Three months after 18-year-old Nolan Wells was found dead off a Mississippi barrier island, the FBI announced that there was no evidence of foul play and that it would not conduct a federal investigation into his death. However, that leaves the Wells family wondering about the one thing nobody seems to know: how Wells died.
The FBI, which helped the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office with the local investigation, told People Magazine it found no signs of criminal activity and agreed with the local authorities’ conclusion. Last month, a Jackson County grand jury reached the same conclusion, unanimously choosing not to press charges.
However, neither the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office nor an independent forensic pathologist hired by the family was able to determine the cause of Wells’ death. Both autopsies left the manner and cause undetermined.
“I cannot take that ruling, and I cannot move on with my life,” his mother, Christine Wonsley, said Monday at a news conference in Inglewood, California.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump suggested that federal involvement may still be possible. Asked at the White House if he would ask the FBI to conduct an independent investigation, Trump replied, “Well, we’re looking at that. Yes, we are.”
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, said that he believes that the president’s comment “carries more weight than the FBI’s response.” Crump pointed out that Sunday would mark 100 days since his legal team started investigating the death of Wells.
Wells, a Black and Filipino American college football player from Ocean Springs who attended Southwest Mississippi Community College, went missing on July 4 after going on a boat trip with his friends to Horn Island, an uninhabited barrier island off the Gulf Coast. He was reported missing that night. His body was found floating in the water near the northwestern tip of the island on the morning of July 6.
The friends who took him to the island claimed that Wells decided to stay behind to talk to a girl. His cellphone was left on the mainland, and he did not get back on the boat, which got some water and needed to be towed back partly. His parents keep wondering why their son would stay on the island without his phone.
A forensic examiner working with Crump’s team established that the phone stayed locked after it left the island. Some Snapchat messages had been deleted, but the examiner could not determine who deleted them or why. There was also no evidence that someone accessed the phone after it left Horn Island.
Dr. Roger Mitchell conducted the independent autopsy, paid for by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. According to Crump, Mitchell found red discoloration in the soft tissue at the back of Wells’ head, but no skull fracture and no cuts to the skin. Mitchell apparently wrote that he “cannot rule out whether any intervening nonaccidental factors contributed to or caused the death.” According to Crump, Mitchell also pointed out that the state retained several structures from Wells’ neck for additional testing and did not return them to the body, which contributed to the inconclusive results.
The state autopsy also found bruising on the back of Wells’ head but ruled that the injury was not fatal.
The grand jury, which heard testimony from 43 witnesses and considered physical, digital, and medical evidence, including GPS and cellphone data, returned a unanimous “no true bill” on September 21. Its report stated that the position and condition of Wells’ body, along with the time and place of finding, were “consistent with drowning.”
According to one witness, he saw Wells slip awkwardly off the side of a boat around 3:30 p.m. on July 4. Wells kept socializing after that and did not seem hurt. The grand jury could not establish whether that fall caused the bruise. The panel said that the case should be brought up before a grand jury again if credible evidence ever emerged that the death was not accidental.
District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath stressed that her office took the case seriously and provided the grand jurors with all available evidence. She also strongly denied online allegations that Wells’ death was racially motivated, saying, “There is not a shred of evidence to support these narratives,” in a video statement after the decision. The grand jury also dismissed public claims that Wells was the only Black person on Horn Island that day.
Attorneys for three of Wells’ friends, who have been subjected to online rumors that they somehow were involved in his death, said that the report relieved a burden from their clients. FBI reported in July that it was separately investigating threats received by people related to the case.
The family insists that the federal government has a direct interest in the case, pointing out that most of Horn Island lies on federally designated land in the Gulf Islands National Seashore.
“Our son was found on federal land,” said Elmore Wonsley, Wells’ father, on Monday, urging the FBI to intervene and conduct an investigation.
Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters of California and Frederica Wilson of Florida, along with other supporters, sent a letter to Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service, urging the agency’s Investigative Services Branch to investigate. The family also asked the Justice Department to review the case, a request the Congressional Black Caucus made before.
Crump said that the family will not “close the chapter of Nolan Xavier Wells.”
For his mother, the lack of a definitive answer is the most painful part. The family has been told that his death was consistent with an accidental drowning, leaving them with more questions and pain than answers.
In a recent Facebook post, she asked those who insist on accepting the findings whether they would give their child up to such an explanation.
