Mystery woman Nolan Wells' friends say he was chatting to when they left island is identified... as her sister shares conflicting account that has troubled black teen's family

By NIC WHITE, US SENIOR INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER Published: 19:18, 23 July 2026 | Updated: 19:18, 23 July 2026 They were just two promising teenagers soaking up the sun on a party island under a perfect cloudless sky for the Fourth of July holiday. But within 24 hours, he was floating dead in its waters ten miles off the coast of Mississippi... and she would be linked to the tragedy through no fault of her own.  He is, of course, Nolan Wells, the black 18-year-old athlete whose death triggered an outcry from his family and a famous civil rights lawyer since hired to represent them. The Daily Mail can reveal the girl Wells' friends claim he was talking to when they left Horn Island is Katie McCormack, a 19-year-old student from a few towns east of Ocean Springs, where Wells lived. Wells made the July 4 trip with a group of close friends and spent five hours having fun among hundreds of other teenagers and college students. But by late in the afternoon they were in a panic - the boat was taking on water and needed to hurry back to town before it sank. Wells, still engrossed in conversation with McCormack, told his friends to make the 10-mile trip back to the mainland without him, they later claimed to police Meanwhile, McCormack's sister Gracie, 23, has countered claims that Wells stayed to talk to her sibling.  McCormack assumed Wells would be heading back to the mainland with his friends, according to Gracie. The girl Wells' friends claim he was talking to when they left is Katie McCormack, a 19-year-old student from a few towns east of Wells  Nolan Wells, 18, was found dead on the northwestern tip of Horn Island, just south of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, two days after a Fourth of July boating trip with friends There is absolutely no suggestion of wrongdoing on McCormack's part and Wells' family has been publicly supportive of her.  But the conflicting accounts between what Wells' friends say happened and what McCormack's sister countered with have sparked concern from Wells' family, who hired top civil rights lawyer Ben Crump to investigate the teenager's death.  Wells was the only black teen on the boat with his white friends, and Crump claimed his race means that the case must be very carefully investigated.  'She saying he went and got on the boat. They saying he didn't get on the boat. So which is it?' he told reporters in the days after he was hired.  'The fact that you have the young lady who said that Nolan said he was going to get back on the boat with the boys, and then the boys said no, Nolan told them that he was going to stay with the girl. 'Somebody must not be telling the truth.' McCormack's sister Gracie said: 'Katie had a conversation and assumed that Nolan was getting ready to get on the boat he came out on. 'Katie assumed the "friends" telling him to get on the boat wouldn't have left him.' The exact chain of events, and whether Wells told his friends to leave without him or just wait a little longer, remains unclear. Wells was on Horn Island with some of his closest friends who made the 75-minute trip in three boats from about 10am. Some of them are pictured together on the boat that day  Wells with a friend at the party. Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said authorities do not suspect foul play and believe that the teenager drowned Gracie said her sister was on the island with a different group to the one Wells was in and was later taken home by her brother Tony and his fiancée Eva Criddle. 'We have given all the answers we can give to his mom and authorities,' she said. McCormack has not publicly spoken about what happened on Horn Island, but replied to a social media post made by a friend to defend her. 'What's understood don't have to be said. I love y'all. Just pray for his family and his friends,' she wrote. 'I'm good, and all I can do is pray for healing over them. This is a terrible situation all in all.'  Few are finding the situation more terrible than Wells' parents Christine and Elmore Wonsley.  The couple claimed Jackson County Sheriff's Office had been too quick to assert that there were no signs of foul play, particularly in a state with a disturbingly racist past.  Findings from Wells' autopsy are yet to be released by the coroner, and a private examination ordered by his family called his cause of death 'undetermined'.  