Federal authorities arrested a 27-year-old Sacramento man for allegedly sending a bomb threat and violent messages to a Mississippi judge whose stepson was with Nolan Wells the day the 18-year-old disappeared on a Gulf Coast barrier island.
Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce faces a federal charge of interstate transmission of a threatening communication after allegedly targeting Jackson County Chancery Court Judge Ashlee Cole through Facebook Messenger on July 11, federal court documents show. Cole is the mother of Warren Hudson, who was with Wells on July 4, the day the young wide receiver vanished on Horn Island, off Mississippi's Gulf Coast. The charge carries up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The alleged messages were explicit. One warned Cole that a package would arrive at her office "in the next few days" and that it was "gonna blow you away." A second message escalated sharply.
"Blood. So much blood everywhere. Hard to clean. Especially from a boat. But yours will be quick I promise. I got all your info. Not even the FBI can stop this. Once that package is opened the timer will start. And then you have maybe 10 seconds or less to ask god forgiveness."
Those words, attributed to Dumarce in the criminal complaint, describe what prosecutors allege was a direct threat of lethal violence against a sitting judge, sent from across the country by someone with no apparent connection to the case beyond whatever he followed online.
Dumarce allegedly sent the threats through an anonymous social media account. Investigators traced the account back to him using IP addresses and metadata tied to his email, the New York Post reported. He also allegedly called numbers associated with the Jackson County Chancery Court office at 1:27 a.m. on July 11.
The FBI declined to comment on the arrest. The bureau has been active in recent months on a range of enforcement fronts, including a nationwide operation that produced more than 1,100 arrests across the country.
Dumarce's threats reportedly extended beyond Cole herself. The messages also included threats to harm her children, adding another layer to what federal prosecutors describe as a campaign of intimidation directed at a judge and her family.
Wells, 18, was a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College with hopes of playing at the Division I level. On July 4, he took a boat trip with friends to Horn Island. Records from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources indicate Wells chose to stay on the island rather than return to the coast with Hudson.
Search crews combed the area for two days. On July 6, a National Parks Service ranger discovered Wells' remains on Horn Island's northwestern tip.
The circumstances of his death remain unresolved. At a July 22 news conference, attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Wells family, revealed that an independent autopsy by Dr. Roger Mitchell found an area of "red discoloration" on Wells' head. But Mitchell could not reach a conclusion on the cause or manner of death "pending further investigation." Official autopsy results have not been released.
The case has drawn sharp public attention and heated rhetoric. NAACP President Derrick Johnson claimed investigating officials have been "derelict in their duties." Mississippi State Senator Jeremy England pushed back, telling Fox News Digital that the sheriff and district attorney handling the case have the "utmost integrity."
That kind of public pressure, amplified by social media, can produce real consequences. The FBI has arrested individuals in other recent cases for making threats against law enforcement and their families amid politically charged investigations.
Warren Hudson's father, Dr. Benjamin Hudson, offered a $50,000 reward for information about what happened to Wells. "We still don't know what happened," Hudson said. His son has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The reward offer and the family's public statements suggest that even those closest to the last people who saw Wells alive want answers. But the vacuum of official information has created space for speculation, online fury, and, in Dumarce's case, prosecutors allege, outright criminal threats against people connected to the investigation.
Federal investigators have shown they can track anonymous online threats back to their source, as demonstrated in other recent cases where fugitives were tracked and apprehended using digital evidence. Dumarce was identified through the email linked to his Facebook account, a reminder that anonymity online is often thinner than people assume.
No motive has been publicly stated for why Dumarce, a man in Sacramento with no known tie to anyone involved, allegedly decided to threaten a Mississippi judge and her children over a case he appears to have followed only from a distance.
The broader investigation into Wells' death continues. The independent autopsy raised questions but provided no definitive answers. Official results remain pending. And a federal judiciary already navigating politically charged disputes now has one of its own members listed as the victim in a criminal complaint.
An 18-year-old is dead, his family has no answers, and the people tasked with finding those answers are now receiving threats from strangers halfway across the country. That is what happens when accountability stalls and the internet fills the gap.
