{"id":219591,"date":"2026-08-06T02:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T02:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/third-person-charged-with-allegedly-threatening-witnesses-in-nolan-wells-investigation-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T02:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T02:24:16","slug":"third-person-charged-with-allegedly-threatening-witnesses-in-nolan-wells-investigation-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/third-person-charged-with-allegedly-threatening-witnesses-in-nolan-wells-investigation-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Third person charged with allegedly threatening witnesses in Nolan Wells investigation – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
Three people have been charged with threatening witnesses in the investigation surrounding the death of Mississippi teen <\/strong>Nolan Wells <\/a>in three different instances.
One of the three defendants, Edward James Porter, is accused of making multiple threats to two witnesses July 31, according to court documents obtained by NBC News.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Porter made multiple calls to two witnesses, threatening to kill them and their families. He said he knew where they lived and told the second witness he would cut them up and put them into a suitcase, the documents said.
Wells was found dead July 6 at the northwest tip of Mississippi\u2019s Horn Island,<\/a> two days after he ventured to the area with a large group of friends to celebrate the July 4 holiday.
His friends have told officials that they needed to leave the gathering early because their boat was taking on water, and that Wells had told them he wanted to stay behind and catch a later ride with other people. They say that\u2019s when they last saw their friend.
When he never returned home<\/a>, Wells\u2019 mother and one of his friends reported him missing to the authorities.
The family\u2019s lawyer, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, has since questioned the circumstances surrounding his death <\/a>\u2014 calling into question whether race was a factor, as it appeared Wells was one of a few Black people there that day.
Crump has also rejected notions from law enforcement officials that Wells may have drowned, citing the teenager\u2019s ability to swim well and his athletic past.
NBC News has reached out to Crump for comment.
Officials in Mississippi have also charged Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce, after, according to a probable cause affidavit, he sent messages on Facebook to a Jackson County chancery court judge July 11.
A screenshot of the purported messages included in the court documents shows someone with the username \u201cyaeyae962\u201d threatening to send a bomb to the judge\u2019s office.
\u201cThere will be a package coming to your guys office in the next few days. It\u2019s gonna blow you away when you see it lol,\u201d the messages said. \u201cOnce that package is opened the timer will start. And then you have maybe 10 seconds or less to ask god forgiveness.\u201d
Authorities then tracked the Facebook account to Dumarce.
The mother of one of Wells\u2019 friends who was with him the day he died, Ashlee Cole, posted on Facebook about the teen\u2019s death<\/a> and said that her son was cooperating with authorities. Cole is a Jackson County judge, and grand jury charging documents for Dumarce identify the victim in this case as having initials \u201cA.C.\u201d
Cole has since posted screenshots of Instagram and Facebook messages<\/a> from \u201cyaeyae962\u201d showing the same threatening messages that were included in the court documents.
State completes autopsy of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells
A third person, Michelle Francine Edwards, was charged with making a bomb threat to the George County Chancery Clerk\u2019s Office July 23. Edwards then sent a second bomb threat to the Jackson County Sheriff\u2019s Office later that day, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Edwards called the George County chancery clerk more than 20 times in eight minutes July 23 and said \u201cdo not go outside,\u201d \u201cthe clock is ticking\u201d and \u201cdie,\u201d according to the court documents.
She then called the Jackson County Sheriff\u2019s Office eight times in a nearly 20-minute period and said, \u201cy\u2019all got a bomb outside, don\u2019t come outside b—-,\u201d the probable cause affidavit said.
No attorney was listed as representing Porter, Dumarce or Edwards. NBC News has reached out to the Jackson County Public Defender\u2019s Office for comment on the three cases.
Rebecca Cohen is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Joe Kottke is an assignment editor at NBC News covering breaking news across the Americas, including politics, immigration, crime and severe weather.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThree people have been charged with threatening witnesses in the investigation surrounding the death of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells in three different instances. One of the three defendants, Edward James Porter, is accused of making multiple threats to two witnesses July 31, according to court documents obtained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}