CHILLING details have been disclosed about the currents around the uninhabitable island where the body of a promising college football player was found that could explain his mysterious death.
Brian Trascher, the national vice president of the United Cajun Navy, recalled the calm, warm air over the Mississippi Gulf Coast while surveying the waters below from the air during his search for Nolan Wells.
“[It] was mostly calm, very, very shiny, hot. Water temperature [was] in the 80s,” Trascher told The U.S. Sun.
Nolan, 18, and a group of friends took a private boat out to Horn Island, about 10 miles from the Mississippi mainland, at around 9:56am to celebrate the Fourth of July.
It was one of the final days Nolan had to celebrate summer vacation with his friends before reporting to football camp at Southwest Mississippi Community College on July 6, his dad, Elmore Wonsley, said.
Horn Island is a popular destination for locals during the summertime, as dozens of boaters embark on the 45-minute trip for an escape from reality.
“All summer long, it’s popular. There’ll be anywhere from a few hundred boats to, I mean, it could be over a thousand,” Josh Gill, the Cajun Navy’s incident coordinator for the search for Nolan’s, previously told The U.S. Sun.
Nolan’s friends told Jackson County investigators they last saw him between 3 and 4:00pm, before they headed back to the mainland after experiencing mechanical issues with their boat.
The group made a distress call to a police dispatcher at around 4pm before making the journey back.
“Hey, we’re at the west tip of Horn, and our bilge pump stopped working. We’re going. We’re sinking. Can you all please come?” the male is heard communicating to a dispatcher, according to NBC News.
“I want to get this boat unsank and towed back.”
The boat left the island at 4:31pm and was towed for around three miles before resuming normal operations less than an hour later, according to GPS information from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.
The vessel returned to the private dock at 6:06pm.
Several friends claim Nolan decided to stay behind after meeting a young woman on the island and told them he would catch a ride back with another group.
The last reported sighting of Nolan was around 4pm when witnesses told authorities they spotted him on the northwest tip of the island.
That part of the island can be life-threatening to unsuspecting sunbathers, Trascher said.
“That island, they have a very strong current on the northwest tip,” he stressed.
“From what people [who were] there told me, it’s very strong there.
“The other thing to have in mind is that there’s a drop-off on that side.
“And, so, you can be in three feet of water, and then, the next step, you could be in 20 feet of water.
“If all of a sudden, you’re 20 feet in the water and a current starts carrying you, it can drag you out fast, violently.”
Gill, the incident coordinator, also said that part of the island could experience “increased tidal” activity due to its location.
“There is a pretty heavy tidal surge and tidal movement on that portion of the island where they were at,” Gill previously said.
“It’s a pass between two islands. So, there’s increased tidal influence there, along with wind and wave action.
“Conditions can change rapidly there.”
Trascher recalled being several hundred feet in the air, combing the waters, when two law enforcement boats began circling a portion of the northwest tip of the island on the morning of July 6.
“Even though I was about 400 feet or so, I could see the body,” he told The U.S. Sun.
“I was zooming in with my land gear so I could get a closer look, it matches the description of what he was wearing.
“So we were pretty sure, without confirmation, that was probably him.
“When we came back, the sheriff had said they had people there that had eyes on him right there on the beach.
“Their words were, there was no reason to think it’s not him.”
A cause of death for Nolan has not been determined, pending an autopsy.
On Wednesday, Ben Crump, the attorney retained by Nolan’s parents, Elmore and Christine Wonsley, said the case will be presented to a grand jury after the sheriff’s department completes its investigation.
“The hope is that when this is presented to the grand jury, all relevant witnesses and evidence will be presented to them, so that we can have a fair and impartial investigation into the death of Nolan,” Crump said.
District Attorney Angel McIlrath’s office said convening a grand jury is standard practice in the county for unnatural or suspicious deaths, and does not indicate there is any criminality involved.
Jackson County officials have said that preliminary evidence suggests Nolan died from accidental drowning.
Authorities said that so far in their investigation, they have yet to find evidence of foul play.
