The mystery surrounding the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells has taken another dramatic turn - this time involving his grieving mother.
The Mississippi Board of Nursing has closed its investigation into Christine Wonsley, Nolan's mother, after an anonymous complaint triggered scrutiny of her nursing career while she and her family were publicly demanding answers about their son's death.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, is now coming out swinging, insisting the complaint should never have been filed and alleging that it was designed to frighten Wonsley into backing down.
"The complaint against Christine Wells Wonsley has been closed, and it should never have been filed in the first place," Crump said in a statement Thursday. "It was frivolous, it was unfounded, and it was never about patient care."
Crump went further, alleging a much more sinister motive behind the anonymous filing.
"It was an attempt to distract a grieving mother and intimidate her into silence, filed by someone who would not put their name on it," he said. "That effort failed."
The closure brings an end to a professional controversy that erupted while Wonsley was already dealing with enormous public scrutiny surrounding Nolan's death.
Nolan disappeared following a July 4 boat trip with friends to Horn Island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His body was discovered by a park ranger on July 6.
Shortly after Nolan was found, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said there were no signs of foul play at that time and stressed that the investigation remained ongoing. Nolan's family, however, argued that authorities reached that assessment too quickly and complained about what they considered inadequate communication from law enforcement.
The family subsequently hired Crump and launched its own private investigation, including obtaining a second autopsy. Questions surrounding exactly what happened to Nolan remain unresolved.
But as public attention around the case intensified, so did the uglier side of the controversy.
Both Nolan's family and friends who were on the Horn Island trip have reported receiving threats and harassment. According to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, three arrests have now been made in connection with threatening messages directed toward people linked to the case.
Some of the alleged threats have been particularly disturbing. Death threats reportedly directed at Chancery Court Judge Ashlee Cole, the stepmother of Warren Hudson, one of the teens connected to the trip, allegedly referenced her younger children and the courthouse.
Wonsley herself has also reportedly become a target.
People began posting one-star reviews targeting both Wonsley and her workplace. Then came the anonymous complaint to the Mississippi Board of Nursing.
"Someone is trying to take her nursing license anonymously, without the courage to put a name on it," Crump previously alleged.
"This is intimidation. This is a warning shot meant to silence a grieving mother who is simply asking what happened to her child," he said. "We will not let it stand."
The Mississippi Board of Nursing previously declined to discuss the specifics of Wonsley's case, explaining that its investigations are confidential and that the Board is legally required to investigate complaints submitted to it.
"All investigations are confidential and not subject to subpoena or record request," the Board said in a statement to Oxygen.com. "The Board is legislatively charged with protecting the public and is complaint driven. As such, the Board is required by law to investigate any and all complaints filed with the Board."
Wonsley said the investigation only compounded the pain she was already experiencing.
"This definitely added more hurt to an already devastating time," she shared, "because I love my job and I love my patients."
And despite speculation surrounding her employment, Wonsley has made one thing clear: she has not been fired.
She remains employed as a family nurse practitioner at Memorial Health System but has taken time away from work following Nolan's death.
"Following the tragic passing of my son, I am taking time away from work to grieve and heal, which I believe anyone can understand," Wonsley explained in a Facebook post.
She also praised her employer for standing by her during the ordeal.
"Memorial Health System has been incredibly accommodating and supportive during this difficult time as I navigate the trauma of losing my son, along with the public scrutiny I have been experiencing," she wrote. "For that, I am sincerely grateful."
Crump said Wonsley has spent her career caring for patients in Mississippi and had served for years "without a single complaint against her to the Board of Nursing" before Nolan's death.
The nursing investigation may now be over, but the much bigger question hanging over the family remains unanswered: What exactly happened to Nolan Wells on Horn Island?
The family commissioned an independent autopsy as part of its effort to find out. That examination reportedly listed Nolan's cause and manner of death as "undetermined."
Meanwhile, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Medical Examiner's Office, has said it does not comment publicly on the status or findings of autopsies.
Crump has characterized the anonymous nursing complaint as an attempt to silence Wonsley, though the identity and motivations of the person who filed it have not been publicly established. The Board's decision to close the investigation also does not, by itself, establish why the complaint was filed.
What is established is that the investigation into Wonsley is finished, she remains employed as a nurse practitioner, and Nolan's family is showing no sign of abandoning its push for answers.
As Crump put it after the case was closed: "That effort failed."
