Major Breakthrough: Police inv3stigating Nolan Wells’ d3ath say the independent aut0psy has delivered its final conclusions
The case has received national attention, with prominent civil rights activists calling for a transparent investigation.
( Scott Olson/Getty Images)
An independent autopsy performed on the body of Nolan Wells this week was inconclusive, leaving the family of the 18-year-old athlete still searching for answers about what led to his death.
Wells, of Ocean Springs, Miss., went missing on July 4 during a boat trip with a group of friends to Mississippi’s Horn Island. He did not return with the group, and his body was found floating in the water just off the coast two days later.
Police are investigating the death as an accidental drowning. A day after Wells’s body was found, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said that Wells’s friends were cooperating with investigators and there was no initial indication of a crime.
The case has received national attention, with prominent civil rights activists calling for a transparent investigation in a state with a long history of racial violence.
“We still have more questions than answers,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Wells family, said at a news conference on Wednesday announcing the results of the independent autopsy, which was paid for by former NFL quarterback turned activist Colin Kaepernick.
The results of the official state autopsy, performed before the one commissioned by the family, are still pending. A toxicology report has also yet to be released.
What the independent autopsy found
Ben Crump goes over the results of an independent autopsy on Nolan Wells at a press conference in Chicago on July 22.
(Scott Olson via Getty Images)
Dr. Roger Mitchell, the forensic pathologist who performed the independent autopsy on Wells on July 19, could not rule out the possibility that “non-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death.” He listed the cause and manner of death as “undetermined” pending further investigation.
The autopsy found no evidence of fractures or deep tissue injuries. It described an area of “red discoloration” on the back of Wells’s head, but did not identify its cause.
Mitchell acknowledged that his preliminary findings were limited by several factors, including a lack of access to organs that were removed in the initial autopsy, making it impossible to determine whether Wells had water in his lungs or if his neck had been injured.
“The condition of Nolan Wells before he entered the water would be the crux of the matter,” Crump said. “It would be of utmost importance to being able to determine the cause and manner of death.”
What happened on the boat trip?
A person holds a placard that reads “Justice for Nolan” outside of the National Action Network headquarters in New York City on July 10.
(David Dee Delgado/Reuters)
On July 4, Wells traveled by boat with a group of friends to Horn Island, a popular uninhabited beach island about 7 miles off the Mississippi coast. According to Crump, there were about 200 people there that day.
Wells was last seen on the island around 3 p.m. and did not return with the group to the mainland, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.
His mother, Christine Wonsley, reported him missing to police after one of his friends called around 11 p.m. One of Wells’s friends had also reported him missing to the U.S. Coast Guard. Local, state and federal agencies, including the Coast Guard and National Park Service, began searching for him.
On July 6, a U.S. park ranger found Wells’s body on the northwestern tip of the island.
Both Wells’s phone and car keys were located on the mainland. His mother used an app to track down the phone and said that she noticed some of his Snapchat messages appeared to have been deleted before they would have normally expired.
His father, Elmore Wonsley, said that he retrieved the keys from the home where Wells had stayed with his friends the night before their trip. His car was still parked in the yard.
Nolan Wells with his parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, in an undated photo.
(Family handout courtesy of Ben Crump Law/Handout via REUTERS)
According to the sheriff, witnesses told police that Wells chose to stay on the island and had assumed he would ride back to the mainland with someone else. According to Crump, one witness reported that Wells had planned to leave on the boat with his friends.
“What teenager would leave their phone behind if they’re going to stay on this island?” Crump asked during an earlier press conference with the family. “What teenager wouldn’t take their phone?”
Crump also said that audio of an apparent argument Nolan had with someone during the trip was captured on a cellphone video. (A friend of Wells disputed that account, saying it was his voice — not Wells’s — that was recorded.)
Crump also said that audio of an apparent argument Nolan had with someone during the trip was captured on a cellphone video. (A friend of Wells disputed that account, saying it was his voice — not Wells’s — that was recorded.)
And Crump questioned how Nolan, an aspiring collegiate football player who knew how to swim, could drown, especially without being seen.
“It’s not adding up,” he said.
What’s next?
Christine and Elmore Wonsley listen as attorney Ben Crump goes over the results of an independent autopsy conducted on their son during a press conference in Chicago on July 22.
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Once the sheriff’s office concludes its investigation into Wells’s death, the case will be turned over to the district attorney and presented to a grand jury, which is standard procedure for unnatural deaths in Jackson County and not necessarily an indication of a crime.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, filmmaker Tyler Perry and former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens are offering a $125,000 reward for any information leading to a conviction in Wells’s death.
While there are many unanswered questions in the case, the family says it has just one.
“The only question that we have is what happened to our son,” Christine Wonsley said.