McCormack was the girl Wells' friends said he was talking to when he chose to stay behind after the boat he arrived on left Horn Island at 4.31pm McCormack was on the island with different people to Wells and was later taken home by her brother Tony and his fiancee Eva Criddle (pictured) McCormack is from Pascagoula, about 17 miles east of Wells' home in Ocean Springs, and known to host large gatherings at her parents' home. One of Wells' relatives, Jackson County Sheriff's deputy Kedriana McKinney, posted in support of McCormack after she received a torrent of abuse claiming she played a role in the teen's death. 'We all know and love Katie. Nobody as far as my family is blaming Katie. We all love her and her whole family. She has spent many events with our whole family in Three Rivers countless times,' she wrote. 'My family has no vendetta out against her whatsoever. We love her! I think we are just trying to understand what happened.' Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said investigators did not suspect foul play and believed Wells chose to stay on the island. Wells' family have accused Ledbetter of rushing to that conclusion and have hired high profile civil rights attorney Ben Crump to investigate further.   Crump has insisted Wells may have met with foul play, and seized on the 'conflicting' accounts McCormack and the teen's friends gave to police. One of Wells' relatives, Jackson County Sheriff's deputy Kedriana McKinney (pictured), posted in support of McCormack Wells' friends said they had to leave the festivities early because the boat was taking on water due to a problem with its bilge pump. The situation was dire enough that they called dispatch to ask for help getting the vessel safely back to the mainland. 'Hey, we're at the west tip of Horn and our bilge pump stopped working... We're going. We're sinking. Can you all please come?' they said. 'I want to get this boat unsank and towed back.' The boat eventually returned to where it left at 9.56am, and later that night towed over land to nearby Biloxi where its owners live. Wells and his friends arrived on three boats, leaving the mainland just before 10am and arriving at 11.14am. Neither of the other two boats picked Wells up, assuming he was already home.  Crump was also incredulous that Wells wouldn't ask for his phone back if he wasn't coming back on the boat he left on. Wells and his friends all left their phones on the three boats they arrived on. His device was discovered late that night after he didn't come home. Locals said this was standard practice so boaters didn't risk them getting wet as they waded through 3ft of water to the beach, and there was no reception on the island anyway. Wells with his parents, who hired Crump in the wake of their son's death Crump claimed racism could be a factor in Wells' death. A $150,000 reward has been offered for any information that may lead to an eventual conviction, with donors including Reverend Al Sharpton Hollywood filmmaker Tyler Perry.  An independent autopsy paid for by former NFL quarter Colin Kaepernick was also performed, with its results revealed by Crump on Wednesday.  A coroner in Washington, DC, ruled Wells's death as 'undetermined, pending investigation.' The same results were given for his manner of death, Crump said.   Wells's body was flown 800 miles to undergo the independent autopsy. His family also planned to hire experts to recover messages from the teenager's phone before turning it over to authorities.  Crump said the second autopsy had 'several limitations' that created 'barriers' to determine exactly how Wells died. Decomposition of the body may have obscured the 'presence or absence of bruising on the skin surface,' the report stated. Anterior neck structures were not received with the body, the autopsy report said, which prevented the coroner from being able to conduct a complete posterior neck dissection. Due to this, the coroner could not rule out neck injury as a possible contributor, the report stated. The teenager's mother, Christine Wonsley, center, with her husband Elmore, second from left, attorney Crump, left, and Reverend Al Sharpton, right, during Wells's funeral on Monday Civil rights attorney Ben Crump unveiled the results of the independent autopsy Wednesday morning, which determined Wells's cause of death is 'undetermined, pending investigation' Organ dissection performed by the Mississippi coroner prevented direct examination of the teen's airway and lungs for water and stomach contents, the autopsy report noted. The original toxicology reports also had not been received at the time of the second autopsy report.  The coroner did not identify any fractures or deep tissue injuries, but found find some red discoloration on the back of the teenager's head.  'The etiology of this finding is unclear,' the report added.  'Based on the examination of the body, he cannot rule out foul play,' Crump said, citing the autopsy report. Crump reiterated multiple times that investigators found Wells' body faced down and fully clothed, despite photos from the day showing him shirtless and in swimming trunks.