OPINION: Support for Nolan Wells’ family’s continued pursuit of all facts

I was an unwitting ornithologist – that’s a fancy name for birder. My childlike imagination mistook the punctuating call of a mourning dove for the whistle of a train signaling an arrival or departure. It was not until adulthood, while speaking with Dr. Yvonne Fletcher, an educator in Douglas, Georgia, that I learned that the mysterious sound I imagined was from a massive conveyance actually came from a mourning dove Zenaida macroura (the species name macroura from Greek words meaning “long tail”) to be precise. Throughout history these cooing avians have come to symbolize peace, comfort, new beginnings, and enduring love. 

Talk about timing is everything. That memory leads me to yet another mystery – one that should not remain unresolved nor imagined. When I heard the Jackson County Grand Jury investigating the death of 18-year Nolan Xavier Wells was “undetermined?” Undetermined? Did I just imagine what I heard? How did that news strike Nolan’s parents? Then I thought, shaking my head in disbelief, “How in 2026 with possible access to technologies like cellular communications systems, global positioning capabilities, forensic science, emotion recognition ‘physiognomy’, 43 witness interviews, 132 issued subpoenas, and four days of deliberation only to issue a report ‘undetermined’? No one, even his friends, knows what happened to him? That’s mysterious at best. 

For the Wells family I’m sure that this announcement is as difficult to accept as the fact that it’s been just over three months without him. Admittedly, the insufferable incessant of more unanswered questions resists the calming cooing of the mourning dove. To do, say, or feel nothing is not an option. Silence, in this and similar instances, is violence family. We mourn with all who love and care for Nolan Wells. The train of indifference has left the station. 

This missive is an effort to support the family of Nolan Wells continued efforts to obtain all of the facts concerning his death by all possible and essential means. What would a thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand, even a million signatures mean to this mourning family and loved ones? May you hear these words of peace in the spirit they are offered to you and yours. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your signature. 

A copy of the Nolan Wells’ petition can be obtained by emailing drloganlistening@wellschurch.org.

Yours in giving excellence

I am, 

Dr. Lewis E. Logan, II, Sr. Pastor, Wells Memorial UMC, Jackson, MS