representing Nolan’s family. Um so the the the matter of fact is uh we don’t know why uh these have not been released.

 Uh, if I had to make a conjecture, it would be that there’s something to do with that grand jury. [snorts] >> Where is the evidence being reviewed or where could there still be evidence? I guess that would be in devices on the boat, uh, like the GPS and the coordinates and all of that, but then also the cell phone extractions.

 But how much are you really going to get from that if if they’re claiming that, you know, it was um applications like Snapchat uh where some of that automatically gets deleted from what I understand? >> Yeah. So, so you’re at least going to be able to find out what happened with his phone uh once it was se separated from him.

 So, you know, taking the the the uh statements from the the the passengers on the Triton at face value, uh Nolan left his phone behind. The boat takes off. Nolan’s still on Horn Island. Right now, I’d be particularly interested to uh either refute or confirm the claim uh that there was an attempt to delete items from his phone uh after that time frame.

 So, we have that window of when they left, you know, that 3 p.m. to 4:30 with the SETO call and and those extractions, you know, even if a message was deleted or unreoverable, um the the Celbrite extraction that can happen on that phone will tell you, you know, user actions, you know, was it logged into with a passcode? Was it logged in with Face ID? Um was something deleted? you know, those all of those actions will will be recorded in the log.

>> Was this a botched investigation, do you think? >> I I think it’s too early to say that, right? You know, when when we don’t have the immediate answers as the public uh that we want, we don’t have answers to all the questions we want. Uh it’s easy to point fingers at law enforcement. Uh there are certainly things that they’re holding back uh as part of this investigation and rightfully so.

 You know, should there be uh reason that there is some kind of nefarious thing that happened to Nolan, um they can’t show everything that’s going on behind the scenes and every witness they’ve interviewed and every piece of evidence that they’ve collected. So, you know, time will tell. Uh I I would say that I I don’t see anything um standing out right now to say that this is botched in any way, but you know that that’s something that uh at this standpoint, at this uh time point in the investigation, it’s impossible to say.

>> Grand jury, we also talked about autopsy. What else might you be watching for? >> Yeah, grand jury, autopsy, cell phone. um cell phone being a big one because if that claim is refuted, you know, hey, that you know uh Nolan’s phone wasn’t uh nefariously interacted with it anywhere. There was an attempt to delete there was not an attempt to delete anything.

 That answers a key question there that there was no cover up happening, right? Uh, and then the next thing I would say is I’d be on the lookout for um more eyewitnesses coming forward about uh, you know, to either confirm or deny that Nolan remained behind uh, on Horn Island after the Triton left. >> Well, our thoughts uh, definitely go out to Nolan’s family and friends.

 This is definitely horrific no matter how you look at it. I really appreciate your time, Brian. Thank you so much. >> Thanks for having me, Matt. And we should note I have reached out to Nolan Wells family attorney Benjamin Crump and I have also reached out to his mom Christine Wells about the report. I have not heard back.

 I’ll let you know if that changes. But here is what she had to say just a few days ago. >> This has been the most difficult time we have ever had. [snorts] I want to tell you who Nolan was. Nolan was a God-fearing, Godloving child. He loved everyone. Today, we are begging because I’m not too proud to beg. >> We are begging.