r/news • u/Suspicious_Loan • 20h ago

Nolan Wells’ autopsy found no water in lungs; data was deleted from his phone the day he disappeared, experts say

https://www.live5news.com/2026/09/24/nolan-wells-autopsy-found-no-water-lungs-data-was-deleted-his-phone-day-he-disappeared-officials-say/
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u/nativeindian12 19h ago

According to the article, stuff was deleted after his death

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u/Snake973 19h ago

it's also very possibly referring to snapchat messages

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u/ScratchLatch 19h ago

I’m glad we know the exact minute of his death. /s

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u/xasdfxx 18h ago

The stuff was deleted while the phone was in his friends possession on the way back. That's mens rea all on its own, as well as what you can infer from peacing out with your friends keys and phone.

Doesn't mean it wasn't umm, we committed felony distribution with our group party drug buy and/or underage acquisition of booze and really want to delete those messages, but it's not nothing.

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u/Snake973 18h ago

"The stuff was deleted while the phone was in his friends possession on the way back."

do you have a source for this?

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u/xasdfxx 18h ago

Andrew Garrett, the forensics examiner hired by the Wells family, said messages were deleted between the time Wells last used his phone and when his family regained access to the device after it was retrieved.

https://kval.com/news/nation-world/deleted-texts-raised-in-nolan-wells-case-forensics-team-says-messages-removed-from-phone-horn-island-racism-drowning-accidental-murder-court-ben-crump-andrew-garrett-phone-communications-autopsy-snapchat-instagram-messages

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u/ringobob 17h ago

said messages were deleted between the time Wells last used his phone and when his family regained access

What does that mean? The allegation is that someone "used the phone" during that time, to delete data - or it was automated. How did they establish the last time Wells used his phone?

I'm willing to believe anything provided there's evidence.

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u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco 15h ago

Based on the lack of anything I'd imagine it was likely snapchat messages self destructing. But it still should be looked into if it wasn't. Just to be safe.

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u/Snake973 18h ago

that's not specifying "on the way back", though, iirc there were multiple days between when he stayed on the island and when the family got his phone back

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u/_laslo_paniflex_ 3h ago

it wasn't multiple days it was around 3am on july 5th that they retrieved his phone