Nolan Wells latest: Sheriff asks for public’s help in mysterious death of Mississippi teen
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department released this photo during the search for Nolan Xavier Wells, 18, in Mississippi. (Jackson County Sheriff’s Department)
(JACKSON COUNTY, Miss.) — Authorities are asking for the public’s help as they investigate the mysterious death of Mississippi teen Nolan Xavier Wells.
Wells, 18, went missing on the 4th of July after going on a boat trip with friends to Horn Island, a barrier island about 10 miles from the Gulf Coast, officials said.
“[The friends] left [Horn Island] and went back without Nolan,” Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said. “From what we understand, he chose to stay there.”
A body believed to be the teenager was recovered on Monday, officials said
Authorities said they believe Wells drowned and don’t suspect foul play, but the sheriff’s office stressed in a new statement Wednesday that investigators are “working diligently to determine exactly what occurred.”
The sheriff’s office said it urges anyone who was on or near the northwest tip of Horn Island on Saturday to come forward with photos or videos, “particularly those depicting alleged altercations or containing images of, or believed to include Nolan Wells.”
The sheriff’s office said it’s also looking for anyone who may have seen Wells or “observed or heard an argument, disturbance, or other unusual activity while on the island.”
“Even information that may seem insignificant could prove valuable to investigators,” the department said.
Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, wrote on social media on Wednesday, “Missing our Nolan so much every second of everyday. This has been the worst time in our lives.”
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said Tuesday that his team will conduct an independent review to determine how Wells died.
“We will not rest until every fact about what happened to Nolan on Horn Island is brought into the light, and we call on investigators to pursue this case with the urgency and transparency this family deserves,” Crump said.
Authorities said anyone with information can call the sheriff’s department at 228-769-3065 during regular business hours or at 228-769-3063 after hours.
Fraudsters are posing as ICE officers, immigration lawyers and federal judges. (Evelin Flores)
(NEW YORK) — Twenty-year-old Edith from Guatemala has remained in her home with her 1-year-old baby Justin for weeks after selling her only means of transportation.
“Being stuck at home, locked up inside, is very, very difficult for us,” she told ABC News.
Edith, a U.S. citizen who was raised in Guatemala and requested she only be referred to by her first name out of concern over her privacy, sold her car and spent her life savings to pay someone who she thought was an attorney to help her husband Dimas, who was arrested and placed in immigration custody in March.
After Dimas, the undocumented breadwinner of the family, was quickly sent to a detention center in Georgia, Edith sought an immigration lawyer on social media, where a stranger recommended a supposed Florida-based attorney.
“I was scheduled for a video call, and the woman who said she was a lawyer said that to get someone out of immigration detention, a habeas corpus needed to be filed,” Edith told ABC News.
Edith retained the woman and began communicating with her frequently. She completed documents the woman sent her, and began sending the woman payments. She even received documents that appeared to be from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency that oversees immigration services.
“She began asking for money, $500, $600, $1,750, $4,000 for the bond, petition, copies [of forms],” Edith said.
But last month, when the woman was scheduled to participate in a video call for Dimas’ initial hearing before an immigration judge, she never appeared on the call. Edith’s husband later told her that the judge said that the attorney wasn’t registered in the court system.
“He said, ‘They’re scamming you,'” Edith said. “I said, ‘But why? Why me?’ I started to feel really bad and I didn’t know what to do.”
After confronting the woman she had hired, Edith realized she had been scammed out of more than $10,000 — her life savings. And with all her money gone, she was unable to pay for a legitimate lawyer to represent her husband, who last month was ordered deported by an immigration judge.
‘A billion-dollar industry’ Edith is one of many victims across the country that law enforcement and immigration lawyers say are being targeted by bad actors seizing on the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Some scammers, according to officials, are using artificial intelligence to hold fake immigration court proceedings with scammers wearing judicial robes and law enforcement uniforms, using fake documents that appear to be from federal agencies.
“In my experience, this is a billion-dollar industry,” said Jorge Rivera, an immigration lawyer in Florida.
Rivera told ABC News that scammers, including the woman who Edith hired, have used his credentials and his law firm’s information to target immigrants.
“[Victims] have shown up to our office and they say, ‘What happened to my case?'” he said.
ABC News found cases of sophisticated immigration scams across the country, including in New York, where five defendants pleaded not guilty to charges accusing them of holding “sham immigration proceedings” including asylum interviews and court appearances.
According to the complaint, one victim ended up missing their real immigration hearing and was deported.
“In doing so, the defendants demonstrated a complete and utter disregard for the potentially life-altering consequences that their actions inflicted on their victims — vulnerable individuals who not only lost significant funds, but also missed their actual immigration court appearances,” prosecutors said.
And last month, four people in Orlando, Florida, were charged with setting up a fake immigration law firm and extorting millions from victims. They have not yet entered formal pleas.
‘It’s heartbreaking’ Rivera said immigration scams have gotten “exponentially worse” during the second Trump administration, because more pathways for immigration relief “have closed.”
