A VOLUNTEER who assisted in the search for a missing 18-year-old over the Fourth of July weekend has revealed heartbreaking details of the rescue operation.

Nolan Xavier Wells disappeared while on an excursion with a group of friends to Horn Island, a popular, thin barrier island off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, to celebrate Independence Day.

The last known photo of Nolan from the trip was of him shirtless, wearing blue swim trunks and dark sunglasses, smiling on a boat and huddled around three friends.

Nolan‘s anxious mother, Christine Wonsley, reported her son missing to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office later that evening after he failed to return home.

Wonsley pleaded for help on social media, asking anybody with information or photos of the trip to share them with her.

“We have so many questions. Our hearts are breaking, we keep waiting for Nolan to walk through that door with his beautiful smile and a joke of course,” a shattered Wonsley wrote on Facebook.

United Cajun Navy volunteer Josh Gill said Wonsley reached out to him and asked for the organization’s help in locating her son, a promising high school football player who was due to play at the JUCO level at Southwest Mississippi Community College in the fall.

Gill said that within minutes of his chat with Wonsley, the United Cajun Navy swiftly moved to have resources on the ground.

“When I got notification of him missing from the family and then from the mother, we had surface vessels, that’s boats that were in the area starting to search,” Gill told The U.S. Sun.

“We also had two drones that were in the air, as well as boots on the ground on the island doing a manual walk to look for Nolan there.”

In his talk with Wonsley, Gill recalled the mother’s desperate pleas, saying, “She was frantic. She wanted to know everything that was going on and what we could do to provide resources, what we could do to help her find her son.

“That’s issue number one, find Nolan. But again, she was, with everything that was going on, Ms. Christine was extremely calm when she was providing that information, and I asked some very tough questions.

“I just wanted to make sure that, she understood all the questions that I asked.”

Gill described Horn Island, an island about 10 miles off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, as a destination for boaters, fishermen, and recreational boaters.

The island is extremely popular during the summer, with hundreds of boats docked in the waters, Gill said.

But the volunteer said the northwest corner of the island where Nolan was last reportedly seen could experience “increased tidal” activity due to its location.

“There is a pretty heavy tidal surge and tidal movement on that portion of the island where they were at,” Gill said.

“It’s a pass between two islands. So, there’s increased tidal influence there, along with wind and wave action.

“Conditions can change rapidly there. It’s not exceptionally deep, which calls for the ability for conditions to change quickly.”

Nolan was last seen on the island at around 3pm on Saturday as his friends returned to the mainland, leaving him behind, investigators said.

The intense multi-agency rescue operation ended on Monday morning when a National Park Service member discovered a body that resembled Nolan.

Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said an autopsy will determine the identity of the body, but said the remains matched the description of the 18-year-old.

Gill said the Cajun Navy was in the air at the time the body was located, adding that the remains were found “within close proximity” of where Nolan was reportedly last seen.

Wonsley confirmed the body was her son’s, releasing a gut-wrenching statement on social media where she thanked her family, friends, community, law enforcement, and the United Cajun Navy.

“His father, our family, friends and I are absolutely devastated,” the distraught mother said.

“My heart is broken for our sweet son who was always willing to cheer and uplift others. Nolan was a special soul, God took his time creating our son.”

Ledbetter told ABC News that officials suspect Nolan drowned and that foul play is not suspected. However, he stressed the investigation is ongoing.

Jackson County investigators also said they’re reviewing a viral social media video that allegedly showed a tense confrontation on Horn Island on the day Nolan went missing.

The video appeared to show several people arguing near the shoreline as boats lined the beach.

The individual who posted the video on Facebook claimed it was taken at 4:01pm on the north side of the west tip of Horn Island.

“We were parked right next to the boat Nolan was allegedly on,” the poster wrote.

“Hope this helps in any way. This was immediately after the big fight that broke out up on the shore.”

The person said they were unsure whether Nolan appeared in the clip, but urged people who could slow down the footage to review it.

“I’m not sure if this is Nolan, but it could be,” they added.

Authorities have not confirmed whether the video is authentic or if it’s connected to Nolan’s death.

Nolan’s parents have since retained the services of Ben Crump, a top national civil rights attorney who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Crump called for transparency in the case, saying, “[Nolan’s] family deserves answers. They deserve the truth.

“We will not rest until every fact about what happened to Nolan on Horn Island is brought into the light, and we call on investigators to pursue this case with the urgency and transparency this family deserves.”

Jayvon Williams, Nolan’s best friend, confirmed to Nola.com that Nolan stayed behind on Horn Island after he began chatting with other friends in the crowd.

Williams, 17, said he last saw his friend after 4pm that day, “As soon as we got there, he told me that he loved me.”

Williams said he and Nolan both left their phones in the boat they rode on to Horn Island, and later retrieved his phone, while Wonsley located her son’s phone.