Nolan Wells Is Dead. The Sheriff's Answer? WHAT?!

The sheriff's answer tells you everything about why this case exploded. Asked how an 18-year-old ended up dead and alone on an island ten miles offshore, the response was basically that Nolan Wells chose to stay. For a grieving family, that isn't an answer — it's a door slamming shut.

The Nolan Wells case has become a national flashpoint, and for good reason. Wells, a college football player from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, went to Horn Island with friends on the Fourth of July. They came back. He didn't. Two days later his body was found in the water. A...