How Did Nolan Wells End Up Alone on That Island?!

There's a photograph from a Fourth of July boat trip, and Nolan Wells is the only person of color in it. Days later, he's the only one from that group who isn't coming home. That single fact is why the Nolan Wells case has gripped the country — and why the questions around it are so hard to put down.

Wells, an 18-year-old from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, went out to Horn Island with friends and never made it back. His body turned up in the water off the northwest tip of the island. The sheriff said he chose to...