Thursday, October 1, 2026

Were Nolan Wells Messages Actually Deleted?

Headlines ran wild last week after the Ben Crump team representing the Nolan Wells family said messages were deleted from his phone.  Such statements gave an "ah-ha" moment to the online lynch mob that wants to go down to Ocean Springs and string some boys up.  However, there is just one problem: the phone locked up at 2:18 on July 4.  

The Crumpsters released a 292-page report on the Snapchat messages taken from his phone.  The report is posted below.  

Yours truly has. not had time to read the report so feel free to read and make observations if you so desire. Keep in mind the Crumpsters never turned the phone over to the Jackson County District Attorney or the grand jury.  The only phone evidence they had was this unauthenticated report.   

Forensic scientist Dr. Amy Santoro provided a crisp analysis of the report's findings. 

@amy_santoro No data was physically deleted from his phone. These headlines are misleading. #truecrime #nolanwells #mississippi #phone #snapchat ♬ original sound - Amy Santoro, Ph.D.

The Crumpsters were being a wee bit disingenious (and a little misleading) in their remarks about the Snapchat messages. Once they mentioned the word "deleted" the media went to town with it, adding more fuel to the Facebook fire.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Notwithstanding this, the only take away the moronic mob will ever have is that messages were deleted.

Anonymous said...

To Crump & his cronies: It's all about the Benjamins!

Anonymous said...

I think most rational people have concluded by now that the Crump team consists mainly of grifters. They were not interested in evidence or helping to inform the grand jury, but rather dangling carrots to keep people talking. They are treating this case as their own personal ATM, squeezing every dollar they can from the GoFundMe givers who are too stupid to realize they are being played.

Anonymous said...

Why does anyone still care about this nothingburger of a story? Add it to the pile of fake hate crime hoaxes and move on.

China is busy snapping up data center assets at firesale prices tight as our AI bubble is popping.

Anonymous said...

Kingfish whatever you use to embed the PDF will not allow us to expand or open the report in a new window - it's not readable in the current embed format.

Anonymous said...

Here's what Noaln's mother initially said about the phone:

“When we finally got his phone, me and my sister went through the phone. We went in his Snapchat. He had two accounts. Absolutely nothing,” Christine Wonsley said. “It wasn’t even 24 hours, which is how long videos and pictures stay in Snapchat … even my sister was like ‘Yeah, that’s suspicious.'”

So that statement that she and here sister "went through the phone" is an outright lie.

And what about the forensic examination of the SeaTow recording that Crump was having performed? Nothing but silence on that one.

Anonymous said...

Two types of expert witness. Those with ethics, and the others who are whores to the attorney's check.

Anonymous said...

I'm becoming afraid to click on your articles. Whatever it was, with the green background, began loading into my computer, automatically. I aborted, cleared cookies, and am about to scuttle the computer into one of the Faraday boxes we keep, for compromised electronics (until the 'Boys from Brooklyn' can come out to Connecticut, to assess safety and/or trash the device).

The problem may be with Blogspot. But it's become a real issue, on your blog, for the past few days.

Anonymous said...

"Civil rights attorney Ben Crump's own digital expert in the Nolan Wells case has refuted the suggestion that Wells' phone was accessed and had data deleted from it after Wells last locked the phone before his death. He also clarified a misinterpretation surrounding claims of 'deleted' messages. . . . On a TikTok livestream published to YouTube on Sept. 24, Garrett said, 'When we say erased from the phone, you've got to be a little careful with that. What happens is, when you and I are in conversation on Snapchat, and you decide to delete the messages on my side of the phone, you can do that remotely. That was done. There are some messages that were recalled and deleted from the phone.' Then, in an excerpt of the TikTok livestream that filmmaker Ashley Brant published to Facebook on Sept. 27, Garrett said he never suggested that Wells' phone was accessed by someone else. 'I was very clear on what I said, even though he misinterpreted it and some other people did too,' Garrett said during the Sept. 27 livestream. 'The last time Nolan logged into the phone -- unlocked the phone -- was the last time it was logged into.' He also said that Well's phone remained locked after the last time he accessed it around 2:18 p.m. on July 4 until his parents got the phone at 3:14 a.m. on July 5. He clarified that 'deletions can happen remotely from people sending messages that can delete the messages afterwards.' 'I didn't say somebody unlocked the phone and started playing with the phone and started deleting the phone because that's exactly what I would've said,' Garrett said. 'I said there was deletions on the phone and then there was interactions with the phone -- the interactions with the phone are like people waking the screen up, you can see the messages on the front, that kind of stuff -- but it's not unlocking it.'" "Crump's Expert Who Examined Nolan Wells' Phone Clarifies ‘Misinterpreted' Claims About ‘Deleted' Messages," Sept. 29, 2026, Mississippi Free Press.

Anonymous said...

Never let a good grift go to waste. That philosophy apparently knows no color barrier.

Anonymous said...

This is just another mask off moment for the mouth breathers who still believe foul play was involved. Nothing will ever change their minds and its truly sad and pathetic, but so are they. At some point, being this stupid is a choice.

Anonymous said...

Some people’s minds are like concrete…all mixed up and permanently set. Truth has no standing with them

Anonymous said...

12:32 You are almost right, but all trial lawyers know the two types of experts you speak of: The ones you pay to testify and the ones you leave alone. Same as the ones you mention.

Anonymous said...

Isn’t that true for all attorneys? Water is wet, the sky is blue, and attorneys look for an easy payday.

Anonymous said...

@3:16 - I mostly agree, but it’s been reported that both autopsies found no water in his lungs which would seem to rule out drowning. I don’t think the original group of friends had anything to do with it, but there’s still reason to believe some type of crime occurred here although we may never know for sure.

Anonymous said...

God has the final say.


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