RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesNolan Wells' mother subpoenas social media, tech companies seeking answers in her son's death Wells went missing on the 4th of July and his body was found on July 6.
Christine Wonsley issued subpoenas to several major social media and technology companies amid questions over her Wells' death. The legal team for Nolan Wells' mother, Christine Wonsley, issued subpoenas to several major social media and technology companies in an effort to obtain records of her son's accounts amid questions over the 18-year-old's death , court records show.
The court documents, which were obtained by ABC News, were filed last week in the Mississippi State Chancery Court and are seeking information from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp -- three platforms owned by Meta -- as well as Snapchat, TikTok and the GPS location tracking and family safety application Life360.
According to the petition, they seek the messages, photos and videos that were sent and received through Wells' accounts, as well as his GPS data location and timestamps that could provide answers to the family as they seek answers in his death.
Each company has 21 days from the receipt from the subpoena "to produce and permit inspection and copying of all documents, electronically stored information, records, and tangible things designated below, and to deliver, mail, transmit, or make available for inspection said materials to counsel for Petitioner Christine Wonsley," the court documents state.
ABC News has reached out to each of these companies, but requests for comment have not yet been returned.
Wells, who played football at Southwest Mississippi Community College, went missing during a Fourth of July celebration with high school friends on Horn Island, a popular undeveloped island just south of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, officials said.
The 18-year-old's body was recovered on July 6. Authorities said they suspect Wells drowned, but are still investigating.
The subpoenas come after Wonsley alleged in an interview with ABC News' Good Morning America on July 10 that his family tracked his phone, but when she went to pick it up from Wells' friends, she said it appeared that some texts and SnapChat messages had been deleted.
It is unclear who had Wells' phone in the days between July 4 and July 10.
"When we finally got his phone, me and my sister went through the phone. We went in his Snapchat. He had two accounts. Absolutely nothing," Christine Wonsley said. "It wasn't even 24 hours, which is how long videos and pictures stay in Snapchat ... even my sister was like 'Yeah, that's suspicious.'"
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said there was no initial indication of a crime , but he stressed that investigators were "working diligently to determine exactly what occurred."
Ledbetter also said the sheriff's office welcomed the family's independent investigation.
The official autopsy report from the state Medical Examiner's Office and the toxicology tests are still pending. A private autopsy commissioned by Wells' family preliminarily ruled his cause and manner of death as "undetermined pending investigation."
"This has been a difficult journey. Losing a child, it truly breaks your heart. It is a pain that is just you can't measure it. Especially someone like Nolan, who brought so much joy and light and life to everyone," Wonsley said during a press conference on July 22.
"You don't find too many genuine people like him. So to lose that light at such a young age, under these circumstances, has been absolutely difficult. Which is why we've gone this route. There's so many people out in the public asking all of these questions, but the only question that we have is what happened to our son," she added.
ABC News' Jeana Fermi and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
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