Forensic expert hired by Nolan Wells’ family clarifies deleted messages

The digital forensic expert hired by Nolan Wells‘ family clarified messages were not deleted from the teenager’s phone following his disappearance.

Speaking on a livestream published to YouTube on Sept. 27, Andrew Garrett stated he had not previously said Wells’ phone was tampered with after he last locked it before failing to return from a trip to Mississippi’s Horn Island.

“When we say erased from the phone, you’ve got to be a little careful with that. What happens is, when you and I are in conversation on Snapchat, and you decide to delete the messages on my side of the phone, you can do that remotely. That was done. There are some messages that were recalled and deleted from the phone,” Garrett said.

“I didn’t say somebody unlocked the phone and started playing with the phone and started deleting the phone because that’s exactly what I would’ve said,” he added.

“I said there was deletions on the phone and then there was interactions with the phone—the interactions with the phone are like people waking the screen up, you can see the messages on the front, that kind of stuff—but it’s not unlocking it.”

Almost 3,000 Snapchat records from Wells’ account were released by Garrett’s forensics company.

Group chats had several messages expressing concern for Wells’ whereabouts, beginning early on July 5. Some messages suggested Wells was attempting to court a woman he was seen with.

Some messages were deleted, but there was no evidence Wells’ phone had been tampered with or used. His phone was last used at around 2:17 or 2:18 p.m. on July 4 and remained locked until it was with his family on July 5.

The deleted messages were from senders of Snapchat messages, as opposed to someone using Wells’ phone or Snapchat account.

Attorneys representing three friends who were with Wells before his death say their clients did not delete messages from his phone, disputing claims made by the Wells family’s forensic examiner. The friends’ representatives say they intend to sue family attorney Ben Crump for defamation.