“There’s been pauses, there’s more denials, undoubtedly, it’s more difficult to be able to resolve your immigration status,” he said. “So this is a perfect storm for the criminals.”
Rivera said that if those seeking help are “talking to a legitimate attorney and they’re talking to a fraudster, and the fraudster is giving them hope and giving them possibilities, they’re going to go with the person that’s giving them the hope.”
Rivera said he has been working with law enforcement across the country to send them information on alleged scammers, and has been reaching out to social media companies to take down fake profiles.
In a statement to ABC News, the Department of Homeland Security said scammers are also “pretending to be ICE and USCIS to trick people into giving them money or personal information.”
The DHS said that officials will never call out of the blue, demand money, or accept payments using gift cards or crypto currency.
Scammers are also targeting immigrant advocacy groups like Catholic Charities, Kevin Brennan, Catholic Charities’ vice president, told ABC News.
“It’s really been over the past year or so that we started hearing reports of people claiming to be Catholic Charities and other organizations that provide legal services to immigrants and refugees and using social media to fraudulently offer services, express urgency, ask for money,” Brennan told ABC News.
“It’s heartbreaking to see people who are in need and looking for help and being taken advantage of in such a terrible way by these fraudsters and criminals,” he said.
In Edith’s case, the possibility of getting legitimate legal help to try to get her husband released before he’s deported is slipping away. After an immigration judge ordered her husband deported on April 28, he is currently in ICE custody awaiting removal to Guatemala.
Edith said she will likely go to Guatemala to remain with her husband.
“It’s very ugly, and I don’t wish it on anyone else — to a person who is alone and without support,” she said. “This is not easy.”
The police response following a shooting at a hospital in Wilmington, Delaware, June 16, 2026. (WPVI)
(WILMINGTON, Del.) — A 19-year-old man died and another was critically injured in a targeted shooting at a Delaware hospital, police said.
The shooting occurred Tuesday afternoon at a hospital in Wilmington, prompting a lockdown.
The suspect in the shooting — 23-year-old John Wallace-Bey — was taken into custody Tuesday night in Philadelphia, about 40 miles northeast of Wilmington, and is awaiting extradition to Delaware, police said.
Law enforcement officials earlier told ABC News a hospital employee was suspected of shooting two co-workers.
“Our preliminary investigation has determined that this was a targeted, isolated incident,” police said in an update.
The shooting occurred at Wilmington Hospital around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, police said.
Both shooting victims were 19-year-old men, police said. The wounded victim remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition, police said Wednesday.
The name of the victim who died will be released at a later time, police said.
Wallace-Bey faces charges including first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and carrying a concealed deadly weapon, police said.
Police believe the incident is strictly a workplace shooting, the law enforcement officials said.
“Regardless of what the motive is in this incident might have been, there is never an excuse for violence, and there is never an excuse for gun violence,” Wilmington Police Chief Wilfredo Campos said during a press briefing Tuesday.
The hospital was on lockdown as officers searched the building, though the lockdown has since been lifted, police said Tuesday.
“I want to offer my thoughts and prayers for the employees at Wilmington High Hospital, who I know experienced a terrible day today,” Wilmington Mayor John Carney said during Tuesday’s press briefing. “It’s hard to imagine what they were thinking as they were barricaded in rooms across the hospital as our law enforcement teams went through and cleared each of the floors.”
Carney commended the law enforcement officers who responded for the “bravery that they showed in the face of this unthinkable threat.”
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer condemned the deadly violence.
“Every Delawarean deserves to feel safe, whether at home, at school, at work, or seeking care at a hospital,” he said at the briefing. “Today is a sobering reminder that no one is immune from the devastation of gun violence.”
Meyer said the incident hit close to home for his family, noting that just minutes earlier, he went with his wife, Dr. Lauren Meyer, an emergency room physician, as she reported to work at the hospital.
“What I saw were heroes going to work in that building, and heroes who were involved in life-saving efforts leaving at the end of their shift,” he said.
The NASA logo is displayed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on October 15, 2025 in La Canada Flintridge, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A newly discovered asteroid will pass within about 56,000 miles of Earth on Monday, significantly closer than the distance between Earth and the moon.
There is no need to worry or cancel any plans, however. Current calculations show no evidence that the object will hit Earth.
The asteroid was identified several days ago by astronomers at five observatories, including Farpoint Observatory in Wabaunsee County, Kansas, and Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona’s Santa Catalina Mountains.
The asteroid, designated 2026 JH2, is likely between 50 and 100 feet across, according to estimates from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That estimate is based on how bright the object appears and how much light scientists think its surface reflects.
Astronomers are still working to better understand the asteroid’s orbit and physical characteristics. So far, the object has been tracked only 24 times over several days. While its trajectory is still being refined, current calculations show no impact risk.
The asteroid is considered an Apollo-class near-Earth object.
“These asteroids have an orbit that is larger than Earth’s orbit around the Sun and their path crosses Earth’s orbit,” according to NASA.
The Virtual Telescope Project plans to stream the encounter live beginning at 5:45 p.m. ET on Monday.
