Mississippi grand jury declines to indict in death of teen Nolan Wells

Cause of death undetermined; drowning a likely diagnosis by exclusion

A Mississippi grand jury has declined to bring criminal indictments in the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells, whose body was found on Horn Island off the Mississippi coast on July 6, 2026. The grand jury’s report, released Monday, stated: “The Grand Jury finds no credible evidence to support the public allegations that any persons who rode to or from Horn Island on July 4, 2026 on the Triton, the Palm Beach, or the Tideline engaged in any criminal conduct related to the death of Mr. Wells.” The 23 jurors met from Sept. 14 to Sept. 18 and heard testimony from more than 40 witnesses. Evidence reviewed included GPS data, cellphone extractions, photographs, and video from Horn Island, along with reports from the legal team of civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Wells family.

Wells had traveled to Horn Island with several friends on July 4 to celebrate Independence Day. He was the only Black friend in the group, but was not the only Black individual on the island that day, according to the grand jury report. He was the only member of his group who did not return from the trip. The grand jury found that Wells chose to stay on Horn Island the afternoon of July 4, characterizing it as “not unusual or suspicious for individuals to return from the island on boats they did not travel…on.” The report also found the accounts of the occupants of the boats that day to be true, including the report of one boat — the Triton — taking on water and needing to be towed a short distance.

District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said in a recorded statement released alongside the report: “Nolan chose to stay on the island that day, and there is not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that.” The grand jury determined that Wells’ cause of death was consistent with drowning, based on where his body was found and on multiple autopsies. The cause remains undetermined, but the report said the absence of other causes of death makes drowning a “diagnosis by exclusion.” The grand jury added that it was “confident that had his body been on the island at that time, it would have been discovered during the extensive search” conducted on July 5, the day before Wells’ body was recovered.

Crump responded on Facebook hours after the report’s release, writing: “No True Bill Does Not Resolve How Nolan Wells Died,” a reference to the grand jury’s declining to issue any indictments. Crump also released his team’s independent autopsy the same night.

The independent autopsy, performed by Dr. Roger Mitchell, concluded along with the state medical examiner that the cause and manner of death is “undetermined” and that “drowning is a diagnosis of exclusion.” Crump had previously claimed that Mitchell did not have access to all body parts during the independent autopsy, but the grand jury report states that Mitchell confirmed he received all body parts, except internal neck structures in the custody of the state medical examiner. Bruises were found on Wells but were not considered fatal injuries. One was on the back of his head.

“Mississippi’s own pathologist found two bruises on the back of this young man’s head and informed investigators of them early in this investigation,” Crump wrote Monday night. “An independent autopsy documented traces of blood and recent blunt force injuries to the back of Nolan’s head and his back. To this day, not one person has explained how they got there.” The Crump team’s report recommends keeping the investigation open because of uncertainties surrounding Wells’ death and the condition he was in when he entered the water. The report reads: “The available record does not definitively establish the decedent’s condition immediately before entering the water, whether he entered voluntarily or was forced, whether he was conscious or impaired, or why he would have been unable to extricate himself despite reportedly being able to swim and while in the presence of other persons.”

Myers McIlrath said in her statement that after the Crump team conducted and released the results of its independent autopsy and after receiving hundreds of tips, “they advised my office that they had no evidence of a crime being committed against Nolan Wells.”

Questions have swirled around Wells’ death since July — why he chose to stay back on the island, as friends have claimed, and why he was found without a cell phone. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office initially investigated the death as a death, not as a homicide, per a press release. Wells’ parents have expressed concerns that law enforcement moved too quickly at the outset of the investigation in assuming that foul play wasn’t involved, while being slow in communicating with them and in relaying new information to the public.

Very little was answered during the investigation. Everything — including the state autopsy — was kept under seal while the investigation was ongoing and while evidence was under grand jury review. Myers McIlrath has defended the secrecy as preserving the integrity of the investigation. “The secrecy of the grand jury is not a veil that we hide behind,” she said. “It is a shield that protects the integrity of prosecutions of the guilty and is meant to protect the innocent from the destruction of false allegations.”

“Damage has already been done because that’s the narrative that’s being pushed by the general public,” Christine Wells-Wonsley, Wells’ mother, said at a press conference on July 22.

Wells’ parents also said they believed messages had been deleted off of his phone when his parents found it, after tracking it to a friend’s house the day that Wells’ body was found. Myers McIlrath said a report, which her office received from Crump’s team, indicated that nothing had been deleted from Wells’ phone since his last use. “I never received the full extraction data as promised, and I never received the complete extraction report of Nolan’s cell phone,” Myers McIlrath said. After the grand jury convened in this case, the Crump team provided a 282-page selection of reports from Wells’ cell phone, which the grand jury considered.

Myers McIlrath addressed several particular issues raised by Crump and his team during the investigation, particularly issues in reviewing Wells’ phone. She said the Crump team “knew better, but allowed the public to believe, among other false narratives, that our medical examiner withheld Nolan’s lungs and stomach when his body was released, that things had been deleted off of Nolan’s phone before it was given back to his family, that I refused to cooperate with the examination of Nolan cell phone, that I refuse to provide Nolan’s autopsy results to the family.” She called the claims “all lies.” In her statement, Myers McIlrath added: “The family, the Crump team, and anyone close to Nolan knew that his disappearance and death were not the result of racial hate or violence.”

The grand jury report called allegations against Wells’ friends the result of “public clamor and private malice.” Myers McIlrath said: “What we have seen happen in Nolan’s case, where lives and reputations have been damaged, is reprehensible. People have suffered. Public offices have been harassed. Witnesses, public officials, and others who are completely unrelated to this case have been subjected to threats of harm and intimidation by an angry mob.” Several of Wells’ friends have also threatened to sue figures like Rev. Al Sharpton and Sunny Hostin, co-host of “The View,” for defamation. A former teammate of Wells may pursue defamation charges following social media attacks and an alleged death threat.

Civil litigation may still be pursued in the case. The day of Wells’ funeral, attorneys for the family sent letters to Wells’ friends and their families as notice that litigation was “reasonably anticipated.” Mississippi doesn’t have a statute of limitations on homicide cases, meaning new evidence that comes up could be considered.