NOLAN WELLS BOMBSHELL: DEATH-THREAT “BLOOD, SO MUCH BLOOD”

Bombshell tonight. In the investigation of the death of a young man, Nolan Wells, death threats are flying. One actually says there’s going to be blood. So much blood. Another death threat says don’t go outside. How can anybody do their jobs when they’re getting death threats? Not only that, we understand this case is headed to a grand jury. We also learned tonight that the state’s autopsy is complete, but is being kept secret. Isn’t an autopsy a public document? Why is it being kept hidden from us, the public? What is in that autopsy, the first autopsy of Nolan Wells? Good evening. I’m Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. Uh the young lady Katie that he was hanging out with, I saw a text message from her alluding to the fact that she never saw him get on that boat at all. They could have been saying, “Don’t die or is it dead?” Referring to the village pump. Somebody would have seen something if there was a dramatic commotion like this occurring on that boat.

“I hope Nolan Wells died by accident. I’m not shutting down our crime stories investigation until I know.”

“Hey, we’re at the uh west tip of porn and uh our village pump stopped working. We’re going we’re sinking. Can y’all please come? We have a membership.”

“Shut the up.”

“What’ you say?”

You know, if that sound is real, there’s no getting away from that. And all this business about there’s no connection. Well, I listened to a good 40 seconds of STO sa second word to o on hold. Listen to their music. There was plenty good connection. But before I can even get to the death threats of blood, so much blood, blood everywhere and don’t step outside and more. Before I can even get to the grand jury, before I can get to the autopsy that’s being kept hidden from us, I want you to meet someone very important, critical to this investigation. Her name, Janetta Brantley. Miss Brantley is the audio engineer who enhanced the 911 call, the STO call in the Nolan Wells case. So everybody claiming some ding-dong on YouTube did it or somebody on Insta or Tik Tok did it. No, she did it. I’ve spoken to her. I’ve read her statement. I want you to judge her credibility. Credibility is normally the sole province of a jury. And tonight you serve in that function. Miss Brantley, I’m sure that you’re getting all sorts of abuse, threats, and so forth. It’s a cacaphony that seemingly won’t cease. That said, thank you for being with us tonight. Explain to me where you got the audio, how you got the audio, and what, if anything, you did to enhance the audio.

“Um, first and foremost, uh, I basically downloaded it off of YouTube from WLOX, um, News’s YouTube site. And when I downloaded it, I I ripped it off of YouTube. That’s the terminology that we use where we take something off of um, YouTube. But when I ripped it off of YouTube and I pulled it in…”

“Pause, please. Objection. Miss Brantley, isn’t it true that the audio you got was taken directly by XLOO from MDMR? Correct. The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. Isn’t that true?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Please continue, Miss Brantley.”

“So, when I downloaded it from um YouTube, I pulled it into my dog, which is Logic Pro X. That’s my dog choice. And when I first listened to it, um I realized that it was like a dual mono recording which most um what is it like most phone services or operators use utilize when they’re recording conversations. And so it was already split between the the caller, the dispatch, and um the callers in the in the background. And so that’s that’s what made it easy for me to isolate it without having to do much to it. So that isolation when I separated the left channel from the right channel um that just made me be able to really focus on everything that was on the call end and what I was hearing was like like I I couldn’t I honestly could not believe what I was hearing.”

“Miss Brantley, isn’t it true this is the same audio that was released by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources?”

“Yes, that is absolutely correct.”

Let’s listen to it one more time.

“Hey, we’re at the uh west tip of porn and uh our village pump stopped working. We’re going we’re sinking. Can you all please come? We have a membership.”

“Give me the up. Shut the up.”

“What’ you say?”

“Uh, it’s going up. It’s It’s We’re just thinking. I don’t know. Like, we’re just We’re going down though. I don’t know the phone number. It’s It’s either…”

“I think it’s Try that.”

“I know we have a membership like guaranteed.”

“I don’t have the tag on here. It got ripped off.”

“What? No, we do not need that.”

“Let me go look.”

“Jump in and pull the plug while you’re going.”

“Hello.”

“Okay. What’s going on? What’s up?”

