{"id":18116,"date":"2026-07-26T19:36:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T14:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=18116"},"modified":"2026-07-26T19:36:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T14:36:44","slug":"why-nolan-wells-friends-didnt-initially-panic-when-he-went-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=18116","title":{"rendered":"Why Nolan Wells&#8217; friends didn&#8217;t initially panic when he went missing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2Fnolan-comp.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Nolan Wells\u2019 friends did not initially panic when he went missing because they assumed he\u2019d just passed out on someone\u2019s couch,<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/25\/us-news\/nolan-wells-best-friend-skipped-funeral-due-to-death-threats-wish-i-could-have-been-there\/\"> according to his self-styled best friend.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Warren Hudson revealed in an interview on \u201cThe Officer Tatum Show\u201d that one of his pals was called at around 12:30 a.m. on July 5, just hours after they last saw Wells, 18, on Horn Island, where he was found dead.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Nolan Wells died mysteriously after boating trip with friends on the Fourth of July. <span class=\"credit\">Facebook\/Christine Wonsley<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Nolan Wells\u2019 best friend Warren Hudson spoke out on The Officer Tatum show. <span class=\"credit\">The Officer Tatum\/youtube<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Wells seemed \u201ccompletely fine\u201d on the day of his disappearance, Hudson said, noting that he was drinking alcohol with the rest of the group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI talked to Nolan a couple times\u2026 but it wasn\u2019t like I was strictly sitting there talking to Nolan the whole day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Here\u2019s the latest on the disappearance and death of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells: <\/h2>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p>He added that there was no initial panic because it was usual to be off your phone while on the island.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople come out here, especially on the Fourth [of July] and Memorial Day\u2026 they come out here to celebrate, and people get on the water to be off their phones, first off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Officials search for Nolan Wells after the teen went missing on a boating trip with friends. <span class=\"credit\">United Cajun Navy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe honestly thought Nolan was passed out at someone\u2019s house or was still hanging out with other people.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The teen also addressed speculation about the nature of his friendship about Wells, whose body was found on July 6, revealing the pair had been pals since middle school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNolan and I were still just as close, and he was just as close with my friends as anyone else,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nolan Wells\u2019 friends did not initially panic when he went missing because they assumed he\u2019d just passed out on someone\u2019s couch, according to his self-styled best friend. Warren Hudson revealed in an interview on \u201cThe Officer Tatum Show\u201d that one of his pals was called at around 12:30 a.m. on July 5, just hours after&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/nolan-comp.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}