Several people with no apparent connection to the Nolan Wells case have been criminally charged with making threats amid ongoing questions surrounding the death of the 18-year-old Mississippi college freshman in July 2026.

Wells was found dead after a boat trip to Horn Island, several miles off the Mississippi Gulf coast, with a group of friends. The case has drawn widespread attention and heightened racial tensions, as Wells was Black and three of the friends he was with were white. Social media speculation has questioned whether Wells’s death was racially motivated, alongside claims of defamation during the investigation.

Among those charged is Michelle Francine Edwards of Cincinnati, Ohio, who, according to court records, used a blocked number to call the chancery clerk’s office in George County—encompassing Horn Island—approximately 21 times in July, allegedly warning, “Do not go outside.” Another individual, Vasquez, was arrested on the same charge after allegedly threatening chancery judge Ashlee Cole, whose son had been on the boat trip with Wells.

At Wells’s funeral, paid for by filmmaker Tyler Perry, civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton said, “For an 18-year-old young man to no longer be with us, we want answers, not bias either way – just answers … I think that for the family, the closure can come if there is justice.”

Meanwhile, an online fundraiser for some of Wells’s friends had raised about $94,000 as of Monday to defend against potential litigation related to the case. The fundraiser stated, “Instead of being allowed to mourn, what followed was an unprecedented online campaign of accusations, harassment, threats and defamation.”