The family of Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old college football player who died under mysterious circumstances, has issued subpoenas to several social media companies. The legal action seeks account information and data from platforms including Snapchat, WhatsApp, TikTok, and Meta (Facebook's parent company), as well as the location-tracking app Life360. The subpoenas were filed on Tuesday, according to court documents.
The family is requesting all materials and information related to Wells' accounts, which include current and prior usernames, passwords, email addresses, phone numbers, display names, and IP addresses. They also demanded access to all communications, such as chats, posts, and stories.
Wells' death earlier this month has garnered national attention. He went boating with friends on July 4th to Horn Island off the Mississippi Coast but did not return. His friends eventually returned to the mainland and told police they had left him behind. Wells' body was discovered in the water off the island two days later.
A key concern for the family centers on Wells' cell phone. His mother, Christine Wonsley, stated that upon receiving the phone back, they found no pictures or videos on his two Snapchat accounts. Wonsley described the absence of content as "suspicious" and expressed fears that it may have been deliberately deleted.
However, a friend who was on the trip with Wells, Warren Hudson, has stated he has no knowledge of any content being deleted from the phone. Hudson told YouTuber The Officer Tatum that neither he nor other friends accessed Wells' phone, except to move it from the boat to a truck. He asserted that none of them had Wells' password to delete anything, adding, "There's nothing to hide here."
The subpoenas were filed by Mississippi-based attorney Gary Bufkin, who is collaborating with prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump on an independent investigation into Wells' death.