An 18-year-old Mississippi teen is dead, and his mother had to beg three separate law enforcement agencies just to get someone — anyone — to look for him.

Nolan Wells went missing on Horn Island on the Fourth of July. His body was found two days later on the island's northwestern tip. In the hours between his disappearance and the discovery of his remains, his mother, Christine Wonsley, was shuffled from agency to agency, each claiming the case wasn't theirs. By the time the Jackson County Sheriff's Office took the file, the family's first interaction with investigators happened in a McDonald's parking lot after midnight. "He was just like, 'OK, thanks.' I was like: 'Where is the urgency?'" Wonsley said, according to The Guardian. No search boats went on the water that night. The next morning, Wells' parents searched the island themselves, using a boat offered by his high school football coach.

The ordeal began the evening of July 4, when Wonsley's sister noticed the teen hadn't checked in. Wonsley called Nolan's phone repeatedly. No answer. Around 11 p.m., a friend named Warren Hudson called asking if she'd seen Nolan. When she said no, he should be with them, Hudson told her Nolan had stayed behind on the island to talk to a girl named Katie. "I said, 'What?' Because we know our children. Nolan isn't one to [say]: 'Oh, I'm going to throw caution to the wind and I'm going to stay here with this girl that I just met,'" Wonsley told a packed audience at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Atlanta on Thursday.

Wonsley checked Life360, which showed Nolan's phone was back on land. Hudson then told her the friends had his phone. "At that point, you're telling me, don't worry about it; we're going to find him; it's going to be okay. Don't tell me not to worry," Wonsley said, per Atlanta Black Star. "This is my child, my flesh and blood that I brought into this world."

That's when the bureaucratic runaround started. Wonsley called the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. They said it wasn't their jurisdiction and told her to call Ocean Springs Police. Ocean Springs told her to come in person to file a report — then said it wasn't their jurisdiction either. MDMR and Ocean Springs went back and forth. She finally called the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, which agreed to take the case. "At that point, I'm like, 'Oh my God, who am I supposed to talk to? Who is supposed to help me with this?'" Wonsley said.

Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter has said he does not suspect foul play and that the others on the boat are cooperating. No suspects have been named. No one has been taken into custody in connection with Wells' disappearance and death. The parents say they've been hit with conflicting stories from both authorities and their son's friends — enough inconsistencies that they no longer know what the truth is. "First inconsistency is you call me and tell me my son stayed on the island to talk to a girl. That's not in his character. I didn't raise any of my kids to do that," Wonsley said.

A photo of Wells, who was Black, with three white friends went viral, and social media users have speculated that the perceived lack of urgency in the investigation is tied to his race. The Guardian framed the story around that racial dimension and the involvement of civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton at the NABJ panel. Atlanta Black Star led with the parents' account of institutional failure and the inconsistencies in the official narrative. What neither outlet disputes: a mother couldn't get a single agency to take responsibility for finding her missing child until it was too late.

An 18-year-old is dead. His parents are left with conflicting stories and no accountability. And every agency that passed the buck that night still has its badge.