As a GoFundMe established to assist Nolan Wells‘ family with costs and more continues to climb with donations, Tyler Perry is stepping in to cover the funeral costs.
During a news conference on Friday, Attorney Ben Crump confirmed that Perry would be paying for the funeral for Wells and that Colin Kaepernick would be funding an independent autopsy for the teen, whose body was discovered on Monday off Horn Island, Mississippi.
“We thank Colin Kaepernick for helping to pay for that independent autopsy, and we thank Tyler Perry for helping to pay for the funeral,” Crump said as Rev. Al Sharpton and the Wells family joined him.
Shortly after the news conference concluded, the filmmaker took to Instagram on Friday to further expound on the pain the Wells family is experiencing and to point to another heartbreaking case.
“As a son of the South and a person who to this day questions the death of my nephew in a Louisiana prison, and as an advocate who has been fighting for years to get answers for Marcia Williams about what happened to her son Terrance in Florida, I know what it’s like to not have the answers that loved ones so desperately need,” Perry wrote. “The agony is debilitating.”
He added, “It is my hope that Nolan’s parents and all who knew and loved him get to the truth of what happened in Mississippi.”
Williams is still seeking answers for her son, who disappeared along with another man in 2004. They were last seen with a Collier County Sheriff’s Deputy, Steven Calkins. Calkins told authorities that he dropped both men off at a Circle K instead of arresting them. Neither man has been found, and Calkins was fired for inconsistent statements.
He has never been charged with the disappearance of Terrence Williams.
Wells’ disappearance and discovery have led to an outpouring of grief and conversation nationally, as the case has raised awareness about prior incidents of Black people going missing under strange circumstances and their disappearances not being properly investigated.
