Inspired by a loss in his own family, Tyler Perry said he will cover funeral costs for the family of Nolan Xavier Wells, the 18-year-old student athlete found dead off the Mississippi Gulf Coast after a boat trip with a group of white friends.
According to authorities, Wells was last seen July 4, around 3 p.m. on Horn Island. His friends reportedly returned home that evening without him and haven’t come forward with any information about what happened to him.
Wells’ body was found in the water off Horn Island around 8:45 p.m. on July 6. Later that day, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said in a statement that officials do not suspect foul play.
Perry announced his intention to cover the funeral costs on social media Friday and said he, too, is searching for the truth after his nephew’s 2020 death in a Louisiana prison was ruled a suicide.
“I know what it’s like to not have the answers that loved ones so desperately need. The agony is debilitating. It is my hope that Nolan’s parents and all who knew and loved him get to the truth of what happened in Mississippi,” Perry wrote on Facebook.
Ledbetter encouraged anyone with videos or images of Wells on Horn Island July 4 to contact the sheriff’s office.
Officials said they currently believe Wells chose to stay on the island when his friends left, but Wells’ family are not convinced.
“He loved life, and God gave him this big heart, which always scared us,” Wells’ mother, Christine Wells-Wonsley said at a news conference on July 10. “Me and his dad had conversations with him all the time. Not just about the importance of understanding our history as Black people, but also the importance of how you have to move in certain spaces.”
Last week, the family retained prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who said Friday that they plan to conduct an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Wells death.
According to the family’s attorneys, Wells’ friends left him on the island but returned to the mainland with his cellphone and keys. His family used an app to track the cellphone’s location and picked it up later that evening.
Crump said the family believes text messages and social media apps had been deleted from his phone before they got it back, and part of their independent investigation will include hiring experts who can retrieve lost data.
CNN reported the autopsy of Wells’ body was completed at the state medical examiner’s office at the request of Jackson County Coroner Bruce Lynd because of the condition of the body.
Lynd said they are still waiting for test results like toxicology before determining an official cause of death.
In the meantime, the family has flown Wells’ body to Washington for an independent autopsy funded by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The autopsy will be performed by Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., president of the National Medical Association and of Howard University Hospital. Mitchell previously served as chief medical examiner for the District of Columbia.
In 2023, Mitchell performed a second autopsy on Lashawn Thompson, who died while incarcerated in Fulton County Jail. The autopsy was also paid for by Kaepernick.
Wells’ death has sparked an outpouring of love for his family and a social media uproar from many who believe his death was racially motivated. According to the family, the boat trip was supposed to be his last fun weekend of the summer. On Monday, his parents had planned to take him back to Southwest Mississippi Community College to attend football camp.
A GoFundMe set up by the family has received thousands of donations and hundreds of comments from people offering their condolences and joining in the calls for justice.
“I think me and his mother did a great job with [preparing him to navigate life] that’s why it’s so hard for me to believe that he would choose to stay on the island. It just wasn’t his character,” said Wells’ father, Elmore Wonsley.
In a statement shared by Jack and Jill of America Inc., the organization recognized that what happened to Wells is a fear many Black parents carry.
“Our sons deserve to grow old. Every Black child deserves to come home. No child should ever be treated as disposable,” the statement said.
Last week, billionaire media mogul Byron Allen donated $100,000 to the family’s GoFundMe to relieve the financial burden caused by Wells’ unexpected death.
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Staff writer Aallyah Wright contributed to this report.
