About this episode

The episode discusses the circumstances surrounding the case of Nolan Wells, who was left behind on an island by his friends and later found deceased.

Everybody arguing about the Nolan Wells case online is arguing about the wrong hour. Not the autopsy. Not the phone. The boat ride home — the moment a group of eighteen-year-olds untied from a barrier island and left one of their own behind on it. Horn Island sits about ten miles off Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The National Park Service keeps it undeveloped. There is no shelter out there, no drinking water, no store, no cell tower. For one day a year it's the best party on the coast. Every other hour of the year it's empty, and after dark on the Fourth it goes right back to empty. Nolan Wells was a college wide receiver, eighteen years old, out there with kids he grew up with. They came home. He was found in the water two days later by a National Park Service ranger, off the island's northwestern tip. Tony reads the mailbag straight. Nobody wrote in asking about tide charts. They wrote in asking how you get on a boat and look at an empty seat and pull away from the dock. They wrote in asking whether anybody counted. They wrote in asking what that island offers a person who's still on it at midnight, alone, with no way to call anyone. The sheriff's office has said a friend reached…

People in this episode

Host: Tony Brueski

Topics covered

• Nolan Wells case
• true crime
• missing person
• investigation
• youth culture
• drowning

Keywords

• Nolan Wells
• Horn Island
• drowning
• true crime
• investigation
• missing person
• Ocean Springs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: National Park Service, Coast Guard

Places: Horn Island, Ocean Springs, Mississippi

More episodes of Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

• Two Families, Two States, And One Difference · July 21, 2026 · 19 min
• What Nolan Wells' Second Autopsy Was Supposed To Settle · July 21, 2026 · 21 min
• How Did Nolan Wells End Up Alone on That Island?! · July 20, 2026 · 20 min
• Clancy, Nolan Wells, and the Siders 16 Kids: Coffindaffer on WHAT?! · July 20, 2026 · 59 min
• Why Lindsay Clancy's Husband Is Testifying For Her Defense · July 20, 2026 · 23 min
• What Lindsay Clancy Did the Minute Her Husband Walked Out · July 20, 2026 · 19 min

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