Attorney for Nolan Wells' family says experts to review a boat distress call from day he disappeared

An attorney for the family of Nolan Wells said Thursday that they have hired audio engineers to review a distress call made from a boat on the day of his disappearance, which has prompted online speculation and claims of defamation amid the ongoing investigation into the 18-year-old’s death.

The recording, released by Mississippi authorities this week, captures a July 4 call to a private marine towing company requesting assistance for a boat that was taking in water off Horn Island, where Wells was last seen.

“Our bilge pump stopped working. We’re sinking. Can y’all please come?” the caller asks, noting that there were about seven people on board. The dispatcher then speaks with a captain for the towing company, who said a relative of the boat owner reported those onboard had solved the issue and "don't need any help right now.”

The distress call was made to Sea Tow, a private company, and released to media outlets by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. Law enforcement officials have said they were told by witnesses that Wells was not on the boat when it left the island.

Speaking at the National Urban League Conference on Thursday, the civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Wells' family had retained audio engineering experts to review the recording. The legal team is also calling on prosecutors to include outside authorities in the review of phones belonging to friends who traveled with Wells to the island.

A voicemail left with the Jackson County District Attorney’s office was not returned.

Wells' parents also attended the conference, pleading for anyone with information to come forward. “We will not rest until we get answers," said his mother, Christine Wonsley.

The teenager's death has touched off rampant speculation, deepened in part by uncertainty about his final hours, distrust of law enforcement and Mississippi’s long history of racist violence.

The teenager, who was Black, had traveled to the uninhabited island with a group of friends from high school, all of whom were white. He did not return with his friends to the mainland that evening. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast.

A day after the discovery, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said Wells’ friends were cooperating with authorities and that investigators did not suspect foul play. The sheriff has released few details since but has said the investigation is ongoing.

An independent autopsy commissioned by Wells’ family was inconclusive about the cause of his death. The official autopsy will remain sealed until a grand jury reviews the evidence, which is a standard practice in Jackson County, according to the local district attorney.

In the absence of new information, social media users have seized on videos and photos shared online. Some have made unsubstantiated claims against Wells’ friends, whose attorneys and family members have since reported death threats and doxing campaigns.

Following the release of the dispatch call this week, online sleuths quickly tracked down some of the people mentioned in the audio.

In a statement Wednesday, the parents of a 21-year-old said their son had been doxed and threatened as a result of “outright fabrications” stemming from the audio.

They said he had boarded the malfunctioning boat to help, then briefly towed it a short distance with his own boat. He has since cooperated with law enforcement, provided names of potential witnesses and allowed authorities to inspect his boat and GPS device, the statement added. An attorney for the family said they had already served one person with a cease-and-desist letter for alleged defamatory claims and planned to serve others this week.

On Thursday, Crump rebuffed criticism that his attention on the case could inspire online targeting of others. He noted that Wells’ parents also have faced online attacks.

“We’re not trying to cast aspersions on anybody, we want the truth,” Crump said. “If it was your child, you’d want the same thing."

The attorney was also joined Thursday by relatives of Tyler Smith and Daniel Erving, two Black 18-year-olds who died in recent months, in circumstances that Crump described as “very similar” to Wells' final hours.

Smith, a recent high school graduate from Lexington, Kentucky, died on July 4 from a gunshot wound that police said was accidental and self-inflicted. His family has disputed the determination. Police said the investigation remains ongoing.

Erving drowned in a Texas lake in April after jumping from a railway bridge with two teenage friends, local authorities said. Earlier this month, the two friends were charged with evidence tampering because they had “failed to report the incident and later discarded items belonging to Daniel,” according to a Dallas police spokesperson.

Relatives of both Erving and Smith said their concerns about the investigations had not been taken seriously by local law enforcement.

“Three 18-year-old Black boys all within three months,” Crump said. “We want answers.”

