The Nolan Wells grand jury report closed the door on criminal charges, but it left one of the biggest questions in the case wide open: what caused the bruises on the back of his head.
Wells, an 18-year-old college student from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, went to Horn Island with friends to celebrate the Fourth of July. Horn Island is a barrier island about 10 miles off the Mississippi coast that can only be reached by boat. He was the only person in his group who did not come home. His body was found in the water off the northwestern tip of the island on July 6.
On Monday, the Jackson County District Attorney’s office released the grand jury’s report. The panel of 23 jurors met from September 14 to 18 and heard from 43 witnesses. It unanimously decided not to indict anyone, finding no credible evidence that anyone who traveled to or from the island with Wells committed a crime. It also found no evidence his death was racially motivated.
But the report did confirm injuries. The grand jury said there was bruising on the back of Wells’ head. It called the injury nonfatal and said the exact cause remained uncertain.
The family’s legal team says there was more. Attorney Ben Crump said Mississippi’s own pathologist found two bruises on the back of Nolan’s head and told investigators about them early on. An independent autopsy by Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., hired by the family, found traces of blood and recent blunt force injuries to the back of his head and his back. “To this day, not one person has explained how they got there,” Crump said.
The report offers one possible explanation. A witness testified that he saw Wells slip awkwardly off the side of a boat around 3:30 p.m. on July 4, but said Wells kept socializing afterward and did not appear hurt. The grand jury said it could not determine whether that fall caused the bruising.
The injuries are not the only thing left unresolved. Both the state medical examiner and the family’s pathologist listed Wells’ cause and manner of death as undetermined. The grand jury said the position, condition, timing and location of his body were consistent with drowning, but drowning was reached as a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning it was the explanation left after other causes were ruled out. The toxicology report was not much help because decomposition made the results unreliable.
The independent autopsy says the investigation still does not show whether Wells entered the water on his own or was forced, whether he was conscious or impaired, or why he could not get himself out of the water.
Wells’ mother, Christine Wells Wonsley, pointed to that uncertainty after the decision. “Please remember that both medical examiners, as well as his death certificate, state that the cause of his death is undetermined,” she said.
His friends told investigators Wells chose to stay on the island to talk to a girl and planned to catch a ride back later. The grand jury agreed, calling it common for people to leave Horn Island on different boats than they arrived on. His parents have said that does not sound like their son. His father told CBS Mornings that Nolan always stayed with the group.
District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath has firmly defended the findings. “Nolan chose to stay on the island that day, and there is not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that,” she said.
The family is not letting it go. Crump says Mississippi must keep investigating, and if the state will not, the Department of Justice should step in. The NAACP is also calling on the district attorney to release the full autopsy from the state medical examiner and make the investigative file public. The version of the grand jury report released Monday was partially redacted.
