Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the legal team for the family of 18-year-old Nolan Wells called on Jackson County District Attorney Angel McIlrath to keep the investigation into Wells’ death open and active and to release the investigative file used to close Wells’ case at a press conference at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, on Tuesday.
“Today, the State of Mississippi is attempting to close the chapter on Nolan Wells’ death without getting to the truth,” Crump said in a statement prior to the conference.
On Sept. 21, Jackson County District Attorney Angel McIlrath said the grand jury investigating the death of Nolan Wells unanimously returned a no true bill, resulting in no criminal indictments in the investigation into the South Mississippi teen’s death.
Wells, an 18-year-old resident of Ocean Springs, disappeared on July 4 during a boat trip with a group of friends to Horn Island, a barrier island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Authorities found Wells dead on the island two days later.
Crump Questions Cause of Head Injury in Autopsy Report
In the grand jury report released on Monday, the Mississippi State Medical Examiner ruled Wells’ cause and manner of death undetermined. Drowning remains a “diagnosis of exclusion,” meaning it could only be firmly established as the cause of death if all reasonable possibilities are ruled out. In the absence of certainty as to Wells’ last moments alive, both pathologists concur that the cause of death is still undetermined.
An independent autopsy the family requested and conducted by forensic pathologist Dr. Roger A. Mitchell also found Wells’ cause and manner of death undetermined pending further investigation. Mitchell performed the autopsy and sent the findings to the family’s attorney Ben Crump on July 19.
In a series of statements, the grand jury concluded that Wells had been in no physical altercations or argument the day of his death, and that “the position of, the condition of, time of discovery, and location of Mr. Wells’ body is consistent with drowning.” The official state autopsy, which is not yet fully available for the public to review, did not determine a strict cause of death.
However, the Crump team did release additional autopsy results from Dr. Roger A. Mitchell, which detail some of Wells’ pre-death injuries, including the injury to the back of his head. Notably, the report confirms that Mitchell was able to examine Wells’ hyoid bone and trachea laryngeal cartilages, finding no signs of injury—the portions of Wells’ neck that the medical examiner retained that had been an open question in Mitchell’s first findings.
“We are releasing the final independent autopsy report in its entirety, so everyone can read it for themselves,” Crump said in a statement prior to the press conference. “This grand jury result leaves us with more questions than answers. Nolan’s family will not rest until we know what happened to him, and neither will we.”
During the press conference, attorney Liza Park with Crump’s legal team said the secondary report of the independent autopsy found evidence that the blunt force trauma to Wells’ head happened within about four hours of his death.
“ We know that because Nolan Wells’ body had not started to make white blood cells yet. He had started to bleed, he had blunt force trauma, (and) it was serious, but only red blood cells were found on his body, not white,” Park said. “So we know … that this injury happened within about four hours of his death.”
In the report, Mitchell is more specific with his findings. “Accordingly, a bruise showing hemorrhage and tissue disruption without a significant inflammatory-cell response is compatible with a very recent antemortem injury, generally within the first few hours,” he wrote.
Crump also highlighted that neither autopsy was able to establish a record of the events that immediately preceded Nolan entering the water.
“It is important to highlight that the original Mississippi forensic pathologist officially certified the cause and manner of death as Undetermined,” Mitchell writes in the autopsy report. “Therefore, the investigation should remain open and active until the circumstances
surrounding the blunt-force injuries, the events immediately preceding entry into the water,
the decedent’s level of consciousness and functional capacity, witness observations and
timeline, and any potential intervening non-accidental factors can be definitively established.”
Crump said in a statement that the record “does not establish whether Nolan entered the water on his own or was forced, or whether he was conscious when he went in.”
The grand jury found that Wells chose to remain at Horn Island on the afternoon of July 4, 2026, after the Triton, Palm Beach and Tideline boats departed the island. The grand jury also found no credible evidence to support public allegations that anyone on the three boats engaged in criminal conduct related to Wells’ death.