Christine Wonsley looks at a photo of her deceased son Nolan Wells, as husband Elmore Wonsley, left, stands at her side as they appear at the National Urban League's annual conference, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Attorney Ben Crump raises his fist as he arrives with clients Christine Wonsley and Elmore Wonsley, mother and step father of Nolan Wells who was found dead after taking a July 4 boat trip with friends, as they appear at the National Urban League's annual conference, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Attorney Ben Crump shouts from the podium as he joins Christine Wonsley and Elmore Wonsley, left, mother and step father of Nolan Wells appear at the National Urban League's annual conference, to share updates on the deaths of their son as well as Daniel Erving, and Tyler Smith, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Azariah Mayhorn is comforted by uncle Trevon Petty, left, as her mother, Lynsey Smith, right, holds a photo of her deceased son and Mayhorn's sister, Tyler Smith, as they appear at the National Urban League's annual conference, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Elmore Wonsley, right, pauses from speaking as wife Christine Wonsley holds a photo of her deceased son, Nolan Wells, as they appear at the National Urban League's annual conference, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — The two police officers focused first on Lindsay Clancy drifting in and out of consciousness in the snow after jumping from her Massachusetts home's second-floor window. Within minutes, they were racing into the basement after her then-husband screamed that all three of their children were dead.

“I can’t wake them up — I can’t get them up!” he frantically told the officers who, along with firefighters and paramedics, gave jurors firsthand accounts on Thursday of the aftermath.

The murder trial has centered on Clancy’s mental state at the time. Her lawyers do not dispute that she strangled the children with exercise bands. But they say she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.

Prosecutors say Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, acted intentionally and is criminally responsible for the deaths in January 2023.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

The testimony came after jurors spent two days listening to testimony from Patrick Clancy and his anguished 911 call. He was still on the phone when he discovered the bodies of 3-year-old Dawson, 5-year-old Cora, and 8-month-old Callan, minutes after returning home from an errand his wife asked him to run.

Patrick Clancy has said in interviews that he forgives his ex-wife, whom he viewed as ill rather than evil. The trial marks the first time he has seen Lindsay Clancy since the killings.

She remains paralyzed from the waist down after using multiple methods to try to end her life that night. She says a voice told her, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself,” according to her lawyer.

Officers Stephen Hall and Brian Josephine testified Thursday that they were each dispatched separately to the house in Duxbury, a coastal town south of Boston. Hall said they arrived to find Patrick Clancy yelling for help from behind the home.

Patrick Clancy testified earlier this week that his injured wife told him the kids were in the basement, but she didn't say they were dead.

When the officers followed the sound of his screams downstairs, only 8-month-old Callan had a faint pulse, Josephine testified.

“Based on my training experience from previous incidents, I knew it wasn’t going to be good,” Josephine said. They began rendering aid with help from firefighters.

PJ Hussey, a fire department supervisor, arrived in time to glimpse through a basement window as Patrick Clancy unwrapped an exercise band from his child's neck.

“It turned very chaotic very quickly” as more ambulances rushed to the house, Hussey testified. Duxbury firefighter and paramedic Jennifer Stratton said the infant never regained a pulse.

If convicted of murder, Lindsay Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

In opening arguments Monday, her attorney said she had bipolar disorder, and that antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child worsened her condition.

Patrick Clancy testified about his wife’s deteriorating mental health in the months leading up to the killings. He said she told him about intrusive thoughts of harming the children, as well as thoughts of suicide.

She sought care from experts in postpartum mood disorders and was put on multiple psychiatric medications. When nothing worked, she checked into a psychiatric hospital. She killed the children 19 days after she was discharged.

Clancy and her ex-husband accuse her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor her, according to lawsuits filed earlier this year.

A wedding photo is seen in a bin of papers during the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Duxbury firefighter Jennifer Stratton testifies during the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Kevin Reddington, defense attorney gestures as he cross-examines a witness during the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Defendant Lindsay Clancy listens during her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Duxbury firefighter Richard Dwyer testifies during the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Patrick Clancy reacts as images of himself and his children on vacation a month before they were killed is shown in the courtroom at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Monday, July 27, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Lindsay Clancy waits for the judge to call a prospective jury member into court in her murder trial where she is charged in the 2023 killing of her three children, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington and Lindsay Clancy listen to the 911 recording from Jan. 24, 2023, during Clancy's murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Patrick Clancy sits on the stand during the Lindsay Clancy murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Lindsay Clancy attends her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)