“Hey, we’re at the uh west tip of porn and uh our doge pump stopped working. We’re going we’re sinking. Can y’all please come? We have a membership up.”

“Hey, we’re at the west tip of porn and uh our village pump stopped working. We’re going we’re sinking. Can y’all please come? We have a membership.”

“SHUT UP. SHUT THE UP.”

Welcome to Cookie Daddy day. Back to Janetta Brantley joining us tonight and she shows herself in that video showing what she is doing. What does adding EQ mean, Miss Brantley?

“Adding it. EQ is basically selecting a certain frequency of the actual sound and either deleting or removing a certain noise, something that’s problematic to the ear. Um, deleting that or boosting that. That’s literally all EQing is.”

What was your process, Janetta? Because I was sitting researching. It was early early early in the morning, like um 5:45 a.m. several days ago, and I was researching the Nolan Wells case, and I saw the transcript as it was being played. And my husband was also up. He said, “What’s wrong?” I’m like, “If this is real, this changes everything. It changes everything.” Because up until that point, it seemed as if Nolan’s death could very well have been an accident. If this is real, it changes everything. It’s seismic. What was your reaction when you heard these words, Janetta Brantley?

“Um, uh, I think at my core, I was in disbelief. I I wasn’t cleaning it or enhancing it to specifically look for or identify a crime or even point the fingers at anybody. I I believe I wanted it to be an accident. I think a lot of us wanted it to be an accident. So when I heard those things, when I heard Damn it, Bart, that name stood out to me because I hadn’t even heard that name before. As I was listening to certain things that stood out to me, I was in I was in disbelief because again, I’m I’m just an audio engineer. I’m not an investigator or a detective or anything like that. So, when I heard a name that I wasn’t familiar with, it stood out to me. And that alone made me want to hear what was immediately said after Damit Bart. And so that’s why in that process where Damit Bart came in loud and clear to me, I decided to go over to the next part to hear what the rest of that statement was, which is where you saw me actually create a loop over that part. Uh, split that part and then add a gain, which the gain is boosting the volume overall. And that’s pretty much what you saw me do in that actual video. And so to hear, you know, damn it, Bart, Nolan’s really dead now. That I I was I couldn’t believe it. I could not believe it.”

My reaction to Janetta because when I first heard it, I thought this this has got to be doctor. This can’t be real. Um don’t move. Straight out to veteran trial lawyer Fron Borgart, a veteran trial lawyer joining us out of the Baton Rouge jurisdiction at Borghart’s law firm. Fron, take off your defense hat just one moment. I have introduced wiretaps many times at trials, which are very hard to get by the way, and I’ve never had one that I believed was doctorred at the time because they were taken by law enforcement. This is from a completely independent source with no dog in the fight, no skin in the game. It’s from dispatch at STO. And if this is real, this blows the case wide up. Now, you saw Janetta Brantley. You’ve heard her. I have no reason to disbelieve anything she’s saying. So, if I’m prosecuting this, I need I’m worried that I need a witness in 2026 to exclude the possibility that it’s either AI generated or doctor, just like you suggested. And I think that she’s very credible, but I think we need to go one step further. The other concern I have, Nancy, is if the independent autopsy is showing inconclusive death results, now I really want to see the other autopsy to see is there trauma to the body? Is there something that happened? These are the concerns I would have as a prosecutor, but we’ve now opened the doors to these these guys may in fact have committed obstruction of justice. Um…

“Hold on, hold on. You’re putting the cart before the horse before we talk about obstruction such as allegedly lying or covering something up. You’ve already mentioned two distinct lines of inquiry. One is that the audio that Janetta Brantley enhanced innocently I believe had been already AI or doctorred. Okay, let’s follow that through to its logical conclusion. You just throw that out there like a stink bomb at the circle. You know what a circle meeting is, right? In the United Methodist Church, all the ladies have circle meetings. Okay. To suggest this was doctorred by before genetic got it means it had to have been doctorred or AI created by who? The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. No, no, no. Don’t just go. That doesn’t work in court. Borhearts. You can’t just throw Oh, that’s like the sod defense. Some some other dude did it. What dude? What? Who? What are you talking about? So, you’re saying AI doctorred by who? If it’s not Janetta, then who? She got it. The same sound that was released by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. What? You think they doctorred it?”

