Witnesses told authorities Nolan Wells had 'heavy' alcohol intake: Preliminary info

Witnesses told investigators that 18-year-old Nolan Wells had been drinking heavily with friends on Horn Island in Mississippi, according to a document with preliminary information from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

The document -- a description sent on July 5 by the Marine patrol as part of attempts to find Wells after he went missing -- was an email that listed basic information for Wells, including his physical description, as searchers scanned the island for signs of him after he went missing on July 4.

Wells was found dead on July 6 and his cause of death is not known.

The official autopsy report from the state Medical Examiner's Office and the toxicology tests are still pending. A private autopsy commissioned by Wells' family preliminarily ruled his cause and manner of death as "undetermined pending investigation."