“The allegations against the occupants of the Triton, the Palm Beach, and the Tideline are not based in truth, and are solely the result of public clamor and private malice,” the report said.
The grand jury also received the Sea Tow call made by those onboard the Triton on July 4, and it found that the various interpretations of the call circulating on the internet were not accurate.
The Triton had a bilge pump and motor malfunction on July 4, and was actively taking on water and sinking. It was towed a short distance by the Tideline, allowing the water to drain, the grand jury found. GPS data and security footage confirm the accounts of the passengers on the Triton, Palm Beach and Tideline.
In the autopsy report he wrote, Dr. Mitchell said if additional credible evidence becomes available, the cause and manner of death should be reassessed in light of that new information rather than “prematurely closing the case on an unproven mechanism or circumstance.”
“We don’t know how Nolan died,” Crump said. “And neither does the State of Mississippi.”
Crump Team Plans to Continue Cell Phone Examination
In the video statement District Attorney McIlrath made Monday, she addressed claims that her office refused to cooperate and/or obstructed a mutual investigation of Wells’ cell phone with the Crump team’s experts.
“This could not be further from the truth,” she said in the video. “You must first understand that the state of Mississippi had no legal avenue to seize and search Nolan’s cell phone.”
McIlrath said that Wells’ cell phone has remained in the possession of his family since they received it on July 5.
During a July 15 meeting, McIlrath met with Crump’s legal team and both sides agreed to participate in a mutual examination of Wells’ cell phone with Jackson County experts and the Crump team’s own experts.
Crump’s team said its forensic experts plan to address the complete examination of Wells’ cell phone, including social media apps that were not part of the preliminary investigation.
“ We’re going to have an additional press conference in Orlando, Florida, to talk about the phone extraction, because we are laser-focused on getting to the truth of what really happened to Nolan Xavier Wells. And we’re gonna have our experts,” Crump said during the press conference. “We went out, and we retained the top experts to help us get to the truth of what happened. We think it’s gonna be enlightening when you go through that phone extraction, and everything dealing with the metadata of the phone.”
‘Mississippi Must Keep Investigating’
The family’s legal team is calling on the District Attorney’s office to keep the investigation open and is renewing its request that the U.S. The Department of Justice open an independent federal review. The Congressional Black Caucus first called for an independent federal review of Wells’ case in a letter on Aug. 12.
“Mississippi must keep investigating, and if it will not pursue this to the end, the Department of Justice should,” Crump said in a statement on Monday.
General Counsel of NAACP Kristen Clarke also released a statement calling for the release of Wells’ autopsy report.
“The results of the grand jury investigation leave Nolan’s family and the public with far more questions than answers. Make no mistake, we will continue to stand with Nolan’s family and use every tool available in the quest to uncover the full truth surrounding his tragic death,” Clarke said. “Nolan’s family deserves nothing less than a full, fair, and independent investigation that is exhaustive and leaves no stone unturned. We urge the District Attorney to continue the investigation, release the full autopsy report from the state’s medical examiner, and make the investigative file public.”
U.S. Senate Candidate and District Attorney Scott Colom released a statement Tuesday calling for release of the official autopsy report in Wells’ case.
“Within the parameters allowed by law, the state should publicly release the State Medical Examiner’s full autopsy report and the sheriff’s complete investigative file, so people can read the record, including phone records and eyewitness statements, and judge it for themselves,” Colom said. “I have done this before: when a case in my own district ended in a way my community could not accept, I put the investigative file on my website for anyone to read.”
In the grand jury report released Monday night, the grand jury acknowledged there is no statute of limitations on homicide cases in Mississippi.
“If credible evidence comes to light in the future that suggests Mr. Wells’ death was non-accidental, this matter should be re-presented to the Jackson County Grand Jury for further consideration,” the report said.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of Nolan Wells and read past stories here.
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