“There is nothing normal about this case. And if if the…”

“That’s not what I asked you. I’m asking you to explain your premise and you’re not doing it.”

“I said if I were a prosecutor, I would want to be able to establish with e expert testimony that what we are listening to is real. And I would want a witness because I’m telling you with this case with as viral as it’s been, I’m not disagreeing that it’s real. I’m saying I would want to be able to bolster that very credible woman’s testimony. And she is very credible. I have no doubt that what we’re listening to and what she did is credible. The issue is I don’t know if she can go the next to say…”

“Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. She cannot testify as to whether MDMR had enhanced it or doctorred it before it was released. But see, the problem is you would have to ask someone to believe a clerk or an official at the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources this before they released it to the extent that nobody could understand it until they enhanced it. That’s a hell of a doctor job. Okay. So, you did that. Then you got into the medical examiner findings. Okay. What was your theory on that very quickly?”

“Very quickly, if he’s dead on the boat, how did he die? It should be conclusive. It shouldn’t be inconclusive.”

Joining us right now, Joseph Scott Morgan, renowned death investigator, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University with a premier criminal pro department and building, author of Blood Beneath My Feet, star of a hit series, Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan, and it goes on. Significant over 10,000 death scenes under his belt. Joe Scott, follow up. I’m not arguing in Borgarts. Let’s learn if we can from what he’s saying. Jump.

“Yeah. So, whatever has been the causal factors here has got to marry up with what they were seeing at the scene and perhaps the audio does fall into this, you know, these statements. Uh, and I think that probably from a medical legal perspective, that is the coroner and the medical examiner are going to want to be able to fully appreciate what is being said here from a timeline. This is absent the police’s investigation. They’re going to try to rule in or rule out what they’re seeing presenting on Nolan’s remains when they finally did receive them at the state medical examiner’s office and that examination began. And this is going to be critical and key, you know, because the causal effects here are going to be uh critical, you know, we go back to to these changes that the second autopsy referred to on the back of the head. Now the doctor was not able to at that point in time even though he did do a thorough what’s referred to as a layered dissection here he could not establish the causal effects here because the the injury or the insult that you see there this presentation is compromised by decomposition. So what did the state medical examiner u see? My problem is here Nancy, how was the body treated before or after the first autopsy and the body is transported up to DC? I have questions about this because they’re talking about to the degree with which the body was decomposed. The doctor up in DC is seeing significant decomposition. We don’t know what they saw in Mississippi, but I do know that you’re only talking about what, and I’m ballparking here. Please give me some grace, maybe 48 hours tops, uh, before the medical legal authorities have seen the body. So, how far degraded is the body to compromise any of this? And this evidence is going to have to be borne out uh not not just not just with the physical findings that you see with the unaded eye but also whatever is going on toxicologically.”

I want you to take a careful look at this video we have obtained. Let’s see it. Look how tightly everyone is packed in. There were hundreds of people out on Horn Island on July the 4th. What? Nobody saw what happened to Nolan Wales. They all just left with him standing there stranded waving his arms like Gilligan. That that that that did not happen. Now that you’re seeing this, what is an innocent explanation? I’m trying to figure that out. Joining me. And I’ll circle back to you, Joe Scott, because I got a lot of questions regarding the way he could have died innocently and been left behind and that sound being true. The sound that Janetta Brantley enhanced. Is there any innocent explanation? Is there a way, as my favorite judge often said, Luther Albertson, it is your duty to make all witnesses speak the truth and impeachy to no one. Is there a way that can be done? I don’t know that it can. It seems to me that someone is lying. But who? Joining me now, Teslan Figaro, social justice, political commentator, host of the Teslan Figuro podcast. Mudo, thank you for being with us. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

“Yeah. Well, that’s what the family is saying. They don’t believe he died by accident. That’s the point. That’s the reason why Nolan Wells mom is saying, “I don’t believe this. I don’t believe he died by accident before we had the audio.” The audio simply confirms that there are additional questions that needs to be asked. It wasn’t just one thing they said in the audio. They said Nolan repeatedly in the audio. They said check his chest in the audio. They said is he dead in the audio? And also notice this Nancy, did you notice that the operator also said is anybody breathing? WHO SAYS THAT? WHAT? WHAT OPERATOR SAYS WHO ALL IS breathing on the boat? So is this all the audio, NANCY? IS THERE MORE AUDIO? That’s my question.”

