18-year-old Nolan Wells was found dead after going missing while boating off the coast of Mississippi with a group of all-white friends. Nolan is Black, mixed race.

In a county that is 66% white, 19% Black, the white sheriff was quick to close the investigation into Nolan’s death and say there was no wrongdoing. The mother of one of the boys involved is a local judge, and she was quick to get on social media and echo the sheriff’s statement.

We’re not saying there was foul play. We are saying that the rush to claim ‘no foul play’ breeds mistrust in a racially sensitive case.

Our hearts go out to the Wells family in their quest for answers.

GoFundMe for the Well’s Family: https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-loving-memory-of-nolan-xavier-wells

If you’d like to submit a question, check out our tutorial video: http://www.instagram.com/reel/C5j_oBXLIg0/ and send to @nativelandpod.

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Native Land Pod is brought to you by Reasoned Choice Media.

Thank you to the Native Land Pod team:

Angela Rye as host, executive producer, and cofounder of Reasoned Choice Media; Andrew Gillum as host and producer, Bakari Sellers as host and producer, and Lauren Hansen as executive producer; LoLo Mychael is our research producer, and Nikolas Harter is our editor and producer. Special thanks to Chris Morrow and Lenard McKelvey, co-founders of Reasoned Choice Media.

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