Two Face Federal Charges Over 21 Threat Calls in Nolan Wells Death Probe

Q: Why did the FBI step in to extract digital evidence from the friends of a teen found dead after a July boat trip?

The FBI stepped in mainly to help analyze digital evidence in an active, high-profile death investigation and because the case involved federal jurisdiction and interstate elements. Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said the FBI has been involved since the beginning, in part because Horn Island is federal land within the Gulf Islands National Seashore. He said that is not unusual and that the bureau is assisting local investigators with the forensic examination of phones, social media data, and other digital material collected in the case. That digital evidence matters because key questions remain about what happened before Nolan Wells, 18, was found dead after the July 4 boat trip. Investigators have interviewed about 60 witnesses, including the three friends who were with him, and authorities have sought photos, videos, phone data, and messages that might clarify conflicting accounts about whether Wells was left behind, why his phone was not with him, and what occurred on the island. The FBI’s role also expanded as threats tied to the case crossed state lines. Federal authorities said they were addressing interstate threats made against people connected to the investigation, including a judge whose son had been on the trip and local officials. Those threats led to federal charges against suspects from Ohio and California. So, the FBI’s involvement was driven by both the need for specialized digital forensics and the federal dimensions of the case.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 3

Federal prosecutors charged Michelle Edwards of Ohio and Joseph Vasquez Dumarce of California with transmitting threats to Mississippi officials as scrutiny intensifies over 18-year-old Nolan Wells’s July death.
Court records say Edwards made about 21 blocked calls to George County offices and threatened a Jackson County sheriff’s building with a bomb, triggering a lockdown and canine sweep; she faces up to five years in prison.
Dumarce allegedly sent Judge Ashlee Cole—whose son was on Wells’s boat trip—a Facebook message warning of a deadly package and “blood everywhere,” prompting the judge to say her family had received death threats.
Wells, a Black college freshman, was found dead after a Horn Island boat trip with white friends, fueling online speculation about racial motives and harassment claims from the friends, whose legal-defense fundraiser had raised about $94,000 by Monday.
An independent autopsy listed Wells’s cause and manner of death as undetermined and cited missing neck tissue and head discoloration, while the state autopsy remains unreleased because it was sent first to a grand jury.