I want to look specifically, Teslan, at what was said. At one point, we hear we think you killed him. He’s already dead. He’s already dead. Is he dead? Yeah. Nolan. OMG. Wake up. And as Janetta stated, then she hears a completely different name, Bart. Now, we also hear and I’m very curious the phrase no no Teslan Figaro. Was that a nickname of Nolan Wells?

“I cannot confirm um if that’s a nickname of of his or not. Uh but what I do know is we heard Nolan. What I do know is we heard check his chest. What I do know is that we said, “Is he dead?” What we do know is we heard screams. There’s folks out there suggesting that perhaps they were talking to a seagull or perhaps talking to some what random bird that was flying around. That’s called No. No. Uh there were folks out there that suggesting well maybe they were talking about the boat. Come. We got to knock this off. Nancy, we heard what we heard. And so we would have put this before a jury.”

Also we hear, “Damn it, Bart. No really dead. Damn. Damn it, Bart. No really dead.” Repeating it over and over and over. According to reports, his nickname, one of them is no. Back to Teslan Figo. What is Nolan’s mother’s theory about what happened in light of these tapes?

“Before we even had the tapes, her theory is, I told my son, I’ve raised my son just like I’ve raised my 19-year-old the same the same way, Nancy, like I’m sure you raise your children. Come back with the people you went with. Her theory has always been that he is a fantastic swimmer, that he is an athlete. Her theory has always been that he did not drown. Her theory has always been that there’s something wrong with with this picture. Her theory has always been that the fact that, you know, he left his phone and left and left his keys. Her theory has also always been that he did not just go off with some random stranger and say, “Guys, don’t worry about it. Just leave me on an island.” Her theory is the same thing before this audio. This audio only confirms what this mother already knew.”

Joining me now, Susan Hendris, investigative journalist, author of Down the Hill, My Descent into the Double Murder in Deli, who has been on this case from the beginning. Susan Hendricks, we all know that everyone in our country is innocent until proven guilty. And regardless of how you or I or anybody else feels, that includes the young men on the boat with Nolan Wells.

“We have a lot of questions that have to be answered. Is this sound real? Has it been enhanced? Who enhanced it? Was it AI or doctorred before Janetta Brantley pumped it up so we could hear it? I want you to hear another version. You can see that I have the STO channel completely muted so we’re only listening to the callers. Then I go through and simply raise the volume of all of the chatter we hear at the beginning of the call.”

“Hey, we’re at the uh west tip of Horn and uh our village pump stopped working. We’re going we’re sinking. Can you all please come? We have a membership.”

“Shut the up. Damn it.”

Susan, that was enhanced by my producer Sydney. I know her like that. I asked her, “Enhance it the best you can.” She again has no interest in the outcome of this case. She pulls up, quote, “Want me to cover him up? I mean, Susan, weigh in. I was listening to the enhanced version, both of them now, not doctor, by the way. There’s there’s a big difference there. Have you ever heard Nancy on Instagram where you listen to two things and your mind goes to what you’re thinking of like green car or moonboat? What are we really hearing? I believe that something nefarious did happen where I think the answers will be. Again, this is my opinion, but I believe something happened there and we’re not hearing the full story. And you pointing out, Nancy, how crowded that area was. So, let’s say what people are claiming that it was an accidental drowning. No one saw. Look here at the crowd. Nobody saw what happened. And all of us have our phones on us all the time. No one recorded this. I think the answers are in the timeline and also the autopsy when we will hear answers there.

You’re seeing video from the officer Tatum show and I don’t know what they were trying to show with it, but how can someone be dead and floating in the water and nobody notice? Which leads me to Susan Hendricks, the fact that we have learned tonight that the state’s autopsy is complete, but it’s being kept secret.

“Mhm. Yeah, absolutely. Being held for the grand jury to look into that. And the fact, as you brought up, Nancy, earlier that part of his throat was missing, will that be key? There’s so many questions around this, but right, it’s a public record, but we’re not hearing about it. I guess they’re waiting for the grand jury to show him that first.”

