Attorney Ben Crump scheduled Thursday’s livestream release of Nolan Wells’ cellphone forensic report, days after a Mississippi grand jury declined to recommend charges in the 18-year-old’s death. His family wants an open inquiry and federal review.
The grand jury described Wells’ death as consistent with drowning and found no fight or altercation on the island. His parents and Crump questioned that conclusion because both official and independent autopsies said the cause of death could not be determined and noted unexplained blunt-force trauma to the back of his head. A witness told the panel Wells slipped awkwardly from a boat around 3:30 p.m. July 4, then kept socializing and showed no apparent injury; the panel said it could not determine whether the fall caused bruising and that the bruising was not fatal.
Crump released the family’s independent autopsy report Tuesday. The family wants the official autopsy and grand jury materials made public and has asked the Justice Department for an independent investigation; the grand jury report said federal law enforcement was involved but did not detail its role. Relatives questioned whether Wells would stay without his phone and raised concern about tampering, citing no phone recordings or messages in the hours before his last activity on social media. The panel said Wells chose to stay and that leaving phones on boats and returning them on the mainland was not unusual.
