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When will toxicology results be out in Nolan Wells case? Shocking ‘drinking and cocaine’ claims emerge amid probe
YouTuber Brandon Tatum said that he learned from “reliable sources” that “heavy drinking and cocaine allegedly played a role” in Nolan Wells’ death.
Brandon Tatum, a YouTuber and former police officer, has said that he learned from “reliable sources” that “heavy drinking and cocaine allegedly played a role” in Nolan Wells’ death. He also stressed that toxicology results will prove if those claims are true.
The Ocean Springs, Mississippi teen was found dead in the water on the northwest end of Horn Island on Monday morning, July 6. Wells went missing on July 4 after taking a boat to the island with friends. The search for the teen was called off after a body was found by a park ranger on Monday, July 6.
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“But people are messaging me and telling me that there is heavy drinking and there's cocaine involved. And there's a particular person, I know this person's name, I'm not going to disclose it. I'm going to go to the police first. And then I will disclose it if it doesn't interfere in the investigation. But this person allegedly was offering people cocaine,” Tatum said in a video he shared on X.
He added, “And someone close to Nolan, one of his friends, told me that this person was offering cocaine and rejected it from this person. And I was also told, and this person told me that it's over 100 percent chance that Nolan was using cocaine during this period of time. This person said it was 150 percent sure that when the toxicology comes back, that Nolan will have cocaine in his system.”
Tatum captioned the video post, “I’ve been told by reliable sources that heavy drinking and cocaine allegedly played a role in Nolan Wells’ death. Toxicology results will ultimately determine whether those claims hold up.”
Was there heavy drinking?
Witnesses have now reportedly claimed that Nolan Wells was drinking heavily before he died. A preliminary document obtained by ABC News from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources revealed that witnesses told investigators that they saw Wells drinking a large amount of alcohol while partying with his friends. The email, which was sent on July 5, circulated to search crews a day after Wells was reported missing.
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The MDMR’s document cited that Wells was also “in the company of an unknown female,” who was later identified as Katie McCormack. However, McCormack’s sister dismissed the claim, saying the two of them spoke only very briefly. She also said that the family has cooperated with investigators.
An independent autopsy commissioned by Wells’ family was inconclusive, Ben Crump previously announced. The autopsy found the teen’s cause and manner of death to be “undetermined” pending further investigation.
When will toxicology results be out?
Officials are keeping evidence in the Nolan Wells case a secret, and the district attorney for Mississippi's 19th Circuit Court District has explained why. Neither autopsy results nor toxicology results have been revealed in Wells’ case, and it is unclear when they will be.
In a public statement, Angel Myers McIlrath urged the public to let the investigation and legal process play out smoothly at their own pace. "As divided as the discussion around Nolan's death has become, I know we all want the same thing: To understand what happened to Nolan. With that being our shared goal, we must also share in the goal of protecting the integrity of how the truth is discovered," McIlrath said, as reported by the Hattiesburg American. "If we sacrifice the integrity of the process in effort to satisfy today's questions, we risk undermining the confidence in tomorrow's answers."
"I understand the public's urgency to understand what happened to Nolan, but we are not taking time for time's sake. We are taking the time required to complete the work that this investigation demands," McIlrath further said.
