The United Cajun Navy said that they’ve never spoken with Nolan Wells’ family attorney Ben Crump – despite the lawyer claiming the group told him bombshell information about the condition the teen’s body was found in.
The volunteer search group took to social media to blast statements made by the prominent civil rights attorney at a Wednesday press conference where he said that the Cajun Navy told him that Wells was “fully clothed” when he was found two days after he went missing from Horn Island off the Mississippi coast.
“The United Cajun Navy are so forthcoming […] They told us – we haven’t heard from any local officials – that Nolan was found face down, fully clothed,” Crump had previously said.
But the Cajun Navy said Crump was telling a “lie,” saying they’d never spoken to the attorney.
“He [Crump] said UCN told ‘us’ Nolan was fully clothed-not true. We have never spoken with Crump, and we certainly didn’t tell the parents anything like that,” the United Cajun Navy said in an X post.
Crump had said that Wells’ state of dress when his body was discovered on July 6 could be an important key in understanding what led to his death after a Fourth of July boat outing with friends.
A video taken just hours before Wells’ disappearance only showed him in swim trunks.
“That’s significant to us because the last time we saw him on the videos, he was without a shirt,” Crump said. “So at what point did he put on a shirt? Somebody saw something. Somebody knows something.”
The 18-year-old Mississippi college football player’s body was found with help from the disaster relief organization, with a pilot from the organization spotting Wells’ body from the sky.
Crump’s claim about the state of Wells’ dress came two days after Cajun Navy’s founder and president Todd Terrell mistakenly said yes to a question on the “Nancy Grace Show” asking if Wells had been found “fully clothed.”
Terrell soon set the record straight and later said that he’d meant that Wells’ body was clothed with swim trunks and that he should have been clearer.
The group reiterated the founder’s claims that Wells was not found fully clothed in the same X post.
“The bottom line is that Nolan was only wearing swim trunks when found. That’s a fact that can’t be refuted. This is a manufactured distraction to divert attention away from this press conference blunder.”
Crump did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
