I’ve been to Mississippi. I’ve talked to Nolan’s friends. I’ve looked at the information available. And the more I speak with people who were actually involved, the more this story looks different from what’s being pushed on social media.
That’s why I wanted to talk to Josh Gill.
Josh is the Incident Commander for the United Cajun Navy, a nonprofit disaster response, relief, recovery, and search organization. He specializes in search and rescue operations.
More importantly, Josh was involved almost from the beginning.
He communicated directly with Nolan’s mother, Christine Wells. His organization mobilized volunteers, put boats in the water, searched Horn Island, deployed drones, and communicated with law enforcement.
What he told me provides another firsthand perspective on those critical first days.
Josh first learned about Nolan’s disappearance late Saturday night into early Sunday morning.
Then Christine Wells called him.
Josh immediately started asking the questions you would expect from somebody experienced in search and recovery.
Physical description. Mental health concerns. Habits. Anything that could help determine where they needed to look.
According to Josh, Christine described Nolan as essentially the All-American kid. She mentioned he had been drinking the previous day but identified no mental health crisis.
And there was another detail that matters.
Christine told Josh that Nolan had gone out with a bunch of his friends.
That was the information Josh had when this search began.
I asked Josh directly whether Christine expressed concerns about race during those first frantic hours.
His answer was no.
Did she express concerns about foul play?
Again, no.
Josh described her as:
“A frantic mother worried about her child.”
He said Christine repeatedly told him Nolan had gone out with his friends, giving Josh the impression this was a cohesive group of young people celebrating the Fourth of July.
That matters because this eventually became a national racial controversy.
According to a man communicating directly with Nolan’s mother at the beginning, that wasn’t how this case started.
The United Cajun Navy mobilized volunteers.
They had boats in the water, boots on Horn Island, and drones searching from the air.
Josh also contacted the Coast Guard about additional air support. He said they told him they already had rotary-wing aircraft searching and that Jackson County Sheriff’s Office had jurisdiction.
I asked Josh whether his team found evidence of an altercation during the initial search.
His answer was simple:
None.
They continued searching and stayed in contact with Christine throughout the day.
The following morning, the United Cajun Navy had fixed-wing aircraft preparing to search.
Then Josh received the call.
Nolan had been found.
Christine called shortly afterward, and Josh told her to meet him at the boat launch.
Josh described Christine pulling up, running toward him and hugging him. He sat on the ground in the parking lot with Christine and Nolan’s father for roughly 15 or 20 minutes.
They cried together.
I think people need to remember that image.
This wasn’t initially some racial battle.
It was a community trying to find an 18-year-old kid.
Christine asked Josh to accompany the family to meet with the coroner.
According to Josh, the coroner believed the recovered body was Nolan based on its appearance and photographs, although additional confirmation was needed.
Josh also recalled the coroner saying there was no initial appearance of foul play.
That does not answer every question about Nolan’s death.
An investigation and autopsy were still necessary.
But we cannot ignore firsthand accounts simply because they don’t fit somebody’s preferred narrative.
Josh also told me that, based on his direct interactions, he did not observe a lack of engagement from law enforcement.
This was one of the most interesting parts of our conversation.
The beginning of this case looked like a community searching for a missing young man.
Then it became racial.
Young white men who had been Nolan’s friends began facing accusations. National figures entered the picture. The rhetoric intensified.
I asked Josh what he observed.
He said he didn’t necessarily disagree with my assessment.
Josh also said his communications with Christine and her family “dwindled down” after the hiring or onboarding of Ben Crump.
He remains supportive of Christine and made that very clear. He even contacted her on what would have been Nolan’s birthday to tell her he was there if she needed him.
But Josh said he believes outside influence contributed to the change.
That is his opinion, but given how closely involved he was, I think people deserve to hear it.
This may have been the biggest revelation of the interview.
There have been questions about using cadaver dogs on one of the boats associated with the trip.
Turns out, Josh Gill says he was the person who offered the dogs.
The United Cajun Navy had access to human-remains detection dogs, and Josh said he personally offered those resources to the family’s legal team.
His proposal was simple.
He would provide the dogs and resources. The attorneys would need to obtain permission or whatever legal authorization was necessary to search the vessel.
According to Josh, concerns had been raised that the boat had been cleaned. But he said the young men told him they had simply sprayed the vessel down with fresh water, a normal practice after removing a boat from saltwater.
Josh believed the dogs could still potentially provide useful information.
Josh said the attorney told him they would have to think about the offer.
He never personally received a follow-up telling him to bring the dogs.
I asked him how he interpreted that.
Josh said he believed there were concerns that the dogs wouldn’t alert.
He called that a “red flag.”
Those are Josh’s words and his interpretation.
It does not prove what happened to Nolan. A dog search wouldn’t resolve every question in this case.
But if you’re publicly asking whether Nolan’s body had been on a particular boat and somebody with access to trained human-remains detection dogs offers that resource, why wouldn’t you explore it?
That’s a legitimate question.
Josh also said that roughly two weeks later, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office asked him to provide cadaver dogs for a different case, demonstrating that authorities were aware of the organization’s capabilities.
This is something Josh and I strongly agree on.
Whatever you believe happened to Nolan Wells, threatening young men on social media isn’t justice.
Josh said these boys have been taking a beating from threats and rhetoric.
Social media can be an incredible tool for finding missing people.
It can also destroy somebody’s life based on rumors.
As Josh put it:
“Let’s use our noggin, not just to hold a hat on top of it.”
Exactly.
Ask questions.
Investigate.
Demand answers.
But don’t manufacture evidence.
I’ll tell you something else this interview did.
It gave me more empathy for Nolan’s mother.
I’m frustrated by the racial rhetoric and what has happened to these young men. But listening to Josh describe those first days reminded me that this woman lost her son.
He watched a frantic mother become a grieving mother.
And he still supports her.
What I continue to question is who has gotten into her ear since then.
Did activists, attorneys and political figures enter a grieving family’s life and turn what began as a community search for answers into another racial battle?
That’s a question worth asking.
Josh ended our conversation with something everyone should agree on.
Find the truth.
Get the answers.
And be willing to accept those answers when they come.
That’s what I’ve been trying to do since I started investigating this case.
If evidence proves somebody hurt Nolan, follow that evidence wherever it leads and hold that person accountable.
But if the evidence doesn’t show that, you don’t get to manufacture a murderer because the facts didn’t produce the story you wanted.
Nolan’s family deserves answers.
His friends deserve the truth.
And the community deserves an investigation driven by evidence instead of anger.
Josh said it best:
“Let’s be driven by love. And let’s not be driven by anger.”
That’s where this should have stayed from the beginning.
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