“It is my hope that Nolan’s parents and all who knew and loved him get to the truth of what happened in Mississippi,” Perry tells PEOPLE in a statement
Nolan Wells’ family is lauding Tyler Perry for helping them cover some of the cost of the 18-year-old’s funeral after he disappeared off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast during a Fourth of July trip with friends and was later found dead — as questions swirl about what happened.
The case has attracted national attention. Both local authorities and Wells’ family are looking into his final hours.
During a news conference on Friday, July 10, with Wells’ parents, their attorney, Ben Crump, thanked both Perry “for helping to pay for the funeral” and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who is paying for an independent autopsy in Washington, D.C.
“These were just regular parents going about their life,” Crump told reporters of the Wells family.
A source close to Perry shares with PEOPLE that “Tyler saw the story and reached out to the family.”
In a statement, Perry said he was moved to act because of his own experiences.
“As a son of the South and a person who to this day questions the death of my nephew in a Louisiana prison, and as an advocate who has been fighting for years to get answers for Marcia Williams about what happened to her son Terrance in Florida, I know what it’s like to not have the answers that loved ones so desperately need,” he said, referring to other cases of mysterious deaths.
“The agony is debilitating,” the filmmaker and actor, 56, added. “It is my hope that Nolan’s parents and all who knew and loved him get to the truth of what happened in Mississippi.”
Credit: Jackson County Sheriff’s Department
Wells’ body was recovered Monday, July 6, off of Horn Island, the barrier island where he was last seen with a group of friends on the afternoon of the Fourth of July, according to the United Cajun Navy, which assisted in the search for him.
He had been preparing to report back to college football camp the following Monday, his family has said, and the holiday weekend was meant to be last excursion.
According to officials, Wells apparently chose to remain on the island on Saturday, away from his friends, who have cooperated with the investigation.
But Wells family has challenged those statements and insisted that contradictions and unanswered questions remain about how he ended up alone.
Jackson County Coroner Bruce Lynd confirmed to PEOPLE that the football player was positively identified through dental records on Tuesday, July 7.
The medical examiner’s office has told PEOPLE they cannot yet share details about a cause of death and wouldn’t speculate.
During the news conference on Friday, Crump linked the case to the South’s history of racism.
“Why do you say we need to be retained to lead an independent investigation? It is because the family has distrust of the Mississippi law enforcement officials giving them a fair investigation, where their Black son ended up dead after going out on a boat with three young White men,” he said.
“The history of Mississippi is something that they don’t just read about in books … it’s a lived experience for many Black Americans,” Crump added.
“We refuse to sweep it under the rug. We refuse to just let Nolan Wells’ death be in vain. We’re going to make sure that we get to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” he said, “because Nolan deserves it.”
A GoFundMe launched for the family has so far raised more than $390,000.
Christine Wonsley, Wells’ mom, told reporters on Friday that “me and his dad had conversations with him all the time, not just about the importance of understanding our history as Black people but also the importance of how you have to move in certain spaces.”
“And it’s not us feeding into racism or the stereotypes that comes with that — unfortunately, that is just a matter of fact,” she said.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said during an interview that aired on Good Morning America that he welcomes the Wells family’s independent investigation.
Ledbetter also said there weren’t, currently, indications of foul play — even as Wells family shared their own suspicions at Friday’s news conference.
“We want a thorough investigation,” Ledbetter told ABC News. “That’s what we’re going to continue to do until we arrive at the answers that the family deserves.”
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