Nolan Wells' autopsy inconclusive as family presses for answers in teen's death
An independent autopsy has failed to determine the cause and manner of death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells, leaving his family without answers. The teen disappeared on July 4th on a Mississippi barrier island and was found two days later.
The independent autopsy for Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old college freshman, has returned inconclusive results, with both cause and manner of death listed as "undetermined, pending investigation," according to family attorney Ben Crump, who announced the findings on Wednesday.
Wells and friends took a boat out to Horn Island, a barrier island off the Mississippi Gulf coast, on the Fourth of July. He did not return, prompting a missing person search. His body was discovered on the island on July 6.
During Wednesday's press conference, Wells' mother, Christine Wonsley, stated that a member of the Cajun navy said Wells was found fully clothed and face down. In the last known photos of the teen, he was not wearing a shirt.
Wells was Black, while many of the people on the island, including those he was pictured with, are white. Crump noted that there were 300 to 400 people on the island, making it hard to believe that no one knows what happened to one of the few Black attendees.
Due to a lack of information, social media has been rife with misinformation and speculation. Black leaders at local and national levels have called for transparency and clarity.
Shortly after Wells' body was found, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said he did not suspect foul play—a statement Wonsley criticized as premature.
Speaking at the NAACP national convention in Chicago, Crump revealed that the preliminary autopsy noted that Wells' body, upon receipt after the first autopsy, was missing its interior neck structures. He also reported a significant red discoloration in the tissue at the back of the teen's head for unknown reasons.
Independent investigators were unable to see the body at the time of recovery. By July 10, when they received it, the body had decomposed to such an extent that it was difficult to determine if there were any bruises.
The autopsy, paid for by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, was conducted by former Washington, D.C. chief medical examiner Roger Mitchell. The state of Mississippi has not yet released its own autopsy results.
Wells' friends told authorities that the teen decided to stay on the island, a claim his parents find hard to believe. "We always taught him that if you go with a group, you stay with a group," his father, Elmore Wonsley, said on 'Good Morning America.'
