Nolan Wells search party panic surprised best friend, he says
Warren Hudson said he first thought Nolan Wells had fallen asleep elsewhere as friends searched for him after Horn Island.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
2 min read
Nolan Wells search party efforts did not alarm Warren Hudson at first, the best friend said in a new interview, because he believed Wells may have gotten intoxicated and fallen asleep somewhere after the group’s time at Horn Island.
Hudson described the early hours after Wells went missing during an interview with Brandon Tatum on The Officer Tatum Show. He said one of the friends who had returned with him from Horn Island received an upset phone call at about 12:30 a.m. on July 5, several hours after they had last seen Wells.
Roughly 30 minutes later, Hudson said, a group of about 10 people arrived at the house where he and others were staying. He said they were alarmed because they had not been able to reach Wells.
Hudson said one person in that group was a man he knew from high school. According to Hudson, the two stepped outside, and the man suggested Wells had likely ended up asleep on someone’s couch. Hudson said he agreed with that idea at the time.
What did Warren Hudson say happened when Nolan Wells went missing?
Hudson said his first read on the situation was that Wells had been drinking and was sleeping it off somewhere. Horn Island, in this account, is the place Hudson said he and others had left before concern over Wells began to grow.
Hudson also said a person in the group, whom he described as a “mom,” asked for Wells’ phone. He did not describe the initial response as one he immediately understood as a crisis, saying his assumption was that Wells had crashed elsewhere.
The interview with Tatum has become part of the public discussion around Wells’ death. Hudson has also addressed why he did not attend Wells’ funeral and has claimed he and others urged Wells to leave Horn Island with them.
Wells’ body was found two days after he disappeared. Authorities have said he drowned, according to TMZ, while his family and their attorney, Ben Crump, have disputed that official account.
Hudson’s comments add more detail to the timeline of the night Wells was last seen, but they do not resolve the dispute between authorities’ stated finding and the family’s objections. The central facts remain that Wells went missing after the Horn Island outing, a search began within hours, and his body was later recovered.
This story draws on original reporting from TMZ.