Nolan Wells phone dump shows friends talking about how to face police

Nolan Wells' family has released a deep dive of his phone that captures friends reacting in real time after he went missing and later talking about how to handle police.

What the report covers

An outside analysis by Garrett Discovery covering nearly 300 pages was verified by PEOPLE. It pulls from 29 group chats Wells was in plus private Snapchat threads so the log keeps running after he disappeared.

By 12:45 a.m. on July 5 the group already understood he was gone and scrambled to pin down his last location plus who left Horn Island beside him.

Messages from the next morning

One chat said Wells spent time on their vessel then near 6 p.m. walked off with another man toward a different boat. A later note that day read "There is def some sus s*** going on." A separate line asked whether a redacted person "was acting weird too."

Someone wondered aloud why he skipped the ride home with the party that brought him and why his phone stayed behind if he meant to catch another lift.

Advice about talking to cops

A day later a peer floated "a little advice" for interviews with detectives: request a lawyer because doing so is smart not an admission. Another warned the group not to guess. Separate lines said "Bc they can try to get your ass" and "just stick to what you know happened."

By July 14 the thread shifted to the funeral and online blame. One writer proposed showing up with "all our other black friends to prove a statement for the media." Another later floated checking with his mother Christine Wonsley before any of them attended.

Prosecutors took the case to a grand jury which returned a no true bill and treated the death as consistent with drowning. Relatives continue to demand a federal look at what happened to the 18-year-old.