Joe Scott Morgan, death investigator, I’ve never known an autopsy report not to be a public record unless they’re claiming ongoing investigation.

“Yeah.”

Now, in the D4VD David Anthony Burke case, the LAPD demanded the medical examiner keep it secret because the medical examiner’s office allegedly was leaking information, possibly from money. Don’t know that yet, but I will. How common is that? That the medical examiner is ordered not to release the autopsy. Why is the autopsy being kept secret?

“Because it’s continued investigation. They’re going to get a grand jury with this. I can tell you that. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts if that’s the case. Um, we see it with uh we saw it with Idaho 4, right? We didn’t have it there. We did we don’t have it with Charlie Kirk. You know, that’s an ongoing event. This is this is being investigated. And you know, the the point of contact here is an interesting situation here because you have the state medical examiner, but you also have a county coroner. The state medical examiner provides a service to the county coroner. The coroner is an elected official. He’s does not do these autopsies. And so the coroner is going to be the gatekeeper relative to any kind of document. But with that said, under state, I think under state statute, uh the DA, the prosecutor, they can say, “Look, you’re going to hold off on releasing this report.” So it’s being it’s being held at this point in time. Now, the reports that we’re hearing are saying that it is complete. Now, what does that mean? Well, if you have a complete autopsy report, that means they’ve got to talk. They’ve probably got hisytologology, which is going to be the tissue studies, and they actually have the anatomical autopsy report that has been completed. That’s what I think it was ABC that was reporting that. I can’t validate that, but that’s what is being leaked out at this point in time. So, they have this report. I think the question is, and this goes back to you, my friend, is that if this is going to be a grand jury thing, when is it going and when is the medical examiner be going to be called and summoned to speak to this? That’s what everybody’s going to be hanging on in my opinion at least.”

Hold on. Just Scott, you mentioned the talks report. That’s a blood panel done of was he drinking, was he using drugs? A lot has been made.

“Or had he been had he been given something?”

Witnesses stating no one was drunk. Okay. Does that really change anything? Does that change anything? Unless he died of acute alcohol poisoning because I guarantee you ain’t anybody on that boat that’s afraid of a cocktail. Okay. So, if he was drinking, what difference does that make in whether he was killed or whether he died of an accident? Joe Scott.

“Well, listen, Nancy. I I know you’re a tea totler, but let me tell you something. The drunker you get, the more alcohol you take on board. Uh the it lessens your ability to defend yourself. It lessens your ability to make uh good decisions. And so, we see this played out all the time in the medical legal world. And that’s going to be the measure here, I think, relative tox. Everybody wants to see the toxicology because that’s going to give us an idea chemically what is in this young man’s system. Was he able to do for himself at that point in time? And that’s another problem that arises.”

It’s a double-edged sword, Joe Scott. You can argue rightly um he was drunk and could not defend himself against an attack. You could also argue he was drunk and hit his head and then they go, “Oh my stars, he’s dead.”

“Yep.”

But wouldn’t that have shown up in the autopsy if he did? If he died by a blow to the head, be it accidental or nefarious, wouldn’t that have shown up?

“Uh, yeah. And keep in mind, the second physician that did the autopsy, who by the way is highly respected, the former chief medical examiner for DC that was retained by the family. He didn’t see any evidence of fractures. All right? Now, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a concussive event. I’m talking about being hit in the head and you can have stuff that’s that’s contained within the cranial vault that might not be be presenting. But again, back to what I said earlier, I find it very interesting that this doctor is commenting on the state of the decomposition when he sees the body. And that’s problematic. It’s very problematic when you’re trying to make an assessment. You’re already absent. You’re already absent the organs of the neck. Your absent uh intact lungs and you know because the spectre of drowning is is on the table as well. So if you want to make a thorough scientific assessment he’s kind of handcuffed isn’t he at this point and again going back to this idea…”

How long did it take them to get his body to DC and why was it in such a state of decomposition when it arrived?

