Judge shares death threats against family amid Nolan Wells death investigation
Chancery Judge Ashlee Cole said in a new public post on social media that her family will not be addressing the media to elaborate on the “facts” related to her son’s trip with two other friends and Nolan Wells to Horn Island the day he went missing.
Cole said she realizes that sharing what she refers to as the “truth will not stop the calls for the death of our small children.”
Wells was Black and went to the island on a boat with white friends, including Cole and her husband’s son. The three who traveled to the island with Wells returned without him, saying that Wells wanted to stay behind to talk to a girl and another group of friends.
However, they had Wells’ cellphone with them when they returned.
Since the death investigation began, speculation about Wells’ death has been rampant on social media, prompting Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter to urge the public to call investigators only with firsthand information.
The judge said she has received various threats through her social media account on Facebook and shared some screenshots and reels of some of the threats.
Cole said the posts, which included photos of her children, came from an account identified as “Yaeyae962.” One message said the user would “wrap this kid in a blanket wrapped with barbed wire” and throw him into a lake.
In another post, the same user wrote that “There will be a package coming to your guys office in the next few days,” with additional comments suggesting the package would explode and that her sons should be present.
Another message referenced “Blood. So much blood everywhere,” before threatening that the family’s deaths would be “quick.”
The user also claimed to have the judge’s personal information, writing that “Not even the FBI can stop this” and warning that once the package was opened, there would be only seconds to react.
Among the threats were messages that said her boys “are going to be strangled.”
Cole said her family has not had the opportunity to speak with Wells’ parents, Elmore and Christine Wonsley or their attorney, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, though the family is willing to communicate directly with Crump and the family.
“We will provide them with all the information known to us, so their family can rest and properly mourn,” Cole wrote. “We also want to know what happened to Nolan. We will do everything within our power to assist Nolan’s family in their quest for answers.”
Cole’s son and two other young men accompanied Nolan Wells, 18, on the July 4 trip to Horn Island, where Nolan Wells disappeared. A National Park Service ranger found Wells’ body off the western tip of Northwest Horn Island two days after he went missing.
She earlier in the week expressed her condolences to Wells’ family.
“Our family, along with the community, grieves the loss of Nolan Wells,” Cole said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Nolan’s family. Our son, Warren, loved Nolan dearly.”
The sheriff said he is aware of the threats against Cole and her family.
Meanwhile, the investigation into Wells’ death remains active, the sheriff said, and investigators are still collecting evidence, combing through the evidence they have collected so far and are continuing to conduct interviews.
The Mississippi State Medical’s Officer conducted an autopsy, but Jackson County Coroner Bruce Lynd Jr. said the results are pending the results of a toxicology report. Toxicology testing is routine in a death investigation.
