Witnesses have now reportedly claimed that Nolan Wells was drinking heavily before he died. The Ocean Springs, Mississippi teen was found dead in the water on the northwest end of Horn Island on Monday morning, July 6. Wells went missing on July 4 after taking a boat to the island with friends. The search for the teen was called off after a body was found by a park ranger on Monday, July 6.
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“So the bilge is basically a pump that releases water from your boat when water comes in. So I opened the back hatch and there’s water up to the batteries. And that is obviously not good,” recalled Hudson.
“There’s water almost coming over the transom, which is where your motors sit and which is by the stern, in the back part of the boat. So obviously we were in an emergency. We’re trying to save the boat,” he continued.
“It’s not like we didn’t ask Nolan or we just left Nolan. Nolan decided to stay on the island with the girl that he was with. And the girl is a witness to that too,” he added.
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The MDMR’s document cited that Wells was also “in the company of an unknown female,” who was later identified as Katie McCormack. However, McCormack’s sister dismissed the claim, saying the two of them spoke only very briefly. She also said that the family has cooperated with investigators.
Warren Hudson, who claimed to be Wells’ “best friend” and was on Horn Island with him before he died, told Brandon Tatum, a YouTuber and former police officer, in an interview that they were dealing with a boat emergency and Wells willingly stayed behind with a girl he was with.
Hudson explained that there were issues with the boat and that the “bilge wouldn’t pump.”
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An independent autopsy commissioned by Wells’ family was inconclusive, Ben Crump previously announced. The autopsy found the teen’s cause and manner of death to be “undetermined” pending further investigation.
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A preliminary document obtained by ABC News from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources revealed that witnesses told investigators that they saw Wells drinking a large amount of alcohol while partying with his friends. The email, which was sent on July 5, circulated to search crews a day after Wells was reported missing.
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