Mom Christine Wonsley pleads for peace as she prepares to bury son Nolan Wells
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Christine Wonsley publicly pleaded for peace as she prepares to bury son Nolan Wells.
- Ben Crump and his team met with the district attorney's office.
- Social media is circulating AI-generated videos and death threats amid the family’s grief.
Christine and Elmore Wonsley have, in one short week, developed a close bond with their family attorney, Ben Crump, which was clear Wednesday morning at a news conference in front of the old Jackson County courthouse.
National television news networks set up a bank of cameras out front as Crump, a second attorney from Atlanta and an investigator from Crump’s office descended the stairs after a meeting with the district attorney’s office. They were discussing the death of the Wonsleys’ cherished child, 18-year-old Nolan Xavier Wells. Wells, a superior athlete and football player, was widely loved in the community.
His death has captured national attention. The young Black man celebrated July Fourth alongside a throng of white people on Horn Island. While he rode out on a boat with white friends, he never returned to shore. His phone remained on the boat. His father had to retrieve it Saturday night. Wells’ body washed up Monday morning on the Horn Island shoreline.
This is Mississippi, so people have many suspicions about what might have happened to Wells. Nobody knows for sure, but Crump says he’s determined to find out.
Social media spreading false narratives
In this information vacuum, social media is doing what social media does: fabricating narratives, photos and even videos manufactured with artificial intelligence. Death threats are flying, including some aimed at Wells’ friends.
As she, her husband and Wells’ siblings prepare to bury him, Christine Wonsley finds herself pleading for peace. She just wants the truth. She doesn’t want anyone to get hurt. Her son, more than one person has told the Sun Herald, was a peacemaker. He was a calm, funny and friendly young man.
“Nolan would never want any type of violence or anything like that,” she told the gathering, flanked by her husband and Crump. “He was not that kind of person.”
Crump shared on his Instagram account — where he has 1 million followers — a divisive photo later determined to be unrelated to Wells’ death. Crump said that he was doing so only to encourage anyone to come forward with information about what happened to the young man.
Crump held Christine Wonsley’s hand to comfort her during much of the news conference. Crump spoke about yet another fake video that he did not share:
“We don’t want anybody to be in harm’s way just because we’re trying to get to the truth of what happened to Christine and Elmore’s son. We saw fake videos — AI-generated videos of Christine — and it’s just God-awful as they’re grieving and trying to fight for the truth that they are also having to deal with these fake videos attacking them . . . They are just trying to literally bury their son next week.
This story was originally published July 15, 2026 at 12:47 PM.
