The family of Nolan Xavier Wells, together with nationally renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), have announced additional memorial service details for 18-year-old Nolan Xavier Wells.
Center Pointe Church in Ocean Springs will host the services, where family, friends, and community members will gather to celebrate Nolan's life and honor his memory. Rev. Sharpton will deliver the eulogy, and Attorney Crump will deliver the Call to Justice.
There will be a designated area in the church for the media. Members of the media must be set up by 9:30 a.m. CT.
Nolan Xavier Wells, 18, of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, was a graduate of Ocean Springs High School and a football player at Southwest Mississippi Community College, a young man remembered by those who knew him for his promise, his athleticism, and the life he had ahead of him. On July 4, 2026, he traveled by boat with a group of friends to Horn Island, off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, to celebrate the holiday. He was last seen on the island at approximately 3:00 p.m. and did not return to the mainland with the group. His mother, Christine Wonsley, reported him missing that night.
Following a multi-agency search involving the U.S. Coast Guard, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the National Park Service, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, and the United Cajun Navy, Nolan's body was recovered near Horn Island on Monday, July 6. His identity was confirmed through dental records by the Jackson County coroner. The Jackson County Sheriff's Office has stated that the investigation remains active and that the cause of death is undetermined.
The family retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump, whose team is conducting an independent review and pressing for the release of all records, witness accounts, and investigative findings, as the family continues to seek answers about how Nolan came to be left behind on Horn Island. On Friday, July 10th, the family, Attorney Crump, and Rev. Al Sharpton held a press conference at NAN's House of Justice in Harlem to call for a full, transparent, and urgent investigation into Nolan's death.
The National Action Network has stood with the Wells family as part of its longstanding mission to ensure that the deaths of young Black men receive rigorous, transparent investigation, and that grieving families never have to stand alone in their search for the truth.