Fron Borghard joining us. Veteran trial lawyer out of the Baton Rouge jurisdiction. Speaking of tux toxicology results, number one, they don’t take that long unless you want them to. Number two, there is doubt. If he died by accident, having consumed a lot of alcohol, was there a cover up? Or did he die from a nefarious act? So, the alcohol intake could cut either way.

“Fron, I I think you’re spot on. I think that the the reasonable doubt if someone gets arrested and accused of this crime is going to be if the toxicology shows a high BAC in the absence of anything else. What you yourself said, could it have been foul play where he couldn’t defend himself or foul play in so much as he got injured because he was quote unquote drunk? That that remains to be seen. But I don’t discount the fact.”

Come up, please. Let me see. Work hard. You’re saying foul play, but it could have been something as simple as horsing around on the boat and him hitting his head.

“It could be somebody whacking him in the head. It could be finding him in the water face down. Um, and this mark on the back of his head is some type of fluid dispersement, which I don’t believe because it was nowhere else on the body except right there. And if your blood is going to sink to the lowest level upon death, it would be all over the body, but we’re not seeing that. So why is the just the occipital have the deep red markings? So many many questions.”

And let me stress before you bother sending me another death threat, we don’t know the answers. These boys, these young men on that boat could be completely innocent. But when I listen to this sound, there are a lot of questions. Back to Teslan Figaro, who is joining us. She’s the host of the Teslan Figuro podcast. She is a social justice and political commentator. Have you noticed that people are making a lot of the fact that Nolan was quote drunk? A, how do they know that? And B, does it make a difference?

“Yeah. Well, I’ve absolutely noticed it uh that uh that he was allegedly there saying he was drunk and it doesn’t make a difference. And let me ask you this, Nancy, if he was drunk with other teenage kids, he certainly wasn’t drunk by himself. So, if he was drunk, why was he the only drunk one that that ended up dead? Secondly, if this was an accident, let’s say he just got so drunk and just passed out, why didn’t anybody report it? So, even if it was an accident, even if he got drunk, which I don’t believe, by the way, even if all those things happened, why did his so-called friends NOT REPORT IT? THAT’S THE PART THAT WE’RE MISSING. SO, I if Where’s the answer to that, Nancy? He just went and just said, “I’m just going to be drunk and just go in the middle of the ocean and just die with hundreds and hundreds of people who are around, who are watching.” Nobody saw anything happen. His friends didn’t see anything happen. And again, I go back to this tape. I will not sit up here and pretend that I did not hear what was on that tape. And I ask again, even the operator said, “Who is breathing on the boat?” Don’t you think that’s strange, Nancy? Who’s breathing?”

Yes. When I first heard that, Tesla, I thought, “I’ve never heard a dispatch say, “Who’s breathing?” What? What? She Did she hear all that in the background and do nothing or did she hear it and say something and release it? We don’t know, man. And I we got to paper everybody with subpoenas to get to the bottom of this, but I want to go to George Alivo and everybody on the panel, you’re experts in your own right. Please tell me if you have if you want to jump in, please. I’m not clairvoyant. Um to George Olivo joining us. He’s a former FBI special agent and polygraph examiner at georgeivo.com. Okay, George, listen to what Officer Tatum told me. Back to Officer Tatum, star of the Officer Tatum on YouTube. Have the friends taken polygraphs?

“Well, from my understanding, all but I believe one took a polygraph. And from what was told to me that they all passed and all of the ones that took a polygraph took one without a lawyer and so and they cooperated with law enforcement. So from my understanding everybody took a polygraph from what you understand.”

“Did they tell you they took a poly and pass?”

“They told they they yes ma’am they told me that they did it. I wasn’t there. So that’s why I’m saying from my understanding they told me that uh all the boys except the one which is Warren I believe took a polygraph test. All of them did not have lawyers and did it and cooperated with police. Warren also cooperated police. I just believe he didn’t take a lot of tech test. But Warren is the young man that I interviewed. So according to what they told me, they all took a lot of tech test and passed. And and it’s an equivalent of a lot of tech test. It’s not a traditional lot of tech test, but it’s the same um theology of trying to get to if a person is lying. I I don’t know the name of it. It’s it’s equivalent of a lot of technic test. It’s a different methodology.”

I don’t believe it was a polygraph test.