JACKSON COUNTY, Miss. — Nearly three months after 18-year-old Nolan Wells was found dead following a Fourth of July trip to Mississippi’s Horn Island, a grand jury has declined to indict anyone in connection with his death.
But for Wells’ family, the decision has not answered the question that has followed the case from the beginning: What actually happened to Nolan?
A 23-member Jackson County grand jury unanimously returned what is known as a “no true bill,” finding insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against anyone connected to the July 4 outing. The decision was announced Monday night, Sept. 21, by Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath.
The grand jury conducted an extensive review. According to its report, jurors considered evidence obtained through 132 subpoenas and 43 witnesses, along with cellphone forensic reports, GPS information, photographs, videos, security footage, law enforcement reports and other physical and digital evidence.
Ultimately, jurors said they found “no credible evidence” that anyone traveling to or from Horn Island aboard the three boats associated with Wells’ group committed a crime connected to his death.
The grand jury also concluded that the location, condition and circumstances surrounding the discovery of Wells’ body were consistent with drowning.
That finding, however, is not the same as an official determination that Wells drowned.
Both Mississippi’s medical examiner and the independent forensic pathologist hired by Wells’ family classified Wells’ cause and manner of death as undetermined. The grand jury report acknowledged that drowning in this case would essentially be a diagnosis reached by excluding other potential causes.
Questions remain about injuries to Wells’ body
One of the most significant unresolved issues involves injuries discovered during Wells’ autopsies.
The independent examination performed for Wells’ family documented recent blunt-force injuries to the back of his head and other areas of his back. The grand jury also acknowledged bruising to the back of Wells’ head but determined that it was not fatal and said it found no evidence of a fatal traumatic injury.
The report revealed another detail: A witness testified that Wells was seen slipping awkwardly from the side of a boat around the period when he was last seen. The witness could not say whether Wells struck his head during the fall and said Wells continued socializing afterward without appearing injured.
The grand jury also concluded that Wells was not involved in a physical altercation or argument that day.
Still, Wells’ family and attorney Ben Crump say the injuries have never been adequately explained.
Crump said the grand jury’s decision does not resolve how Wells died, pointing specifically to the injuries documented on his head and back. His legal team is continuing to call for the release of the complete state autopsy and investigative file and has renewed its request for an independent federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Grand jury says Wells chose to remain on Horn Island
The grand jury also addressed one of the most debated parts of the case: why Wells did not return to the mainland with the friends who brought him to Horn Island.
According to the report, investigators found that Wells chose to remain on the island and continue socializing after the boats carrying his original group departed.
Jurors said returning from Horn Island aboard a different boat was not unusual among people who visited the island. They also found that Wells was not the only person whose cellphone traveled back to the mainland aboard a boat without its owner.
That conclusion conflicts with concerns previously raised by Wells’ parents.
His father, Elmore Wonsley, has said Nolan had been taught that when going somewhere with a group, he should remain with that group and return with them.
The circumstances surrounding Wells’ cellphone had also fueled suspicion after the phone made it back to the mainland while Wells did not.
The district attorney said forensic information eventually presented to the grand jury indicated that nothing had been deleted from Wells’ phone since he last used it. The grand jury also reviewed a 282-page selection of cellphone reports provided by the family’s legal team.
Toxicology provided few answers
The newly released findings also provide additional information about toxicology testing.
According to the grand jury report, decomposition made toxicology results less useful for determining substance levels in Wells’ body. Jurors specifically found no cocaine in his system and no evidence that he had used cocaine.
Evidence indicated that Wells had purchased alcohol using a fake ID, and witnesses described alcohol consumption during the July 4 gathering. However, the available forensic evidence did not establish alcohol or another substance as the cause of his death.
What happened on July 4?
Wells traveled with friends to Horn Island, a barrier island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, on July 4.
He did not return with the group.
A search began after Wells was reported missing, and his body was discovered in the water near Horn Island on July 6.
The circumstances quickly attracted national attention, particularly because Wells was Black and the friends he traveled with were white. Social media became filled with allegations and theories suggesting Wells may have been attacked or that his death was racially motivated.
The grand jury rejected those allegations.
Its report found no evidence that Wells’ disappearance or death resulted from racial violence and said allegations accusing the people aboard the boats of criminal involvement were unsupported by the evidence jurors reviewed.
Attorneys representing several of Wells’ friends have welcomed the findings, saying their clients endured months of accusations and threats despite a lack of evidence connecting them to Wells’ death.
Wells’ family isn’t ready to close the case
For Wells’ parents and their attorneys, however, clearing people of criminal wrongdoing does not explain their son’s death.
Crump said Mississippi is attempting to close the case without resolving fundamental questions surrounding what happened to Wells before he entered the water.
The family wants investigators to explain the injuries documented on Wells’ body, how he entered the water, whether he was conscious at the time and why an athletic young man reportedly capable of swimming was unable to get himself out of danger.
The independent autopsy itself raised several of those questions, noting that the available evidence does not definitively establish whether Wells entered the water voluntarily or involuntarily, whether he was conscious or impaired, or why he could not escape the situation.
The NAACP, which joined the family’s legal team in August, has also continued calling for transparency surrounding the investigation.
The case could still be reopened
The grand jury’s decision effectively ends the prospect of criminal charges based on the evidence currently available, but it does not permanently close the door.
Mississippi has no statute of limitations for homicide.
The grand jury specifically stated that if credible new evidence emerges suggesting Wells’ death was not accidental, the matter should be presented to another Jackson County grand jury for consideration.
That distinction is important.
The grand jury concluded that prosecutors currently lack credible evidence establishing that someone committed a crime against Nolan Wells. At the same time, the medical determination surrounding exactly how Wells died remains officially undetermined.
For his family, that leaves the central question unresolved.
They know where Nolan Wells was found. They now know what a grand jury believes did not happen.
But nearly three months after his death, they still say they do not know exactly what did.
